The day that never seemed to end

The next day we flew from Vic Falls to Johannesburg which involved going through customs and getting our luggage and then finding Delta and rechecking it for the flight home.  We enjoyed the Crown Room and ate some and shopped til our rands were gone and then made our way to the gate.  I was lucky enough to sleep a lot so the flight was not that bad but think I was the most lucky in that respect of the 4 of us.  But I think the economy comfort seats are worth it!
I will post some more photos as time allows.  It truly was a great trip and we so enjoyed sharing it with Carolyn and Marylou! We had lots of laughs a nd memories.

 

Chobe

Today we did an all day safari trip to Botswana to Chobe National Park.  Our driver took us to meet the big van at the Victoria Falls hotel and that took us up to the Botswana border.  We had to get off and leave Zimbabwe and then walk 10 feet and enter Botswana where safari vehicles picked us up after we bought a visa and the safari vehicles took us to a nice hotel.  We left from there on a boat safari for the morning. It was wonderful. Birds and animals galore! hippos out of the water and crocs and elephants and sables and giraffes.  Just lots of stuff to see all the time.

In the afternoon we moved to safari vehicles (after a lunch at the hotel) and went back in the same area on roads and we just saw lots of giraffes and elephants and hippos and it was so much fun. 
At the end, we went back to the border and repeated the process to get back into zimbabwe and took the bus and back to the hotel and our camp picked us up. Good day.

 

Victoria Falls

This morning as we were waiting to go to Victoria Falls, the trainer came with Sylvester for his walk.  We were the only ones up so we got our photos made with him and got to pet him. He is a beautiful creature.  He was found when he was a week old and his mother had been killed so they hand raised him.  They have built a nice compound and though he is on a leash at the lodge, they take him down in the fields and take him off the leash to run.  He chased the warthogs but when he catches them, he doesn't know what to do with them.  It was very interesting.

This morning we went to Victoria Falls with our guide and it was so much more beautiful than it was the last time we came.  We had ponchos and we got soaked from the spray and the wind from the falls but it was a lot of fun.  There are so many view points.  By the time we got back to the van, our ponchos were dry.  there were baboons all over the place and warthogs and there was a lot of walking so we were pretty tired when we got back.  We thought about taking the moonbow tour at night as it was the full moon, but cancelled later in the afternoon as it was just too much.  Instead, Carolyn was our brave one and took the helicopter ride over the falls which she said was wonderful.  Marylou and I went to the market instead and Jim rested.  I can tell that in 5 years, Zimbabwe has improved.  There were not vendors coming up to us trying to sell things and all.  Instead, they had the market by itself and they were not allowed to come beyond a point. It made it much more interesting and also much safer feeling.  I was able to get the games I wanted and a couple of carved animals and bracelets.  After the helicopter ride, Carolyn and the driver picked us up and we went back to the Elephant Camp and went to see the elephants at the wallow.  People come from other hotels to ride the elephants there but none of us were interested in doing that-but we did get to feed the elephants which was an experience.  We all had our own technique and we got lots of laughs about it.  Carolyn got a handful of slime doing it the first time and so I was very cautious and pretty well just threw the pellets in the elephants direction!  It was a lot of fun at any rate.
Sylvester was also there and we had another photo op with him. 

 

Johannesburg to Victoria Falls

Nic took us to the airport in the morning to catch our flight to Victoria Falls.  We had first class seats which surely helped since the line to check in was SO long and we were able to go through the fast lane.  It was a nice flight and we enjoyed it. When we arrived we had to get Zimbabwe visas which cost $45 since we were doing a multiple entry and the line was long and slow. But we made it and our ride was waiting for us.  The airport at Vic Falls is small.  We stayed at the Elephant Camp and it is out of town about 5 miles , I would guess. It was nice as it was away from the hustle and bustle.  It is a tented camp but surely the nicest tents we've stayed in! They had a living room, free soft drinks and water, a neat plunge pool that was too cool for anyone to try, except Jim....another story for another day.  The bathroom had a huge stone tub and a glass shower as well as an outside shower.  Really nice. 

We barely got settled before we had to leave to go on our scenic river cruise (sunset).  It was lovely-lots of wildlife -elephants, birds, crocs, hippos,etc. 
We had dinner when we got back to the lodge and turned in for the night.

 

Photos

Animals

Swaziland to Johannesburg

After we left Reilly's Rock, we visited some of the craft venues that Swaziland is known for.  We went to a place where they weave place mats, hot mats, rugs, baskets and all sorts of things.  It was very interesting to see the lady working upstairs
Next we went to the Candle factory.  None of us were too keen on this as we envisioned the candle places here with lots of perfume,etc. But these were non frangranced and were actually amazing works of art and very reasonable.  But space in the suitcase was getting tight at this point.  I allowed myself one rhino candle and that was it. 

It was a LONG drive back to Johannesburg.  It was interesting scenery and I think the scenery in Swaziland was really pretty and I am glad we went. The ride in South Africa back was also interesting but nothing too outstanding after awhile.  We had a nice van and each of us had a seat to ourselves so we had plenty of room even with all our luggage.  We got back to the hotel in Johannesburg and went to the ATM, got pizza and reorganized for the flight to Victoria Falls the next day and hit the hay. 

Saturday

We had a leisurely morning in Swaziland and visited some of the shops nearby that they are famous for. The scenery here is beautiful. Before we left, we watched the birds come in droves to the feeders and oranges that were stuck on trees for the birds.the tiny blue duikers were all around and as we left we saw roan, blesbok, springbok, oribi, and several other new antelopes and gazelles. Great day and beautiful scenery.

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Friday

Today was our last game drive in South Africa. It was a rather exciting one near the end when we encountered a bull elephant with lots of hormones, as Zane said. He would not move off the road and we could not pass him. We gave him some space and then edged forward and he turned and mock charged us! Zane revved the motor and he stopped, thankfully but we had to sit and slowly edge forward. Later we saw a family of elephants with half a dozen babies of assorted sizes. We saw a side striped jackel , rhinos, giraffe, grey duiker, and lots of birds.

We came back to the lodge and ate breakfast and enjoyed looking for birds off the lodge deck. We also saw 3 water monitors, terrapins, and a gecko. Nic picked us up and we headed to Swaziland. The landscape was beautiful with mountains and green valleys with sugar cane and coffee growing. We stopped at a dam for a break and it had scenic views as well. We stopped at some vendors by the road that had soapstone carvings. We stopped at the glass factory that made beautiful figures and glass wares. We got candy sy the chocolate store and it was near the oldest mine in the world. We went into the game sanctuary where Reilly's rock is located. When we arrived after following the dirt road up to it, we were met by Lizzie and Ruth. We are staying in the cottage which has 2 bedrooms each with a private bath and then we have a nice living room to share. There are tiny blue diukers all over the grounds as well as Sita.we saw bushbok and 2 more new antelopes. There are crested guineas running around. At 6:15, they called us to see them feeding the bush babies. That was so neat, they are so cute and shy. We had our dinner around the bonfire outside and it was warm and nice. A great day!

 

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Thursday

We got up at the usual time and off we went in our land rover, just the four of us. It was not as cold as it has been and we still had blankets and hot water bottles to keep us warm. We saw several more rhinos, one with a baby. I have never seen so many rhinos in any park before. We saw more steenbok and duiker. We saw giraffe and secretary bird which was Marylou's big desire.

It began raining a very fine mist. We put on our ponchos and kept looking but in general, the animals were not out. Zane is our ranger and Norman is our tracker. At Idube Rob was our ranger and Titus was our tracker.

We came back and enjoyed breakfast and used the computer. We tried the wifi thing Robert had given me, but while it made a wifi signal, it didn't seem to get any data so we gave up. We spent the afternoon on our decks watching birds as the rain had stopped.

The rain started again as we were eating lunch and we almost decided not to go on a drive. But we decided to give it a try and it was a good one. We saw buffalo, giraffes, diukers springbok, rhinos several times, and loads of birds. The we topped it off with a leopard near the road. As we sat and watched him, a honey badger ran across the road. The leopard got up and crossed the road sniffing as he went. We watched him for several minutes before he disappeared into the bush. It was a lot of fun and the rain stopped about in the middle of the drive and it was just a lot of fun.

 

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Wednesday

Today started with a surprise. When the ranger knocked on our door to wake us up, he told us not to come outside as there was a leopard right outside our room. We opened the curtain and could see it as it lay just on the edge of the grass. The rangers gently got it to move farther back in the grass. The mom had left the cub there while she went to hunt. The pair had been on Rob's porch most of the night and Jim woke up about 3 hearing a noise on our porch. The ranger said these leopards like to get up in the chairs on the porches. This was the leopard who brought the cub into one of the camp storage buildings when it was a wee cub. She obviously feels safe around the camp.

The game drive was great. We saw a lot of neat animals- elephant, zebra, antelopes, buffalo, but the most interesting thing was going back to the site of the rhino kill from the day before where a pack of hyenas were finishing up the remains. We found two male lions who had just been kicked out of the den and watched them awhile.

After a good breakfast, we left in a van for our next lodge, lukimba which is in a private reserve within Kruger. It is a very fancy lodge and we had been bumped up to the two luxury rooms because a boy's school from England had the rest of the lodge full. Oh my were we lucky. It is huge,has its own splash pool, two bathrooms a sitting room, a table and chairs and a porch.

Our game drive was not to thrilling but it was enjoyable. We saw lots of white rhino.

They served our dinner for just the four of us in a room by the fireplace. It was nice to eat dinner and be warm.

 

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Tuesday

We were sound asleep when our wake up knock came this morning. So we had to hurry to get ready for our morning drive. They have hot water bottles for each of us as well as the blanket. We bundle up but by the time the drive is over, we have pulled off the layers. We saw plenty of impalas and water bucks and other antelopes. Then we came to where a poacher had killed a rhino and the area was covered with vultures, all kinds. As we parked to watch them, we spotted a lion RIGHT behind us in the bushes. He had claimed part of the rhino. We was well camouflaged and we were right there. We sat and watched him for the longest time.

 

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Monday July 15

What a wonderful day. The morning drive started ar 6:30 so they came and woke us up at 6. It was not as cold as we expected but they had blankets and hot water bottles to help keep us warn. We had wonderful sightings, elephants, giraffes, lion cubs playing, hippos, lots of birds and lots of antelopes of several varieties.

We came back to the lodge and had breakfast and enjoyed watching the birds and nyalas and warthogs that roam around the Idube grounds. We sat on our porch and talked and enjoyed the beautiful day as monkeys played in the trees overhead and warthogs wandered in front of our room. Then we spotted elephants heading toward the water hole so we went out to the hide ans watched. It was a huge family with babies. What fun. We ate lunch on the porch outside and watched a monkey swipe a piece of bread from the buffet. The elephants were in the background and birds were flitting around. Before we knew it, it was time for our afternoon drive. Again it was superb. We saw zebra and a big lion family that was different from the morning and it had 8 cubs, 3 big males, and 3-4 females. It was fun to watch the cubs antics.

We saw more zebras, hippos, huge herd of buffalo, we had our sundowner at an open lodge called treetops. Beautiful view of the sunset over the Sand river.

We had another nice dinner around the campfire. It is cold tonight so expect to be cold in the early morning.

 

 

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Africa journey

We are having a great time in South Africa. Jim, Carolyn and I had no problem getting to Atlanta and we enjoyed the Sky lounge for several hours waiting for Marylou to arrive. Unfortunately that did not happen. Because of bad weather in Atlanta, her plane was delayed several hours in Dulles. She arrived at the gate just minutes after they shut the door. We left having no idea what would happen to get her to Johannesburg. When we arrived in Johannesburg, we got a voice mail from Marylou saying Delta was telling everyone that it would be Tuesday before they could get them in a flight, when it was her turn, Marylou broke down crying and told them it was a trip of a lifetime for her and she was going to miss 1/3 of the trip so just fly her home. The lady had mercy and routed her through Dubai , an 8 hour layover and then to Johannesburg. The company that put our trip together met her at the airport and drove her up to our lodge, arriving at 6:30 tonight. She missed our afternoon game drive but considering what it could have been. We were lucky. We had a nice dinner tonight around the boma and the meal was delicious.

The three of us that made it to Johannesburg last night stayed in a nice hotl that is part of a huge complex near the airport. It was very elegant and nice because it was surrounded by casinos. It was very much like Las Vegas. Nic from Ikapa picked us up at the airport and brought us to the hotel and picked us up this morning to get us back to the airport for our flight up to Kruger. Our lodge Is in Sabi Sands and is named Idube. It is wonderful with Nyala, warthogs and monkeys playing on the grounds. We ate lunch and it was time to go on our first game drive, it was great. We saw plenty of impalas, warthogs, and then got to see the mother and cub leopard that are near the lodge. We drove right uo to them both. It was awesome! After watching them for probably 30 minutes, we moved on and saw zebra, elephants, hippos, lilac breasted roller bird, black storks, and kudu. Wow. Awesome day. Our driver/ranger is Rob the ranger who writes the posts for Africam,

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An African Adventure

We are ready to go on another African adventure! Jim and I and two friends are going on a trip that we planned through IKAPA, a South African travel company. We are going to Kruger National Park, then over to Swaziland, then up to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. I hope to be able to blog while on the trip and post some pictures.

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