Advertisement
Published: September 3rd 2009
Edit Blog Post
Lion walk
Yes, that's fear in my face Lion walk - the walking part Taking a lion for a walk is not that much different to walking a dog. Like dogs, lions enjoy taking time to roll around on the floor, sniff poo and be a bit boisterous. During our 5 nights in Livingstone we spent a morning doing a lion walk. This is pretty much what it says on the tin. Four lion cubs are being rehabilitated at a ranch and every day they are taken out for a walk through the bush with the guides. So armed with a stick ("show it to the lion if he gets too close") we ambled through the scrub with four excitable cubs. Now, when I say cubs I don't mean cute iddy biddy puppy sized lions. These cubs were 18 months old and pretty much the size of a large Alsation. It's pretty intimidating being so close to them as every other experience I have had with a lion, whether it be as a child on a zoo trip, at a safari park or on a game drive in Africa, had always involved some kind of barrier between me and the animal. This felt a bit daring and naughty and
Lion walk
Lion sniffing elephant poo possibly a bit dangerous. But very exciting. As we walked along one of the cubs would hang back and 'stalk us' getting ready for when it would be in the wild. We were able to stroke the lions when they stopped to play but we had to point our stick at the ground in front of them before approaching. I don't think the lions were ever struck by the sticks, they didn't cower like a beaten dog would, but they knew their handlers and did as they told. We were warned not to let anything, like bags, dangle from us because the lions would go for them. One girl was taking a picture and didn't see her bag was dangling down, the next thing we know a lion has got hold of the bag and is pawing and chewing on it. Fair play to Nic though she didn't move or scream!
Victoria Falls - the flying part Livingstone is the gateway to Victoria Falls. Although it is a city it is not what we expected. As Vic Falls is a major tourist attraction we expected the area to be full of coffee shops, restaurants, well stocked shops and all
the other usual city amenities. But it wasn't like this at all. Me, Simon, Bee, Becky and Dan decided to walk from the campsite to Vic Falls after being told it was only 6kms away. This turned out to be a total lie and we ended up on a 12km hike along a gravel path at the side of a barely finished road. There was hardly any traffic, no other pedestrians and occasionally we would see monkeys running about in the trees alongside the road. We could see Vic Falls miles before we got there because the spray is so powerful. We eventually made it to a hotel and managed to access the National Park through the hotel grounds after paying a 'contribution' to the guard. This was much cheaper than if we had've gone through the front door of the Falls. However we weren't too pleased to hear, from a waiter who was shocked we had walked all that way, that elephants roam around alongside the road we had walked. I think another elephant encounter would've finished me off so we got a taxi back to camp.
The Falls themselves are magnificent. The sound of the water is
deafening and even after hiring raincoats we got drenched walking across the bridge looks over the Falls. It was like being in a huge torrential storm. The water was coming at us from all angles. There obviously isn't a major threat of health and safety claims in Zambia because we could literally stand inches away from the top of a huge drop that would take us straight to the bottom of the Falls. Amazing really. We took a helicopter flight over the Falls as this is really the best way to see the size and scale of the huge chasm that is ripped through the earth. This was our first chopper ride and was totally awesome. From the whump-whump of the blades to wearing the headsets it felt like we were in some kind of film. And when we banked to the left over the Falls and our stomachs dropped to the floor it was so exhilirating. Definitely a cool way to fly. From the air we could track rainbows through the Falls, see hippos on in the river and take a peek at Mugabe's palatial home in Zimbabwe. A far cry from the homes of his people who cross
a bridge over the Falls to buy bread in Zambia where it is a lot less than £10 a loaf. We actually saw Mugabe as he and his motorcade drove through Livingstone following a meeting with the leaders of Zambia and Tanzania. All lanes of traffic were stopped to allow at least 50 vehicles to speed through the main street as Mugabe waved to onlookers from the safety of his fancy 4x4.
Victoria Falls was also the scene of another animal attack -
The Attack of the Hungry Baboon Simon, me and Nikki thought we would take a picnic to enjoy at the Falls and sat down by a nice sedate part of the river to enjoy our bag of crisps, plain rolls and chocolate (told you the supermarkets were a bit sparse). We were all busy preparing our lunch in our laps when we all looked up at the same time to come face to face with a huge baboon charging full pelt at us on all fours. This is not something you ever want to see. I threw the roll from my lap at the baboon in a bid to slow his rampage, Nikki stashed the crisps
in her bag and jumped up while Simon, well Simon just sat there as the baboon swiped his roll out of his hand. It was terrifying (but funny later) especially as other tourists came to see what was going on and then took pics of the baboon sitting there eating our food. It must've loved rolls because its little penis was poking out too. Gross.
Booze cruise - the falling part We also went on the now infamous booze cruise in Livingstone. This was a night of total carnage. Firstly we expected the booze cruise would be just for our group but there were actually other people on the boat and children too! Who would bring a child to a booze cruise? Anyway this upped out competitive streaks because we needed to make sure we got our money's worth of free alcohol. The cruise was 4 hours long and it became a mission to drink as much as possible in that time. We had a great night but it stands to reason the night would end with casualties.... Everyone either, injured themselves, lost something of value, had an argument or ended up in tears. There may have been some
sick too but surprisingly this wasn't from me. I did manage to injure myself though by falling down in a spectacular fashion on the beach (after the boat part we ended up at a beach bar) while attempting to take a photo. I have been told the tour leader had to pick me up. But the worst thing is because I dropped my camera in the sand it broke so I had no camera. I also woke up the next day with a huge swollen knee that was bruised in all sorts of wonderful colours and cut too. I got off pretty lightly compared to one of the Irish Michelles though who ended up getting stitches in the local hospital to a gash on her eye after falling over at the campsite bar. Carnage indeed. But what a way to end the trip as it was time to say goodbye to new friends in Livingstone as we set off for the final leg of the tour - Botswana.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0407s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb