Last Friday afternoon, after a nice, relaxing day of Dermatology Clinic (only 26 patients!), I regretfully said goodbye to the staff at Princess Marina Hospital and reluctantly handed over the consult phone to the new resident taking over for me -- who was made only slightly suspicious by my barely suppressed manic giggles when the transfer was officially complete. I was definitely ready for a vacation.
After four weeks of separation, I was especially excited to welcome Becky at the Gaborone Airport on Sunday for our short vacation. I was able to show her around the flats and the vicinity and the following day we traveled together from Gaborone to Kasane, in the north of Botswana. At the Gaborone airport, our flight was delayed due to the untimely appearance of a marching band and stage that was hastily erected on the tarmac just as our flight was arriving.
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| The red carpet is a nice touch |
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| The flag of Botswana (on the right) |
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| Really guys, you shouldn't have. |
Not having prepared a speech, but flattered nonetheless at this unexpected display, I wondered who had tipped them off to my imminent departure. As it happens, my hastily written farewell speech turned out not to be needed. A motorcade drove up and dislodged a large party of military types and a few suited individuals who gathered to greet a number of similarly-dressed men who disembarked from an Ethiopian Airlines plane. I learned from airport staff that this was the South Sudanese President arriving to meet with the President of Botswana.
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| *insert joke about in-flight meals |
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| Who's that behind that lady? |
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Whoa! Look familiar?
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| It's President Seretse Khama Ian Khama! |
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| Nothing like shooting off some cannons to put visiting dignitaries at their ease |
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| Just like P. Diddy |
After a short speech they all jumped back into their motorcade and we were finally free to board our plane. It was just a short two hour flight to Kasane after that. We were picked up at the airport in Kasane and had a short ride to the border with Zimbabwe where we cleared customs and got sweet new Zimbabwean visas for our passports (250P). We found out later that they charge different rates for nationals from different countries. The UK pays closer to 400P. We then walked across the border and were picked up by a different van and transported about an hour to Victoria Falls. On the way, we saw elephants, warthogs, giraffe, impala, baboons, and a few whirlwinds crossing or just hanging out by the road. We weren't even in a national park.
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| Giraffe don't care |
We checked into our hotel and were quickly whisked away to a sunset boat cruise on the Zambezi river where we saw hippopotamuses, crocodiles, and lots and lots of birds.
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| Authentic native African chanting group. They tried to sell us a CD |
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| Cruisin' on the Zambezi River |
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| Becky on the lookout for Hippos |
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| Hippos! Well, their heads at least. |
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| Hippos are like iceburgs -- extremely dangerous. |
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| I see you hippo, shaking them ears |
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| Great White Heron |
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| Baby Crocodile |
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| Sun setting over the Zambezi River |
After our sunset cruise we went back to our hotel, the lovely and historical
Victoria Falls Hotel. The hotel is the oldest at Victoria Falls, built in 1909, and has a gorgeous view overlooking the falls themselves. While walking around the grounds I stopped to take some pictures of some friendly looking warthogs that were rooting around on the lawn and end up getting chased by a big male.
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| What an asshole |
An American family started laughing at us and we ended up talking and I'm glad we did! They informed us of a special event taking place that night, where the falls were open after dark on the nights before and after a full moon in order for visitors to attempt to witness the rare 'Lunar Rainbow'. We, of course, lept at the opportunity and quickly arranged for transportation to the falls that evening. So soon after, we found ourselves with 30-40 other tourists decked out in plastic ponchos and headlamps trekking through soaking mists in the dark by Victoria Falls.
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| A little wet |
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| Becky came prepared |
The falls themselves are over a mile long so it was quite the slog, but at some point we turned around and were lucky enough to witness the rare spectacle of a complete rainbow lit up by the light of a full moon. I didn't want to risk my camera to the drenching mists, but others were able to capture quite impressive shots.
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| What does it all mean? |
When we got back to the hotel, we found a delicious buffet waiting for us which we ate on the patio overlooking the falls. Afterwards, we went for a stroll under the full moon and, figuring the timing couldn't really be better, dropped to one knee and asked Becky for her hand in marriage. After convincing her that I was really not "messing with her", she reluctantly accepted. The details of the dowry will be worked out later but I'm told we can expect a few textile mills, 10% rights to a copper mine in Rajasthan and our choice of goat.
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| Where it all went down |
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| Fullish moon |
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Sun rising over the same spot.
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| Nice tree |
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The next day, we went
back to the falls to see it in the daytime. There is a short walk from the hotel to the falls entrance where there are entrances to ziplines and companies that do whitewater rafting and other such exciting "extreme" activities. I decided that I had had quite enough excitement and my poor heart probably couldn't take much more so we decided to just go and check out the falls. Nice view though.
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| View from the zipline |
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| If you look closely, you can see a rope hanging from the zipline in the center of the photo |
Here's a baboon we found on the trail that was holding her baby in her lap.
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| Baboon with baby |
Victoria falls was "discovered" in 1855 by
Dr. David Livingstone and named for his monarch, Queen Victoria. The falls, of course, had already been known about for hundreds, if not thousands, of years by the locals and was previously named 'Mosi-ao-Tunya' which translated as 'The Smoke That Thunders' in the local dialect. The falls are over a mile long, and twice as high as Niagara, making it the largest waterfall
in the world. At it's peak flow, about 500,000 cubic meters of water flows over the falls every hour, which is about the same amount of water Australia uses
every year. The falls form the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe and can be viewed from either side.
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Dr. Livingstone with traditional explorer headwear*
* precursor to the mullet |
On the Zimbabwean side, you start from the far western edge of the falls and walk about a mile to a cliff's edge which is about 3/4 of the way across the entire length of the falls. The first portion of the falls that you come across is known as the "Devil's Cataract". Our guide quizzed us as to why we thought it was called this and I started thinking that it was probably because they ascribed some supernatural cause to the falls and that is was dangerous, yadda yadda. The other guests started postulating all about things related to the eye and I was totally confused until realized that I was the only one who wasn't thinking in terms of cataracts of the eye. I think I may have been the only one who knew the other meaning of cataract, which is another word for waterfall.
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| Devil's Cataract |
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| Not a bluescreen |
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| Permanent double rainbow! |
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| Becky was enlisted as a photographer for a few other guests |
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| Devil's Cataract with cataract island |
The falls are divided up by several 'islands' into the Devil's Cataract, the Main Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Rainbow Falls, and Eastern Falls.
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| Victoria Falls |
The spot marked 'Danger Point' in the above map is a rocky precipice that is made permanently slick by the constant drenching and buildup of algae on the rocks. Our guide wouldn't give us specifics, but he noted that several people die there each year. Astonishingly, there are still no huge guard rails and you are allowed to go right up to the edge if you are foolish enough to do so. Welcome to Africa!
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| Danger point |
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| Pretty tough to get a photo there |
That's it for now! To be continued with more photos from Chobe National Park in Botswana.
Signing off, from (shudder) Cleveland.
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