lower zambezi

I mentioned we stayed out of town for elections. Seth actually had some work to do down south near Livingstone, so the kids and I tagged along. We went to Mazabuka, a farming community a ways down south and Seth played in a touch Rugby tournament. He even made a try ie scored a touch down.

Then we continued South to Livingstone where we stayed in a gorgeous hotel a stones throw from Victoria Falls, the Third Natural Wonder of the World. It really is incredible; I have never seen anything like it. We hiked to the falls several times, hiked up to the rim of the falls and Thomas and Seth took a dip in the Zambezi River (which, it turns out, is infested with Crocodiles so that really was a “once in a lifetime” experience.)

We paid 20 bucks to get into the National Park and Game Reserve right along the river there. We drove around for 2 hours and saw: Hippos, Zebras, Impalas, several species of Bush Buck, Buffalo, an Eagle, a Wart Hog and just as we were about to leave…three Giraffe. We drove out of the park a little bummed that we didn’t see elephants. On our 5 minute drive back to the hotel we were stopped by 4 Elephants crossing the highway, two Giraffe in the hotel driveway (it is a long and winding driveway) and then about an hour later, Thomas was charged by Zebras as we lounged by the hotel pool. One of the hotel staff apparently charged with keeping the Game from killing the guests, warned Seth, “They like to kill small things.” This guy was hilarious, Seth saw him later walking around with a sling-shot shooting at the monkeys in the trees.

A quick note about monkeys.: We saw a heard of about 10 baboons walking menacingly down the same stretch of highway. Seth had a series of hilarious run-ins with the monos. First, he happened upon two Vervet monkeys hanging around in the housekeepers closet at the hotel. He heard some strange rummaging noises so he peeked in the open door. One of the monkeys popped his head around and had a French fry hanging out of his mouth like a cigar. The next day Seth had a very personal encounter with a male baboon. T and I were taking a nap because we were both really not feeling well and Seth took Cali for a walk out to the falls. On the way there he ran across a baboon who was terrorizing all the Fall’s patrons. Apparently, he had snatched someone’s bag and was busy pillaging through it when he heard Cali’s little noises. He made a quick pivot and slowly moved toward Seth. Seth asserted his alpha-maleness and the baboon proceeded to pursue some African lady’s baby…scary those fellows.

We also enjoyed a river Safari. We took an aluminum-bottomed boat down the Zambezi and saw many gorgeous birds…the Kingfisher was my favorite and incidentally the only one I can name. We got up close to some Hippos, which are apparently very territorial and dangerous. We also saw 5 different elephant river crossings, which was apparently rare and really awesome. There was a baby crocodile and apparently we have now visited Zimbabwe as we crossed to the Zim (as white Zimbabwean’s call it) side of the river.