Botswana & Zambia Africa

5,6,7,8 June 2017
I spent the last 4 days enjoying Africa, and it has been a beautiful experience. I am in Livingstone, Zambia at the moment – one of my favorite places on the entire continent. Tomorrow the rest of my group comes in, and I am excited to meet them all! I spent 2 nits at Chanter’s Lodge (where we send our student groups), and 2 nights at Sussi & Chuma (one of the most luxury retreats in Zambia). Both were for site visits and I was very lucky to have the opportunity to stay there.

9 June 2017 Camp Nkwazi | Livingstone Zambia
Today the group arrived! There are 6 of us headed out on safari and we are absolutely thrilled! Myself, Tate, Madeline, Elizabeth, Robert, and Lindy are all in our group – we will spend today at Cam Nkwazi and tomorrow we will head out on safari in Chobe National Park.

10 June 2017 Chobe National Park
Chobe is one of the most beautiful National Parks I have yet to visit in Africa. It is absolutely spectacular and I cannot wait to explore more of what it has in store for our group. Our first day on safari was saw everything from elephants and giraffes to hippopotamus and crocodiles, and we took some beautiful photos. I am very excited to go back on safari and see more animals that I have yet to experience. Our group is wonderful, we have Elizabeth, Madeline, Tate, Lindy, and Rob – and we all get along so well. I am very excited to be with them for the next week.

11 June 2017 Chobe National Park – Savuti National Park
Wow, the wildlife of Africa really is stunning. Today we drove from Chobe to Savuti (a very long drive) but very worthwhile and we saw a lot of very beautiful animals. It was great to be with a group that gets so excited to see experience the beauty of Africa – something that not everyone gets during their lifetime. We saw elephants,migrates, hippos, crocodiles, elephants, zebras, and many more beautiful animals en route to Savuti National Park. I am very glad that we are here. On our way into the park we stumbled upon two lionesses and a male lion walking down the road as well as a leopard in the bush right as the sun is going down.

12 June 2017 Savuti National Park
Today we had another great day. Savuti is beautiful and it has one of the highest concentration of cats of any park in the world (leopards, cheetahs, and lions). The photos we got were beautiful and I am absolutely thrilled to be here – but I miss my husband Andrew and really wish he was here. I arrive home on Father’s Day and I am so excited to be home with him. Today was a more relaxed day, as we did not stumble upon any cats – just general game / which was still an really enjoyable experience.

13 June 2017 Savuti National Park
We woke up today and headed out at sunrise once again – just in time to see two different prides of lions hunting. There are only 3 prides of lions, and with the 2 we saw today – we saw all the prides of lions there is to see in this park! Tomorrow we head out of Savuti, back to the Delta before continuing onwards to Livingstone.

14 June 2017 savuti national park – Chobe National Park
Wow! What a wonderful last day on safari! After our sunrise game drive and a delicious breakfast, we headed off to another part of the delta in Chobe National Park. We drove most of the afternoon and arrived just before sunset, just in time for an evening game drive. This evening was more exciting than any – as we stumbled upon a leopard with a cub, dining on a freshly killed Impala. We left briefly to capture photos of a lone giraffe situated perfectly in front of the sun. When we returned to the leopards we found that they had been chased away by lions and that they had stolen the leopard’s Impala from them. After we had watched the lions for a few minutes – we suddenly saw elephants and hyenas start to arrive. The elephants felt very threatened by the lions and started charging – right at our vehicle, quite a scary situation!

15 June 2017 Chobe national park – camp Nkwazi
This morning was our last sunrise game drive & it was indeed beautiful! We drove along the inner part of the delta and I couldn’t help but marvel at how beautiful our world is. We finished our afternoon with a drive to Kasane and an afternoon boat cruise through the beautiful Zambezi – where we saw a lot of water buffalo, hippos, elephants, and birds. Every time I come to Africa I cannot help but marvel at how beautiful it is here.

16 June 2017 Victoria Falls National Park
Victoria falls never ceases to amaze me, I had the opportunity to visit the falls 2 years ago – and it was one of the highlights of my time in Africa. Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the world and is one of the seven natural wonders of the world – always a highlight to be able to see and experience. One of the unique things about our visit this year was that we were also able to visit the angel’s pool. On the top of the waterfalls there are three pools known as the devil’s pool, angel’s pool, and rock pool – and each of them are open at different times of the year. During my visit, angel’s pool was the one open – and it was an absolute adrenaline experience! We were able to jump in the pool, right at the very edge of the TOP of Victoria Falls – amazing!

17 June 2017 Home
I am excited to go home today! Four weeks has been a long time since I have been away from Andrew and I really miss him. He better be with me on my next adventure!