Shaun, Nilay and I ended up staying two nights at Elephant Sands, about 30 kilometers north of Nata. It is a brilliant concept.

The owners of the lodge own 16,000 hectares of land out in the middle of nowhere (nowhere for us humans – home for hundreds of elephants). They built a lodging operation around a watering hole on their property.

My “chalet” was a nice, sturdy structure with a semi-outdoor bathroom facility.

My chalet

The open-air bathroom in my chalet

But they enhanced the watering hole by creating a concrete in-ground trough that’s about 15 x 1 feet in measurements. The trough had fresh water continuously running through it, thus attracting a lot of elephants for the water’s purity.

Because the property is in such an arid area, the owners truck in 5,000 gallons of water every day for the guests and elephants. The “ellies” come from miles around to enjoy the fresh, clean water.

The main building of the camp has a viewing deck that comes to about 25 feet of the watering trough, allowing close access to the elephants as they drink and socialize. Sometimes, they will even approach the deck to do some human viewing.

Elephants are fascinating creatures, especially when it comes to water. They can smell water up to 30 kilometers (19 miles) away. Last year during a drought, when Elephant Sands ran out of water in the water trough, the elephants, in their desperate search for water, dug up water pipes four meters (12 feet) deep to get to the water in the pipes. They also tore down one of the bathroom structures to get at the water in the pipes.

Now Elephant Sands has to turn off the water to all the chalets and tent cabins at night so the elephants can’t smell the underground water.

They are also quite humorous in their creative ways of drinking. One regular I spoke with said one day he was taking a shower in his cabin’s semi-outdoor shower when the water all of a sudden stopped. He was standing there, his head full of shampoo wondering what happened when he looked up and saw an elephant’s trunk, which had snaked its way under the roof and was drinking the water from the shower head.

The owner, Mike, had an incredible experience with one of the elephants, which they’ve named Bennie. Bennie is a very large male who is approximately 25 years old. One day, he approached Mike as he was standing in the viewing deck and lifted his right foot. Using his trunk, Bennie began pointing at a large gaping wound on his leg, just above his toenails. Mike and a couple of witnesses all swear it’s true.

Mike brought Bennie over to stand on the viewing deck so he could wash off the wound with a garden hose. Upon closer inspection, the wound was in desperate need of a veterinarian. Mike led Bennie back out into the open watering hole space and proceeded to make arrangements with a vet to take care of the wound.

A couple days later, Bennie was tranquillized and the wound addressed. A lot of rotten flesh had to be removed and the wound was then packed with antibiotics. Bennie began to come out of his groggy state, and while most elephants will wake up angry, confused and agitated, Bennie stood up very calmly, looked at the humans from afar and calmly walked away.

Bennie is now a regular at Elephant Sands, but he gets special treatment. He will approach the dining area to the side of the viewing deck and Mike will rush to get the garden hose out.

Bennie then gets as much water as he wants, poured directly into his trunk. Other ellies will try to approach Mike & Bennie for similar treatment, but they are scared off. Mike has developed a very close bond with Bennie.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photo – it was dark

One last humorous story – there are four “naughty” elephants who have been known to pass by one of the tent cabins at night as they leave the watering hole. If the cabin occupants have left their window unscreened for the night, one of the elephants will reach into the window and quickly remove the closest bed’s blanket and throw it in the ground as they pass. Imagine the occupant’s shock!

 

The next updates will come in the next few days, as it has been challenging to find good wifi recently.

Thanks for your interest and patience!

Shaun, Nilay and I left Kasane in order to make our way south through Botswana. While our original plan had been to get all the way down to Maun (pronounced Mao-ooon), Shaun and Nilay had heard about a place to stay called Elephant Sands that was about halfway between Kasane and Maun. They asked if I was up for a detour, and I gamely replied “yes”.

We took a taxi to the bus stop and popped into a Choppee’s for provisions (their list was much longer than mine since they were camping and cooking). Choppee’s is a chain of grocery stores in Botswana that are generally very clean and very well-stocked. Being a marketer, it was fascinating to walk the aisles looking at all the unique brands and ways they merchandise their goods.

After checking out, we made our way to the bus stop and waited quite a while in the hot Botswanan sun for the bus going to Nata. Eventually one arrived. We paid our 70 Pula each (about $6.00) and settled in for the two-and-a-half hour ride.

We got to the Elephant Sands stop, but the bus would not leave us at the stop alone, as it was out in the middle of nowhere and extremely hot. They did not want us to have an unfortunate encounter with lions or other animals.

The bus driver called Elephant Sands and the bus waited until a safari truck came to fetch us. Once our ride arrived, the bus went on its way and we were driven the mile into the bush where the compound was.

Nilay, Shaun and I decided to go on safari in Chobe National Park. We ended up negotiating with a man named Lucky (sounds like a more reputable guy than Grubby, eh?), who had two friends who were freelancing for the next couple of days. We agreed to a very good rate and were up and ready to go the following morning.

With Nilay & Shaun on the Chobe River.

Chobe National Park is a large swath of land that runs along the northern border of Botswana. The Chobe River is the dividing line between Botswana in the south and Namibia’s panhandle to the north.

We drove into Chobe hoping to see some animals. My God, we saw animals. And more animals. And even more.

Chobe is famous for its high concentration of elephants. Over the course of our six hour game drive, we saw hundreds of elephants. As elephants are my favorite animal, I was in heaven. These beautiful creatures were in groups of 10 to 30 – eating, drinking from the Chobe River, rolling around in the mud. The adolescents were playing with each other.

Other members of the animal kingdom we saw were:

Giraffe

Lion

Baboon

Fish Eagle

Hippo

Crocodile

Water Buffalo

Impala

Kudu

Leopard Tortoise 

Warthogs

Monkeys

And finally a 2 for 1:

We ended the day at a campground in the park, with the still darkness all around us (save the buzz of the insects and the chirps of the frogs).

A friend who came here last week said she could hear lions roaring in the night. Would we be so lucky?

I regretfully left Jollyboys in Livingstone so I could continue my trek south. What had originally been planned as three days in Livingstone and Victoria Falls turned into eight.

The vast array of things to do whilst there provided so much enjoyment and fun; however, the people I got to know at the hostel also created such a fun environment, it made it hard to break away and leave. But soon all of the great friends I had made began to embark on the next chapter of their travels, and eventually, there were only a couple of us left. There were new arrivals, but the time had come to move on.

I left for Botswana with two of the last remaining folks, Shaun – a tall, red-headed Australian with a great sense of humor – and Nilay – a beautiful dark-blond Turk. They met in Nicaragua while backpacking and fell in love. Shaun now lives in Turkey with Nilay and they plan to get married in Bali later this year. They are the cutest couple.

We hired a taxi to take us the one-hour drive to the Zambia – Botswana border. Once there, we processed through immigration and boarded a ferry across the Zambezi River.

However, this form of water transport did not fall into any of our more traditional concepts of a ferry, but more of a floating platform that had a little engine and a pilot’s bridge on top of a pole. The ferry could only take one semi truck and one car at a time, along with a smattering of people standing on the edges. There were three of these ferries running at any given time.

We disembarked on the Botswana side, processed through immigration and then caught a quick taxi ride to Kasane, the entry point to Chobe National Park.

I stayed at a quaint little hotel called The Old House, which was a nice little environment to land in. The hotel is right along the bank of the Chobe River, and it’s quite amusing to see signs that say, “Stay away from the water at night. High danger from crocodiles and hippos.”

God, I hope I don’t sleepwalk….

The Zambian national soccer team, nicknamed Chipolopolo and meaning “the copper bullets” (copper is one of Zambia’s biggest industries), was one of the participants in the bi-annual Africa Cup tournament. A favored team to win the tournament, Zambia made it deep into the tourney, only to be eliminated by Guinea in the quarterfinals.

I went to a local 7-Eleven to watch the big game. Interestingly, our favorite convenience store stateside is a liquor store operation in Zambia, with a very popular bar in the back.

The crowd was spirited and loud. Unfortunately, the Zambians were unable to score in regulation against a vastly inferior team. After an extra period of play, the two teams were still scoreless, forcing the match to penalty kicks. After seven rounds of kicks, Guinea got a goal. The bar emptied out so quickly it was if someone had yelled “fire!”.

I bought a Zambian heart to help root for the team, but it didn’t seem to help.

A post-game Springbok shooter with Sarah and Anxious to toast the end of the tourney.

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On my last full day in Livingstone, I wanted to do one last activity that had gotten fantastic reviews from fellow guests at Jollyboys.

I took the shuttle to the Falls and then made my way to the Upriver Trail. I ran into a man who was very friendly, asking if I was interested in visiting Angel’s Pool. Ironically, that’s why I had come to the Falls for the day. I replied “yes” and he told me to ask for his brother, Felix, at the end of the trail.

I walked to the end of the path and called out to an island in the middle of the Zambezi River. “Felix”, I yelled. “Felix”, I called again. A man came out of the island bushes and walked across the river to meet me. He introduced himself as Felix and we negotiated a price to visit Angel’s Pool. Once we agreed to an amount, I told him I would pay him extra if he brought me back alive. Good incentive, eh?

We proceeded to work our way across the Zambezi, walking sidestep across a very low concrete curb that had been built under the water by the Zambia power company. The water was a little less than shin deep and was not running too fast, though I could feel a little tug every once in a while. We were about 80 yards upriver from the Falls.

We crossed the 50 yards to the island from a where Felix had originally emerged. A group of men were lazily napping away the hot day under the shoreline trees, hoping for another hire to go to Angel’s Pool.

Over the next 45 minutes, we worked our way across the river, alternately hiking over low, shrubby islands and picking our way through water that varied in depth from ankle high to over my head. The Zambezi is 1.2 miles wide as it deposits its contents over the Victoria Falls. We hiked approximately two-thirds of the way across to get to Angel’s Pool.

At one point, Felix told me to wait and then swam downstream about 25 yards. He then motioned for me to follow. While I just thought he was navigating part of the route, he told me later he was judging how good a swimmer I was so he would know for which activities I was qualified in the pool.

We also stopped right at the falls’ edge so we could take a picture. While my feet were in the water, there was hardly any current, so the risk of being swept over the edge was minimal.

We also stopped at another rock formation on the edge so Felix could get more shots of me experiencing a unique view of the falls.

We finally reached Angel’s Pool and it was an amazing natural pool that had formed on the edge of Victoria Falls. The pool itself was about 15 feet below the upper part of the Zambezi, and water came cascading down into the pool that has been cut into the rock edge of the falls by years of rushing water. About 20 feet in diameter, the pool then emptied over the opposite edge, yet another beautiful fall in the vast series of falls that comprise Victoria Falls.

Felix asked if I wanted to do a high-level jump into the pool from a ledge near the top of the upriver fall. Of course I wanted to jump. He showed me the rock perch from which to launch, stepped back with my camera, and took my picture as I jumped the 15 feet into the pool.

Once in the pool, it was easy to swim over to the edge where Felix was standing. He put my camera down and then motioned me to follow him. We swam to a point under the falls and then shot out from under them and away from the wall. We swam over to the far corner of the pool, where he told me to climb over the submerged rocks and go all the way into the corner.

Following his instructions, I discovered a very deep pocket right at the edge of the falls. Getting into it, I was submerged up to my shoulders. The pocket was no more than two to three feet in diameter, but allowed me to safely peer over the edge and down the 300 feet to the rocks below. It was an incredible perspective.

Even though Felix comes out here every day, I could tell he still loved spending time here.

Eventually, we made our way back to the river’s bank and I thanked Felix for an experience of a lifetime. He also got his bonus for not letting me be swept off the edge!

My friend, Sarah, and I decided to visit Zimbabwe for the day, if anything to get our passports stamped so we could each scratch one more country of our lists. Sarah’s been to something like 35 countries – yours truly 27.

We got a ride to the Zambian border, processed through Immigration and then crossed the Victoria Falls Bridge into Zimbabwe.

Continue reading Zimbabwe →

A group of us decided to go on a rafting trip down the lower Zambezi River. After Victoria Falls, the river works its way through the deep gorge and east toward Mozambique and the Indian Ocean. In the 20 kilometers after the Falls, there is a series of 25 sections which have Rapids rated anywhere from a Level 2 to Level 6. Eight of us had heard that the Rapids were a lot of fun and wanted to experience them.

One of our group, Shaun, had been approached by someone when he first arrived in town with his fiancée, Nilay. This person offered to help him find a place to stay, but when Shaun said that he was all set on that count, the man said he could also arrange a white water rafting trip at a lower price than through the hostels. Shaun got his number with a very light promise he would get back to him.

Once at Jollyboys, our group got to know Shaun and Nilay, and when talk came up about going on a rafting trip, Shaun mentioned he had met this guy. Turns out, Shaun’s contact was offering the trip for a 33% discount relative to the going tour-group booking rate.

To ensure we were not setting ourselves up for a rip-off, we agreed to meet the owner, a Kiwi expat who turned out having the name Grubby. That’s right, Grubby. Grubby is a long-haired, chain-smoking bloke who showed up in a beat up old Land Rover.

Our bullcrap radar was on high alert. But after grilling him for a while, we decided he was on the up-and-up and confirmed the booking.

We were taken over to the river where we had to descend 1,500 feet to the Zambezi. The raft was inflated and ready to go, plus we were escorted by three very accomplished kayakers, who were alongside us to ensure none of us drowned if we fell in. We discovered that the guys in the crew were all full-time crew members for other companies – they were moonlighting on their day off.

We set out down the river starting at Rapids 7 – the seventh set after the falls. Since we had booked a half-day, we didn’t start right under the falls. Immediately, we hit the first set of rapids, rated a Level 3. We got a little wet on that. Subsequent rapids were a lot of fun.

Rapids 9 was rated a Level 6 – too dangerous for our group so we had to get out and walk the shoreline under the cliff. The raft was left to flow down the river by itself. The kayakers dove right into the rough water, and it was amazing to watch them maneuver their way through.

After rapid 13, we had a long stretch of the Zambezi that was calm, so we all jumped into the river to cool off. Rapid 14 was an easy Level 3, so we all stayed out of the boat as we floated through the white water in our life jackets.

We only saw one crocodile – a youngster about three feet long, summing himself in the rocks. Crocodile are not very prevalent along this part of the Zambezi because the water moves too fast for them. Also, crocs of any significant size that go over the falls will be killed in the rocks below. Sometimes the very little ones can escape death when they go over the falls.

After about three hours, we finished the 25th rapid with a boating high-five.

We were wet, tired, sunburnt and stoked. It was a fantastic experience.

A group of us went out to dinner and decided to try a Zambian delicacy – caterpillars. These yummies are put into the oven and cooked to a crispy texture. The restaurant we visited also put a unique sweet & sour sauce over them, but the flavor was very distinct.

My eclectic menu experiments thus far:

– Impala Steak
– Crocodile Pizza
– Crocodile Spaghetti
– Caterpillars
– What will be next?