Oct 12, 2017 - It's All About The Falls

*the website dorks knocked me off so I lost the full day's entry; a brief summary follows -brekkie at 0700..good range of options but java needed to be stronger -left after 0800 to beat the heat..exited Zambia, over the international bridge associated with Cecil Rhodes and Zimbabwean visa -to Victoria Falls NP..Livingstone statue..the falls..low water volume..rooting warthog -cab to/from Victoria Falls Hotel, a grande dame property, for lunch and the great view of the bridge -hot walk for the return and back to the hotel by 1430 -chilled...

Oct 11, 2017 - The Final Country

-had set the alarm for 0700 but up after 0500, getting the draft blog done, pix downloaded, packing, border money and up to pay bill after 0600 safari departure; frustrated a Tripadvisor review of the lodge went awol but got the blog up to date -it was probably the most solid bit of sleep I had but some good java is still in order -the Yanks had reported yesterday they could not gain access to their safe but it was handled in due course; Chris this morning reported a similar problem last night, the girls' safe having to be broken open and...

Mar 20, 2016 - Steven last thoughts

Traveling. Traveling. Packing stuff. Organizing stuff. Moving on. Being transported. Transporting. Goods, good people. Viewing. Meeting. Eating by ordering and being served, waited on. Waiting. Walking. Getting hot. Getting cold. Sweating. Bathing. Not being home. Finding beauty. Being found by beauty. Noticing. People. People. People. Different trees. Different animals, birds, songs, noises, languages, gestures, ways of being. Discovering. Exploring. Being yourself. In different places, different contexts. Observing. Being observed. Being...

Mar 18, 2016 - Steven: Zambia

We left Chapungo lodge two days ago for my least favorite stop on this trip, at the Rissington Inn in Hazyview. The main purpose of that stop was to be near the Kruger International Airport for our flight o Zambia. I judge a hotel in part by its bath towels. These bath towels, at Rissington, were so thin – well, let’s just say I’ve used dinner napkins in restaurants that were softer and more absorbent. Paper dinner napkins. Enough said. The Kruger International Airport was a beautiful building with a very courteous and helpful information...

Mar 17, 2016 - Two sides of Zambia

In the morning the 8 of us visited a traditional Zambian village. A number of the staff come from a village 10 min upstream. Waterberry does a lot to support the children and school through donations. Currently they are paying for 12 teachers to go to school to receive some teacher training. They also pay school fees for some of the orphaned children. (One in three Zambian children are orphaned primarily due to HIV or TB). Webby, a staff member who lives in the village, took us around, explained many things about their way of life and...

Mar 16, 2016 - On to Old Vic. Robin's blog

Much of the day was taken up by travel to Livingstone, Zambia, home of Victoria Falls. Our driver to the airport was quite informative and we learned that the thriving orchards did not do much for the local economy. They were owned by affluent white South Africans and the workers were from Zimbabwe where unemployment is extremely high and people are willing to do backbreaking work for next to nothing. Our flight was delayed and we spent about 4 hrs in Kruger national airport, a small airport tastefully designed in a safari lodge motif. We...

Nov 5, 2015 - Kenya to Zambia

Kenya – Zambia Nov. 2 – 5, 2015 On the Road Again….. We decided to fly, as opposed to a 6-hour drive, from the Masai Mara back to Nairobi – the latter on pitted roads for 7 hours….. that would shake your fillings loose. …..even the crowns…….Been there, done that. Our Serena hotel, in the Mara, was camouflaged in the hills of the national park, disguised to look like the Masai huts – as you can see from the aerial shot. Hotel was recently redesigned and was an art deco animal house….really wild. The airstrip was only 5 minutes from our hotel...

Sep 3, 2015 - Victoria Falls, Zambia

We visited Victoria Falls, and were fortunate to see the mighty Falls from both the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides. Victoria Falls is the only waterfall in the world with a length of more than a kilometer and a height of more than hundred meters. It is also considered to be the largest fall in the world. The noise of Victoria Falls can be heard from a distance of 40 kilometers, while the spray and mist from the falling water is rising to a height of over 400 meters and can be seen from a distance of 50 kilometers. No wonder that the local tribes...

Sep 3, 2015 - Walking safari and water break

The Swiss couple, who would be leaving for home that afternoon, took a separate game ride from us, and we went on a walking safari with Shaddy and the armed Maasai spotter. However, soon after we left camp, Shaddy saw two lions sleeping under a bush. So we drove further along. We came to the edge of a plain and followed a hippo trail for about a mile. We looked at different animal tracks - giraffe, zebra, hyena scat (which is white because they actually eat bones). Shaddy pointed out a tree full of weaver bird nests, half of which are empty...

Sep 3, 2015 - Leopards in the night

We went out with Shaddy for our last night time game ride. He pointed out some more weaver nests and some flocks of bright green lovebirds, and we spent a while watching the baboons who were congregating at the end of their day. Lots of baby baboons were either riding on the backs of their moms or holding tight underneath. We saw a definite hierarchy in baboon social structure, with the big guy sorting things out periodically. We found the leopard in a field where other trucks were gathered to watch her sleep. Shaddy took us to another spot...

Sep 2, 2015 - Nighttime gamedrive. Alert!

We set off at 4 pm and almost as soon as we entered the park, a baboon sounded an alert. He gave a short, insistent hoot which he repeated for five or ten minutes. All the monkeys ran up trees and the baboon families gathered their babies and scampered away. The impala and puku stayed where they were but turned toward the direction of the baboon’s cries. Nothing happened at that time, but Shaddy was pretty sure it was a leopard, which the baboon could see from high in the trees. We drove on and meandered through the park. Shaddy found a...

Sep 1, 2015 - Newborn Puku

Our morning gamedrive, starting at 6:15 am, opened with a little drama. Shaddy found a puku who had just given birth. She was licking and licking the little thing, and he was trying to stand on his wobbly legs. Close by were three warthogs that were starting to close in on the newborn puku. Shaddy said that they will eat a small, vulnerable animal if they can. The mama puku stomped at the warthogs, and the large one backed off. We couldn’t stay to watch what would unfold next, but we crossed our fingers. From there we drove on and found...