After a busy summer of work and the inevitably hectic enrolment at College I felt I had really earned my holiday in September and I had long been looking forward to visiting sub-Saharan Africa. I have always wanted to go on safari and this was my chance!
Ross and I went together and the reason for our trip was primarily to see the Okavango Delta. In fact, we started in Zimbabwe, with a trip to Victoria Falls, on the border with Zambia and close to the border with Botswana.
The first thing that strikes you about Zimbabwe is the poverty. It is not possible to walk down the street in Victoria Falls without being harassed by locals wanting money. They are not unpleasant about it, but they are persistent. Some try to sell you wooden carvings, others try to swap the now useless Zimbabwean dollars for US dollars. It's sad! Away from the town itself is the falls, in the national park and they are the sole reason this town exists. What strikes you most about the Falls is the sheer length of them - it goes on and one and on! We were there in the dry season, but even still the water cascading over is deafening and the spray is incredible - it is also a nice way to cool off in the hot weather.
There are a host of activities to partake in at Victoria Falls from bungee jumping or white water rafting on grade 5 rapids, to more sedate wildlife encounters. We opted for the latter and took an elephant back safari. Our elephant was a 32-year0old matriarch called Coco and our guide was the charming and very knowledgeable Wellington. It was wonderful experience.
There are a host of activities to partake in at Victoria Falls from bungee jumping or white water rafting on grade 5 rapids, to more sedate wildlife encounters. We opted for the latter and took an elephant back safari. Our elephant was a 32-year0old matriarch called Coco and our guide was the charming and very knowledgeable Wellington. It was wonderful experience.
From Zimbabwe, we crossed the border into Botswana and made our way to Kasane, the gateway to Chobe National Park. Although I had not necessarily expected it to be, this was the highlight of my trip. We took two sunset boat cruises along the Chobe River and a more relaxing way of seeing game I can hardly imagine. So much wildlife comes down to the river to drink and cool off, so we saw elephants, hippos, crocodiles, impala, buffalo, lechwe, kudu and loads of birds. We also took an early morning game drive, which turned into a late morning game drive after we got a flat tyre and had to wait around in the bush for 2 hours! I think it may have been a blessing in disguise as once we got going again we saw so much wildlife that we might not have otherwise seen. This included lion, elephant, giraffe, buffalo, kudu, impala, warthog, vultures, bee-eaters and the beautiful lilac-breasted roller (pictured below). We almost saw a lion kill, but the hunt failed. It was magic to see such amazing wildlife so close.
We left Kasane and headed to Maun, from where we took a 3-day 2-night trip into the Okavango Delta. Mokoros (like canoes) were the only form of transport to access our camp and we roughed it with fairly basic camping. I must admit the inability to have a shower was a little wearing, but the place itself is great. We did not see as much wildlife there as I expected, but it is not until you are there that you realise the limitations - the long grasses tower above you when you are in a mokoro, so you have to be very close to wildlife to see it. That said, we did have a close encounter with hippos and saw elephants while out walking too.
We finished our trip with a flight over the Delta in a small plane and you get a totally different perspective of these wetlands from the air.
All in all, a wonderful first taste of bush safari-ing in Africa - it has whet my appetite for more in the future!
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