On Safari

This morning we visited the Falls and were amazed. The flow over the falls from the Zambezi River is supposed to be relatively low at this time of year but it seemed massive to us. We will never forget the roar of the water going over the top and plunging into the rapids below. The photos will tell the story much better than we can explain in mere words. As you will see there is so much spray it is very hard to get clear photos, especially of the main falls. What an unforgettable experience! From the Falls we travelled to The Elephant Camp which is a sanctuary for elephants, particularly orphans and injured elephants that have had to leave their herds. As the elephants are so tame there we were able to touch them and actually feed them by hand! We loved watching them wallowing in the mud! Yet another unforgettable experience. Tomorrow we fly back to Johannesburg and pick up our flight to London, from whence we will fly to Rome and spend five days there before picking up our c...

On Wednesday we flew to Zimbabwe and landed at Victoria Falls Airport. Our hotel is the famous old colonial Victoria Falls Hotel and is situated a short distance behind the top of the Falls. We enjoyed dinner at sunset on the lawn listening to the roar of the Falls and watching the spray rising and glowing in the fading sunlight. Marvellous! Today we crossed the border into Botswana for a day tour of Chobe National Park. The Park is not as big as Kruger but is rich in wildlife. We travelled through the Park on some of the worst dirt roads ever created but then enjoyed a lovely smooth sail on the Chobe River with a buffet lunch included. What are the poor people doing? We still didn’t see lions but we did see lots of other animals and birds. Enjoy the photos! Photos: Most of the photos are pretty obvious. The fourth photo is of a vulture. 

Yesterday we arrived in Johannesburg after a very long drive. The highlight of the journey was a visit to the Blyde River Canyon, one of the largest canyons in Africa. The photos below will give you some idea of just how spectacular the view was. This morning we did a tour of Soweto and visited the Apartheid Museum. The name Soweto used to be an acronym for ‘Southwestern Township’ however the official name was changed to Soweto in the 1960s. In this formerly very segregated land it was intended as the place where black people working in the city could live. Today it has a population in excess of 5 million and suffers 27 per cent unemployment! So you can imagine that it is not a very wealthy place to say the least. There is one fairly affluent area, and some of Soweto consists of shacks like the other townships we have seen. However most of Soweto appears to be the sort of humble public housing that the Government tries to provide.  While in Soweto we visited the house in w...

On Friday we left Zululand and travelled across Swaziland where we stayed overnight in a very nice lodge. Next day we crossed the border into South Africa again and headed for Kruger National Park. The scenery was very similar to that in Zululand until we came close to Kruger and the land became much drier. We have now had two excursions through the Park by land rover and have taken many fabulous photos of the incredibly diverse wildlife. No rhinos or lions yet but we remain hopeful.   The lodge we are saying in is awesome, however we are not allowed to leave our lodge without a guide.   There are impalas, elephants and other wild life around the area, so caution is best taken. You realise you are only visitors in this park when the ranger takes his rifle in the truck every time we leave the resort!   On the up side we have discovered a new South African drink.   It is similar to Bailey’s and is called Amarula.   Wow!!   It goes equally well over ic...