Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Canoeing down the Mighty Zambezi, dodging hippos and crocs

6/30/19

Today we drove to the banks of the might Zambezi River, which is the 4th longest river in Africa (behind the Nile, Congo, and Niger). On the way we stopped at the Zambian Capitol of Lusaka to shop and eat lunch (Schwarma and Pizza). We then drove to the Zambezi River, near to the town of Chirundu. We went over a pretty steep pass, and there were lots of trucks tipped over, and even up-side-down in ditches. Several places in Malawi and Zambia we have seen this. The campsite was nice, along the banks of the river and echoed with the sounds of grunting hippos. At night, 3 elephants were browsing by the tents. For dinner Denford cooked up steak (T-bones) and bratwurst.

7/1/19
Today we started our 2 day canoe trip down the Zambezi River. We loaded all the canoes up with food, cookware, tents, and gear and took off. The river is very wide and gentle. The main dangers are hippos if you get too close (but mostly they just watch us with curiosity as we float by) and crocs if you dangle limbs in the water (but mostly they bask in the sun on the banks of the river).

In the heat of the day we paddled ashore and relaxed in the shade on the sand. On the afternoon paddled, we encountered some elephants eating close to shore. We got out of the canoes, and we stood about 15 feet from them, which was a really cool experience. We also saw an elephant cross the river with only its trunk above the water. We camped on a sandy area and had a beef/hamburger stew thing with rice. As the sun set over the river, we swam in the river. It was a gorgeous sunset! Hippos, hyenas, and lions could be heard from the camp all night.

All in all, today was a 13 km paddle.

7/2/19

We had a morning paddle among crocs and hippos to our lunch spot on a sandy island where we relaxed in the shade beside the water. In the afternoon, we paddled past more hippos, crocs, and some elephants as well. We also passed by a recently dead baby hippo. We camped on a beachy area and swam again at sunset. We had a meaty sauce on rice for dinner.

7/3/19

To get back to the truck, we took a before sunrise boat ride (fast barge) back to our starting point on the Zambezi. It was beautiful watching the sunrise from the boat. We then had a long drive to Livingstone.

At the camp in Livingstone there were tongs of mosquitoes! So we had a lot of fun zapping them with our electric zapper. The camp was really nice. It had a great bar overlooking the Zambezi, but unfortunately it was dark, so we really couldn't see. We had tasty (and cheap) White Russians at the bar while sitting looking out over the dark Zambezi River.

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