Tiim & Kathy

Okavango Delta, Botswana

Day 2, April 4, 2025

This is another day of amazing wildlife viewing in the Okavango Delta. Here are photos from both our morning and afternoon drives.

Our guide, Fannah, finds a pride of lions that look full and contented. He observes vultures in the distance and he heads that way to see if we can find their kill and maybe the male lion. We soon find the remains of a baby giraffe.

Then we see a cheetah not too far from the lions. He seems a little nervous and doesn’t like the jackal staring at him. He is afraid the jackal will expose him. He chases after him. So fun to see wildlife in action!

We see a variety of animals everywhere.

We had a huge rainstorm in the afternoon. After the rain, our guides track some African wild dogs. We chase after them in the safari vehicles and find where they had killed an impala. In mass they begin feeding voraciously.

Amazing viewings we had today!

Okavango Delta, Botswana

We leave Chobe National Park by bus traveling to the Kasane Airport for our flight to the Okavango Delta and the Santawani Camp.

We are picked up by our guides in the Safari vehicles and watch for wildlife on our way to the Camp. We have another afternoon drive and sunset later.

Searching the beautiful night sky as we enjoy dinner.

When it was dark we were escorted to our tents and could not leave until daylight. We would hear lions and hippos wandering by in the night.

Botswana: Chobe National Park

Day 3, April 2, 2025

Full day game drive!

Giraffes and Elephants drinking from the Chobe River

Late afternoon we had an interesting talk about Botswana’s Shoot to Kill policy with poachers. We also had a visit from a Bushman who showed us how to start a fire with a stick and some grasses.

Botswana: Chobe National Park

Day 1 & 2. March 31-April 1, 2025

After breakfast we fly in the Cessnas back to Livingstone airport. We tour a bit of the city where most of the people live without running water or electricity. We had time to walk around their local market and I bought some fabric from these young men.

We enter Botswana by going across the Zambezi River on the new bridge. We are staying at the Baobab Lodge. Photos from our afternoon game drive.

It’s now morning and we are off to our morning game drive.

Our view from the lodge with Zebras coming to drink

On the afternoon drive we found the leopards kill and the leopard hiding and of course more giraffe.

Afternoon activities included a walk to Namibia and the art of basket weaving.

Kafue National Park, Zambia

Day 3, March 30, 2025

We have a morning game drive to see some of the land animals here at Kafue.

In the afternoon one of the women on staff demonstrated the many uses of the chitenge, the colorful cloth that is wrapped around the waist as a skirt. It is also used to carry babies and wrapped around as a head scarf. The girls are given their chitenge when they reach puberty.

She also demonstrated making peanut butter using a large mortar and pestle.

We ended the day with a traditional meal and dancing and singing with the staff.

Kafue National Park, Zambia.

Day 2, March 29, 2025

Our morning began with a cruise on the Lufupa River. We saw many varieties of birds, lots of hippos and crocodiles. it was delightful to be on the river. Here are a few highlights.

We stopped for morning tea on the bank of the river and had the famous rosemary shortbread cookies. As we got back in the boat our guide saw a baby Pied Kingfisher struggling in the water. So a rescue effort by our guide got it out of the water and onto land. We hope it survived.

The photos above were also seen on our afternoon cruise on the Kafue River.

Zambia: Kafue National Park

Our stay for the next three nights is the Lufupa Lodge in Kafue National Park. The lodge is located at the convergence of the Kafue and Lufupa Rivers.

We left Zimbabwe and drove into Livingstone, Zambia across the bridge over the Zambezi River and had our first glimpse of Victoria Falls. We flew from the Livingstone Airport in 12 seater Cessna Citations landing on a dirt airstrip.

Giraffe viewing as we left the park in Zimbabwe

Our tent/cabin was located on the Kafue River. We could hear the hippos outside our cabin as they left the river for their night feeding.

Zimbabwe: Village and School Visit

Day 3

We left our Makalolo Plains Camp in Huange National Park early in the morning to visit Ngamo Village. We are tasked with shopping at the market for food items to bring as a gift to a family in the village. We all had fun asking for items in the native language. We went from shop to shop interacting with the shopkeepers.

The women in our group were given fabric to wear around our waist. It is called a chitenge. The local women showed us how to wear them.

We proceeded to the homestead of Bette. I was given a tour by Maria.

Following our village visit, we visited Ngamo Primary School. The children in grade 6 were our guides around the school. Grand Circle Foundation helps support the school.

To and from the school we were able to have more animal sitings.

African Safari Adventure Zimbabwe – Hwange National Park

We spent nine nights at four different National Parks and private reserves in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana. It was an amazing trip. We lacked good cell service and WiFi the entire time, so I was not able to update the blog. Now in Victoria Falls, I will begin nine days ago at Hwange National Park followed

Day 1

Our trip leader is Abby, a native of Zimbabwe. He met us at the Victoria Falls Airport. We have a three hour bus drive to the entrance of Hwange National Park followed by 1 1/2 hour drive in a safari vehicle to the Mokololo Camp. We each have our own safari tent. It is comfortable sleeping and has solar powered electricity.

On our drive into the camp we saw quite a few animals.

Our favorite birds of the day were the Lilac-breasted Roller and the Grey-crowned Crane.

The following are some of the animal viewings.

Day 2

Another day with two game drives. Early morning and late afternoon. The staff and guides are knowledgeable, helpful and friendly.

We found a large pride of about 12 lions.

We finished the drive each evening with a sundowner drink watching the sunset. We saw our first cheetah! And saw the hippos climb out of the water.

Johannesburg: Soweto

Today we traveled to Soweto (South Western Township) for a four hour walking tour. We met our guide and five other tour participants just across the street from the Hector Pieterson Monument. Hector was a thirteen year old who was killed in the crossfire during uprising and massacre in 1976.

Soweto was a black township where blacks were moved out of the main part of Johannesburg in the 1930’s. The blacks would have to show a pass to enter the white areas. In 1976 the students from the area’s high schools rose up to protest apartheid. The police violently repressed the uprising resulting in over 170 deaths.

We toured the former home of Nelson Mandela and walked by the home of Desmond Tutu. Both are Nobel Peace prize winners.

We stopped for lunch to have a traditional Soweto street food. it consists of bread, fries, cheese, sausage, sauce. So much for our vegan diet. It was very important how we ate it and where to put our water and napkin.

We walked through an area with the nice houses and then the average houses and then to the impoverished area. A young man from the area gave us a tour and let us take photos. The money we all donated goes to help the entire neighborhood.

We ended our walk at the Soweto tours. It used to supply nuclear energy, but is now used for bungee jumping.

Now to see what the people are so proud of: The world class soccer stadium. They hosted the World Cup in 2010.