LIVINGSTONE - traveling around

Livingstone was pretty touristy - just a few pics....

PICS: LIVINGSTONE - traveling around

BOTSWANA - heading to safari

Botswana is another country to the south of Zambia. This is where we headed for our jeep and boad safari's. We had to cross the Zambeize (?) River - which is the border of several contries. While we were on the skiff crossing the river we actually crossed thru the corners of Zambia, Botswana, Nambia and Zimbabwe(?)!! The river crossing was a bit of adventure in itself - especially coming back (see 'Botswana - back to Lusaka' post).

PICS: BOTSWANA - heading to safari

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BOTSWANA - jeep safari

The first half of our day was to go on a 'jeep' safari. This was a larger 'jeep' with bench seats in the bed of the truck and a canvas room. After we had been about 20 minutes into the safari - the skies just broke open and poured and poured. We had to stand as the water was hitting the bench seats and then running to the left/right depending on the direction the jeep was leaning as it drove along the road and ruts. Soon the water started flowing down the road making giant ruts etc. We opted to not return back to camp but to keep sticking it out - the guide (who had been doing this for 20+ years) indicated and another group (not related to us) had decided to bail - but he said he liked our group cause we were 'sticking with it'!!!! after about 40-50 minutes it stopped and started to clear out and we started to see more wildlife.

Once were were done - we were heading down to a large lodge that had a big buffet for lunch. We were running a bit late - and as we came aound a corner there were 2 wild elephants along the road munching on tree leaves!! We had no time to go back and could not pull over - that was the extent of our 'elephant shots'; just in our mind! Due to the late and heavy rains the plains were still flooded and the elephants had not yet come 'down from the hills'. A MWB group that did the same thing a year ago (also in April) had seen thousands of elephants! All about timing!

PICS: BOTSWANA - jeep safari


After lunch we had to head to the boat for the boat safari - which was docked at the resturant.....

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BOTSWANA - boat safari

Even though it was downpouring when we got of the boat - it quickly let up and stayed dry the rest of the day! The lazy sun came out and it became quite a calm, smooth afternoon on the water - very relaxing.  After we were done - we had to then stop by 'the office' and pay - which was also another lodge that had 6 foot electric fences to keep the elephants out!

PICS: BOTSWANA - boat safari

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BOTSWANA - back to Lusaka

Heading back from the Chobe National Reserve in Botswana back to our bus and Livingstone.....

PICS: BOTSWANA - back to Lusaka

LIVINGSTONE - Walk with the Rhino - "the Rhino"

Betty and I had a day to ourselves - before we flew to Johannesburg. We decided to try the 'walk with the Rhino' - there were two parts of this event. After our guide picked us up  - we went to the ???? National Refuge - and then picked up one of the crew that have the 24X7 duty to 'guard' this Rhino - second largest in the world. Then we all take off on foot to find the Rhino - (there are other guards by the Rhino and they communicate on where he is). We spent a fair amount of time watching this huge mammal - "walking with him" - okay about 100 feet from him.

At the same time our 'guide' told us about the flora/fauna and other animals in the area. An elephant had come thru just a couple days prior and pushed down a couple of 12 inch trees to get to their leaves! We also saw a couple of girraffes on our way back to our vehicle.

Then part #2 was driving thru the refuge looking for other wild life. (next post)

PICS: LIVINGSTONE - Walk with Rhino - 'the Rhino'

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LIVINGSTONE - Walk with the Rhino - other animals we saw

After getting up close and personal (how more personal can you get when examining the 'spray' the Rhino leaves to mark his territory!) we drove around the refuge looking for and at other wild life. We saw a pretty good variety. We had a good guide - it was a bit rainy so he even took the windows out of the side doors of the van we were in so we could see better and get better pictures!

PICS: LIVINGSTONE - Walk with the Rhino - other animals we saw

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