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Published: December 13th 2012
EGYPT Well Cairo was certainly an eye opener. It is the most filthy place - it is hard to believe its residents have such little regard for the place they live. In some of the canals around the city so much rubbish has been thrown in them there is no longer any water. In others they haven't quite got that far but there are dead horses in them among other things. They city is shrouded in a cloud of dust and pollution. This along with the constant cigarette smoke everywhere (including through the hotels) meant we came out of Cairo feeling pretty grotty. But despite it's downfalls Cairo is still a place to experience. It is teeming with people - 25 million - and there is such a mix of old and new. You drive along the roads which have lanes but no-one takes any notice of them and you are sharing the road with donkeys pulling carts. The road rules appear to be whatever they make them, tooting your horn is like a language and I do believe we only saw about 2 traffic lights during our entire time in Cairo. The country is heavily Muslim orientated and although
it is classed as North Africa it is really more Middle East. As a women when you start looking around you do feel very underdressed even in jeans and a t-shirt as the women here are dressed head to toe and wear the traditional head scarf.
Our main reason for coming through Egypt was the pyramids and the Sphinx. We did a day tour of Cairo which included these wonders of the world. For some reason we thought they were out in the desert but the pyramids etc are surrounded by the city. When you are there you can see Cairo has wrapped itself around the site and their is only a small stretch of desert left that hasn't yet been developed. They pyramids have tourists crawling all around them and just as many locals trying to hawk their wares. Our guides warned us about taking obvious pictures of the locals with their camels saying they would be over demanding money for appearing in our photographs and to watch out for people who would put a scarf in your hands saying it was a gift and then demand payment when you tried to walk away with it. Our poor
old camera couldn't cope with getting the biggest pyramid all in one shot, but we got some good shots of all the pyramids together from a viewing spot further away. We made a quick stop at the Sphinx on our way out which was also very impressive. We also made a stop at the step pyramid of Saqqara which was one of the first pyramids. This was very interesting as there was still quite a few of the ruins of the complex still in good condition and the bonus was there was hardly anyone there. From there we headed on out to a carpet making school where we learned how they taught children from poor families the skills to make carpets (sounds much like child labour) and picked up a wall hanging as our Egypt souvenir. We would have loved one of the fabulous silk carpets that change colour when you move them but they were well out of our price range. Unfortunately we could not visit the Egypt Museum where King Tut is housed as it was located in the square where all the demonstrations were taking place.
We also arranged a day trip to Alexandria in the
More Catacombs
where they stored the ashes when they started cremating peoplenorth. Unfortunately this trip was also cut short due to a planned demonstration but we shot up there and checked out the catacombs which were very cool and a couple of other bits and pieces before coming back to Cairo. It was worth it for the catacombs alone but was a long way to go for very little. If we had more money we would have flown down to Luxor and done a 3 day sail down the Nile to Aswan as this appears to be a must but we decided to put the money towards our next destination.
ZAMBIA AND BOTSWANA We flew into Livingstone via Johannesburg. Johannesburg airport was an absolute nightmare. The check in process is hopeless, the queues are massively long and you have no idea if you are in the right place. When we got to our hotel in Livingstone we discovered that someone had rifled through our luggage after it had been checked in at Johannesburg. My bag strap was broken and anything with a zip in side the suitcases had been opened. We know it wasn't customs as they will put a sticker on it to show it has been checked.
They made no effort to hide it as they left all the zipped stuff open and our toiletries were scattered through the suitcases. We are positive it happened in South Africa as our bags were in our sight at Livingstone. Luckily all our electronic/expensive items were with us as carry on and it appears nothing is missing and nothing has been placed in the luggage. We are now padlocking the bags.
We stayed at the Protea Hotel in Livingstone. This is a lovely little hotel with the benefit of having a cheap restaurant on site. Livingstone i very clean and we revelled in the fresh air after Cairo. Our first order of business was to visit the Victoria Falls. They are very dry at this time of year but this provided us with a unique opportunity. We arranged a trip through our hotel and they following day we were picked up and transported to the Royal Livingstone Hotel just down the road on the banks of the Zambezi. This hotel is amazing (goes for US$836 per night) and along with being on the river banks they also have a private game park and have giraffes and zebras etc on
Sarcophagus
the important people were still mummified the grounds. We were picked up by boat and transferred across to Livingstone Island where we proceeded to walk to the very edge of the Victoria Falls. We got some good pictures from here, before heading off to the main event which is a leap into the devils pool at the top of the falls. In the dry season there is a small pool at the top of the falls which has a natural rock ledge to stop you from going over the edge. You leap from the rocks into the pool and swim a small distance up to the edge of the falls. There are fish in the pool which nibble at your feet. We spent about 10-15 minutes playing around before heading back to Livingstone Island for bacon and eggs while looking out over the falls. This is a fabulous tour and would highly recommend to people as a unique way to see the falls. We did not go to the base because the falls were fairly dry and we would only be able to see part of them anyway - our view from the top was much better. We had met another NZ couple from New Plymouth
Well
where they lowered the bodies into the catacomb at Livingstone airport who were staying at our hotel too and they had gone across to the Zimbabwe side and seen the groups of people jumping into the pool and thought we were all crazy. After we were dropped off back at the Royal Livingstone, we had a couple of drinks on the decking area right on the river while watching the hippos laze in the water.
The following day we got up early and headed out on a day tour to Chobe National Park in Botswana. We drove for approx 45 minutes to the border of Zambia and Botswana and after passport control caught a little boat across the river. We were picked up and transferred to a hotel on the Chobe river where our water section of the tour started. We jumped in a boat and cruised the Chobe river getting up close and personal with Crocodiles, Hippos and Elephants. It was just spectacular to see everything in their natural environment and so close. We spent a couple of hours on the water before heading back to the hotel for lunch. From there we hopped in open safari vehicles and headed into Chobe Park for the land
tour. We saw LOTS of elephants and at one point had a large group pass directly behind our vehicle. There were quite a few babies which was great. We also saw baboons and antelopes of various varieties, vultures and buffalo. We only sighted one giraffe - we were the only car who got to as it ran off into the bush pretty much straight away. We got to see a couple of lions but only from a distance which was a little disappointing but better than not seeing them at all. One our way back to our hotel on the Zambian side we passed through a small game park and were rewarded with 4-5 giraffes so stopped and got some photos of them as well.
On our last night we got treated to a fabulous thunder and lightening storm. There was hardly any rain but the sky light up like it was daytime. We sat outside but under shelter and just enjoyed the display. We both absolutely loved Livingstone and the safari into Botswana (the people are so friendly) and I have already told Tane we will have to come back here. It would be great to do a
3-4 day safari and see more of the area.
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Noreen Camarena
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Pictures
Photos are beautiful! Love the diving over the waterfall photo too...ha ha CRACK UP! :) I enjoyed Egypt. Been there a couple times. Never been to Zambezi tho.....but your pic make me wana go!