9 August 2008: We got up early in the morning for our first-ever safari game drive in the Mosi-o Tunya National Park (paid US$50 per person for the drive & guide). We were wondering if we should bring along our winter jackets, and brought them along on the trip anyway. The morning was freezing, so we did the right thing!

Mosi-o Tunya National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site that is home to one half of the Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River, also known by the same name, which means “The Smoke Which Thunders”.

We sprayed mozzie repellent all over us.

Mosi-o Tunya National Park is a relatively small park; it covers 66 km².

The first animals we saw were the impalas - african antelopes. You can see the characteristic “M” marking on its rear.

 Impalas

 A zebra!

African grassland

 Bird on zebra

 Zebras grazing

This game drive was a real eye-opener

The Saddle-Billed Stork was a beautiful waterbird we saw, with its striking red and yellow bill.

Saddle-Billed Stork looking for food

We had to look hard to spot this giraffe among the trees

The giraffe has the same number of neck bones as a human

 Well-camouflaged

African Elephant is one of Africa’s “Big Five”

Unlike the Asian elephant, the African one hasn’t been domesticated.

 The elephant blends into its surroundings too

 The wildebeest is an antelope native to Africa

Our knowledgeable guide - he explained as much as he could about the place and the different animals.

 There’s something in the distance….

Another “Big Five” in Africa

The African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a large African bovid. A herd of them can be highly dangerous to humans as they are known to charge, gore and kill.

Because of its nature, it has not been domesticated, unlike the Asian Water Buffalo.

We were sad to hear that the indigenous black rhino was believed extinct in Zambia. How could it be? This is Africa! It has such a huge land mass! Surely there must be some alive in Zambia? 

EXTINCT.

It was the crime of man to kill these great rhinoceros for their horn to supply to the huge Asian market, and the failure of man to stop the killing and the trade.  

The rhino horn fetches around US$10,000 per kg when it reaches the international market, and each horn can weigh up to 5 kg. So you can imagine how much money is involved in the rhino trade. Rhino horn is used for “medicinal” purposes in countries that practise Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as it is thought to be “cooling”. This is bollocks. The horn is made up of keratin - the same substance as hair and nails, and has zero nutritional content. If you know of someone who uses the horn in any way, please educate them and tell them to stop.

Mosi-o Tunya National Park used to have two white rhino which are not indigenous and were imported from South Africa, but now, there is only one left (hopefully still alive when we write this a year later). Both were poached during the night of June 6th, 2007. One was shot dead and had its horn cut off not far from the gate and the other received serious bullet wounds. Apparently, it was an insider job. The salary of a Park Ranger in Zambia is around 495,000 kwachas, which is roughly US$150 a month.

It was this lone survivor that we saw in the park, and it is under 24-hour surveillance by a guard.

 Poor helpless rhino recovering from its bullet wounds. We hope it’s fine now.

We were told that it cost US$100,000 to transport a rhino from South Africa to Zambia. At the time we were there, Zambia was going to bring in 6 rhinos from South Africa, sponsored by the World Bank.

Rhinos have acute hearing and sense of smell, but poor eyesight. Their natural life span is about 60 years old or more, but with three species of the world’s five species of rhinos (Black, Sumatran and Javan rhino) being critically endangered, that is a long shot.

Actually, both the Black and White rhino have the same grey color, and differ in their body size and mouth shape.

 A baboon - It is an African Old World monkey

 Peaceful place

A bird

Baboons by the Zambezi River

 Giraffe

 Squint - and you can see the top part of a hippo in the river

 A lizard

Impala

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