What a trip. I started by flying from South Africa to Windhoek, Namibia. Then I left on a 3 day tour to Sossusvlei to see the red sand dunes. They were AMAZING! Just what I had hoped for. We spent the day in the desert, seeing the shadows on the dunes as the sun rose, climbing dune 45, hiking 5 km to dead vlei where there were some cool REALLY old dead trees, and ending with a cool off swim in the Serium Canyon. 
Next I headed out on an 8 day tour that took me from Windhoek, Namibia to Livingstone, Zambia. It was a lot of driving, but the days we spent doing activities were spectacular. The first day trip was to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. To get to our campsite, we had to transfer all our gear to a 4 wheel drive truck that took us through swamp and sand to the edge of the delta. We stayed two nights and spent 1 day in the delta. We took motor boats to the edge of the channels and then rode in makoros through the narrow waterways. A makoro is a traditional dugout canoe that seats 2 people and has a poler standing in the back steering. I have never seen so many lillypads in my life. The water was gorgeous and we were thankful for the partly cloudy sky that controlled the heat a little. The birds were everywhere. We stopped on an island for lunch and went for a walk where we saw some baobab trees and some evidence that animals were around. This was a fantastic day that I really enjoyed.
Our next day of activities was after a long drive along the Caprivi Strip in Namibia (where we saw a pack of rare wild dogs on the road).
We visited Chobe National Park in Botswana. Our day started with an early morning game drive where we were able to see tons of birds, some smaller creatures in the park, and tracked a lion (without sucess of actually seeing it). When we returned to the campground, we cooled off with a swim in the pool. In the evening, we went for a cruise along the edge of Chobe and were able to see some hippos, lots of birds, some smaller animals, and elephants playing in the water. The sun set as we returned to camp, casting beautiful rays of light through the sky.
Our last activity was visiting the magnificent Victoria Falls in Zambia. Unfortunatly, our last border cross into Zambia took 5 hours, so we were a little behind schedule. We had 2 hours at the falls before we needed to set up camp for the night. The mist was overwhelming and the water flowing over the edge into the gorge was intense. It was so much more water that in January. Then we went to a local reseraunt and had a nice dinner. In the morning, I flew back to South Africa and then returned to the village. What a trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment