Weekend Trip

As many know, this past weekend I went to Victoria Falls and Chobe NP, both of which were fantastic. Driving to Victoria Falls through Zimbabwe was more than interesting. It's really sad to see how poor a once thriving country has become. Almost all (if not all) gas stations are closed down and you cannot even buy bread in the supermarkets. To get fuel, most people drive to Kasane, Botswana (quite a distance from some places) and walk to Zambia over the Victoria Falls Bridge to buy bread and other foods to bring back. It's also quite sad to see in malls and shopping plazas almost every store closed. It's crazy how things can happen like that.

As for Victoria Falls itself, it is more than beautiful. It is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and I can definitely see why. At more than 1.5 km wide, it is absolutely huge. It also pumps over 100 cubic meters of water per minute. The only thing about this time of year is that it is the rainy season which means it is quite misty and that obscures parts of the falls. Also, Kelly and I got absolutely drenched at a place called Danger Point because the mist was so heavy and creating a downpour. I have some nice pictures at the link below. It explains better than I can.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034202&id=15002854&l=5bc997bc79

On Sunday, we went for a game drive at Chobe National Park and then a sunset cruise through Chobe down the Chobe River. Chobe NP is absolutely huge at just over 11,000 square kilometers of land. It is simply a national park, so the animals are indigenous to it and roam freely, no fences, nothing keeping them contained. There are over 60,000 elephants that call the park home, the largest such collection of naturally roaming elephants in the world. We got to see a great deal of animals, incuding lions, which are almost impossible to spot in the wild. It was quite funny actually because it seemed everyone in the National Park heard that the lions could be seen as about 10 safari trucks all parked side-by-side along the road watching the lions as if they were the entertainment for the day. We also got to get really close to Elephants, Giraffes, Crocodiles, Hippos, an assortment of birds and monkey as well. Some pictures are at the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034203&id=15002854&l=7f9d07f2ca

As for the ride home from Kasane, it was extremely long, boring, and at times painful. In total, between two buses, it took us 14 hours to go from Kasane to Gaborone via Francistown. The road between Kasane and Nata is terrible, loaded with potholes. Our bus driver has to swerve between lanes and across the "highway" to avoid huge potholes. At times you are going no more than 10 miles per hour, so it is quite annoying. The one cool thing is you do see elephants (and one giraffe) along the road as you drive. Out in these parts of Botswana, this sort of game just roams freely, so instead of watching for deer or moose, you have to watch for elephants or other large animals. So that quickly sums up the weekend. I just wanted to give a quick summary and post the pictures. I have some more things to talk about, but I will save for another day!

Hope all is well at home.