L-stone & Botswana

What a h o l i d a y ! Although most of you probably think my entire time in Zambia is a holiday, sometimes life here actually gets a little monotonous and tiring, so the chance to leave the city and relax was most welcome! We had a great time :) Though I am tempted to just report on animal sightings and factoids I’ll try to restrain myself and provide a more balanced account…

The first few nights of the break were spent in Livingstone at the Zambezi Sun Hotel (a very nice hotel right beside the Victoria Falls) and were pretty lazy. One of the days we spent trying to sign up for an elephant safari (to no avail) and visited the falls again (it’s truly breathtaking now that there is more water!), while the rest of our time was spent swimming in the pool, eating, watching movies and reading. Perfect.

The next part of the trip we were off to Botswana. By car and boat, we made it there in about three hours and stayed in Kasane (a small town right in Chobe Park). As we were drinking coffee at the hotel bar the first day I spotted an elephant in the marshy fields in the distance. Very exciting to see. On our second day my mom went on an early morning safari and saw many lions (I was asleep). Fortunately, I don’t care too much for lions (maybe it’s their giraffe eating qualities?), so I wasn’t so disappointed, and her pictures are pretty great.

In the afternoon we went on a river safari and saw many hippos. It was nice to see them out of the water (they were only out to eat because it was cloudy and they didn’t have to worry about sunburns), they are such huge, slow, peaceful animals. Half way through the safari we saw a little elephant grazing close to the water. It just stood there and ate, flapping its ears a little bit while we took its picture. What a sweet elephant. The rest of the safari was spent viewing pukus, impala, birds… but the elephant was by far the best part.

The next day we went on a morning safari in Chobe Park and saw our first giraffes! As soon as they saw us they tried to hide behind some short trees, but they were far too tall to gain any proper shielding. From behind their tree hiding spots they continued to eat, bend down for water and move around a little bit (in a further attempt to hide). They were so sweet to watch, I could have stayed there all day. However, to add to the excitement of giraffes we saw an elephant on the way back to town. It was also fairly small and was waving its ears (a sign of hostility) and eating leaves. We found out that the elephant shakes the leaves it eats before eating them (we saw the shaking) to shake off the sand from the leaves, so as to avoid damaging its sensitive molars. Maybe I should follow suit.

When we got back to Livingstone we were upgraded to the Royal Livingstone Hotel (I had asked how much it would be to upgrade because we weren’t so happy with the first hotel and because my request contained a bit of a complaint the woman sneakily upgraded us free of charge, yay). The first day was spent lounging around the hotel which is right on the Zambezi river (above the falls). I swam around the pool, read a bit, met a woman who recognized me from Lusaka and spent the afternoon drinking tea and watching people. How civilized haha. Meanwhile, my mom was at our room on the back porch reading her book and drinking coffee when (as she candidly reported) she felt a wet, furry little arm brush past her face (she screamed) and grab the biscotti she was about to eat. It was a monkey! The monkey then proceeded to drop the (rather hard) cookie into her coffee, wait for a moment, and then fish it out and run off. What a clever monkey. The monkeys are actually rather well known for their mischievousness and the hotel has a whole slew of young Zambian men hired for the sole purpose of watching and chasing the monkeys away from the guests.

The next day we went on a great safari at Mosi-a-tunya National Park just outside Livingstone. I think it was by far the best safari yet (and so close to home!). It was raining and we were the only people on the tour so we were able to stop and look at animals for as long as we wanted and told our guide at the beginning that we had no interest in birds, if he wouldn’t mind skipping over them (something I feel a little bit guilty for saying since I’m pretty sure that the guides kind of love the birds because they are really the only challenging animals to spot and distinguish on their millionth safari tour). Anyways, it was a great safari. We saw lots and lots of giraffes – even a mom and her baby. Did you know that the giraffe gestational period is 15 months?! Isn’t that crazy? Also, giraffes are the only animals that are born with their horns already full grown at birth (though fortunately quite soft until after birth). We also saw three beautiful zebras – two adults and a baby. They were really gorgeous and startling to see in the wild. We found out that the mom zebra stays alone with her baby for the first few months of life so that the baby grows to recognize the mom’s stripes. Only after the baby has the mom’s pattern memorized will the two join the herd of other zebras.

After the safari we went into Livingstone to look at crafts. I ended up buying this fertility mask from Congo that I’ve been thinking of getting for months (it’s really unique and beautiful) and my mom and I got some colourful wood prints made by a Zambian artist. It was a good little shopping trip. The rest of our stay in Livingstone was spent reading, eating good food, enjoying the lovely hotel piano bar and relaxing... an excellent break.

Now, back to work! Fortunately, work is quite busy (we got that CIDA gender grant I applied for!) and I have a new Toronto colleague at UNZA (Jen), she’s very nice and should be fun to have around. Meanwhile, my mom (a.k.a. Mummi, as the Zambians call her) has started working at a community school and quite enjoys it. That’s all for now… next adventure: Kilimanjaro (for Rob & me), Serengeti (for mom)… 26 days!


View photos @:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2183652&l=bb475&id=13613119