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Friday 13 March 2015

Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe

For our first trip into Zimbabwe we booked a day trip from Kasane in Botswana to Victoria Falls.
An early start helped to try and miss the rush at the border crossing... not really possible here. The usual paperwork and money, US$ of course!!!
Victoria Falls is about 70km from the border so was an easy run once through all the immigration.
As you get closer you can see the spray from the falls, looks like a mist, even though it is dry and hot.
The township of Victoria Falls is quite nice. A definite tourist town.
Once you get to the entrance of the falls national park you have to rent a plastic poncho to help keep the water off. $4.00 US gets you a cheap $1 poncho for your walk. Oh well, supports a lot of people.
Our guide was great, with plenty of stories as he grew up there.
The sound is amazing as you get closer, then you start getting the spray.....

First glimpses of the falls


Statue of David Livingston, he lived here on the island between the falls.

Awesome power and volume from the falls.



The group!

These shots are from the smaller part of the falls.


The "mist" is from the water hitting the bottom of the falls and coming up the other side of the gorge.
You see the water going up in front of you like reverse rain, then you get soaked as it comes back down.
It is surprisingly narrow, so you get great views along the path.




Good shot of the mist

This is the larger side of the falls.
Since e where there when it was at full flow it was to wet to get the camera out and you could not see much. Will do another post from when we went with less flow and I got the camera out for longer.
 

This bridge takes you into Zambia, and also has bungy jumping from it.
A week or so before we where there the cord snapped with an Australian girl on it.
She survived but was hurt.


Baboons are always a bit freaky........

Part of the tour was also to a crocodile farm, we all got to hold a baby.



Stopped at the casino/resort and had a quick look around. Seemed like a nice place.




Great day out and saw plenty of great stuff, highly recommend this trip!




Tuesday 10 March 2015

Trip to Ghanzi with Felicitee

When Mum and Tony did their trip to a fly in camp, we took Felicitee to Ghanzi.
Ghanzi is a cattle town on the western side of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
There are plenty of lodges in the area, but this is one of our favourites. They have animals walking around the rooms and a couple of water holes to get them in close.
One of the highlights here is that they breed lions.
When they have some in the right age range, you can get to play with them.
The 3 we played with where getting to big so we where probably the last to play with them.

On the way there had to wait for the locals to move.

Felicitee at a Boabab


Salt lick at the lodge water hole.

The water hole.

What we really came for..........

3 male cubs, approx. 5 months old








The keeper was a wealth of knowledge, Flic had plenty to ask.

Think the smiles say it all!




This one decided to try Flic's knee for a snack.

They get heavy after a bit.

Fully grown male, the keeper had the dangerous end busy so Flic got a pat.


New cubs on one of their first trips out of the den.


Also have cheetahs there, but no playing with them.



Also breeding Wild Dogs. These are very endangered as they like to take farm animals.
God they smell!!!! they urinate on themselves!