9 August 2008: One of the reasons for visiting Livingstone, Zambia, was to see the great Victoria Falls, which are some of the largest in the world! It forms the largest sheet of falling water in the world.

The Victoria Falls are also known as Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders). It is located on the Zambezi River, split between Zambia and Zimbabwe. We hired a taxi to drive us there.

 The road in Livingstone that leads to Victoria Falls.

 The entrance to Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls is roughly twice the height of USA’s Niagara Falls. In height and width, Victoria Falls is rivalled only by South America’s Iguazu Falls.

Although we only saw Zambia’s side of the mighty Victoria Falls, we were amazed by the grand sight.

Certain parts of the walkway were sprayed with mist and water droplets

 Victoria Falls Bridge spanning the Second Gorge

 Rainbow!

 The perfect place for a photo

 The volume of waterfall was much reduced as it was the dry season.

There was someone who seemed a bit suspicious watching us from a close distance in different parts of the fall, so we weren’t sure if we were being followed.

The more adventurous people could try kayaking or white-water rafting down the Zambezi river between the gorges, but beware, there are many crocs and hippos in the river.

The first European to see the falls was David Livingstone on 17 November 1855, during his 1852–56 journey from the upper Zambezi to the mouth of the river.

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

8 August 2008: That week was the most hectic week in our round-the-world trip. To get to Zambia from Jordan, we had to fly first from Amman to Madrid, Spain (during the 12-hr stopover, we went to the city center of Madrid), then get on a 10-hr flight from Madrid to Johannesburg, South Africa. We stayed a night there, and then flew to Livingstone, Zambia the next morning on British Airways, a 1 h 40 min flight.

We were lucky to have all our luggage intact after all these flights. At the Livingstone airport, we met some people from Spain who were on the same flights as us from Madrid, and they told us their luggage was missing.

 Our battered luggage, here in Livingstone airport

We had a ‘food bag’, dedicated to storing big bottles of mineral water, bread, peanut butter, honey etc.

 We are in Africa, Africa!

The locals speak English here, so there’s no problem in communicating. The hotel staff told us not to venture outside of the hotel in the evening and at night because of the high crime rate even along the main streets. The local female staff said they don’t even walk outside the hotel after work; they hitch a ride with their colleagues to return home. They also said that most crime is committed by the Zimbabweans, whose country Zimbabwe is now in a terrible shape.

 People carry their goods on their heads. An amazing feat.

We took only a few photos in Livingstone (except in Victoria Falls where we took a lot) as we didn’t want to be conspicuous with our video camera.

Livingstone is a relatively small city. It was the capital of Zambia before it was moved to Lusaka.

Behind is a stretch of curio market where people sell carved goods etc. We didn’t buy anything there as there wasn’t any space left in our suitcases. But if we were to go there again, we would definitely buy some stuff since it is a livelihood for many people.

We love Zambia. It’s a wonderful experience to observe how people live their lives in Africa.

 Love this photo.

There is even a ShopRite supermarket down the street. The security guards would check everyone’s bags and receipt when they leave the store. We bought mineral water from ShopRite, but to our dismay, all the bottles at the store were not sealed, so it’s possible they were all open and refilled before, which made the water source very questionable. We drank from these bottles after we used up our own supply of water for drinking and brushing.

There were taxis everywhere, people hawking their goods to sell, and groups of people just loitering around to talk or people-watch.

It was winter in Africa, so it was pretty cold most of the day despite the sunshine.

Be sure to bring along mosquito repellent. We had to spray our room with the repellent every night to get rid of the mosquitoes who could carry malaria.It wasn’t healthy to breathe in all that, but there’s no choice.