KWANDO - the new truck

It is time to leave Zambia and we started our last day by joining our new tour group. The eight of us continuing to Cape Town have joined 3 people that started their trip in Johannesburg, plus another 6 people just starting out. There is a more international flavour to this truck with 2 Germans, and 2 Dutch adding to the mainly English group. Our new tour leader and driver (Jacques & JP) are both South African and set about explaining how the truck works. First things first, girls are not to lift anything heavy! Good news for Claire, bad news for Steve who is put in the 'dog's body' group for the next 3 weeks. The rest of us rotated through the standard cooking/washing/cleaning duties as before.

Before leaving for the border we took the opportunity to also visit the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. Unlike in Zimbabwe where we were able to see the face of the falls, from Zambia we were able to look down the length of them. We had heard that you could almost walk along the top of them but when we tried, there was an armed guard preventing us. Back on the truck we headed on towards the border.
Zimbabwe is on the left side
Wise words!
The bridge that spans Zambia (left) to Zimbabwe (right)

This border is actually a river crossing where the Zambezi River meets the Chobe River. While crossing you can actually see four countries, Zambia to the north (behind us), Botswana to the south (ahead of us), Namibia to the west, and Zimbabwe to the east. If we had been on foot the crossing would have only taken around 30min but it took over an hour for the truck to make it across. The other side is literally river bank so we waited in the shade of trees until JP and Kwando arrived. At camp there were 2 other Acacia tours there. Our old truck (Limpopo) was continuing down to Johannesburg with the 3 remaining people, as well as a small group tour that was also making its way down to Johannesburg. This was the last time that we would see Fiona and Blessed, but we would travel alongside the small group for another couple of days. This particular camp site (Thebe River Safari) had been recently flooded and was in the final stages of rebuilding the pool and bar that a wayward Hippo had destroyed.

Up very early the next morning for a sunrise game drive in Chobe National Park. Unlike the game drives in Kenya and Tanzania the group stayed together in an open sided vehicle with bench seats. A couple of other peolple from the camp site joined us, so we had about 25 on vehicle. It was freezing! The windchill kicked in as soon as we started driving and it was at least an hour or so before we felt any heat from the sun. We were very jealous of some of the other groups going in that had blankets with them. Once in the park we headed straight for the river and found a large herd of Hippo. It was nice to see them a bit more active then those we have already seen. The remainder of the drive was uneventful. We saw lots of evidence of animals but none of them in person. We were quite relieved to return to camp and warmth, expecially as JP had cooked French Toast for us!

We think these are Rock Dussies. Whatever they are they are very cute.

That afternoon, we headed back to the river for a sunset safari cruise. It was with relief that we saw quite a variety of animals, including birds, crocodiles, giraffes, monkeys, buffalo and of course hippo. Finally we saw some hippos out of the water and they capture alot of photo time as everyone tried for the 'yawn'. Sunset topped off a great afternoon on the water.

Believe it not but this is the moon. We've never seen it so big or orange!

The following morning it was up at the crack of dawn again. This time it was for a 9hr day of driving down to Maun, and the Okavango Delta. Alot of that time was spent on a 100km stretch of 'road' that was ridiculously potholed. JP had a go at driving on both sides as well as the shoulders but nothing made it any smoother. At a supermarket stop Claire discovered the Botswanan version of Lamingtons. Naturally she bought it and the comment was 'I am sure it would have tasted great the day it was made'. Apparently it was rather stale.