Zambia: The Smoke That Thunders

This is a retrospective post since the events all occurred well before I was blogging :) It was written on 23 April 2008.

20Mar04 - 22Mar04: Livingstone, Zambia
I had a slightly more interesting (and shorter) drive to Livingstone than the rest of our tour group. Since myself, the new guide (Wayne) and the trainee guide (Nelson) all had South African passports, we said goodbye to the foreigners (they'd need visa's for Zim) and Andrew (someone still had to get them onto the ferry and across the river!) and headed to Livingstone via Zimbabwe!

We spent a fair amount of time in Livingstone and I did many amazing things. The first was the most obvious one, we visited the awe-inspiring Victoria Falls. In rainy season to boot, so it was even more powerful than usual! They give you rain gear for a reason, people :) And I know that pic looks like it came from a Google image search but, it's really the only place you can get a decent photo of the falls without a water-proof camera, so everyone takes the *same* shot!

I also went micro-lighting over the Falls which made for some lovely views! And did a rhino walk. We got up close to 3 rhino and it was unbelievable and we learnt plenty of interesting animal facts :)

I also went on an Elephant Ride. This was one of my most amazing experiences of the tour! These African Elephants are absolutely huge and you ride almost right on their backs (not at all like riding Asian Elephants in Thailand, as I discovered). I left my slip-slops behind and enjoyed the feeling of their rough skin & hair under my feet. I'd do this again in a second!

What's also fascinating is learning about the relationship between each Elephant and their rider / handler. The good handlers can recognise their very own Elephant from it's unique foot print (like our finger prints!). It's amazing stuff and these guys really loved their very large "pets".

23Mar04: Luangwa Bridge, Zambia &
24Mar04: South Luangwa National Park, Zambia:
Neither of these spots sticks out in my memory. I think these two are mostly just to break the journey from Zambia to Malawi :)