Author: drewwfaust@gmail.com

We next took a small plane to Kanana Camp in the Okavango Delta and flew over some wildfires in the Kalahari Desert.

The accommodations were splendid. Our tent looks modest from the outside, but comes complete with hardwood floors.

There wasn’t much new on the first game drive, so we’ll close with another amazing sunset.

We took a boat on the Chobe river Sunday and circled Sedudu island. Cape buffalo, crocs, a lizard (with very tasty meat according to our guide Daniel), and so many elephants. We even saw two elephants make the swim over to the island.

On that evening’s game drive, an elephant showed off its agility. And another sunset – this one extra red due to smoke from some wildfires 30 to 50k west of here.

We drove from Zimbabwe to Botswana on Friday. It was under two hours and the border crossing was easy. We’re staying at Elephant Valley Lodge, a tent camp situated around a watering hole. During our stay we saw elephants (of course!), impalas, baboons, cape buffaloes and even a hyena stop by.

We headed out for a game drive. We saw a rare sable antelope, many elephants, and a giraffe near sunset.

Then… a leopard! They are the most elusive of the big five (elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo, leopard) and the only one we hadn’t seen. It’s a cub in a tree that’s found a bird’s nest with some fresh food (likely fish). The bird is in the tree and making quite a ruckus, but the leopard is obviously not threatened.

The cub then started mewling for his mama. She came along and lay down under the tree.

As if rafting wasn’t enough for a full day, we head over to the falls in the afternoon. It’s about a 3k walk total to get to all the viewing spots. We learn that we’re at a relatively low water level in October (lowest is typically November), but that minimizes the spray to afford some good looks. From the west:

The Devil’s Cataract (western edge):

Moving east:

Again moving east. In this shot, you can see some people in the Devil’s Pool (center of the shot). Now I’m REALLY glad I didn’t do this. This isn’t some off to the side little spur of the falls.

Continuing east to the end.

We flew from Kenya to Johannesburg (via Kigali, Rwanda) and spent the night at an airport hotel. We caught a mid-morning flight to Vic Falls. We met our driver around 2p, and he gave us a menu of activity options for the stay. Mike and Lisa from Kenya had done the Devil’s Pool, rafting the Zambezi, a helicopter ride, and the gorge swing. They recommended all.

The Devil’s Pool is a pool right at the top of the falls that leads to a ledge with just a bit of water running over the falls. People literally lie on the ledge with their head and arms out over the falls. Go to google images to see what I mean. You can only do it this time of year – a relatively low water level. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to do this. And we learn that you have to go to Zambia, which adds two border crossings and visa fees, so we take a pass. (I’m relieved.)

We sign up for a “Sundowner Cruise” that night and rafting the next day. The Sundowner departs the hotel at 4, so we decide that the falls will wait until after rafting. It’s a sunset booze cruise with some appetizers and we have a lovely chat with the Aussies we’re seated with. As you might guess, I have a few more sunset shots.

That’s the Zambezi river 3 to 5k above the falls. It’s a much different river below the falls. I had no idea that it’s considered one of the great one-day raft trips in the world.

We start with a “hike” down to the river. Hike is in quotes, because much of it is scary ladders with broken railings. We descend over 100 meters and the hike about a quarter mile upstream to the put in. We’re rafting with two Aussies, two local guys (brought by our guide to give us six paddlers), and our guide Colgate. We put into a pool and get to work practicing forward, backward, left and right. We also all have to hop out of the raft to get the hang of getting back in. This comes in handy…

We paddle upstream through the pool and ferry across the bottom of a rapid to get a glimpse of the falls. Our camera isn’t waterproof, so we don’t have any pictures. We did purchase pictures and video from the rafting company, but that will have to wait until we’re home to a computer with a CD drive. I did later get this shot from up top – it approximates our view (but from 100+ meters higher).

We ferry back across the rapid, and gently hit the canyon wall – right next to a baby croc who’s sunning itself. The little guy (gal?) was barely 2 feet long, but he was also barely 2 feet from Leena. They did warn us that crocs were in the river. Here’s a shot I took from the top of the gorge. On the left is the third rapid, and on the right is the start of the fourth (and you can just see a nasty hole at the top of the rapid).

We head through the first several of rapids smoothly, though we’re getting wet for sure. The fourth rapid is a Class V thanks to a couple of big holes that we skirt to the right.

The fifth rapid is called Stairway to Heaven, or alternatively, as Highway to Hell. Colgate describes it as the biggest drop on the river – almost 10m – followed by a second wave called the Catcher’s Mitt. If we’re lucky, we’ll ride it to the top and clear the crest. If not, we’ll flip. He gives us a 50/50 shot and seems generally unconcerned that we could all swim. It’s big water, but the rapids all fall into pools.

We take the drop, we clear the first wave, we brace for impact, and the Catcher’s Mitt flips us easily. We collect at the bottom of the rapid, the guide flips the boat, and we climb back in. Leena didn’t enjoy the swim, especially since she lost a contact. She’s now half blind for the day.

When Mike and Lisa described the trip, Mike advised leaving rings behind. He lost his wedding ring in one of the rapids. He’d had a hold of the safety line (which is very tight to the raft), and when he’d been pulled out of the raft, the ring popped right off. It seemed unlikely, but we did leave the rings at home. Well, in one of the next couple of rapids, we hit a big wave, and Trav (one of the Aussies) flipped out of the boat and lost his wedding ring the exact same way. Wow. As Trav said, this just became a very expensive rafting trip. We were warned. Thank you Mike!

We portage the ninth rapid – called Commercial Suicide – and it’s easy to see why. It’s runnable (and one of the guides does it solo), but it’s huge and nasty and more than a bit dangerous.

We get to the 18th rapid (second to last) called Oblivion. Colgate describes this as the Zambezi public swimming pool where 90% of rafts flip. You can skirt the big waves, but that’s definitely not Colgate’s plan. We take them head on, and the third one flips that raft. I actually get washed out of the raft by the wave before we flip. I’m sitting front left and get swept out and towards the back of the boat. The boat goes over a moment later (we got to see the video of this at lunch later that day). Leena was sitting back left, and when I pop up, she’s an arm length away. I grab her, and we take quite a ride through the remaining rapid. A kayaker (in support of the trip) picks us up and helps get us to a raft where we climb in. There were five rafts in all, and when you’re in the water, you just get into whatever one works.

Colgate catches up, we climb back to our raft, and run the final easy rapid. So, two full flips plus another man overboard who lost his wedding ring. I’ve done at least half a dozen other raft trips, most with multiple rafts, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a full flip before.

But we’re not done! Remember that 100m descent? Well, we’ve probably dropped another 100m in river level, and now we get to climb back to the top. It’s a long way up. And Leena’s doing this in $3 flip flops with no tread while half blind and struggling with depth perception. She’s a trooper, we make it to the top and have lunch and a well-earned beer. I’d do it again. Leena would have preferred the Devil’s Pool.

We interrupt our regular travel blogging to send out a shout to Northwestern for their biggest game this year/decade/century (so far) kicking off in less than 12 hours. It’ll be the middle of the night here in Botswana and I’ll be in a tent, but there’s a small WIFI hotspot at the camp’s reception area. I may or may not end up here at 3a to check on things…

The final morning in Kenya started with a gorgeous sunrise.

Having found the elusive cheetah, we told Daniel to show us whatever came along. The highlight was a large pride of lions – at least 15 – with many cubs about eight months old.

We said goodbye to our excellent driver Daniel. We’d debated who was taller. I think it’s pretty much a tie.

Mike and Lisa headed to the airport after Tuesday morning’s drive. We met our driver Daniel at 4p for that evening’s drive. Half in jest (I think), Leena asked Daniel if they saw a cheetah on the way to the airport.

Daniel’s eyes got wide. “Yes! Did they text you?” (No, they had not.) He recounted that as they left for the airport he got a call about a cheetah sighting. It was more or less on the way to the airport. He drove “very fast” to get them to the cheetah but still have time to make the flight.

So that was happy news, but could we also see the cheetah? We headed out for the same area. We searched a hillside where they’d been seen perhaps as late as 1p. We went on a large loop around the area for at least 45 minutes, but with no luck. We returned to the same hillside and worked our way up the hill through some small brush. And then, bingo! We found a mother and two young ones.

After the long game drive to the Mara river, we continued with a Monday evening game drive, followed by Tuesday morning/evening drives and a Wednesday morning drive. We had seen pretty much everything but cheetahs and leopards.

No luck on Monday evening. But we did find a tree with a disturbing number of vultures (at least a dozen), plus ostriches, lions, and yet another amazing sunset.

Tuesday morning started with some coffee at the tent. We searched for cheetah again, but no luck. We’d shared three days of game drives with Mike and Lisa, and this was their last, so we felt bad that they’d missed the cheetah. We had one more day (two more drives). We did see some young jackals and a tower (group) of giraffes.

Monday morning’s drive again started at sunrise (6:30), but this time we packed a picnic breakfast to cover the extended drive to the Mara river. We were hoping to see a wildebeest crossing. They cross en masse – a few days earlier there was a crossing that lasted a little over an hour.

Warthogs aren’t the prettiest animals, and they’re very shy, but they’re just cute enough with three young ones to “make the cut” for blog inclusion.

We crossed paths with an antelope and a giraffe (among others) on the way to the river.

A cape buffalo was snacking on the bluff above the Mara river. And the Mara has plenty of hippos.

Hippos are excellent swimmers – note how they hardly move in the river despite the obvious current. And they’re noisy at times.

When we reached the river, our guide Daniel pointed out that the zebras on our side near the shore were wet. We’d just missed a zebra crossing. There were still a bit more than a dozen zebra on the opposite shore. The zebra on the far shore then made a crossing. Eight made it before the hippos started bellowing and scared off the remaining zebra.

Hey there, it’s us!