Victoria Falls

Adding another pricey visa into our passports we ventured into the northern corner of Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls, the greatest waterfalls in the world

We went to a crocodile farm near Victoria falls. They breed croc's for meat and leather. We got to handle the small ones. It was fun

Chelsea got the really squirmy one.

One of the Large male croc's that they use for breeding. Waiting to feeding time.

This group of Rastafarian musicians befriended me because I was not "a typical tourist" They told us that they could get us any souvenirs for cost price, unfortunately that was after we had spent the day buying carvings, fabric, and other junk.   

Statue of David Livingstone, African explorer and missionary. 

Chelsea swinging on vines in the rain forest beside the falls.

more vine swinging

Devils cataract, the start of the falls.

On the Zimbabwean side of the falls.

The falls are known as the "smoke that thunders" to the locals. We got pretty wet standing near them, and we were there in the dry season.

The falls have carved a deep gorge with shear cliffs hundreds of feet high

Zambia on the left, Zimbabwe on the right

Chelsea braving the cliffs edge. 

The monkeys at the falls are so accustomed to visitors that they don't even seem to notice them. I was standing just in front of this monkey taking pictures and it walked about as if I wasn't even there. I followed it around until I was told by a police officer that I was in the wrong area. 

We were so impressed by Victoria falls that we wanted to see some more of Zimbabwe. We drove down through the country en route to South Africa. About every 20 minutes we were pulled over by the police and fined for the most ridiculous reasons. At one point a police officer threatened to arrest Chelsea for failing to obey a police officer. Needless to say we hoped the border back into Botswana as fast as we could. We made it to South Africa safe and sound and are leaving for Tanzania soon.

Driving through Botswana

From the Okavanga Delta we drove toward northern Zimbabwe. We drove through the Kgalikgadi national park.

There are these palm trees everywhere out in the desert. They have these big old brown fruit on them, the branches don't get broken off or trimmed and look pretty interesting, and untypical of the palm trees we are accustomed to seeing. 

These Giraffes were just eating beside the road, I don't even think we were in a national park or anything.

Again these enormous Elephants were just beside the road doing their thing. They were literally just a few hundred feet from a village. There was a whole slew of them.  

Excellent crakers, really funny name

We stayed at this campsite in northeastern Botswana that was full of these enormous Boabob trees. 

Me standing next to a smaller Boabob tree.

I tried to climb this larger Boabob tree, according to the night guard, the tree was over 3000 years old.

There was a hammock below the big Boabob that we relaxed in for a while just soaking in the beauty of our surroundings.

Okavanga Delta, Botswana

After Namibia we headed to Botswana. Imagine elusive snorting hippos, yelping hyenas, roaring lions, and the sound of elephants nearby. This was our experience on the Okavanga Delta, it was an experience of a lifetime  We had the opportunity to go on a "Mokoro"  (a dug out canoe) trip, with the local polars. We were taken to an island, and camped there for the night, mind you there were no fences to keep the animals out, we were in their territory and i did not sleep a wink that night.

Hippos! i was scared out of my mind, they are huge animals and we were in a tiny dug out canoe. Good thing our polar has been polling for 15 years.

This is the delta, I did not take this picture, i just wanted to show you what we went on.

cooking dinner on the island Kao pronounced Cow

Our polar Justin, took us on a nature walk around the island, this heard of zebras were both curious but very cautious.

This tree is eaten by elephants, you can see the hole they made that Justin is sitting in

Justin made us a traditional meal : Pop and boiled fish from the Delta. MMM it was delicious!

Our Mokoro

Elephants on the side of the river

Huge Termite Mound

some local kids that followed us on th ferry to the delta, they wanted some sweets

People used these as their addresses or point of reference for their village

lilac Breasted Roller

A sweet dog she just needed some love, she would follow me around nudging me to pet her more

Waiting to board our mokoro

Me and Justin our polar

There were lily's everywhere in the water

               

When hippos show their teeth it means they are giving us a warning, they did this a lot... i'm was surprised they didn't get more mad!