Oct 22: Devils Pool

OMG!  I have never been so terrified in all my life!  I still can't believe I survived the experience!  For sure ... There's nothing wrong with my heart!

Swimming in Devils Pool is an optional inclusion of the Livingstone Island cruise we had prebooked for 7.30am this morning.  I still signed the Indemnity form that was shoved in front of my face, covering myself in case I decided to go ahead with it.  I thought, I'll make my mind up once I've taken a look at it.  Silly me, should have known it wasn't quite that straight forward.

The boat trip to the island is a quick 6 minute trip, and you have very little idea of what's ahead.  All we could see from the boat was a bit of mist and a small rainbow that indicated roughly where the main Falls are.  Livingston Island is that group of trees on the left.

We're offloaded at a small island, which we quickly traverse on foot.  We pass a small hut and were told this was the only place we could change into swimming costumes.  So I did ... Just in case.  We are a group of six directed over some rocks towards the river.  Still not seeing much of what is ahead.  Instructions were given to leave our backpacks, hand cameras over to a guide who would take photos for us, then after stepping across rocks for about 20 meters told to get into the river.

This was my last chance to turn back ... Still couldn't see Devils Pool, and there was a rope strung across a section of the river.  So I thought, this looks easy ... What the heck ... Go for it!

Silly me.  No.  The rope is a last resort safety feature you grab should you get swept away by the current.  What we actually had to do was swim upstream away from the rope, then across the current. It was only about 30 meters, but halfway there the current picked up and I realised that, although I was swimming hard, I was actually going backwards, NOT forwards.  To say I panicked is putting it mildly!

Alan grabbed me and hauled me the last few meters.  Ok.  What next.  We are standing waist high on a rock ledge.  Next we need to cross another stretch of river, downstream for about 20 meters.  By this time my legs were shaking, but there was no turning back.  The guide went first, taking me with him gripping tightly to the neck of his wet suit.  

But we still are not there.  We clamber over rocks for another 20 meters or so.  I was so busy watching where I put my feet I didn't get a chance to look around.  Before I knew it we were at the edge of Devils Pool, just 4 meters from the lip of Victoria falls.

Now all that was left was to swim the last 4 meters to sit on the rock ledge.  When you get there, he said,  keep your legs down (that way the water current keeps you pinned to the rock ledge.

OMG! OMG! OMG!

One by one we make our way over the most terrifying stretch of water I have ever encountered!

The worlds ultimate infinity pool.

Then the photography session starts, and as I was the first across (with the helping hand of the guide) I was at that edge for a very long time!  I think my smile was a little hysterical by the end.  I can't say that I relaxed, but I was definitely happy that I had done it.

I was very grateful for Alan's strong arm gripping me.

It then dawned on me: we had to go back the same way!!

My smile disappeared rapidly.

But, of course, I've lived to tell the tale and I must admit felt mightily exhillerated afterwards, and very wobbly at the knees.  I also hoped to goodness the River Zambezi is clean because I swallowed a lot of it!!!

And so we come to the end of our African adventure.  How do we top this experience?

Dinner in the up-market hotel next door: the Royal Livingston.

The final "sundowner": Cocktails on the terrace overlooking the swimming pool and Zambezi River.

Plus Al fresco fine dining under the stars.

All good things must come to an end: pick-up 10.30 in the morning for our long haul to Perth, via Joburg. We're all sad - we must say goodbye to our wonderful travel buddies, Julie and Terry.  Let's make it au revoir.

Oct 21: Victoria Falls

The scenery seemed to change very early into our drive from the Lodge to Kruger Airport.  We climbed up and up through sub tropical hills of rich farmland.  Banana plantations, market gardens, vast plantations of avocado, macadamia even eucalyptus.  After 2 hours we arrived at the prettiest airport I've ever seen ... Shouldn't have packed the cameras away ... Thatched buildings designed to look like a game lodge.  

Our small plane, maybe seating 40, became airborn after only a short run off from the mountaintop.  There was a lot of turbulence to start with, but the One and a half hour flight to Livingston gave us some spectacular views.

We landed with our feet running metaphorically speaking.  The hotel, The Zambezi Sun, is only 5 minutes walk from Victoria Falls, so we dumped the bags in the rooms and headed straight out. 

Disappointing views.  After all the hype we expected to get soaked from the spray and deafened by thunderous noise of the falls.  But it's the end of The Dry isn't it!?  Best time of the year to go on safaris, but the Zambezi water levels are at their lowest of course!  Anyhow, we got some good photos and just had to use our imagination to visualise the might of the Falls at peak flow.

We needed another viewpoint while we were here.  We could cross the bridge to Zimbabwe, which has the best views we've been told.   (Look closely ... Someone has just done a bungee jump)

 But what a performance going through two border checkpoints, and paying US$35 for a visa into the country, then $30 to enter the park, then yet another $50 to re-enter Zambia (we had only just paid $50 at the airport for a single entry into Zambia).

It turns out it's cheaper to get a helicopter flight over the Falls!  So that's what we did!  Hadn't been in the country for more than a couple of hours and we find ourselves getting the best views possible from the air.  Fantastic!  It was Julie and Terry's first ever helicopter experience so they were doubly exhilarated.

Oct 20: Wow! Wow! Wow!

Today: Boring start ... Thrilling, sensational finish.

Almost the whole of this mornings game drive was spent searching for a mother leopard and her two cubs.  What a waste of a morning on our final safari day.  A slow trudge through the bush ... Not even the thrill of rough 4x4 bush bashing.  All we found was the same old boring buffalo herd, minuscule (though colourful) birds that flew away before we even got the chance to focus our cameras.  The usual variety of antelope (fodder for the big cats).  We at least managed a herd of elephants.  But this guide and his tracker were single minded: leopard Cubs or nothing.  

Our guide Mat, a rather arrogant white South African (who liked England but didn't like the English people - fancy telling us that when English people were in his vehicle!!!) loved his birds and was pretty single-minded about them.

Our 5 hour R & R period was spent lounging around in 30 degree heat, but even that was marred by bush fire smokey atmosphere and pesky monkeys who pooped all over our verandah.  We needed to call housekeeping to clean it up before we could use our lounge beds.

So not the perfect final day we had imagined for ourselves.

And then, unfortunately, it seemed that our evening drive was going to follow a similar pattern.  Again we trudged along searching for an elusive leopard.  Mat was obviously tense feeling under pressure to provide his passengers some of the Big Five.  At least tonight he opted for an easy sensation "fix" by taking us onto Richard Branson's private game reserve: quite some holiday "pad".

There was a handsome "journey" of giraffes (a new collective noun for our vocabulary), and another favourite of mine, some warthogs.  They are so funny to watch - they appear to be fierce creatures but are quite skittish and run away as if running on tiptoes, so dainty with their little tails held high.

Branson's reserve also provided another sighting of a pride of lions we have already seen, but rather than just basking in the shade, this time we found them devouring a recent kill.

By the time we finished with them the light was fading fast: a beautiful sunset was rationed only a fleeting photo stop, a glorious hilltop view was shunned so we were beginning to think time had run out for a sundowner, denying us of a final taste of South African hospitality.  We ere feeling very deprived.

At dusk we approached a clearing in the bush and there, quietly grazing were three rhinos, one a suckling baby.  Mat announces that THIS is our sundowner stop.  Wow!  We drank our sundowners keeping a wary eye on these grazing monsters.  

By the time we finished our drinks it was pitch dark so our return journey to camp was going to be a monotonous trip creeping through the bush with headlights.

But no.  All of a sudden Mat veered the vehicle off the track into bushes, at a reasonable speed too.  We rocked and crashed through and over bushes, tossing us around as he took on rocks, bushes and holes for about five minutes ... We thought the guide  was going berserk.  What on earth was he doing, he hadn't even had any alcohol yet here he was, crashing recklessly through fairly dense bushland.

We screeched to a halt in front of a large leopard, a lone male just waking up, stretching and yawning, totally ignoring the 3 vehicles and camera happy tourists surrounding him.  What happened next was surreal.  We all followed him.  When he stopped walking, we stopped the engine.  Sometimes he walked on the track, sometimes through the bush.  But we clung to him while he trudged, and when he stopped to mark his territory.  We were only about 3 metres from him most of the time, but once he did a bit of a U turn, taking us by surprise, and passed the truck within a metre, looking directly into our eyes.  It was amazing - very scarey.  We all stopped breathing and no one dared take a photo, in dtp fact, taking a photo was the furthest thing from our minds in those incredibly tense seconds.

Wow! What an experience!  We just couldn't believe what had happened.  Even more amazing is that this beautiful emensly dangerous animal was just ignoring us!  They just KNOW we are no threat to them.

Wow!  Wow!  Wow!

What a finale for our African Safari experiences.

Tomorrow we move on to Victoria Falls for our final days in Africa.  Another country (Zambia), another adventure...

Oct 19: Animals visit camp

Elephants decided to make a meal of the trees outside our room today.  They may be gentle giants but they make a mess of the grounds here.  The day before we arrived they damaged underground water pipes.  Various types of antelope meander nearby throughout the day and night, as do the monkeys: vervet and baboons.  But the special treat tonight, while we were having dinner on the balcony at the lodge, 2 hippo grazed the lawns.  One for the memory bank because it was too dark to take photos.

It was all the usual fare on our drive this morning ... You know, the common or garden pride of lions, a herd of rhino, a handful of storks and Eagles ... Then we did a foot safari for the final hour and a half.  This is the second one we've done, adding to our vast and useful knowledge of animal poo and medicinal plants!!!

The daily routine at this lodge is different to any other we've stayed at.  6am start with a 4 hour game drive; brunch at 10 am; the middle of the day all to ourselves; high tea at 3.30, and a 3 hour evening game drive starting at 4pm. At sunset we break for a "sundowner" deep in the bush.  Then the day finishes with dinner at 8pm.

Quite like it because it allows us a good 5 hours in the middle of the day to enjoy the lodge in its peaceful wild location.

This is the view from our dining table:

This evenings drive was especially memorable.  We endured a long drive over boring savannah, through recent bushfire regions in search of the illusive cheetah ... And we weren't disappointed.

We arrived late at tonights sundowner location, a favourite hippo hang out ... Too late for a sunset, but in the failing light managed at last, to capture a hippo mid-yawn.

Oct 18: on to Sabi Sands

Only a 2 and a half hour drive to our next game park.  Again an intimate small lodge, yet a different atmosphere again.  No tents this time, individual cottages instead.  Again, we need to be escorted around at night because here there are absolutely no barriers between us and the animals.  At the bottom of the lawns there is a river, with crocodiles an ever present danger though, touch wood, we haven't seen one yet!

Soon after our arrival we're off on our first game drive, and here the tracks are rough, rough and more rough!  This is off road in a vengeance!  Forever getting thrown around and having to duck and weave amongst thorny bushes and trees.  Within minutes we get so close to a leopard it wasn't funny.  He was so distracted eating we didn't bother him in the least.

A few buffalo, hippo, giraffe, 

loads of birds, then it's time for another sundowner ... Love the this South African habit.

Oct 18: Final morning in Tanda Tula

Farewell to this unique experience.  A final mornings game drive and Bush breakfast.  Not too many animals here really, compared to the big herds we've seen elsewhere, but it's been a totally different experience.  Different bushland, unique accommodation, and everyone has made us feel like we have joined a family weekend away.

Oct 17: Leopards in the cold and wet

We had spectacular thunderstorms last night.  The rain was thundering so heavily on the dining area roof, we couldn't hear each other speak.  The food was fantastic though ... The enthusiastic chef created imaginative dishes using Impala, ostrich and chicken.  Quite the best meal we've had from a bush kitchen.  The dining and lounge area is all under a thatched roof and open to the fresh air on three sides.  There only about 25 guests accommodated in this small lodge so it had a cosy, intimate atmosphere.

The storm cleared the air then a cold southerly wind brought the temperatures plummeting, so I decided it best not to go on this mornings game drive.  Alan said it was very cold, too cold for a picnic breakfast, but he brought back brilliant photos of their sighting of a lion devouring a wilderbeast, a leopard having breakfast up a tree, and glimpses of her cubs below. 

Meanwhile, I'm keeping warm in the tent, but fending off Vervet monkeys ... They have learnt to unzip the tent flies, and twice I needed to chase a troup away.  Both times I was sitting at the dressing table and heard the fly unzipping, no warning footsteps, scratching or any other sounds at all ... They just creep up and deftly unzip!

It warms up enough this afternoon for Alan to enjoy the ensuite outdoor shower, that only monkeys and Nyala can peep into ... oh, and me of course!

I have benefitted from a days rest and venture out on the evenings game drive.  And it decides to rain again ... Quite heavily for a spell.  The Land Rover remains uncovered, our only shelter some rather unflattering fleece-lined capes.  Doesn't do much for my hair style!

Well worth the effort though, this time we are treated to quite a spectacle, we find the leopard mum has retrieved this mornings kill from the tree bringing it down for her cubs to feed on.  As we were watching a large hyena attacked the group.  In a flash the mum lashed out at it, giving the Cubs a precious few seconds to escape.  Their response was so lightening fast before we knew it, one had clambered up a tree, and the other had dashed 50 metres away.  Then Mum grabs the remains of the Impala kill and attempts to take it up another tree.  It failed though: the massive strong hyena, just the one on its own, snatched the carcass and hightailed it out of sight amongst the bushes, never to be seen again.

Wow, what a drama playing out right before our eyes ... Not in a documentary but just a few meters from us.  Got to admire the documentary photographers though, it was all too quick for us mere mortals to capture on camera.

We've had a few "sundowners" in South Africa, but today was the first time the clouds parted enough for us to capture the sun going down.  Pretty special.  The clouds and colours were very dramatic.  Suited the moment!