sunrise over the river...

we spent three awesome days kayaking in the upper Zambezi... cruising, and some fun little rapids. so many hippo, elephant (a herd of 30 were grazing near our camp), birds galore, and even giraffe!

we returned to vic falls for a night to clean up, repack, check the Internet, etc... and this am were are off again fir four days. rafting the Zambezi below the falls!!! the moment I have been waiting for. :) so excited, and a bit nervous. this is some big water!!!!

we will spend the next 4 day and three nights on the river. today and tomorrow we will run the section from rapids 1-21. we have to hike into the canyon just below the falls, and the guides said we will be taking the boats as close as we can up UNDER the falls as possible. photos to look forward to!

dirty river girl... ready for the ride of a lifetime!! :) chat more in a few days....

p.s. thanks for all the comments and emails! It is a bit tricky, but I have managed to read mist of them! xo.

dinner with a view

kayak camp on the upper Zambezi

decadent bush camping on the rivet

complete with matresses, sleeping bags, sheets, pillows, a little door mat... and personal wash basin outside the tent! :)

kayaking...

kayaking the upper Zambezi

in the early afternoon (post-lion walk and lunch)... we loaded up into safari land rovers (open back benches)... attached the kayak trailers, and drove east into the national park along the upper part of the Zambezi (above vic falls).

we saw a few animals along the drive (impala darting across the bush), but as we spent more time along the river it became all about the birds! there were a lot of varieties with familiar names, eagles, cormorants, storks, geese, vultures... but a rage of African varieties if the birds.

the upper part of the Zambezi is a mostly wide expanse of river, zim on our side, Zambia on the other, with a lot of rocky islands, sandy beaches, and green bush all around (it is just the beginning of rainy season so all the trees have lovely green foliage).

we drove for about an hour and a half, and arrived at our put in for the day. we unloaded the big double kayaks, partnered up, and settled in for our boating safety talk.

more words, fewer pics.

just back to the room at the end of another long day. awesome, but long. still bummed that all the blog posts with pics that I composed over the past few days are in nowhere land. Internet access us really limited here, and realizing I just can't keep up. this is all About vacation and relaxing, so I just need to let it go.

couldn't tell you what day of the week it is, or how long I have been here... or how long I have to go. this is a good sign, eh ?! my trip in Africa so far has just been so amazing. and overwhelming array of sights and experiences.

after the first two nights in vic falls at the Stanley & livingstone camp, we packed up and left for two nights. we drove into town, and went to the home of Paul & Marie Connelly, our guides. Paul was raised in Zimbabwe... didn't get the whole story, but I believe his parents were missionaries in the area. they got together, and raised 4 daughters right here in vic falls (in a lovely thatched roof compound if a house). they are wonderful explorers, full of info and insight about the area... and out on one hell of a trip!

kayaking safety talk

so... I have given and been the recipient of hundreds of boating safety talks. none with quite the same precautions as this one! and I have never had the person giving the talk take off their gun while giving the talk. ha.

Paul blew through all the usual boating safety bullet points in about three sentences. then we moved onto some Zambezi specific info... how to avoid croc and hippo attacks.

crocs. they are there fir sure, but likely we won't see them... and it is a about keeping it that way. no swimming in the river (Paul promised to find us a few well guarded shallow safe spot to cool down). no dangling fingers or ties in the water at all (croc bait)... and no going into the water over our ankles when getting in and out.. and thus should be done as quickly as possible. yikes.

and onto hippos. we will see them. in fact we constantly need to keep an eye out for them on the river horizon, and call them out if we spot them. never assume paul has already seen them. once spotted, we take the kayaks as far around them as possible so as not to worry them. if for some reason we encounter the hippos unexpectedly, back away as fast as possible. if a hippo comes up under the boat and it flips, swim away from the boat as fast as possible because the hippo is likely going to be pissed off at that boat!

so there is stood playing this all out in my mind. kayak is flipped into the water by a pissed off hippo, as I am flailing to get away (and the hippo is annihilating my boat)... I become an afternoon snack for the crocs lurking just under the surface.

no, not nervous at all. ha.

blog mishaps

Hummmmm... had about 40 blog posts lined up from the past few days, and about 30 of them seemed to disappear when I hooked up to the Internet. :( so sad.

the ones that have posted are a bit outta order, so bear with me. will try to be a little quicker in my summaries, and get caught up. if possible.

bummed. but also happy to be a bit detached. it is nice for a change.

Sent from my iPhone

rainstorm

just as we pulled up to a small beach fir a break, the skies opened up... and a rainstorm poured down on us for 10 minutes. best way to wait it out? in the warm water... we were already wet!

rapids and spectacular clouds

we made our way through some fun splashy rapids in the morning... and a thunderstorm formed in the distance. there was some wonderful lightening in the afternoon sky.

herd of elephants

on our way out if camp to go kayaking on day 2... we were delayed by a herd of elephants. they had been grazing around camp, and were heading from the road down to the water. they were a little pissed that we drove through, and formed a circle around all the babies... while two of the largest threw some weight around In our direction to let us know they were not happy about our passing.

little croc

mama crock keeping her nest warm. the guides were saying the baby crocks would hatch within the next few weeks...

baby hippo

the baby hippo floated around on mamas back. the hippos stay in fairly shallow water where they can stand. they can stay under water fir up to five minutes... and came up every now and then to roll around and check us out. mamma would flip the babe off her back, and he would go rolling butt first back into the water.

hungry hungry hippos

cruising with the hippos

our booze cruise took us upstream from the falls, having some refreshing gin and tonics... checking out the river dwellers. we came across a bunch of hippos hanging out, and they checked us out (from a little distance)... rolled around, and showed us their big yawns!

back to the vic falls hotel

we made it back to the vic falls hotel... and trekked on through while they were serving high tea on the veranda. we were off for a sunset "booze cruise" on the river.

welcome to Zimbabwe!

at least this sign appropriately advertises "revenue authority"...

was having a hard time figuring out the currency of situation before I got here. turns out that the zimbabwean currency reached such a ridiculous rate if inflation (think trillions to one), that the us dollar is the official currency used now. that made things easy!

mama monkey with her babe

did I mention baby animal season? tis spring!! babies everywhere... :)

mamma and babes

mrs warthog nursing her babies. just hanging alongside the road.

looking down from the bridge to the zimbezi river

this is the canyon where we will be starting our white water trip. set of rapids called "the boiling pot". see the little red raft down there? yea!

leaving Zambia

another passport check... stamp, and visa fee (they get ya for $20+ on each side to enter/exit). we pass through the border, and walked across the bridge back into zim.

no shit! there they were...

it was getting to the point where each and every wildlife sighting was so amazing.... I couldn't believe it at all. all this in barely over our first 24-hours on the ground. really??

walking back to zim

from the falls, we took the boat back to the livingstone resort, and began the trek back to the zim side. along the way, we wandered through a few other resorts, and the local wildlife was quite keen on eating the manicured lawn. zebras were everywhere... and we ran into some tall friends as well. I was in shock. couldn't believe my eyes!

view from the view

the sorry is the top of the falls

loo on the island

another view

there was a thunder and lightening storm hanging over the canyon making the lighting really dramatic.