Adventures of NaDave: H'moon 14

Day 1

We got a great sleep and were up early for our 7am safari pickup. We ordered a hearty breakfast at the Hostel kitchen, and noticed lots of other American and English-speaking folks up and looking ready for a safari. We asked around, and sure enough, a big group of us were headed for Botswana, fun!

Since we ordered our safari through the company and not the hostel, we had a private taxi take us there. It was unnecessary, but also made us look fancy! We had a 1 hour drive to the Botswana border, where we crossed a river via boat, whoa! When we arrived, sure enough, our hostel friends were there. Awesome! We had help from our driver at the Zambia-Botswana immigration office where we got our stamp, and off we hopped into the boat. We laughed as a group about our personal taxi, but also were laughing to release the stress from the border crossings!

We crossed the river (since there was no bridge!) then headed into the Botswana office. We thought we were going to need to pay for another visa, but the lady took our passports, did her thing, stamped it, and then waved us on. Okey dokey! We were each told to find the lady with the green jacket outside, as she was quality control. We handed her our passports, she apparently checked it somehow, and we were good to go. The group all got through, and we hopped in cars to head to the safari meeting point.

We arrived to a small business and were greeted with some coffee and bread. We met up with an even larger group and all chatted as everyone settled in and paid for their trips. We struck up a conversation with older gentlemen who looked well-traveled, and come to find out, Ron was from San Fran, and also doing a 3+ week trip with all the booking done by himself. “Saves me thousands of dollars to book it myself, plus I’m not sitting around longer I have to”…we couldn’t agree more, we like this guy!

Up first was a late morning boat ride up and down the ? River to see some water wildlife. We all hopped on the boat and excitedly started the trip. We saw birds, buffalo, impala, and all kinds of hippos. Only the photos can describe it best!

After the boat ride, we went to a lodge for some lunch. The food was just okay, but we all had pre-safari excitement. After the meal, we finally got broken up into our final groups…the single day, one night, and two night groups (that’s us!) all got placed into different cars. We had a pleasant group of 3 other couples, and one 3^rd wheel. And come to find out, they were all from USA!

We then finally headed into the national park. First we stopped at the front gate where there were some awesome skulls & horns! Our drivers came back with certified park passes and off we went. For the first couple minutes, we were all on the lookout for anything that moved, but we were on a paved road (and of course saw nothing). After an hour or so, we finally took a right turn onto on a dirt, sand road and off we went into the bush. We finally came upon our first elephant and everybody was firing their cameras. Unfortunately the elephant was mourning a dead family member so we moved on quickly.

We continued on and saw only a few animals in the distance. But we finally drove up on our camp! It was time to ditch all of our bags from the cars, get situated in our tents, take a bathroom break, and get ready for the 1^st sunset drive. Everybody was meeting each other and enjoying being out in the African bush. This was a legit camping space…only tents, a few chairs, and bathrooms were j hust holes dug in the ground!

The heat of the day was starting to end, so we gathered as a group and headed out on our first sunset drive. Everyone’s eyes were peeled on trying to spot a lion, or maybe a jaguar in a tree! We drove around for several hours, stopping when we saw elephants or giraffes, or warthogs and meerkats, or deer, etc. Again, only the photos can do it justice. After an amazing time of driving around, it was time to head back in. As we were nearing camp, we came around the corner, and boom! THERE WAS A LION! We stopped suddenly and the female was startled too! Nadine was sitting on the drivers side, rear bench, closest to the end, and the Lion was right there. She froze, everybody froze! The lion then trotted behind the car, was near Dave on the other side of the bench, then trotted off into the bush. Wow, what an end to the first trip.

We got back into camp at dusk, and washed up for dinner. The food was just okay, but it was cooked by the staff and hit the spot. We also had some wine and a camp fire to help everyone loosen up. We watched the stars come out and then it was time for bed. We would be up by 5am and on the cars by 6am for the morning ride.

Jollyboys Hostel (Livingstone, Zambia)