Victoria Falls in Zambia

On April 11. we decided to go in very best time of the day to the mighty Victoria Falls, not far away, in the morning, after a very nice breakfast at Sussi and Chuma. By the way, Sussi and Chuma were the two young faithful servants of Dr.David Livingstone, who carried his body from the jungles, after his death, back to England. We were lucky with the beautiful weather and with the owerflowing Zambezi river. We walked about 2,5 km along the river banks looking the water masses "the Smoke that Thunders" falling down about 100 meters to lower Zambezi. Without waterproof ponchos we had been soaking wet. Because of the sunshine we also got fantastic photos of rainbows over the falls.The trip took around three hours, and was a fantastic experience. On the way back to our lodges, we followed some safari routes seeing a lot of impalas, baboons, giraffes and other animals and one crocodile.

Sussi and Chuma Safari Game Lodge at Zambesi river in Zambia

Very early on Tuesday, April 10. a small group of us (9) flew from Cape Town via Johannesburg to Livingstone in Zambia. We arrived early afternoon at Tambo International Airport from where we were transported to our very fantastic Sussi and Chuma Safari Game Lodge. A nice lunch with perfect personal service was waiting there for us. I had a beautiful round tree cottage including everything you could wish for ,standing on poles about three meters high with a large balcony facing the Zambesi river. All meals and drinks even laundry was included. We had then time about three hours to relax before leaving for a evening safari. I spent those hours alone at the beach bar just a couple of meters away from the river banks, looking the strong current of the partly one mile wide Upper Zambesi and sipping some good South African red wine. Later on the safari of three hours we went with two cars different routes, and our guide found more different animals than the other one.Lots of impalas, a group of buffalos, huge giraffe just a couple a meters away, a hippo, some zebras, lots of baboons and other apes and many other animals, whose names I cannot remember and a array of strange birds. When back at Sussi and Chuma we had a delicious dinner with drinks ,of course. Afterwards I joined two German couples at the beach bar with open fire under African stars until midnight.

Durban , Port Elisabeth and Cape Town , South Africa

On Friday April 6. we were in Durban, which is a very important harbour city. We were warned by ships guide to be very careful there when moving independently around. I had met earlier a very nice Swedish couple Gunnar + wife, who had joined the ship in Sydney until Cape Town, and we had agreed to go together to explore the city. We took ship*s shuttle to a huge shopping centre from where we with the help of a friendly parking attendant got a cab to downtown. After sightseeing we left the taxi at the magnificent beach front and strolled along to find ourselves very soon thirsty and hungry. We enjoyed very good lunch in a nearby hotel restaurant with fantastic service. Our young waitress kept us laughing all the time. We then satisfied returned by taxi to the ship. After one day at the sea we were early in the Sunday morning in Port Elisabeth. Our shuttles brought us to a amusement and restaurant park, where I with my Australian/English friend Bill from Sydney soon found a great place to dine and enjoy the wine. After very many sunny and warm days we now had a slightly rainy and cooler day, which did not disturb us a bit. Next day, late afternoon we saw Table Mountain and Lions Head from the sea, when nearing Cape Town. There were no clouds in the sky and I got very good pictures of the city profile. The evening I spent by myself in a nice steak house at the Water Front preparing my self to a very early wake up call, to leave for Zambia.