AFRICA!!

All my pictures are in slide format still but as soon as I get pictures made I will have them here!!!

On Safari in Luangwa Valley National Park by Lisa Wells

It was a long flight through London to get to Lusaka. The first night we were shuttled to a camp just outside town which had many of the antelope and had just received several giraffes. Accomodations were spectacular at Lilayi Lodge. I was shown to a lovely thatched rondavel with living area and separate bedroom. Just looking out my door on the small patio I had a great view of an open field where monkeys played and impala roamed. We had time that afternoon to take a safari drive to view the animals in this small commercial park. We saw zebra, sable, impala, puku, and the few giraffe they had just acquired. Then it was off on a flight the next morning to Mfuwe and South Luangwa Valley National Park. I was sent to the Chinzombo Lodge but upon arrival, I was sent imediately to the Chamilandu Bush Camp. From here I would be pampered by the fantastic cooking of Brenda, and taken on walks every day by her husband Clive. We drank cocktails before dinner with somosa appetizers as night fell in the bush.

On the Mighty Zambezi by Lisa Wells

August is the dry season in Zambia and though I grew up on the Mississippi river, in comparison the Zambezi is truely a majestic river. Before I joined the group on the 7 day river trip, I spent a night at Sindabezi, an Island camp 15 kilometers upriver from Victoria Falls. On our boat trip to the island, elephants roamed the shores on either side of the river. Several elephants were splashing in the cool river and blowing water out of their trunks at each other. I had just come from Luangwa Valley National Park in central Zambia and I never saw elephants this playful. The crocodiles were basking in the sun. One 16ft monster was disturbed by our presence and slithered into the water. The jungle was lush and green, with large trees and thick foliage on the ground. At the island, an Elephant out on a downstream point, having stripped a few trees, swam across a very narrow channel into Zimbabwe. Sitting in my small hut which overlooked a small lagoon, I watched the sky turn crimson as the sun slowly set over the water. After a wonderful dinner under the thatch ramada, I and the other vacationers sat around the fire and chatted. Listening to the trees rustling from some creature nearby. I found the southern cross and musca, two circumpolar constellations I hadn't seen in a while. It got late and we all retired to our huts. Each room was open to a private view of the water, and I sat up for a while just listening and watching the sky. With the night came many noises, perhaps imaginary but the low barks of contest from the hippos carried by the wind from their river wallows were comforting, if only to know that they were not too close. A splash in the water alarmed me for a minute, but I couldn't see anything. I slipped into my mosquito netting, slid under the bed covers and drifted off to sleep. A close up view of Victoria Falls is possible by having lunch on Livingstone Island, right in the middle of the falls above the 300 ft drop. Three of us met up with the boatman and headed out to the island. The motor died on us twice and we had to station a person at the pump to keep the motor running out to the island. Loss of the motor might mean loss of control of the boat and very little would keep us from missing the island and going over the waterfall. We made it to the island and were ushered to the edge of the island looking down on the boiling pot, the highly turbulent water below the falls. Lying down on the edge of the island and leaning over, one can look down the sheer walls below and see the falling water on either side. The spray felt cool on a very warm sunny day, and dispersed the sunlight into many rainbows. Across the crevasse, people filled the trails in the park on the Zimbabwe side and waved to us. We had to use hand signals to communicate unless we were close enough to yell at one another. The noise was indeed like thunder. The rumble could also be felt where we stood. It is no wonder the natives called it "Musi-oa-tunia", the smoke that thunders. We learned at lunch that the motor on our boat would not start, we were stranded on the island, or were we? The river fanned out at the falls more than a mile and to the north-east side of the island in the dry season, the water was not high or swift. Indeed several people had crossed the river out to the island where we were enjoying the view. After lunching in the shade of a few trees away from the islands edge and the spray of the falls, we walked out across the river on the Zambian side. My feet got a little wet when one of my sandals broke and I slipped off a rock. There was no danger even though I hadn't expected to be hiking over the river. It's called adventure travel after all.

Rafting the Zambezi Below Victoria Falls by Lisa Wells

We all had breakfast and then met for our safety talk and to get safety equipment, helmets and lifejackets. I had rafted many rivers before and never was required to wear a helmet before. After going to the border to check out of Zambia and check in to Zimbabwe (we would be taking out on the Zimbabwe side down at Lake Kariba. Our first day we traveled light since our gear was shuttled ahead to the first nights camp. We had to hike down to the river to get to our rafts. We paddled upstream to get a good look into the Melting Pot just below the falls at the rivers level. It didn't look like a place we wanted to go. The first few rapids downstream were minor 3's on a scale from 1-6 (1 being flat water and 6 a waterfall). We practiced our hi-siding (running, jumping, or climbing to the high point of the raft in order to keep it from flipping). We had a videographer along with us taping our experience and would be selling us copies at the end of the trip. He was in a kayak. The first day we scouted 4 MAJOR rapids, one of which could have been a 6- rating and had to portage one waterfall. This was the BIGGEST whitewater I had ever seen in my life!!! And we had 3 more days of HUGE water coming!!!