Africa 2018

AFRICA - DAY TWENTY EIGHT AND TWENTY NINE - TO VICTORIA FALLS

Click photos for a larger image...

	We flew Air Namibia to Victoria Falls on a Embraer ERJ 135, another first for me. It's a small jet only setting 37 passengers with one seat on the left and 2 seats on the right. If you are on the left you have the benefit of having a window seat and an aisle seat at the same time! Air Namibia is like stepping back in time. Even though the plane is new, the service is like it was 20 years ago. Free drinks and hot meals even on a 1 1/2 hour flight.

	Our B and B is very comfortable. We have a 2 bed 2 bath cottage close to the pool. A full English breakfast included. They even have a bar and will cook dinner on request. Hah! Mosquito nets! Next morning we were picked up at 5.50AM (Argh!) for a game drive. Got to be early in order to catch the animals before they go for their siesta in the midday heat.
Breakfast in the bush! Muffins, yoghurt, fruit, sandwiches, tea and coffee. It doubled as our lunch as well!!	The roads in places were a little precarious and not for anything other than a 4x4 Landrover.
But we did get to see lots of animals - many of which we just could not get decent photo.
Kudu	PUMBA!!! (Aka Warthog)
Baboon	This unfortunately, is what's left of a hippo from a poacher. They took the horn, hide and meat. Illegal wild game poaching is a bigger business than drugs. Over $250 BILLION (US Dollars!!)
Jailbird Zebras	Had to be quick to get that Nile Croc slithering into the water
Hippos!!! And, on the right we have the sinister looking vulture!
In the year 1900 there were 20 million elephants that roamed the land. Today there are less than 450,000. An elephant dies every 15 minutes due to illegal poaching.	Why did the elephant cross the road? This is what was left of a wildebeest taken by a lion kill 2 weeks earlier!
...And the scenery wasn't half bad along the way!

Then it was time to take a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi River (which separates Zimbabwe and Zambia).	Wendy with the captain who was the equivalent of a 200 ton master. He wanted to see our captain's license, but we didn't take it with us.
We did see a hippo and her baby alongside the river.	The sunset was very cool.
Zimbabwe is an interesting country. We have been here less than 24 hours and gained enormous insight from the locals. The country has NO money. NO currency since theirs collapsed about 10 years ago. They have taken the US Dollar as their temporary official currency and everything is priced is USD (hence making this country a bit more expensive than Namibia and South Africa). Cash is hard to come by, even the banks run out. Fortunately most places accept credit cards. Euros, Yen, Dollars - most of the B&B owners and activities outfitters will offer a discount if cash is paid. They put this cash into foreign bank accounts so they can actually buy goods (such as FOOD!!) from neighboring Botswana or Zambia. Everyone is excited and hopeful by Robert Mugabe, the previous "president" (dictator), being taken into custody. The new president is trying to right the wrongs from the past. The first white farmer was just given his farm back after it was taken from him 30 years ago. The co-owner of the B&B we are staying at had his farm seized "back in the day". Lucky for him he wasn't killed as many white famers were executed on site under Mugabe's regime. Ya still think America sucks? THINK AGAIN!!!!!!!