To close out the Zambezi Queen, I just have some odds and ends. Let’s start with the odd. I tried to do a vertical panorama of our Stateroom so you could see it. You can tell what you are looking at, but the photo is weird. But here it is.
It wasn’t a huge stateroom, but it was bigger than some others we have sailed in. The maid service was excellent. Here’s something we found strange—there are no keys to the cabins. You can lock them from the inside, but as Bernard told us on our first day, we are completely surrounded by water that’s full of crocodiles and hippos. There is exactly no chance of anyone from off the boat getting onboard to steal things. Still, it seemed weird. And even though there was a safe in the room, it was fairly small. no place to put any electronics. Primarily, they are there for the money and passports.
Meet Gibson
I have mentioned our guide, tour boat driver and my early morning buddy numerous times, but I keep meaning to post his photo. This is the amazing Gibson. He is the best!
My trip would have been significantly impacted if he had not been there. I learned so much from him. He is not only a great boat driver, but he is an amazing guide. He knows so much about the Chobe and its flora and fauna, not to mention that when I asked him to list the languages he spoke, he came up with 11. WOW!
What it’s like on the excursion-style boats
I have been asked what it’s like when you jump on one of the small boats and head up river. Here’s a quick video of that.
The Common Area
Normally, when my friend Mike cruises, he does a complete walk around of the ship with photos from every venue that he puts into his reviews (If you have never read Mike Preisman’s reviews, CLICK HERE. They are amazing.) With the Queen, there is only one venue other than your room. Here’s a quick panned video.
Our last night on board
Our last dinner on board was very special. First, the menu is entirely African. The crew cooks what they eat at home. We had oxtail stew with a distinctly different polenta and a variety of accompaniments, including game meats or fish, and malva pudding for dessert. But after dessert, things got seriou,s and they danced and sang and finally displayed their love for Namibia. I found it wonderful that people could unite behind their country..something we can’t seem to do in the United State. I find this video very moving.
That about does it. We loved the Queen. We loved her crew. The lock on our door, the tiny safe, and the need for new furniture in the lounge are the only minor and easy improvements we can suggest. The spirit of Namibia is well represented.
Please take me to Namibia, my soul needs to breathe. —Anonymous
As it turns out, this game lodge (in the absolute middle of nowhere) had great internet. Go figure.
Right now, it has been almost a week since the day I am about to write about. I am sitting in the main lodge at Tintswalo Game Lodges, watching a small herd of elephants drink water less than 30 feet from me. I have stopped writing this at least five times to go out and take their photos, but I have sooooo much to cover before you will see those. Let’s finish up our Zambezi Queen story.
Pre-Dawn Solo Birdwatching
This was our last full day on the Zambezi Queen and they had scheduled another optional birdwatching tour at 6:30 am. When they had done this on our first morning, there had been about eight of us who went out on the boat with Gibson.
I had promised myself to do every game/birdwatch cruise they offered us so I was up and ready to go. Sadly, no one else was. When Gibson came to get everyone and found just me waiting, I told him it was OK if he didn’t want to go out. That I would just stay on the Queen and process photos. He told me, “If I don’t take you I will be stuck either cleaning or assisting with breakfast. I would much rather be on the river in my boat. I will take you someplace that we don’t usually go but it is the best place to see birds.” How could I pass that up? So I got in the boat and off we went. I have to say that this morning cruise with Gibson was absolutely (so far with three days to go) one of the true highlights of the cruise for me.
We started out going in an entirely different direction than we had on all the other game cruises. We went towards the rapids that led to Victoria Falls. As we approached them, I could see thousands of nesting birds silhouetted by the rising sun. We stayed right in that area for more than an hour, with me getting to shoot any bird I wanted to my heart’s content. He would ask how I wanted the boat positioned so I could get the best shot and the best light. What a guy!!!
We also saw a couple of crocodiles and hippos. On the way back to breakfast (which was totally up to me), we stopped alongside a herd of Cape buffalo and I got my favorite animal photo up to that point. I am not much of a bird photographer, and if you are, these may disappoint you, but they make me happy. Plus I got another great African sunrise. Here are the pics from that morning trip with my new best photo friend, Gibson. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
My attempt at shooting the African moon as it set. I never have luck with moon shots but this one is pretty good.
Now the start of my day with Gibson, sunrise.
And all those trees are full of bird’s nests.
And soon the sky is full of birds.
And the sun comes up enough that you can clearly see the nests.
And they are everywhere.
A yellow billed stork
Waiting for a fly by. And there it is.
More sunrise nests
And more.
And More.
And still more. They are just so amazing. I am hoping you are looking at these full screen, with your monitor set to its brightest setting.
But more nests catch my eye in a new light.
Every photo seems different as the light changes.
Depending on where I look, it’s amazing.
I see a Yellow-billed stork flying by.
Quick action shot.
Not my camera skill on this shot but Gibson’s boat driving.
The Yellow-billed storks are gorgeous.
And I keep finding them in new places.
As we return for breakfast, I see two fishermen that Gibson tells me are checking their nets that they have left there overnight.
Then we say this guy. He as beyond majestic.
Especially when you see him in this shot.
And we returned to a comic Bernard pretending to pull in our boat.
Visiting the locals
After breakfast, everyone boarded the smaller boats to return to Namibia, heading towards a small village just east of the border station. Our guide for the morning was Tecklar, a young, single woman who lived there. She shared that the village, which had just under 40 residents, including men, women, and children, was relatively new. Tecklar had recently become a part of the community, and she had to apply to the village elder, the regional chief of the tribe, and finally the government to be allowed to move in.
Editor’s note:At this point I welcome any of my fellow travelers to correct me on any facts, as it has been over a week since our visit, and my memory might be a bit hazy.
While we were in the village we were shown the lodgings, new well and solor system, the gardens and finally the village gathering place where almost the entire village sang and danced for us. It was a an awesome visit. They even had a small bazaar set up where they sold things they had made. We came home with a hand-painted bowl and a carved wooden giraffe. So here are my photos from the visit. Hopefully you got a chance to watch the video above of the village entertaining us. You know the drill. Don’t forget to click the photos to make them bigger.
This is our guide Tecklar
On the way to the village (and every time we went to the Namibia border) we passed this small store and bar. Sometimes (like this morning,) no one was there. Other times it would be packed.
Tecklar tells us about how they build their homes and how long she had to wait for permission to join the village.
The village garden.
Strange how there was no running water or indoor plumbing, but there were satellite dishes.
A typical home.
The local well.
Guavas.
Time for dancing
And singing
And more singing
And more dancing.
This gave me a great chance to do some people pictures.
Some of our group joined the dancing.
The drummers were excellent.
This little guy spent most of the performance under his mom’s feet.
One of the drummers.
The costumes were beautiful.
So were the faces.
So much of the African spirit.
This guy had it too.
He was so photogenic
I loved shooting him. He just draws the lens.
So did this woman.
And the guys.
They passed around grains they use in cooking.
Kathleen enjoyed the show.
Bernard (our cruise director) has a twin brother ? who plays the drums.
They look amazingly alike.
And just so you can hear the music, here’s a short video.
Afternoon Game Cruise
After a quick bite for lunch, we were off on our last game cruise of our voyage. Kathleen decided to stay and pack, so I was off with a few of the others and Gibson. He finds us the best stuff. I need to add that Kathleen did not miss much by staying on the Zambezi Queen. While she packed, the Queen sailed up and down the river, and they saw as many animals as we did. Maybe they weren’t close, but they were definitely close enough. I will put some of her iPhone photos up later so you can see what I mean.
Instead of going into detail in text about what we saw on this last game cruise, I will just let my photos do the talking. Enjoy. Captions identify but you have to change into slide show mode to see them.
I loved the way this elephant was perfectly framed by this arch.
Momma and baby hippo
A family of giraffes
So often these are alone, it was great to see them together.
I loved these two.
This may be the cover of my Africa book.
Or this one.
Part of Fish Eagle triptych
An African Fish Eagle grabs prey from the shore.
And flies away with it.
This tree just said Africa.
The same place we had seen hundreds of other animals on different days and times…
Was now totally filled with elephants
And a lone giraffe.
And this little guy and his mom.
A new village being built.
See the large mound behind the woman carrying water? That’s a termite mound.
The local bus.
Some guys waiting for a taxi.
Gibson took a wide-berth around these guys.
That covers the day. It was back to the Queen for a final night dinner that featured some of the incredible crew members singing and dancing for us afterward. More tomorrow.We just got back from a game drive, it’s freezing, we ate dinner and are going to bed because we go out again tomorrow morning at 6:00 pm.
This is our guide Sam. That’s his jeep we rode around in all day.
Just so you know, this post details our third day on Queen, but we barely got on before dinner on day one, so I am counting yesterday as Day 1 and today as Day 2.
Day two is all about Chobe National Park in Botswana, where we would spend the day in the back of a jeep (on decent seats) being bounced all over the place while seeing some amazing animals, then stopping for a nice picnic lunch before heading back to the Zambezi Queen for dinner.
Our day started like any other day leaving the Queen to go someplace. Even though we could see the park in Botswana from the Zambezi Queen, we had to go up river, get out of the boats, walk up the half mile to the border crossing, check out of Namibia, then get back in the boats, head back down river, pass the Queen to the Botswana border crossing where we waited in line again to check in to Botswana. From there, we were picked up by our guides. Kathleen had decided to stay aboard today, so I was on my own with just my camera. And five of us got really lucky and got Sam as our driver. That’s him in the photo—a truly great guy.
He picked us up at the border crossing, and we headed about three miles down the highway to the entrance to Chobe National Park. We stopped to use the facilities (which were easily the most disgusting of the trip—go before you leave the Queen or there is a fairly clean restroom behind the border station coming into Botswana. Just ask for directions.) and then it was on into the park.
Chobe is renowned for having the highest concentration of elephants in Africa, and we quickly discovered this when we found ourselves in the middle of a herd, with one of the elephants coming right up to our jeep. That got a bit scary, but he backed off and went around us. I think that was as close as I got to a wild animal on the entire trip (so far). Maybe six feet away. He did not have a happy look on his face. But I think you should judge for yourself. So here’s the first batch of pictures (all the way up to lunch) from the park. Enjoy. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
This is the big guy who came right up to our jeep.
I did not zoom my camera.
He just kept coming.
And then another one started coming towards us.
She didn’t look very happy either.
But she finally moved on.
We sat in the middle of that herd for quite a few minutes,..
Where I got lots of great closeups.
Of all parts of an elephant.
And then this guy showed up. YIKES!
These banded mongooses (yes, I checked and that is the plural of mongoose).
Did you know that hippos have pink skin? And the gray is a sunburn—Yikes!
Giraffes
Lots of them.
Bunches
And friendly.
This guy was released after years working as the Toys R Us mascot.
Chobe chickens
Baboons
Salad bar for the impalas
And now we have LIONS!
We came around the corner and there was an entire pride under a tree. No male that we could see.
And more elephants.
Since we were on land this time, we got to see the other side of the elephant.
A black faced impala
According to Google, this is a lilac crested roller
This one as well.
This is a southern, red-billed hornbill. You might remember him from his role as Zazu in The Lion King.
Another lilac-breasted roller
Punba! The only warthogs we saw all day. Akuna Matata!
Cape Buffalo skeleton
Out in the bush. This pic just says Africa to me.
Lunchtime
AmaWaterways has been great with arrangements on this entire trip. The biggest reason for this is the amazing Delia. For today, she had completely organized a picnic lunch in the middle of a national park where thousands of wild animals surrounded us. And there was even a restroom…with about the same level of disgusting as the one at the entrance to the park, but not quite as bad. I finished my lunch while others were still eating, and my yearbook mode kicked in, so I started taking candid photos of my fellow travelers. I have some fans of my people shots (hi Kay), so here they are if you are interested. Otherwis,e scroll on down for more animals.
Our picnic site
And some people photos
My new friend AJ taking a bite of banana while one of my favorite people on the trip, Lorraine, looks on.
I think she wanted that banana ?
One of the “two Marinas” with us on our trip. Marina 2 (above) was traveling with her Mom, (Marina 1) from Puerto Rico. Marina 1 is a retired teacher, Marina 2 an art teacher. She very much reminded us of our niece Cassie.
James from Langley, BC
The two Marinas
Sometimes I just can’t remember their names. This gentleman was traveling in a group of four from Indiana
This is his wife.
James watches Nancy from California/Tennessee finish her lunch.
Another person whose name escapes me right now.
You know how some people are just FUN? This is Betty from Tampa and she is a hoot!
After lunch, more jeep riding
Once lunch was over, it was back in the jeep with Sam and off to see more animals. I will let you follow along with the photos.
This is a greater kudu. If the Impalas are the size of our deer then greater kudus are the size of an elk with really cool antlers.
And more giraffes
Lots more. We were really close.
And more elephants.
So many elephants
And as many elephants as there were, there were ALWAYS more impalas.
Cute elephants too.
Not so close this time.
Another greater kudu
Looking back at the park.
This greater kudu really captured my attention.
He just kept posing for me.
That was about it for animals. Just some final notes to let you know where we are now and what’s coming in posts.
Today is Monday, July 14. It is our full day in Johannesburg. The photos on this page were taken on Wednesday the 9th. In the interim we had one more day on the Zambezi Queen and then we transitioned to Victoria Falls for two nights. I have a lot more videos, but uploading them takes a while and uses up a lot of bandwidth.
Stop the presses! We are just back from our visit to the Soweto Township. What a kick in the teeth. In the USA, I always feel guilty for being a white male, now I feel bad for being a white, male, financially successful, American. More about that in a few days. Suffice it to say, today’s trip was beyond eye-opening.
Of course, no post from Africa should be without either a sunrise or a sunset. Enjoy!
I was a child among the lions. Now I want to be one of those lions. —Charles Oliveira
We spent four incredible days and five wonderful nights on the Zambezi Queen. It was so far beyond what I expected that I can’t even begin to tell you. Our first day offered three possible game cruises. When I say “game cruises,” it means we got into a smaller boat that held 7-10 people plus the driver and set out to explore the river and its tributaries close up. Unlike the rest of the time, when the Zambezi Queen herself would float up and down the Chobe River. You will be amazed at what we could see just looking out the window of our stateroom.
Early Morning Bird Watching…and MORE!
The first game cruise offered on the first day was a 6:30 AM bird watching cruise with my (now) good buddy, Gibson, at the helm. About six of the 28-person group showed up, and off we went. I am not much of a bird watcher. But this turned into so much more. Not everyone was willing to get up and go that early, but I had resolved to take every single small boat trip they would offer me in the four days we were there. And was I ever glad we did. I am going to shut up now and let you see the photos from this early-morning bird watching expedition. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Every single sunrise we saw in Africa was this color.
It was truly amazing.
Suns up. Time to find more birds and wildlife to shoot.
This is an African Fish Eagle (distant relative of the American Bald Eagle) being dive bombed by a pied kingfisher to keep her away from her nest.
It was almost funny. The eagle finally flew away.
Google says this is a Black Stork
This one too.
Another Pied Kingfisher
A yellow-billed stork
More of the same.
Our first hippo
They are about as big as a car.
Heron, I am pretty sure.
And another yellow-billed stork.
Living side by side with one of the most dangerous animals.
Even helping to get the bugs off the hippo.
Truly Amazing!
Northern Lapwings
They nest in the ground to protect their eggs and young.
They are beautiful when they fly
And when you see them all spread out above their nests like this.
A Black Skimmer
Still skimming
And here too.
He is skimming all over the place.
And my camera was following him.
Everywhere he went.
Cape Buffalo–the most dangerous animal out on the Chobe.
The guides hate them because they can be very erratic.
This is a group of photographers traveling with a company called Pangolin. Check out those lenses. There’s probably $100K of glass on that little boat.
Another African Fish Eagle posing for us.
Baboons!
We have baboons. These guys were eating the remains of something dead.
Two Egyptian geese.
So many baboons, so little time.
These are called Helmeted Guinea Fowl by Google but Chobe Chickens by everyone who lives there. You can eat them, even though the look like armadillos.
The Egyptian Goose that got away.
The African Sea Eagle he got away from.
An African Darter in the midst of some geese and cormorants.
Elephants…in a line
On their way someplace.
Who knows where.
Time for breakfast on the Zambezi Queen.
10:00 AM Game Cruise
After breakfast, pretty much everyone piled into one of the three small tour boats and took off up or down the Chobe River alongside Chobe National Park in Botswana and the shores of Namibia. We were not allowed to get too close to the park itself, but we could stop the boats just off the park for photos. And I took a BUNCH! And here we go again.
These are Impalas
But the locals call them McDonalds
Because they are speedy but at the bottom of the food chain.
I want to say we saw more than 20K, in our four days there.
I later learned that if you look at their butts as they are running away from you, you can see the Golden Aches in brown fur.
Perfect symmetry with two wire-tailed swallows
The biggest, gruffest Cape Buffalo of the day.
Looking over his herd.
Lots of birds
And more hippos
Still more.
And an Impala in full running mode.
And full drinking mode. They are very skittish when near the water as crocodiles may pull them in.
So many of them.
Speak of BIG crocodiles.
They are on every bank.
Along with hippos
By the score
More wire-tailed swallows.
They are very photogenic.
And BIG crocodiles.
Really big crocks.
Afternoon Game Cruise
The 10:00 game cruise took about three hours, so we were back on board at 1:00, had lunch and rested or just watched the river go by. Because it was the dry season, a whole bunch of animals had come down to the river. But that didn’t stop me from joining Gibson on the 3:00 PM game cruise. Kathleen decided to stay on board and watch out the window of our stateroom (she saw hippos, elephants and Cape Buffalo). I just got closer to them than she did. Here’s my pics from the afternoon game cruise. By now you know the drill.
As soon as we left the Queen we saw this guy.
Rolling around in the mud…
…on the island between Namibia and Botswana.
He looked like he was having such a good time.
I just had to keep shooting.
It was worth it.
Along comes a big one.
And an elephant parade.
These two greeted each other like long, lost lovers,
See how close they are to the boat we are in.
The just kept moving on.
While we had stopped to watch those elephants, the Zambezi Queen had caught up to us so Kathleen could see these same guys outside our stateroom window..
We moved on and found some other elephants, this time with babies.
Who were adorable
We had been by this spot on the river three times that day. The first time no elephants…
Just baboons.
The second time no elephants, just Impalas.
The third time, Elephant Bay (what this area is called) was full of elephants.
This guy was so cute.
He covered himself with dust to get bugs off of his back.
Moms were very protective
No other animals were around.
Just this big bunch of elephants.
An adult giving himself a dust bath.
It’s cool to photograph.
Or a family portrant
Or these two kids…
Who were having the time of their lives.
Time to see some birds.
This is a malachite kingfisher and is maybe the most beautiful bird I have ever seen.
A water-thick knee. At least that’s what Google says.
And our first giraffe.
Did you know this was how they drank?
I didn’t.
It’s an interesting way.
Two trees on the veldt.
This is what our safari boats looked like. There were three of them on the Zambezi Queen.
Another hungry and huge croc.
A very big elephant headed our way.
And I still have not seen and African sunrise or sunset I haven’t been thrilled with.
See what I mean.
Those three shot are all within about 5 minutes. When the sun comes or or goes down, it happens fast.
God bless Africa, Guard her people, Guide her leaders, And give her peace. —Trevor Huddleston
The next morning, we woke up in the Cape Grace hotel, grabbed a very early breakfast and headed to the airport for our flight to Victoria Falls airport in Zimbabwe. The flights went pretty well, except that Kathleen and I couldn’t sit together. Our wonderful tour organizer, Delia, had seen how tall I was and got me an exit row. That was fine, but when the gate agents saw Kathleen roll up in a wheelchair, they moved her back in the plane instead and didn’t move me as well.
Our flight in an Embraer 190 (one of our favorite planes) was a good one. It takes about 2.5 hours to get from Cape Town to Victoria Falls Airport. We had to go through passport control to check out of South Africa. Then, when we arrived in Zimbabwe (where the Victoria Falls airport is), we had to clear customs there. We then boarded a bus and drove for about 90 minutes to the Botswana border, where we had to check out of Zimbabwe and then drive a short distance to check into Botswana (by a short distance, I mean about 100 feet). Then we drove another 45 minutes and arrived at the dock where we would catch the smaller boat that would take us to the Zambezi Queen. But first, we had to pass the Queen (on the river) and go to the Namibian border. We had to then get off the small boats and walk inland about half a mile in order to check into Namibia (because legally, the Zambezi Queen is in Namibia). After walking about a mile in the very hot sun, we got back on the boat and went back to the Zambezi Queen. Whew! From the time we landed in Zimbabwe, this whole process took us about 3 hours. Just crazy.
And the really crazy thing is that we had to do it all over again anytime we left the ship. I have now done that hike from the shoreline to the Namibian border station at least six times. Might be eight. Luckily, they did not make Kathleen do the walk. I could sign in for both of us. It is also expensive, and there are a LOT of forms to fill out. We had done our Namibian e-visas before we left, so that helped a little. Thank goodness we had Delia to tell us what to do to satisfy all the legal requirements.
Now the good stuff. Once we got on the small boat to head for the Namibian border, we realized that we were definitely in Africa. Our driver, a wonderful man named Gibson, would stop if it looked like there was something to see. Usually, there was A LOT to see. So, here are some pics. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The Chobe River was jammed with boats.
We saw nice game lodges…
…as we were going towards Namibia.
And some interesting excursion boats.
This guy got his own boat. Something I would experience later in the week.
Look! Elephants!
Up close elephants.
There are more elephants in Chobe National Park than in most of the rest of Africa.
I would say they are very friendly but I am just not sure.
This kid has lens that costs more than my camera and lens combined.
This was a swallow’s nest inside the small boat we were on.
We can see the Zambezi Queen
She sure looked good.
And then we went past her to go the Namibian Border…but we finally made it back.
I took this from the lounge on the top deck of the Zambezi Queen. African sunsets (and sunrises) are amazing.
I wish I could have taken a photo of the border crossings (especially the one we had to walk to in Namibia), but there are huge signs everywhere prohibiting photography. But I was able to get a Google Maps overhead shot of the shore-to-office route we had to take. It was pretty much soft sand all the way.
They all had something interesting about them. The Zimbabwe border had baboons everywhere, and to enter Botswana, you had to walk across mats soaked in insecticide to keep their cattle herds safe. We also had to turn over any other shoes we had with it to two people from AMA, and they had to dip them in the disinfectant and then get them back to us. And Namibia was just nuts. You walked all that way through domesticated animals (I had a nice talk with a dog while waiting for some fellow travelers to walk back with me) plus roosters that would not shut up.
I think that about covers our transition day. It was probably the only thing I didn’t love about our time on the Zambezi Queen. That and all the other times we had to do the border crossings. Everything else was just about perfect. More about that later.
Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. —W. C. Fields
I have mentioned our guide, tour boat driver and my early morning buddy numerous times, but I keep meaning to post his photo. This is the amazing Gibson. He is the best!
