River, Air and Land

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After not too flash a night, I woke up feeling not too bad, not great but much better. Thinking perhaps it may the anti-malaria medication having an anti effect on us, we are now considering abandoning them! Tim is on the better side as well, but still not so grand. He has confirmed absolutely, definately, without a doubt that bobbing about on the river in a canoe will not be in his plans today, but a good sleep will be!

This morning I will be going canoeing down the Zambezi River. The original plan was to go White Water Rafting but this has been cancelled for maybe another month as the water level is still too high. Tim has thought it best to give it a miss and just have a rest up. But he came down and had some breakfast with me so that’s a good sign that maybe he’s on the up and up.

So after abandoning Tim to the care of the waiter in the breaky restaurant I went out to meet the driver for canoeing. And who should be waiting in the bus? The 4 Aussies from yesterday at the Sunset Cruise! So it’s good that I have some company that I know.

CANOEING THE MIGHTY ZAMBEZI

We got to the guest house that they run from to find out that they have a cooked breakfast waiting for us; none of us knew this would happen so we all had had breaky already. The other four took one for the team and they ate it all, I didn’t dare risk my tummy, so just a black tea for me!

We signed all the waivers so now it’s all our own fault if we tip our canoe over, get taken by a crocodile (although it sounds more sinister than it really is, they are freshwater Nile crocs, very small but I’m sure they would still hurt), or get attacked by a hippo.

Then my luck strikes again - the four wheel drive bringing our canoes that will take us to the start point has broken down… So instead we go straight to Plan B (at least they have a Plan B) and use the nice passenger van to take us there while the canoes get loaded onto another truck.

We have a bit of a ‘game drive’ on the way. Really all it was was a drive down a dirt track to get to the start point. If you were quick enough to spot something we were going way to quick to have a chance to ooh and aarh over it, let alone take a photo. The others had never been to Africa before so to see something in the wild they were very excited by it, so it was a shame for them we didn’t to stop.

Finally we hit the water. I’m sharing the lead canoe with the guide so I’m a bit lucky! It was a great experience. It was so quiet, unlike to sunset cruise from yesterday, no motor running.

The water was flowing quite well so we made pretty good time. And we were paddling maybe a little too well and had to wait for the others to catch up - oops!

There were heaps of different birds, there were cranes, bee eaters, Egyptian geese and so many others that I didn’t get their names.

We saw some crocodiles and a few more hippos. But even if you saw nothing it wouldn’t have mattered, as it was just such a nice place to experience the tranquility and peace.

We even had a few smaller rapids to go through which was awesome! So that made up for not doing the rafting and because the guide knew that I wanted to go through rapids we went straight through the roughest part in the middle instead of skirting the edge - magic!

There was lunch set up for us midway which was nice, cold meats and salad and some of the best potato salad I’ve had in a long time (my brother David’s is still the best!).

This was my time to part company as mine was only a half day affair and the others were in it for the long haul and wouldn’t be back at their hotel until after 4pm.

DAMN BANKS

Got back to the hotel and got all my bits and pieces to go the bank. Since the credit card debacle we still haven’t been able to access any money as we can’t use the emergency replacement card in ATM machines and we haven’t found a bank that will accept Mastercard. My advice to all is to get a Visa card before travelling, seems everyone takes that!

Went back to the Barclay’s Bank so conveniently located right across from the hotel, I thought this had to be a good sign!

But, no, again they don’t take Mastercard! So I tried phoning our bank for them to arrange a special transfer of funds (this is where our Mastercard International contacts the bank directly and arranges a wire transfer for them to give us x-amount of dollars) on my mobile while inside the bank in case I needed to get information from the bank. After finally getting through to the right department and getting put on hold and then disconnected, the security guard comes and tells me I can’t use my mobile inside the bank, even though I tell him I am calling my bank at home and don’t want to give all our numbers outside.

So we go outside and immediately get harassed by people asking for money. So I went and stood the by the guard and said that since he wanted us outside he can look after us, so he shooed them away which was nice of him to do. Sadly though, because I was outside, it was too noisy to be heard on the phone so gave up and tried in the hotel room. The hotel wouldn’t put us through to the reverse charge number and after continuously getting cut off on my mobile because the network drops out all the time, I have give up and get ready for the helicopter flight.

FLIGHT OF THE ANGELS

Tim is feeling much better and comes along for the helicopter flight over Victoria Falls. There will be 5 of us on the flight and we all have to get weighed beforehand to work out where we will all sit so it is balanced. At least it’s confirmed I’m not over 95kg as that is the weight limit to sit in the front next to the pilot and that’s where I’m lucky enough to get to sit!

The view is amazing, especially from my seat as I had not only the great big front window and the side window, I also had the clear floor by my feet. Wed went up along the Zambezi River and then did several passes of the Falls so everyone was able to get a good view, regardless which side they were on.

The Falls were spectacular from down the bottom, but it’s not until you see it from the air that the enormity of it strikes you. It’s hard to believe so much water can flood over the edge without draining the source completely. It looks like when someone bends the side of a portable above ground pool and all the water empties out in one hit. I wish I was more articulate to be able to describe it better.

WALKING WITH THE LIONS

After getting back to the hotel for a quick change into warmer clothes we jump into another van to go and walk with the lions.

Rae did this when she came to Africa and as soon as I saw the photo’s I knew this was something we HAD to do!

There was one guy already on the bus, Steve from San Francisco and then we picked up five Indian guys from another hotel. Chatted with Steve a lot, really nice guy, he even gave us his email and some recommendations of good places to eat when we get there.

At the Lion place they have a breed and release program whereby they breed the lions there and after 4 stages are released into the wild where lion numbers are depleting. The first stage is where we can interact with them. They are separated from their mothers at 3 weeks and kept by handlers, they interact with people until 18mths to 2 years where they learn to live as a pack, humans at this stage are their pack.

The second stage is when they learn how to hunt prey with no other competition in a 500 acre area with no human interaction.

The third stage is where they are given competition such as hyenas and also breed themselves. These babies never have human contact and are therefore considered a truly natural wild lion.

The fourth stage is when these babies are released with micro chipping and collars into different National Parks.

After signing more waivers, in case we trip over our feet because we are too busy looking at lions than where we are going and become Lion dinner, we are given a stick and are now ready to see the lions. We are told these sticks are not for hitting the lions but are distracting them.

We are walking with two 13 month old male lions. They are huge and so solid. They are very calm and all they really want to do is have a sleep! They’ve just eaten and with the warm sun, walking is not really in their minds!

The Indians all stick together and as a group quickly takes over the front so no-one else can see anything. I ask if we can go and walk behind the lion in front because of this but we can’t because then we will have our backs to the lion we are following, which makes sense. The guide steps in and starts directing people where to go so we can all get a chance to see these wonderful majestic animals walk along and do their thing.

We all get a chance to walk alongside the lion and are even allowed to pat him along his back. It’s funny, although they are so big and strong, every now and again they do baby things. Like every time we passed elephant dung (and there was A LOT) it would get it in his paw and start flicking it about and playing with it like a kitten would do with a ball of wool.

While he lay down we were even able to rub his belly!

We had a few volunteers there (for one month it will cost you about $5,000 AUS plus airfares), handlers and also a guy with a gun (in case of elephants we are told).

At one stage I saw one of the handlers raise his stick as though he were going to hit the lion when the lion refused to move. I didn’t think this was what they were about and wrote it up on my comments slip at the end. I’m being optimistic this is not common practice.

All too soon it is over and we head back to the hotel for dinner. Because of the bank mess we eat at the hotel restaurant so that we can charge it to our room. It cost $50 USD even though we hardly ate anything as we are still going gentle on our tummies, damn banks!

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Comments

[Tania Mason]

Jealous much!!!!
I am so jealous I could cry.........my beloved lions!