The last two days of our safari were great. We ended up seeing 5 leopards, including two
cubs chowing down on a recent kill with their mom, and one leopard carrying a
fresh kill up a tree! And to finish it,
we saw 14 lions out on a hunt on our night drive. Still no live kill but I’ve got a few game
parks left.
We left Flatdogs full of
delicious food, grateful that we never got trampled by elephants, and with a
ton of great memories. We stopped in
Lusaka for two days – pretty much just enough time to check out a local mall,
and meet up with a few of my Dar friends who were in town for a rugby tournament. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any of the rugby
since we left for Vic Falls the day it started, but it was great to have a bit
of home on the road with me (and to prove to Sarah that I do, in fact, have
friend here J). And we stayed at the Radisson Blu, which just reminded me that I do not need to camp all the time. Luxury is fantastic, and we took full advantage of the gym, the pool, the spotless room and the delicious breakfast buffet.
Once we got to Livingstone, Zambia, we organized our
activities for our four days here and got started. We chose to see the falls from both Zambia and
Zimbabwe (Zim has a much better view of the majority of the falls, so we were really
glad we crossed over), did a microflight over the falls to have an aerial view
(which was amazing, except that we couldn’t take our cameras and both decided
not to purchase the pics they took of us), went whitewater rafting on the
Zambezi, and swam in the Devil’s Pool.
The highlight for me was probably rafting, that is until Sarah knocked
me out of the boat and we both were sent flailing into the water on some big
rapids. I drank a good portion of the
Zambezi and was fortunately saved by our safety kayaker (saying my expression when
he got me was panicked is an understatement).
I did however, get Sarah back, by knocking her out of the raft later in
the day, but that time we were rescued quickly and the rapids were minimal. I guess we were good enough sports, since we were
invited out with the guides that night and got to celebrate surviving, Livingstone-style,
with lots of Mosis (local beer) and dancing.
It was a fun night on the town with some new friends. 
While I recovered from rafting and thought it was exhilarating,
Sarah saw it more as a little too adventurous, and decided she had “risked
death” enough for one trip, so she went to have some sundowner drinks instead
of going with me to the Devil’s Pool.
Possibly a good idea, as this entails swimming across the current, at
the TOP of the falls, and then plunging into a pool that is about 2 feet from the
edge of the falls and taking some oh-so-casual looking photos. While it felt less dangerous than the
pictures make it out to look, it was definitely a beautiful view of the falls
from the top.
But for all of the activities we did in Livingstone, the
most dangerous moment for me was the Vic Falls National Park in Zambia, where I
cautiously followed some other walkers around a large male baboon, only to have
him snatch my backpack from me! I tried
to give it a few good pulls before realizing I was not going to win this fight,
and then let him wander off with it. We
waited as he emptied my pack TSA style:
iPhone thrown there, car keys examined and placed to the side, wallet
thrown in the leaves. A shop keeper then
lured him away with some food, as I recollected my belongings. I love Africa but I will not miss the baboons
or monkeys. I’ve now been stalked by
them (in Senga Bay, Malawi, I fended them off for 50 yards as I tried to back
my way to the restaurant), had my food stolen and been mugged. I’m 0-3.
Let’s hope there are no more altercations because I don’t see me winning
many of them.
Zambia was a great time, and we met a ton of great, friendly
locals. But with all the fun and
excitement, we knew it had to end. Sarah
boarded her plane to go back to Lusaka, and then to the US, and I started
planning my trip to Botswana. This included
getting Baby Blue checked out, as she has started screeching when I turn. After three hours of tire pressure checking, wheel
shifting and a wheel alignment, I left the garage with a new whatsapp friend
(the mechanic) and still screeching tires.
Maybe Botswana has some better mechanics J
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