Followers of my personal blog know how much I enjoy watching birds. Not in a compulsive “must complete the list” way. I just like birds. I also enjoy knowing what I’ve seen, so one of my investments prior to the African trip was a bird book. Funnily enough, it was probably the guidebook we referred to the most on the trip. Mum had a really good handle on all the animals and most of the birds we saw due to her time spent at Pete’s Pond online, but there were some birds that she’d never seen before.
So we’d try to get a good picture and then check out Birds of Southern Africa (affiliate link) when we got back to our room.
Here are some of my favorites from the first few days of the trip:
Wednesday September 16, 2009
Livingstone, Zambia to Johannesburg
Our flight to Johannesburg departed in the early afternoon, giving my brother and I just enough time to take a quick last photo walk at Victoria Falls that morning. I was lucky enough to catch another rainbow (at left and on Flickr)
Then after our walk around the Falls, we wandered over to the bank to break some larger bills. As we were walking back to the restaurant to meet up with Mum, we found a little stall selling smaller versions of the sculptures scattered around the Zambezi Sun. I could not resist buying a warthog for my son — for only $10 US. The man working at the stall was the artist, so we also were able to congratulate him on his work.
The bus collected us on time for our transfer to Livingstone Airport. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Livingstone is the quintessential colonial airport. A few tips:
You must reconfirm your outbound flight 24 hours in advance. When you get to the airport, security has a list of departing passengers, and your name better be on it.
There aren’t many services at the airport. We were lucky to be on British Air, which has an airport lounge available to its club members at no charge or passengers on BA for $12.00 each. It isn’t much, but the cold drinks are free, there’s a bathroom and they let my brother smoke in their backroom.
You have to go through security for a second time as you board, so don’t bother buying a bottle of water at the airport bar. It will be confiscated. We’d gotten ours at the BA Lounge so it wasn’t a financial loss, just a hydration one.
We got back to Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport in the late afternoon and made our way to the Southern Sun at the airport for an overnight and early early departure the next morning for a flight to Polokwane, South Africa followed by a trek north by car to Botswana and the Mashatu Game Reserve.
I’ve mentioned before and in the Recommend section how much we appreciated the hospitality and food at the Southern Sun, but nothing compares to the wonderful ladies from Housekeeping who squeezed in some laundry well past the usual deadline for three travelers running dangerously low on clean clothes. There is a very serious weight limit on your baggage when traveling in/out of South Africa, and even more so on the smaller aircraft that we would be taking later in our journey. We just didn’t have a lot of extra stuff, and they so came through for us.
Next stop: Mashatu.
–
My brother has set up a website to chronicle our African trip. www.mashatutiger.com Yes, we know there are no tigers in Africa. There’s a story. I’m getting to it.
As my brother and I hiked around the Eastern Cataract area of Victoria Falls on Monday afternoon, we understood exactly what the guidebooks meant when they said that the best view of the Falls was from the Zimbabwe side. From the edge of the island we were on, we could just see, around the bend, that it must be a terrific view. However, there was no way we were going into Zimbabwe.
Plus a lot of hiking on uneven ground wasn’t terribly comfortable for Mum. We decided to look into the helicopter tour of the Falls.
The next morning, we booked a 15-minute helicopter tour through the Bushtracks Africa excursions desk at the Zambezi Sun.
It was SO worth it. The pilot did two loops around the Falls, giving us a chance to see them from multiple angles. We also saw a herd of elephants from the air.
The local name for the Falls is Mosi-0a-Tunya (also spelled Mosi-O-Tunya). It means “the smoke that thunders.” We were there in the dry season, so we didn’t really hear (or register) the thunder, but it is certainly true that you can see the “smoke” for miles around.
I was very glad I had invested in my Tamron 18-270mm lens. In addition to covering a wide distance range, it has an anti-shake feature that made a definite difference in these pictures from the helicopter.
Now, to the Smoke on the Water reference. When my brother and I were growing up, someone in the house behind us was learning to play guitar. Unfortunately, all he seemed to know was the opening riff of Deep Purple’s (now classic) Smoke on the Water. Which he played over and over and over and over.
Dun dun duh dun dun da da dah Dun dun duh dun dun da da dah.
Great song. It has taken me 30 years to appreciate it. Enjoy.
After breakfast, we departed the Southern Sun for the terminal and our flight to Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls. It was about a two-hour flight, and we caught our first glimpse of the Falls from the air.
The terminal in Livingstone is exactly what you might imagine a colonial African airport to be. One building. Lots of people. Seeming chaos, but not quite. We had to wait in quite a long line to purchase our visas, definitely a strong revenue stream for the Zambian government given the political situation in Zimbabwe next door. When we were planning our trip and mentioned we would be going to Victoria Falls, everyone we spoke to — everyone — said: Zambia, right?
Once through immigration and bag claim, we were met by representatives from Bushtracks Africa, the travel company that has the concession for transport to and from the Sun Hotels properties in Livingstone. After about a 30-minute drive, we were at our hotel, the Zambezi Sun.
The Zambezi Sun is right on the edge of the Eastern Cataract of the Falls, about five minutes walk, so after we got settled, we decided to walk over to the Falls and investigate.
On the way, we were “waylaid” by Webster. Webster is a member of the grounds staff at the Zambezi Sun, and as far as we could tell, a big part of his job is feeding a small group of zebra, giraffe and impala. He invited us to join him to meet his friends during the day’s 3 pm feeding. It was a tremendously pleasant way to start our African wildlife adventure. I’m sure I will never be this close to a zebra again in my life.
After our mini-wildlife adventure, we walked over to the Falls. You can see the full set of my photos from that afternoon on Flickr, but here are some of my favorites.
That evening after dinner we attended a performance of Dancing Around Zambia presented by the Livingstone Performing Arts Foundation. There were not too many guests in attendance, and that was their loss because it was a terrific performance of African dance and song. My brother shot video, and hopefully he will post a copy online at some point.
A word about the Zambezi Sun. The rooms are quite small, and it is not as elegant as its sister hotel the Royal Livingstone. Luckily, Mum, Doug and I get on quite well, and we weren’t in the room that much anyway. However, I did feel a bit sorry for my mom as both my brother and I were fighting off colds when we were in Zambia and it must have sounded like a herd of elephants was IN the room at times.
The location of the hotel, however, cannot be beat and the service and food were excellent. I highly recommend it. The Sun is definitely the right choice for families. On your honeymoon? Maybe the Royal Livingstone. It’s not that far from the Falls and a bit more upscale. It also has gorgeous views of the river.
In both pictures, the land across the water is Zimbabwe. We are on the Zambia side of the Zambezi River.
In less than a week, we will be boarding a plane for a 15 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. I hope to be able to post at least every other day.
Here’s our itinerary:
Friday Sept 11: Boston to NY JFK. Staying overnight at airport Holiday Inn.
Saturday Sept. 12: NY to Johannesburg
Sunday Sept. 13: Arrive Johannesburg in am. Plan to visit Apartheid Museum in afternoon.
Monday Sept. 14: Depart for Livingstone, Zambia – Victoria Falls. We haven’t made any specific plans for the time in Livingstone as yet. We plan to get the lay of the land and take it easy for the nearly two days we’ll be there.
Wednesday Sept. 16: Depart for Johannesburg. This is basically a layover night at an airport hotel.
Thursday Sept. 17: Flight to Polokwane, South Africa, followed by a 2+ hour drive to the Pont Drift Border Post on the Botswana border, and then to Mashatu Main Camp.
Sunday Sept. 20: Flight to MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa via light aircraft.
Tuesday Sept. 22: Depart for Johannesburg, and then in the evening, Johannesburg to NY
Wednesday Sept. 23: Arrive JFK NY in the morning. Once we’re through customs, we’ll catch a shuttle back to Boston.
Susan Getgood: Mine is slim compared to some folks. And I’ve added a few things since I posted this.... Kyle Judkins: That looks like a pretty packed schedule! I haven’t been to very many conferences, so I’m... RhodeyGirl: Just found your blog- hope I get to meet you at BlogHer! Susan Getgood: Hah! I doubt that. Everything seems to have piled into Thurs. and Fri. which is kind of nice, as it... Elisa Camahort Page: Gee, i hope we’ll have time to say “hello”, you are probably busier than I...
. In addition to covering a wide distance range, it has an anti-shake feature that made a definite difference in these pictures from the helicopter.
