Overland Trip to Botswana & Zambia, part 4

Once we arrived at Chobe National Park, we had a sunset cruise on the Chobe River hoping to see wildlife along the way. However since the river was flooded at its highest point in 50+ years we didn't see much - except this elephant and hippos!


The following day we crossed the River on a small ferry and entered Zambia. An hour's drive from the border is the town of Livingstone, which "shares" Victoria Falls with neighboring Zimbabwe. The group put on swimsuits and headed over to the park. Since the waters were SO high and rough we weren't able to get many photos - the spray from the Falls totally drenched us!!

Here's Jul at one of the only dry viewpoints at the eastern end of the 1.7 km long Falls. Shortly after this photo we continued along the path and were soaked by the the spray/rain/mist of the Falls. Sorry but photos just don't suffice to capture the experience! We spent the next hour getting soaked and screaming and running along the paths, repeatedly saying, "This is amazing! I can't believe this!" Definitely this IS one of the 7 Wonders of the World.

The Chobe River and Zambezi River join up and then cascade over these Falls. It was one of the most exhilarating sights we've ever experienced!

Overland Trip to Botswana & Zambia, part 3

Above, another picture of our campsite in the Okavango Delta.

One evening we took a mokoro cruise through the river channels and lagoons, to see hippos and elephants and watch the sunset. (That's Jul in the canoe with an elephant in the foreground!)

After leaving the Delta, we headed east back to the center of Botswana and up to the northeastern corner where Chobe National Park is located. One the way we camped one night at "Planet Baobob", a nice site next to the Makgadikdadi Salt Pans with many huge, amazing baobob trees.

Here's one of the 'food groups' helping Gertie, our chef, prepare dinner. We split into five 'food groups' for cooking and washing dishes, each assigned different meals as we travelled. Everyone was wonderful at helping out (and not complaining)! And Gertie's food was amazingly good!

Overland Trip to Botswana & Zambia, part 2

We spent two days and nights at our 'island campsite' in the Delta. It was beautiful, remote, quiet - and yet full of the sounds of birds and animals, and of course of our group as we went swimming in the river, played games around the campsite, practised 'poling' the mokoros and chatted with the Botswanan staff who accompanied us. The women staff spent one afternoon making bracelets and baskets from the leaves of the palm tree that grows prolifically in the area. (below)


On the first morning, our game walk group of 6 people and 2 rangers spotted a large group of giraffe (15+) off in the distance, eating from the tops of acacia trees. Slowly then we kept walking and approaching them until we were only a 100m away, at which the giraffe began to watch us more carefully and started to disperse. Note how the giraffe on the left has darker spots - that's a male.

We spotted a female who had just recently given birth - a very unique sight. There was blood on the backs of her legs and using the binoculars I could see the umbilical cord still hanging down. Incredible. (No we didn't get close enough to see the newborn - way too dangerous!)


Our game walk group (above) and guides Richard and Rogers. And below, real bush walking! We didn't just follow trails and footpaths the whole time; we also just bush wacked - in the truest sense!

Overland Trip to Botswana & Zambia, part 1

For ten days Jim and I helped lead an overland camping trip with international students (mainly Americans doing study abroad at UCT) - what an amazing experience!! All told we had 76 students, 8 leaders and 4 trucks - travelling in two groups of 2 trucks each.

We flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg, drove up into Botswana for 6 days and then over to Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe) for 3 days. On the last day we flew back from Zambia to Cape Town.

Here's our truck group of 20 - we had a great time together and were grateful for safe & healthy travels throughout. We had 14 Americans, 2 South Africans, 2 Norweigans, 1 Zimbabwean and 1 Brazilian.


Below, the overland truck that we 'charter hired' for the trip. Built into the truck was a fold-out kitchen and room for all our tents and supplies.

Breakfast on day 1 - waking up to sunrise in Palapye, Botswana was beautiful! One of the trip highlights was seeing the sunrise and sunset every day.

By day 3 we had made it to northwestern Botswana and the Okavango Delta, the world's largest inland Delta and an incredible wilderness destination. We hired 12 staff from a local company who were our guides during these three days; they 'poled' us in the mokoros (canoes, 2 people and 1 guide per) through the Delta and to our campsite. It was an incredible experience!

Colorful close-ups