The Wheels on the Truck Go Round and Round: Overland Part 2- Vic Falls to Nairobi

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We crossed over into Zimbabwe from Botswana on November 2nd and rolled into the small town of Victoria Falls. We had three days to check out the town, try some of the activities, see Victoria Falls, and relax. We would also drop the Belgians and the Dutch off here and pick up four more Aussies- Duncan, Marie, Annie, and Erin.
We started out our weekend in Vic Falls with a group dinner at one of the local hotels. The whole group got together for a great dinner of local food combined with a show from some of the local dancers and musicians. They even sang happy birthday to me. What is the price for a great night out like this you might ask? It only cost us a mere $22,000,000 Zimbabwean dollars. Traveling is really expensive these days.
The next day was the start of the local activities. Brittany spent the day checking out the local crafts market and the town while myself and several of the others decided to brave the class 5 rapids of the Zambezi River. We had a full day of rafting down through the 20+ class 3-5 rapids and watching each other get tossed about in and out of the boats.
On Sunday it was Brittany's turn for fun. A group of us from the trip headed out to the gorge rim above the Zambezi for the "Adrenaline Package". Brittany and 5 others all had a go at a flying fox zip-line across the gorge, a seated zip-line that ran 450m down the gorge, and the gorge swing. The gorge swing was a free fall drop of 70m that pendulumed to a full 90m drop at the bottom, and swung across the gorge above the Zambezi. Our Brazilian friend Marcus and I watched and got some great videos of everybody.
In the afternoon we headed out for our walk with the lions. The program is run by a non-profit organization that is part of a large, 4 phase repopulating project for the lions. The lions that we did the walk with were part of the first phase. The lions were removed from their mothers at a very young age and interact with humans daily as they learn how to hunt.
Our walk was with lions who were around 12-18 months old and who were still learning to hunt for themselves. These animals were in no way tame and had to be engaged following specific rules but we were able to walk with them, holding their tails as we walked, and pet them. We started off with a group of three younger lions that were all around 12-14 months old and then finished with two lions that were 18 months old and had hunted warthogs together and would be released soon. These two were huge. It was a truly amazing experience to get so close to these animals.
We got up at the crack of dawn on our last day to go see Victoria Falls. We walked down to the park, paid our $20USD for entry, and walked down to the falls. We were there in the low flow season so the falls were not running in their full glory but it was still an amazing site and worthy of being one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We walked the length of the falls along the upper edge of the Zimbabwean side and tried to stay dry from the spray coming off the falls. It was amazing to see people on the Zambia side (the falls side) standing 10-20 feet from the edge of the falls in the water. Crazy people.
We left Zimbabwe and drove across the bridge to Zambia and a short distance to the town of Livingston. We camped here for the night and had a dinner and drinks cruise on the Zambezi River that evening. It was our friend Carrie's birthday so there was plenty of celebrating going on. And we even saw a few animals.
The next day was the start of our long days of driving across Zambia and into Malawi. We finally ended up on the shores of Lake Malawi at a great campsite next to a local village. The lake itself is huge, bigger than Belgium and makes up 20% of Malawi itself. We had two very relaxing days at this campsite that were filled with lots of swims in the lake to beat the heat, buying great paintings and wood carvings from the locals, and checking out the early morning fish market. The people from the village next to our campsite always had a smile and were great to talk to and hang out with. We even had a soccer game with them on the beach. After loading ourselves up with lots of local artwork that was stuck in every nook and cranny on the truck and lots of great memories of the great local people we headed up the road to the northern part of the lake and another campsite.
Our second campsite on the lake was like the first and was also set up next to a local village. We had another two days here and did more of the same. We were again met with smiles by all of the local villagers and had a great time hanging out and playing games with them. We went on a village walk where we saw how they fish, how they make their canoes, how they mash and dry cassava, one of their main staples, and saw the local hospital, orphanage, and school. We also loaded up on more paintings and wood pieces.
After our relaxing days on the lake it was time for more long days on the road as we crossed over into Tanzania. We reached the capital city of Dar-es-Salaam after two days of driving and joined up with Sybil and Mathias (German), Katie and Brittany (American), Nick (English), and Mel (Aussie) who joined our group for the remainder of the trip, We traded the truck in for a ferry and made the trip out to the island of Zanzibar about two hours away.
We arrived in the main city of Stone Town. After getting settled in hotels we headed out for a tour of the city and a tour around a spice plantation. Our tour of the city took us past the fish market, the House of Wonders, the old location of the slave markets that used to be held on the island, the church that now sits on the site where the slaves were actually sold, and ruins of the house where the sultan kept his many wives. After a local lunch we toured one of the many spice plantations and got a look at the many spices that the island is known for such as coffee, nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon, and many more. We sampled some of the great local fruit as well as some of the spices mixed with tea. That evening we had some of the local food at the fish market.
The next morning we were free to walk around the town and check out all the great shops that line the narrow streets. After bartering for some more goods we joined the group for our ride up to the northern part of the island and the beach town of Nungwi. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach and enjoying the warm water.
The next day most of us headed up around the very northern tip of the island for some snorkeling off the smaller, private island of Mnemba. The water was warm and clear and we saw tons of great stuff. In addition to the colorful tropical fish you usually see we also saw some pufferfish, an eel, some rays, and a Hawksbill Turtle. Brittany found the little turtle feeding in the shallow water and it hung around while the whole group checked it out. It was a very curious turtle and didn't seem to mind the attention at all. After our fun in the water we had a nice BBQ lunch on the beach of Zanzibar and then headed back.
We left Zanzibar in the afternoon of the next day and headed back to Dar-es-Salaam for the night. From there we headed north to the town of Arusha. We stayed at a campsite outside of the city that had a cool little snake farm and a Masai museum. From here we again left our truck and headed out in 4x4 trucks to explore the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti Park.
We camped outside of the Ngorongoro Crater on the first night and then got up before dawn to head into the crater. The crater, an ancient volcano, gave us a great place to view wildlife because the valley of the crater is relatively small and dense with wildlife. We got a great view from the top of the crater before we descended down the steep dirt roads to the valley floor. We saw zebra, hyenas, wildebeest, buffalo, Thompson's gazelles, flamingos, one of the 20 Black Rhinos that live there, lions, hippos, and elephants. We had an interesting lunch overlooking a hippo filled lake where we literally had the sandwiches ripped out of our hands by the hawks in the area. Our guides had the best idea and ate under the trucks. We left the crater in the afternoon and made the drive into Serengeti.
After a hot, dusty drive we arrived in Serengeti National Park in the late afternoon. We spent the rest of the day on a game drive in the park where we saw more Thompson's gazelles, buffalo, elephants, wildebeests, zebras, hyenas, giraffe, and a leopard in a tree. We camped in the park that night in a non-enclosed area which was a little disconcerting, but we all huddled around the fire and nobody was eaten. We got up early the next morning and headed back out for more game viewing and saw the best stuff of our whole time in Africa. We saw lots of the plentiful animals but in addition we saw a cheetah mom and her cub playing, a leopard stalking and chasing a reed buck, and a couple of prides of lions. We saw tons of great animals throughout the day and all within the amazing scenery of the Serengeti.
With the end of our Serengeti trip our overland trip was drawing to a close. On our last two days we spent a morning in Arusha where we shipped home all the goodies we had picked up along the way and then we crossed over our last boarder into Kenya. We stayed at a campsite just across the boarder and then drove the last bit of our trip up to Nairobi the next day. After 6 weeks of living on our big green monster of a truck we said our goodbyes to all the new friends we met. We spent another day in the city and then headed up north to our next destination, Egypt.

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Photos

Another afternoon draws to a close in Africa.
Elephants and Acacia trees in Serengeti.

Comments

[The M]

hunting... humans!
"The lions were removed from their mothers at a very young age and interact with humans daily as they learn how to hunt." Uhh.... WHAT?? Crazy!!