Author: Marty Luster

Look for our heroes, Paul M and RD at 2:53 in slomo.

 Ray Roberts from California concentrates on his work at the Cut.

on the Boulevard.

Jonathan (former Gloucesterite) and Lauren (first timer) visit from Boston.

This final sequence takes us to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, a visit to a family living compound in a rural village, the primary school, some heavy bargaining in town, a short, but bouncy, elephant safari and a farewell from our friend Mthokozisi.

This trip was only 17 days, but it opened up a whole new world for us.

Our thanks to Overseas Adventure Travel (Boston), their outstanding staff and guides and to the people of Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe who granted us the privilege of visiting their magnificent lands.

Today we finished up our time in Kafue National Park with an early morning exploration of the Kafue River.  We then flew back to Livingstone airport and took a minibus to Hwange National Park, Zibabwe’s largest, by way of Victoria Falls. (More later).

Among the highlights at Huange was being surrounded by a herd of elephants who stuck their trunks and tusks inside our vehicle, tried to devour our two-way radio antenna and who were generally rambunctious. In hindsight, great fun.

This episode shows our departure from Santawani Camp in the Okavango Delta of Botswana, our flight in a 5 passenger puddle jumper to Kasane where we boarded a bus to the Zambezi River where we crossed over in a small boat to Zambia

We then boarded another bus which took us to the Livingstone Airport where another light plane was waiting to fly us to Kafue National Park and our tented camp that would be our home for the next three days.

After extricating ourselves from a mud hole during a game drive, we had the extraordinary experience of seeing four leopards in one place. A young male had killed a crown crane only to be confronted by a senior male. The youngster calmly dropped his prey which was quickly snatched up by the older cat who retired to the brush for a private dinner.

Typically we went on two game drives a day, one starting about 6:30 AM and the other in the afternoon until dusk. We never knew what to expect.

On this day we saw ostriches, impalas, a hyena, some of the 400+ species of birds, wildebeests consorting with zebras (wildebeests have poor eyesight and rely on other species to warn them of danger) and LIONS!

We tracked and found a pride of four lions. After a few minutes a young male who was not part of the group wandered by. The four observed him closely, but the newcomer appeared not to notice them and walked off into the bush.

One of the highlights of a trip filled with highlights was a visit to a rural school near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

The children gave us an enthusiastic welcome and tried to outdo each other when showing us around. My student host, Mthokozisi,(picture 1  ) is 12 years old and will be going into secondary school next year. He wants to graduate high school and go on to college (trade school) or university. He is, as he told us, “a clever fellow.”

The primary school consists of four classrooms, but most classes are conducted outside in the shade of nearby trees. All of the children are from a nearby village which contains  dozens of small compounds and is home to about 500 people.

 Children make you want to start life over.  ~Muhammad Ali

 This installment takes us from Kasane in northeast Botswana to Santawani Camp in the Okavango Delta near Botswana’s border with Namibia.

We flew in two light aircraft and, although I thought the planes were pretty close to each other, the flight was beautiful but uneventful until the pilot was forced to abort the landing attempt just as we touched down because of impalas on the runway.  The second attempt was successful.

The game drives were spectacular, including a leopard stalking some zebra. He finally gave up because an  injured paw slowed him down.