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Showing posts from July, 2017

The Final- Botswana

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As I write this, me and dad are safely back in the great state of Pennsylvania, with ample and fast wifi. We left Zimbabwe via car, an hour and a half later than the departure time we were originally told.  A fitting end to Zimbabwe.  Border control on the way out was about as annoying as on the way in- with an added bonus of stepping in bleach water to protect Botswana's cattle. Our tiny plane We drove to the Kasane airport, where we caught a (much larger than expected) bush plane to Machaba Camp .  The bush plane actually makes stops, which added to the rather nauseating experience. The "tent" Machaba is remarkably similar to Rhino Post- substitute tents for our cabin and you have it.  Plus more honeymooners.  The same schedule- wake up, eat, drive, eat, sleep, eat, drive, eat, sleep.  Very similar wildlife, but much rougher roads- and the ability to go off road.  Thus we could follow animals for longer (topped by the low speed leopard ...

Day 9/10- Zimbabwe

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Day 9 Yesterday we learned about massive changes in our itinerary.  We should have canoed today then hiked tomorrow, but it got switched so that we hiked this morning and headed out to our canoeing overnight at 4 to canoe the next day.  The details were unclear, so we also squeezed in Victoria Falls today. We started off with a hike in the Batoka gorge with a 6:20 AM pickup.  We got bagged breakfasts from the hotel with very good biscuits.  Bizarrely, we were in a safari style truck, as we raced down a highway.  It was so cold that our guide huddled under two fleece ponchos. Eventually we made it to our hike, which was more of a nature walk.  We learned about different trees and their traditional uses- considering I was ready for a legitimate hike I was somewhat underwhelmed. After our hike we had a tour of a traditional hut.  As our guide said, most people in Zimbabwe live this more rural lifestyle.  The South Africans had nothing...