Botswana & Zimbabwe

Travelling the easy road

The last 2 weeks has been some of the easiest travel I have done in a very long time. 3 night stays have become the norm, campsites are equipped with bars, pools and Wi-Fi and travel between towns has been short with stops at bakeries and supermarkets common. From the Okavango Delta we trucked our way to eastern Botswana and spent the night at a campsite called Elephant Sands. This camp was special for obvious reasons, the fact that elephants frequented the site most evenings to drink from the watering hole which was right next to the bar. Despite our best efforts at drinking loudly we did get visited right at the end of the night by a lone elephant. I didn't have my camera with me at the time so no pictures but it was a surreal 15 minutes while this huge elephant quenched his thirst just 15-20 metres from us with nothing in-between.

Continuing north we went up to Chobe National Park and had a river safari. I must admit I didn't expect to see much game from a boat in the middle of a river but we saw more in the 3-4 hours here then anywhere else in Africa. Crocodile, elephants, hippos, monkeys, antelope and buffalo all greeted us along the shoreline and made for a great day, made all the better by good company and a bottle of Captain Morgan.

Hippos in the Chobe River

Elephants having a drink from the Chobe

 



Spectacular sunset to finish off a great day

 



 

Having had a awesome time in Botswana we decided it was time to move on and drove the 20 minutes to the Zimbabwean border which was a quick crossing compared to West African standards but definitely the slowest since Cape Town. A further hour after the border we made our way into Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world (based on it having the largest sheet of falling water). This stop was another highlight for the adrenalin junkies among us as they offered activities such as bungee jumping, gorge swings, helicopter & plane rides and microlite flights. Myself and 3 of the boys did a half day adrenalin activity run which included a flying fox, a zip line and 2 jumps on the gorge swing. The gorge swing was definitely the best, I find it better than bungee jumping as you are allowed to jump from a variety of positions as you can see from the pictures below.

 

 

The Zambezi River where we did our jumps

Jump 1 - Handstand

Jump 2 - Backwards

Fuelling our adrenalin after our jumps at 10 in the morning

 

After Vic Falls we found ourselves in Bulawayo for 3 nights where we all had the opportunity to go Rhino trekking with 2 excellent guides in Motopo National Park. We spent the full morning tracking this bull below and then continued on to find 3 females not too far away. After lunch we had lunch by a pristine lake and checked out some cave paintings which were littered all throughout the park, remnants of the bushmen that lived in Southern Africa for thousands of years before.

• The bull rhino we tracked

 

A short drive up the road after Bulawayo we checked into Antelope Park which was of course a Lion Breeding Park. This was our third 3 night stay in a row and it has been really nice to travel at such a leisurely pace, the main reason being that we have to stay in Zimbabwe until our passports return as they have all been sent to our home countries so we can grab Ethiopian visas. The 3 days here have been bliss, camping right on the side of a lake, excellent facilities and of course a multitude of activities that we could do with lions. I opted into the package that allowed me to do them all so in the last couple of days I have watched some adult males released and fed, walked with two 11 month old cubs, fed the cubs in their enclosure, visited the breeding program and then went on a night drive with 3 adult females while they were being taught how to hunt game. If anyone reading this is ever planning on coming to Zimbabwe this place is a must.

Lions being released for their feed

Walking with the cubs

Cub feeding time

 

Antelope Park has been as good as my day with the cheetahs. I definitely have a soft spot for the feline family and really don't want to leave but the journey must continue.

 

 

 

 

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