Last week was the MCC retreat. A good time was had in contemplation and in talking with the other SALTers and IVEPers. It was very interesting country side around where the retreat took place, alongside Lake Kariba. On the way there it was very hilly and the vegetation differed from the regular scrub bushes that one sees in abundance here. The villages appeared to be very poor. I kept expecting Rod Black or Fred Penner to come out of the huts filming a World Vision infomercial.
On one day we visited one of the worlds largest crocodile farms, home of 90,000 Nile Crocodiles. Croc farming is apparently quite a complex process and needs to be very scientifically regulated. For example, the temperature at which the eggs are kept determines the sex of the offspring (females is 32 degrees, males is 40 degrees). Also, the first egg to hatch makes a sound to signal to the others that it is time to come out. This means that if you have a room full of eggs you have to be on the ball or otherwise the whole room will want to start hatching, premature or not. I got to hold one of the young ones - now I can say I have held a crocodile. Once the crocs are four or five years old they are butchered for their skin and meat.
We also visited the breeding ground where the big ones live. They can live up to 100 years old and get very huge. We got to watch as chunks of cow were thrown at the crocodiles. A great experience! Their huge teeth just went right through the bones!
We also took a sunset cruise on Lake Kariba. This started off slowly as we got stuck on a submerged tree only metres from the start. After much effort, a group of locals managed to lift the boat off the obstacle and the cruise could be under way. Kariba is a massive artificial lake that was created when the British dammed the Zambezi River. Our base was on an inlet and it took us an hour on the boat just to get out to the main part of the lake. The people who lived there were given a sum total of 3 pounds while their traditions and livelihoods were completely uprooted. Sounds like a fair trade.
On one day we visited one of the worlds largest crocodile farms, home of 90,000 Nile Crocodiles. Croc farming is apparently quite a complex process and needs to be very scientifically regulated. For example, the temperature at which the eggs are kept determines the sex of the offspring (females is 32 degrees, males is 40 degrees). Also, the first egg to hatch makes a sound to signal to the others that it is time to come out. This means that if you have a room full of eggs you have to be on the ball or otherwise the whole room will want to start hatching, premature or not. I got to hold one of the young ones - now I can say I have held a crocodile. Once the crocs are four or five years old they are butchered for their skin and meat.
We also visited the breeding ground where the big ones live. They can live up to 100 years old and get very huge. We got to watch as chunks of cow were thrown at the crocodiles. A great experience! Their huge teeth just went right through the bones!
We also took a sunset cruise on Lake Kariba. This started off slowly as we got stuck on a submerged tree only metres from the start. After much effort, a group of locals managed to lift the boat off the obstacle and the cruise could be under way. Kariba is a massive artificial lake that was created when the British dammed the Zambezi River. Our base was on an inlet and it took us an hour on the boat just to get out to the main part of the lake. The people who lived there were given a sum total of 3 pounds while their traditions and livelihoods were completely uprooted. Sounds like a fair trade.
For the past several days we have been in Livingstone and area. We stayed at Fawlty Towers - a backpackers place that I would highly recommend to anyone expecting to visit the Livingstone area (since that is probably none of you, the recommendation is a bit of a moot point but I give it nonetheless). The rooms were cheap, clean, and well maintained, there was a swimming pool, satellite TV, free internet, and, best of all, the activities we wanted were all easily booked and we were picked up straight from the place every morning we had something booked. They sure know how to do tourism well down there.
The first day we visited the Falls and hiked down a steep trail to the bottom of the gorge where we had a picnic lunch. There were plenty of baboons on the way to provide entertainment - including one who ran up and tried to steal Mark's apple (since the baboon had touched it anyway, he didn't feel compelled to eat the rest.) I negotiated for a couple of curios - a rhino and a man. I think I did OK - K5000 ($1.25) for a nicely carved face and K13500 ($4.30ish) for the rhino. It is so frustrating dealing with the dealers there because they assume you are a tourist with lots of money. Since I had been to the Lusaka craft market I knew what was a reasonable price (about a third of their starting price) but by the disappointed sound in their voices as I made the deal I think I got them to a respectable price.
One very neat activity we did was a one day canoeing safari on the Zambezi River. This was great although the canoes were actually yellow rubber dinghy type boats - real canoes are called "Canadian style" canoes - a reason for national pride, I figure. It was a great way to see some wildlife - hippos, crocs, elephants, etc. On canoe you have to give the hippo a lot of respect - usually we would cross to almost the other side of the river. It's a good thing we had a guide because often what we thought were rocks would turn out to be hippos or crocodiles. Unfortunately we saw the elephants just at the same time as we hit the biggest rapids on the route so we didn't have much time to watch.
The first day we visited the Falls and hiked down a steep trail to the bottom of the gorge where we had a picnic lunch. There were plenty of baboons on the way to provide entertainment - including one who ran up and tried to steal Mark's apple (since the baboon had touched it anyway, he didn't feel compelled to eat the rest.) I negotiated for a couple of curios - a rhino and a man. I think I did OK - K5000 ($1.25) for a nicely carved face and K13500 ($4.30ish) for the rhino. It is so frustrating dealing with the dealers there because they assume you are a tourist with lots of money. Since I had been to the Lusaka craft market I knew what was a reasonable price (about a third of their starting price) but by the disappointed sound in their voices as I made the deal I think I got them to a respectable price.
One very neat activity we did was a one day canoeing safari on the Zambezi River. This was great although the canoes were actually yellow rubber dinghy type boats - real canoes are called "Canadian style" canoes - a reason for national pride, I figure. It was a great way to see some wildlife - hippos, crocs, elephants, etc. On canoe you have to give the hippo a lot of respect - usually we would cross to almost the other side of the river. It's a good thing we had a guide because often what we thought were rocks would turn out to be hippos or crocodiles. Unfortunately we saw the elephants just at the same time as we hit the biggest rapids on the route so we didn't have much time to watch.
We had a free day during which we went to the Falls area again. We walked to the bridge to watch the bungee jumpers and then continued on to the Zimbabwe side. We walked for quite a ways - until we got to the border post - before checking the cost of a visa ($65) and returning to Zambia. Apparently, visas for Canadians were only $30 quite recently but the Zimbabweans upped it to reciprocate Canadian charges for Zimbabweans.
In the afternoon we had some ultimate rest and relaxation. The backpackers place offered massages for K50,000 ($12.50) so we took in one of those and then settled down to watch an NFL game on the satellite TV.
The last couple days we were on a safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana, about 50 minute drive from here. This is best known for its 65,000 elephants of which we saw plenty. We had a river cruise first which, in addition to hippos, crocs, and birds, also produced thousands of elephants. Later that day, a lion crossed right in front of our path with her two cubs. Mostly there were huge numbers of various antelope - impala, kudu, situtwela (apparently, very rare), puku, and sable (although these were far away). We also saw giraffes, more elephants, warthogs, etc. On our way back to camp we had a bit of an incident with an elephant that didn't particularly like our truck but everything went smoothly. It was neat to sleep in the bush although the guide did warn us about the potential dangers - lions, hyenas, etc. - that awaited us if we had to go to the bathroom in the night.
The second day started off with a disastrous game drive - we didn't see anything but impala all morning. Since impala are a dime a dozen it made for quite a lame and boring time. I have to say though that impala are way nicer than Canadian deer, with whom they would be roughly comparable. Its as if someone went through the whole park and groomed every single impala just for us. We had seen some buffalo tracks only 20m from our campsite but were unable to track them down.
The afternoon boat drive made the day. We found a herd of about 100 buffalo just across the river in Namibia. Then the hippos were all out of the water, where they usually spend the day, grazing because it was a cloudy day. What a great animal. They were definitely Mark and my favourite. A quick hippo fact: they eat 40 kg of grass a day. No wonder they are so fat.
The second day started off with a disastrous game drive - we didn't see anything but impala all morning. Since impala are a dime a dozen it made for quite a lame and boring time. I have to say though that impala are way nicer than Canadian deer, with whom they would be roughly comparable. Its as if someone went through the whole park and groomed every single impala just for us. We had seen some buffalo tracks only 20m from our campsite but were unable to track them down.
The afternoon boat drive made the day. We found a herd of about 100 buffalo just across the river in Namibia. Then the hippos were all out of the water, where they usually spend the day, grazing because it was a cloudy day. What a great animal. They were definitely Mark and my favourite. A quick hippo fact: they eat 40 kg of grass a day. No wonder they are so fat.
Nothing comes cheap when you are doing such things but it was a great time and well worth it. It is nice, however, to be out of the company of rich tourists and back in the more familiar confines of Lusaka.
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