African Rhythms

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Well. We are back in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and feeling much more at home. The trip has been fantastic!!! Highlights? The Irish lads on our tour - a young barrister and a fabulously talented singer who has just signed a recording deal with Sony. Consequently we have been enjoying quality live music in the African bush. Look out for Owen Brady (unless he takes on a stage name) - he deserves to be the “next big thing.” The group we have been traveling with has been mixed and interesting. Besides the Irish lads, we’ve had a young South African lawyer, a grey haired I.T. man and his teenage son, a young farmer and his teacher wife, a firefighter, a travel agent, an adventure tour agent, a stockbroker, and a young I.T. couple. I’ve developed a taste for beer and sampled many bush bars over the last week. Life couldn’t really be any better.

We’ve been terrified by lions roaring as we walked through the Okavango delta. The guide led us towards the roars and we followed meekly. No-one said anything but I can assure you we were all sizing up the nearest trees and quietly calculating the odds. We came
across bull elephants on foot and had a hippo wander into our camp just before breakfast. Toilet trips became adventures in themselves. How many times should one sweep the bush with the torch before one drops one’s trousers? We danced the African chicken dance (a much better version than ours) and played games with local villagers. The mokoro (dug out wooden canoe) rides through the delta were phenomenal. We swam in streams and heard hippos grunting in the bushes around us. Hippos account for the most deaths by animal in Africa, so you can imagine the sense of nervous trepidation we were feeling as we scrambled out. Now we are old hands. Lions do not frighten us at all. We mock the Danish travelers in the bars who carry Crocodile Dundee knives and wear shiny new khaki. We boldly spend hundreds of thousands of Zim dollars and engage in trading money on the black market. Africa is amazing.

Last night we ended our tour with a cruise on the Zambezi river. There was free grog so most people got pretty plastered. Afterwards we sat around camp and shared our favourite moments of the trip. Just at the end, Richard found an enormous dung beetle that everyone found incredibly entertaining. Surprisingly though, we haven’t seen loads of insects - the mammals here seem to dominate the land. And birds. Amazing birds. Thousands of eagles everywhere in the sky. Huge owls, incredible storks and cranes and lots of really pretty little birds. The Lilac Breasted Roller is, apparently, Botswana’s national bird - it is extraordinarily pretty as it flashes its blue wings in flight. Fish eagles are so numerous they became boring. I was totally amazed one morning to see what looked for all intents and purposes like an ordinary garden variety raven - except that its body was completely white.

Tomorrow morning I am going on a game horse ride in the morning with Justine (the South African Lawyer). There are a few of the tour crowd left staying in Vic Falls for a couple of nights so tonight we are eating game in a local restaurant. We’ll probably laze around the pool tomorrow and relax before our big flight the next day to Germany. We’re anticipating a huge culture shock and we’re sorry to be leaving our new found friends behind.

PS
We'd love to add photos to this entry (we have some great shots) but the internet facilities in Zimbabwe are primitive and it would mean an entire afternoon of waiting with no guarantee of a good result. We'll just publish the entry now, and add photos later.

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Photos

Africa 001
An elephant on the Chobe River

Africa 002
Bee Eaters on the River bank

Africa 003
Fish Eagle

Africa 009
Owen Brady - Superstar

Africa 012
Mokoro riding in the delta

Africa 014
A Botswana baby at the border crossing

The Okavango Delta by Air
A flooded delta plain with rivulets meandering throughout

At home in the Delta
Russell's siesta by the breakfast bar

Banded Mongoose
A whole tribe arrived for breakfast

Delta Decorations
Punctuating the delta with beauty

Comments

[Cheryl]

Hi guys, Just got the net back up and running. Sounds like an adventure of a lifetime. Wish I was there. I can't imagine you drinking beer! I also liked Richards pussy on the last entry. By the way Luke made REPS for baseball, YEAH! Can't wait for the next entry Cheryl

[Mieko Kinose]

Thank you for sending us your journal
Hi! Dee and Richard Thank you for taking care of us . We had really wonderful time.We cannot possibly put our thanks in words.We appreciate your warm hospitality.And I'm really glad to keep contact with you like this. I'm so surprised to read your blog ,especially to see the photo of the brave man with a pussy.Your blog tells me what an adventurous trip you joined.I was able to feel your excitment. Coincidentally I had a chance to watch a documentary about the Okavango delta.So I can imagine what the place looks like.You got precious experiences there,didn't you?Also you had marvelous encounters.You'll get this mail in Germany. I'm looking forward to read your next journal.My students also looking forward it. See you!