August 2019  [by Bill]

Today is my last day in Africa, so I decided to visit Zambia, which is now the 125th country I’ve been to.

In the morning, we crossed over the Victoria Falls Bridge from the Zimbabwe side and entered Zambia. The border crossing was very very quick on both sides.

My first activity was a bit unusual, as I spent a short time in the Devil’s Pool, which is really a small side pool of water, right next to one of the waterfall drop offs, and is only available during the dry season, as it sits right on the very edge of the Victoria Falls (108 meters from the edge to the bottom of the falls).

The Devil’s Pool was a lot of fun. You take a small speed boat for about 8 minutes, then enter into a small camp site, where you can get changed into your swimsuit, use a toilet, and enjoy the views before hiking 5-minutes over the exposed rocks. As you get fairly close to the edge of the falls, you swim to get to the Devil’s Pool, which as I noted earlier, sits right at the edge of Victoria Falls.

The water was a bit chilly at first, but once you are in for a few minutes, you get used to it, Plus your adrenaline kicks in a bit from the excitement of being right at the edge of the falls.

Once you’re in Devil’s Pool, the guides take your photo, and one of them encourages you to look over the edge, while he holds your ankles so you won’t go over (it seemed pretty safe to me, although I didn’t fully look down, as that was too much for me.) The only downside is you don’t get to spend very much time there, but otherwise I highly recommend it, as a once in a lifetime thing to do. The cost is USD $40, but I had the impression some tourists paid a lot more, while others paid less.

Afterwards, since I was already in Zambia, I had arranged with the Airbnb host to have a friend of hers who gives personal tours in Zambia to show me the town of Livingstone,(population: 136,800) which included a walking tour of the open air market. This market has thousands of tiny stands, with specialized areas focusing on different types of foods, products and services:  fresh vegetables and fruits, lots of dried fish, spices, live chickens, a butcher area, plus hardware, furniture (home, refurbished, and commercial).

I had lunch along the Zambezi River, under a huge palm tree, overlooking the water and all that nature has to offer.

I visited several local museums, including the National History Museum, the railway museum, and the Jewish museum (the railroad and Jewish museums share the same space. Each was small, the exhibits are somewhat “dated” or “old fashioned”, which I suspect is due to the lack of funds to modernize them.

The guide cost USD $130, which I felt was a bit pricey for how long I was escorted around.

It was a good day overall.

 

August 2019  [by Bill]

Botswana is the 124th country I’ve visited.

This morning I took a full day safari trip, getting picked up at 7:00 AM, for an 1-hour drive to the Zimbabwe/Botswana border. On the drive to the border crossing, I saw some elephants, cape buffalo, and lots of birds.

From there, you get off the small mini bus to walk across both borders and clear customs. Crossing the Zimbabwe border took less than a minute. On the Botswana border crossing, the line was very long, and took about 45-minutes. Once I was through the Botswana border check point, It took a few minutes from the Botswana border to get to the Chobe National Park.

We started off our day with a 2 1/2 Chobe River Cruise(about $36), which connects Zambia, Namibia, and Botswana. During the cruise we saw a wide variety of birds and land based animals: Fish Eagles, hippos, egrets, spare red geese, Cape buffalo, elephants, impalas, spoon bill storks, otters, water monitor lizards, nile crocodiles, darta, boba trees, baboons, and water bucks.

We had lunch at a lodge at 12:30 PM, and headed back out on a land safari, where I boarded a safari truck (open air, no side panels and no roof, which is really great for taking photos of animals, plants, and other interesting sights).

In Africa, tourists are always on the lookout for “the big 5”. After safaris in several countries, I’ve seen 4 of the big 5, with leopards being quite hard to spot (haven’t seen one in nature yet).

The total cost for this very full day was USD $179, which I think is a good value.

Safaris are normally scheduled for the early mornings and late afternoons, as that’s when most of the wildlife is moving around. Almost all of the animals shelter in shady areas during the midday heat, plus tourists don’t want to be outside either when temperatures can range from 85 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

The weather in Botswana was 90 degrees, no clouds, with a nice breeze during the river cruise. On the land, no breeze, so it was hot.

Botswana factoids:

The main industries are diamond mining, agriculture, and tourism.

Chobe National Park is the second largest park in Botswana.

 

August 2019  [by Bill]

I decided at the last minute to take a Victoria Falls helicopter trip and see the amazing images from above.

This 30-minute “long” trip was USD$300, so it wasn’t inexpensive, but, as the saying goes, go big or go home. Since I no longer have a home, going big seemed like the right thing to do.

Wow – Wow – Wow! Money well spent, as the views from above were nothing short of spectacular! If you look closely at one of the photos, you can see some giraffes.