Saturday, March 10, 2012

Our latest National Park adventures


Mosi Oa Tunya

Jon and Carrie soaked at Victoria Falls
After leaving Lusaka, we pulled into Livingstone, which is right outside Victoria Falls on the Zambian side.  The falls, formed by the Zambezi River, is split between Zambia and Zimbabwe.  We stayed one night at a backpackers hostel and then the next morning we went to the falls.  The park on the Zambia side is named Mosi Oa Tunya National Park.  It is the native name for the falls and means "The Smoke that Thunders."  It is a very good name.  We could see the rising mist, looking like smoke, before we even entered the park.  Once inside the park we started hiking along the edge overlooking the huge chasm that the Zambezi pours into, stopping at the many viewpoints along the way.  Since we were there nearly at the peak of the rainy season the water is high and the falls are very big.  To say they thunder is almost an understatement.  That thundering of the water hitting the bottom of the gorge produces such a spray that not only towers high into the sky, but also makes it like you are walking in perpetual rain as you walk along the edge.  Views of the falls are great, if you can see the falls through all the mist.  Sometimes you only know the falls are there from the thick sheets of "rain" and from the incredible roar of all that cascading water.  It was unbelievable.
Banded mongoose
From Victoria Falls we caught cheap transport in a shared taxi to the Botswana border.  There we crossed the Zambezi River, which is the border, on a barge and entered Botswana.  After dealing with Immigration we caught a minibus into Kasane and found a place to camp for a couple nights.  The next day we were up to meet for a game drive at 5:45 a.m. into Chobe National Park.  We expected more people on our truck as we heard there were 16 going.  They were all put on one truck and we lucked out and had a whole truck and driver/guide, Moses, to ourselves.  Driving into the park there was elephant scat all over the road and we caught a glimpse of a hyena.  Then we entered and started our drive down the River Road.  There we caught a glimpse of a small herd of elephants on the Chobe River, which is the Botswana/Namibia border.  As we drove on we saw many impala and baboons.  They hang out together as the impala have a good sense of smell and can help alert each other and the baboons of any danger.  The baboons can obviously climb into the trees and therefore have better views and can help alert the impalas.  It is neat to see them together.  Then we saw many hippos out of the water and in the water.  The morning was cool so they could still be seen outside of the water.  There was also a small crocodile and cape buffalo.

Hippo along the Chobe River

We turned away from the river and drove through the brush for a bit.  There we caught a glimpse of a lion.  We had Moses back up and we confirmed that it was indeed a lioness.  We watched her through our binoculars, excited to be seeing her alone.  Moses pulled up to another spot for a better view and we saw that she was not alone.  There were two more lionesses and two cubs of about one year.  One lioness maybe only raised her head once while we were there.  One of the cubs was a male and we could see the very early start of his mane.  While we were watching the lions some impala came into the area, unaware that the lions were there.  The cubs perked up, able to watch and not be seen.  The main lioness crouched, lowering even her ears as to not be detected.  The impalas sensed danger and froze and sniffed into the air.  Eventually it was more than the female cub could handle and she jumped up and chased the impala.  There was no chance for her as she had not learned yet how to be patient long enough.  The impala made an easy escape.  After some time of the cub standing in front of our truck she went back to her mom and rubbed faces with her, almost apologizing for not waiting long enough.  Her mother forgave her and licked her as she fell onto her mother's front paws and gently batted her head.  It was an amazing sighting.  We traveled on as the lions started moving off into the bush to hide from us and the heat.  As we drove we saw more buffalo and hippos down by the river.  There were also three or four more lions we could barely see hiding in the shade from another truck.  There were many more impalas and baboons and we saw some kudu and giraffes.  Another highlight was that we saw many mongoose.  They were the banded mongoose and they are a very social creature.  They live in large groups and we saw maybe three or four groups and probably more than 50 individuals.  That evening we did an evening boat cruise and saw many more hippos mostly.  There were other animals but being on the river the hippos were the most visible.  We had wanted to see elephants in an area we heard were many elephants but they were away from the river at it was the wet season and water and food was readily available in many parts of the park and not just around the Chobe River.

Giraffe drinking
The next morning we caught a ride with three people from our boat cruise.  They took us to the Zimbabwe border and we all did what we needed in Immigration on the Botswana and Zimbabwe sides.  We were happy to have a ride as there didn't seem to be any public transit on the Zimbabwe side.  Greeting us on the Zimbabwe side, however, was a large troop of baboons.  There were also impala and less than five minutes from the border we saw two elephants.  They were right next to the road and we watched them until they seemed angered by our presence.  We carried on down the deserted and beautiful drive and saw some ground hornbill.  It felt like we were still in a national park.  Then we were dropped of in the town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Male impala

Devil's Cataract and the main gorge of Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side
The next day we walked from our hostel to Victoria Falls National Park.  It was similar to the park on the Zambian side but was surprisingly better funded.  There were actual informative signs telling about the history of the falls.  Even the entrance seemed more official than it had on the Zambian side.  The trails and the views of the falls were the same, though.  Like in Zambia, we had great views of the falls, especially near the edge.  As we walked further along the edge to the different viewpoints and closer to the Main Falls the spray took over and we were again soaked and left with sporadic views through the mist.  We walked out to Danger Point and had exhilarating views from the unfenced point.  The wind and the "rain" were strong and we stood on a rock with unobstructed views into the gorge.  What we could see of the falls was incredible.  What we couldn't see of the falls was incredible.  Again, when we couldn't see the falls we knew they were there by the perpetual "raining" from the spray and the extremely loud thundering that produced that spray.  We were in awe of one of the Natural Wonders of the World.  An incredible three-park adventure.

Stay tuned for what is now our latest National Park adventure: Kruger National Park in South Africa.

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