Chapter 12 - Zimbabwe 1

Zambezi river

Thursday, January 20th

We flew from Capetown to Joberg and on to Zimbabwe.  This was going to be the final stop on our honeymoon and to be honest, we were starting to look forward to the comforts of home.  Our Capetown stay had offered some stability for four days and nights but now we were heading into the portion of our trip where we felt the least comfortable.

It was only two years earlier Zim(babwe) was on the US government "do not travel to" list.  Our travel agent had recommended the Zim side as opposed to the Zambian because the view of Victoria Falls is better.  He was also very self assured as to the state of the country as he himself travels Africa extensively.  It gave us the confidence to go, but we still felt a little uneasy.  That feeling was made stronger when Kate came across an excerpt in a travel book from David, our guide for the first six days of our trip.  It read something like:

"Zimbabwe - do not travel any under circumstances."

Just great.  The nervousness was not diminished upon arrival in Victoria Falls.  The "airport" is smaller than South Bend regional by a LONG shot.  The tarmac is made up of one strip of asphalt that looks like it should have been re-paved five years ago.  The jet we landed simply pulled off onto a large patch of asphalt next to the runway.  There are no jet ways or refueling trucks or anything to suggest the facility is capable of servicing a commercial jet.  They just roll out a stairway and walk you across the pavement toward the building they call an airport...

I have to admit seeing it again in this picture makes me think it is much nicer than I remember.  Regardless of appearance, the lack of service they were able to offer our aircraft made me feel uneasy.  What other infrastructure were they lacking in addition to this???  In the end, our worries would be unconfirmed.  Regardless, I wouldn't feel totally at ease again until we were "wheels up" on our way out of here.

Somehow we got stuck behind a big tour group from our plane and had to wait forever to get through customs.  The transport from there was flawless and our hotel looked (thankfully) well established.  No bugs in the beds either which made my wife very happy.

So the only real plan for the day was a cruise on the Zambezi River.  The following morning we would be checking out Victoria Falls but we'll get to that. 

 At 2200 miles in length, the Zambezi is only the fourth longest river in Africa.  The area of its basin is only half that of the Nile but we were only here for two days so who cares.  It's not like we're going to cover the entire thing.  The real reason we were here...

Zambezi River

 BOOZE CRUISE!!!!

 Okay so that's not the ONLY reason we were out here.  The Zambezi is another great area for Hippo and Croc watching as well as other animals.  We were looking forward to some more animal watching.  Our driver however, spent the entire time encouraging us to drink heavily while he transported us to the boat.  It was weird.  We had paid for this ahead of time and couldn't understand what his angle was.  We just came to see some animals dude... 

 We were put on what was essentially a barge around 25 x 60 feet long armed with only a 50 hp outboard.  The "boat" was covered with tables, chairs, a bar, and four staff members.  The large tour group we shared the flight over with were also aboard!  Yay!!!

So we get underway and the first animal we spot is the croc you see here.  Cool, right?  Would be if it was real.  Our captain had driven straight to it from the dock.  We spent ten minutes right next to it while the tour group took hundreds of pics.  The thing never moved an inch.  Just sat there with its mouth open.  Not real.  I'm sure it's still sitting in the same spot on that bank...

What a croc

    


Also a fake here.  It's about twenty yards down the bank from the other one.  Didn't move a muscle the entire time.  You just can't tell me with sixty people on a boat ten feet away from these things that they wouldn't have moved if they were real.  No way.







By this time in our trip, the good fortune we have had in all our previous game viewing has lead to a very laid back expectation of what was to come.  We were so happy with everything we had been fortunate to see that we thought anything more is icing on the cake.  We weren't too worried about what may or may not show up.

Like this tree.  It was totally a bonus because we had seen so many other cool trees up to this point. 

I'm kidding.  I re-read that previous paragraph and it just sounds a little stupid. 

It was nice to sit back with a cold one and just take in the view.

Zambezi

I love how this pic turned out.  It looks like it could be the moon at night.  It was taken around 4:30 in the afternoon.



Just when you think you've seen enough, out on the banks this guy appears...

This old bull appeared on the bank and stayed in view for quite awhile. 

Any appearance of something interesting was accompanied by a frenzy of excitement from the tour group with us.  Everyone would grab their cameras and dash to the side of the boat the subject was on.  There would be oos and ahhs and even some shrieks as that side of the boat would start to give way under the concentration of weight.  Nothing was stopping these people from getting a photo.  It looked like a seen out of a movie.  It was very entertaining.

Mmmmm...grass.