Zambia - Cruise on the Zambezi

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Our wake-up call at 6:30 was actually later than we had been rising for morning game drives, but it didn’t exactly feel like sleeping in. We had one last lovely breakfast on the deck, watching a beautiful kudu grazing down near the river. Although we were hoping to see the lion cubs, the baboon is about the only species we can think of that we hoped to see but haven’t. (To be fair, the only cheetahs we saw were in captivity and it would have been cool to see a wild one). The drive to the airport was shared with a couple from Florida who had stayed at another lodge. We enjoyed comparing notes about South Africa as well as other travel destinations during the two hour drive to the airport. Lauren’s summer-camp friend (also Lauren) and her family were also on the flight to Zambia, although they had taken the trip from Londolozi to Mpumalaga Airport by small plane. We caught up with them a bit at Mpumalaga and compared Zambian itineraries. Even though there was no overlap of our plans, it seemed like we might run into them again. The airplane for the trip to Zambia is a 30-seat turbo-prop plane, but the sky was cloudless and the flight was quite smooth. After a twenty-minute drive from Livingstone airport, we were at our hotel right on the Zambezi river, a few miles from the top of the falls. We arrived with just enough time to get organized for the sunset cruise on the river. It would have been nice to have a little time to unwind in the room, but we were quickly unwinding on the boat instead. The service here is very officious – many forms to fill out and hand-written vouchers required for every activity. Perhaps a legacy of British colonial rule? After a bit more bureaucracy than seemed necessary we were allowed on-board. The hotel owns a reasonably large boat – three decks with table seating for about 100, but it was uncrowded for our cruise. Along the way we enjoyed drinks and appetizers and scanned the banks of the river for animals. Hippos were abundant, and their antics in the river were different and more interesting than the hippo behavior we had seen at Londolozi. At sunset, the boat stopped and we enjoyed watching the sun, which appeared much more red than usual, go down over the river. Back in the room we enjoyed a reasonable internet connection for the first time in a week before heading to dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dinner was a bargain for 842,000 Zambian kwacha including a nice bottle of wine.

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Photos

Prop Plane
The prop plane that took us to Livingstone gave us a (mostly) smooth trip. Landing was a little bumpy.

Hippo Pod
We thought pods were just groups of whales, but someone assured us that a group of hippos is also a pod

Hippo Yawn
The hippos of the Zambezi were playful and seemed to enjoy showing off their teeth.

Hippo by the Riverbank
Count his teeth.

We're watching you
Considering how big hippos are, the tiny eyes above the surface are pretty cool.