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Published: August 28th 2009
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Well we’ve now managed quite a few rest-up days - waiting days too for the arrival of our first grandchild, Kathy’s baby - seemingly nearly 2 weeks late. Alistair James (so far) has now arrived - on 16 Aug but rather unwillingly it appears. Thankfully all is well. We didn’t hear for more than a day as our 3 day rest-up at Jungle Junction on Bovu Island in the middle of the Zambezi River (as recommended by K and A from their trip in 2006) put us out of contact other than through the owner getting his emails intermittently on the island or travelling to Livingstone about 60k away. So we were thankful we heard at all - and now we’ve seen photos which is even better.
Barbara also arrived successfully after a 48 hour (!!!!) journey via Hong Kong of all places. Her first Qantas flight was late which caused her to miss the next ones and her night in a J’burg Hotel but fortunately she did manage to get on the correct one to Livingstone - which is just as well as she didn’t know where we were staying nor how to contact us. So much for just
saying “See you in Livingstone!” Turns out that Vodafone have not done deals with either Botswana or Zambia so Hugh’s NZ cell ph card (and number) is useless - we now have sim cards for S Africa, Botswana and Zambia - but it also seems that various texts we sent on the Zambia one have gone into the ether!
B’s first and lasting impressions of Livingstone were that it was a dirty, dusty little town with dirty, dusty streets typical of a third world country. You could also see some weathered and nostalgic homes and gardens from the British colonial days in the backstreets - they would have belonged to the ‘out of africa’ set and been rather lovely. We stayed at the Livingstone Backpackers which was a very nice little haven. We camped right by the pool in a well fenced courtyard and lazed around for 5 days chatting to other travellers in between the odd trip to view the Vic Falls after B arrived. A Spanish couple had begun their cycling journey 18mths before in Kathmandu and were planning to cycle back up the west coast of Africa home!!!! A youngish NZer who made enough money in London
as an accountant to live on the interest has been travelling for 10 years, the last 4 with a partner on all continents, mostly by local transport - he says he might soon start thinking about stopping and three Americans had been building ‘habitat houses’ for 6 weeks and were having a bit of a holiday before going home. This place is cheap, has free internet and good cheap dinners so we would highly recommend it - it’s run by Fawlty Towers Backpackers of Lonely Planet fame.
Victoria Falls were just - breathtaking - thundering. We saw them by walking on the Zambia side, then by standing on the very top (one by one and holding the guide’s hand) after a boat trip out to Livingstone Island for high tea (no less!) and by flying over them in a microlight!!!!!!! All brilliant - despite sitting rigidly holding on for dear life for most of the microlight flight. From the air you could see how the very wide, braided Zambezi River spews over the 1.7km wide and 300m high massive chunk of rock and flows out one narrow channel into a very long deep gorge that zigzags off into Zimbabwe. Just
fantastic!!! When its in full flood the spray rises several kms and you get soaking in the microlights. Right now the flow is down but that means you can actually see more of what’s there. We were NOT tempted by rafting, bungy jumping etc.
Actually prior to the high tea we had the original colonial lunch (‘high lunch’) at the very posh Royal Livingstone Hotel served by a bevy of persons in rather elaborate costumes - complete with palms and fans - the lot. We had to meet the boat here for the Livingstone Island trip so after walking the Zambian Falls side we asked how to get there and were shown in the back gate of the hotel. We were offered a ride in a golf cart driven by a pith-helmetted chappie along the backs of several plush hotels past zebra and giraffes just wandering in the grounds..... it was “mad dogs and Englishmen” heat so we were rather thankful. Fortunately the lunch wasn’t wildly expensive - about the same as a very good Friday lunch in a Wgtn cafe (Trevor, this one can go in your little bIack book).
Jungle Junction on Bovu Island is something else -
another little haven - brainchild of Brett, a white Zambian who leases the Island and provides some work and support for the locals of Bovu village. It seems well known amongst young Europeans who spend some weeks on various aid /gap kinds of programmes in Zambia and elsewhere. It was all very casual and self help but had great outdoor showers heated by the old fire under the drum trick, wandering sandy paths lit by paraffin lanterns and candles in the spirit bottles, an open-air kitchen where your dinner was cooked over charcoal braziers on the ground. We wandered the village with George who stopped on the way and decided his new (separate) kitchen that was being built for his second wife should be another mud-brick longer - don’t you think? He was also the very knowledgeable birdman and oarsman. We travelled to and from and around the island in proper dugout canoes - mokoros. Our handrail on the steps to our riverside chalet was repaired while we were there using a stripped off newly cut down branch. In fact they had done a lot of repairs because in April this year they’d had the highest flood in 60 years
and had to remove the fridge from the sandy-floored bar as the water rose.
Then having braced ourselves for the return Kazangula border ferry crossing back into Botswana it was all rather uneventful - but still had its paper work in triplicate and fees but nothing like going the other way. Now we were back in Botswana ready to explore the Chobe and Moremi National Parks with Barbara - and ohhh and ahhh over all the animals again.
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