Vic Falls Part 3 – Safari Time

I packed a lot in to my 3-day trip.

1. Saturday, I went to Botswana for a Chobe River cruise and then a safari ride at Chobe National Park (name?) An impressive lunch buffet was provided at ?resort? in between the two outings
2. Sunday morning, I headed over the sister Royal Livingstone Hotel to go across to the Devil’s Pool at the top of the Zambia side of the Falls.
3. Sunday late morning and afternoon I hung around the hotel grounds, swam and had lunch by the pool
4. Sunday evening was interaction with the elephants and another fabulous meal at the Elephant Café, just up the road from my hotel on the Zambia side
5. I got up at 5am on Monday so that I could be at the Zimbabwe border for the 6am opening. Outings packed into Monday am are Walking with the Lions, Helicopter ride over the Falls and finally 3 wire activities over the gorge – Flying Fox, Zip Line and the gorge swing

I have so many photos from the activities except for the helicopter and the wire activities.  I just enjoyed the copter and was not about to risk dropping my phone for selfies while sliding swinging and hanging over that gorge and river!

1. To Botswana on Safari

The people I met along the way were friendly and some went out of their way to include me, which is nice sometimes when traveling solo.  A group of nine Portuguese folks from Angola were my companions for the Chobe trip.  I spent the drive to the Botswana border talking with the driver and enjoying the scenery (perk of solo travel – usually get the best seat).  Once across the river(s) to Botswana, Antonio, Marta, Sofia and Mariana introduced themselves. Thankfully the introductions stopped there as I would never have remembered 5 more names (assuming I remember these correctly).  We drove further to the resort where we joined another group for a river cruise to see wildlife.

My small world story for the weekend is:  we discovered early in the cruise that there was a Canadian couple on the boat.  I asked where they were from, saying I came from Edmonton.  Well, so did they.  What neighbourhood, they asked.  Millwoods, I said.  And you?  Holyrood was their reply.  I told them my daughter went to that school from kindergarten through grade 4.  It turns out we had girls in that school at the same time!  Different programs/classes but still.  Crazy small world!

Between the boat cruise and safari ride I think we saw almost everything imaginable except for big cats.  It was mid afternoon when we got to the park, so they were sleeping.  We saw hippos, different types of water buffalo, antelope, birds, crocodiles – including a croc buried into the carcass of a dead elephant!  On our drive we added impala, baboons, elephants and giraffes.  It was definitely a full day.  The lunch in between was a full buffet including ice cream!  I had a nice chat with an American about their bad joke of a president.  It is meeting American’s that feel the same way about him as I do that helps restore my opinion of that nation.