Leaving for home

woke up this morning to see Zebras grazing outside our sliding glass door.  Beautiful sendoff as we are headed home.

Victoria falls and local village

 Monday, March 31, 2014

This morning I took the 10 minute walk to Victoria Falls behind my hotel room.  It is absolutely beautiful and awe inspiring.   

This afternoon we visited a local village which has 7000 residents.  They have 3 deep wells and a few of the huts have electricity.  We did see one TV satellite.  Learned about their present day culture as well as their heritage. They have a school teacher hired by the government and a school in the village. 

Today we took an all day trip to Botswana and it turned out to be an adventure.  We drove on a good road past small villages to the point on the Zambezi River where 4 nations meet.  Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and Botswana. 

The problem was that there is no bridge so trucks must go by ferry and there is a waiting line where they must wait as long as a week.

  Our bus was to drop us off at customs and then we were to take a small boat across the river.  The boat could not reach shore so we were originally told we would have to wade in knee deep water to get to the boat.  Finally they maneuvered the bus into the water enough so we could basically with assistance wade in a few inches of water from bus to boat.

The locals assisted us on and off the boats and at the same time worked hard to sell their handcrafts.

We then took the boat across the river and this time were close enough to get directly onto the sand from the boat.

We then went thru Botswana customs and then onto another bus which took us to a hotel.

 We then caught a boat for a cruise on the Chobe River where it runs between Botswana and Namibia.

The cruise was very good in a Botswana national Park and we saw many animals.  We also came very close to the shore of Namibia to see some animals, a resort and some houseboats.

We then had lunch back at the lodge before taking a 2 hour safari in jeeps.  Our guide was a local who had a degree in wildlife conservation and he was very interesting.

We then returned to the two customs offices and the unique crossing of the river. This time, I had Joseph holding my hand for balance as he walked in the water, I was walking on a series of 4x6 planks to reach the shore so he could offer me good bargains. 

 Definitely a unique experience.

Johannesburg, SA to Livingston, Zambia

Saturday, March 29, 2014 – Johannesburg, SA to Livingston, Zambia

Today we flew from Johannesburg, SA to Livingston, Zambia. At the airport all our luggage was shrink wrapped free of charge to prevent pilferage. We checked into the Zambezi Sun Resort located in a National wildlife preserve. It is beautiful, a 10 minute walk to the falls, and has wild animals roaming the grounds.

 We took a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River this evening and experienced a beautiful sunset.