Our first game drive...

Our wake up call was for 4:45.  Guess who was still asleep at this hour for the first time during the trip?  No coffee is available at this time, which I will come to discover is a blessing.

While this is the end of the summer, it is quite cool this morning as we pile into three mega-jeeps for our transit to the David Livingston Game Preserve.  Once underway in this open air vehicle, I am glad for my jacket.  I don't think I would want to do this in cool weather.

It is only a short drive to the area and as we make our turn onto the rutted road of packed Kalahari sand we understand what our able driver Cedric meant when he said that we would be having the "African massage" as we are slammed around over the bumps and ruts.

These bumps are not to control speed but erosion.  Some are quite high with a substantial puddle on the down side.  All this rain of late certainly controls the dust.  We ask to be in the lead vehicle for just this reason.

Cedric is not just a fine driver but a font of knowledge in botany and biology.  Not only can he detail why leaves are shaped the way they are and list their medicinal purposes, he can tell you which trees lose their leaves to protect them from the ravages of the elephants in the dry season.

Speaking of elephants,  we know they are near because of the huge piles of droppings on the road.  They are not supposed to be on the road.  There is a very serviceable fence to keep them off the road but as we proceed we notice a broken gate.  

Elephants are the most destructive animals in Africa.  In Joburg the electrified fences protect the property from thieves.  Here, in Vic Falls, the electrified fences protect the property from elephant damage.  In the past, the government used to reimburse those from damage to property or crops, but less so now.  We noticed many of these fences in the town yesterday.

We spot our first elephant behind the fence.  There are others behind him, especially young ones, but we can't entice him to come any closer.  This was the best shot I could get.  I would never make it in the safari business.  Every "animal" I spot turns out to be a piece of wood!

Cedric certainly knows his way around this maze of roads.  Soon in the distance we spot some giraffes munching on the trees.  Then a little later we come upon a herd of water buffalo gathered under the trees. There are probably ten-plus but a ways distant.

So far, no black rhino.  Cedric says he has not seen one for four days but we are still searching when we stumble on a big giraffe right in the middle of the road.

What a magnificent animal.  Of course Cedric can not only identify gender but can approximate age to the color of the spots.  He was not ten feet from us!

We are still looking for our rhino.  An endangered species, hunted for the horn for its purported aphrodisiac qualities, it was brought here to the preserve.  We are going to the spot of their arrival where a water tower used to stand.  It has been replaced with a small house used by the poaching patrol.  But the rhinos who live to 55 years remember the spot.

We bump along and low and behold, there is Mr. Black Rhino, main bull of the herd, in all his glory.  What luck!
He is dehorned but the horns grow back at a rate of 6cm a year.  He is quite placid but Cedric said if we got out, he would certainly charge.  Apparently one put a pretty good dent in one of the jeeps last year.

We have been promised coffee and a snack so off we go to the pavilion for a bathroom stop first.  The coffee is a surprisingly good French press.

It was a very fun morning with three out of the Big Five spotted.  It takes a while to return to the hotel because the short cut road has been washed out but when we returned to our room a committee of baboons was busy climbing up the drain pipe outside.

We decided to take a helicopter ride over the falls and are picked by Zambezi Helicopter Tours for the short ride to the helipad near the area where we cruised last evening.  We sign our waivers, are weighed and soon the pilots march out and start up the two helicopters.  

Paul and I are joined by three Germans.  In a second we are off climbing out over the Zambezi River dotted here and there with tree covered islands.

It's a magnificent sight underscoring the length of the falls at 1739 meters.  We see our hotel opposite the bridge.

Then we swoop upstream for a bit and land back at the helipad.  At twelve minutes, it seemed expensive but one truly needed no more time to admire the scope of the falls.

On our return, veteran employee Sindi leads on a historical tour of the hotel.  He was very charming and used the many photos that line the halls, all framed in black with cream matting, to trace its history.  Highlight was entry to the Livingstone suite where King George VI and the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were hosted in 1949.  I am inspired to slow down and look at the history on the walls instead of charging through the halls.

To round out the day we have a lecture on David Livingstone from Chris Warden, a safari guide for 35 years and a history buff with a fascination on Livingstone.  So much so that he collects first editions of Livingstone's writings and has them all.  He loves eBay.

Livingstone, the intrepid missionary, was really an explorer at heart with three expeditions to Africa.  He is so beloved by the African people that his is the only statue left standing from the colonial era and the only one for whom a city is named.

This discoverer of Victoria Falls advertised it to the world, was the only one to walk across the continent from east to west and to accurately map the continent. When he died loyal porters removed his organs and buried them under a tree, salted his body and carried it 700 miles to Zanzibar. A cross carved from the wood of the tree under which his heart is buried was carried with him across Africa and was installed there. He lay in state for three months, finally transported and buried in Westminster Abbey next to Darwin. 

Chris was an energetic lecturer and we all enjoyed both the content and delivery.

Such a full day!