Hello from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe!

Our 21 day adventure with our overland group has
finally come to an end.  We've had a great time and
enjoyed sharing in the adventure with our overland
group.  

Our last update was from Swakopmund, Namibia two weeks
ago.  From there we travelled on to Spitzkoppe, a few
hours north of Swakopmund.  

Along the way we made a quick stop in Cape Cross to
view the Cape Seal colony.  Unfortunately, I cannot
email you a smell which would be the best way to
describe it!  Peeyew!  There must have been thousands
of seals filling the beach and surrounding water for
as far as we could see.  They constucted a waist high
wall about 50 meters from the water which we could
view the colony from.  Seals covered the area all the
way to the wall.  There were many pups all around and
most of the seals sunned and scratched.  But the smell
was just overpowering.  

Spitzkoppe was our destination for the day which is a
granite mountain jutting out of the Namibian desert
(bushveld).  It's a beautiful place and the rocks are
beautiful at sunrise and sunset.  We camped in the
bush just below the mountain.  That night we were
prepared a most amazing feast.  We had smoked muscles
as hors d'ourves, beautifully grilled lamb tenderloin,
and fire cooked apple crisp for desert!  We all ate
till we nearly popped.  In the morning I awoke at
4:30am, climbed atop some of the nearby rocks, and
awoke everyone by playing a few songs on the guitar. 
Afterwards, everyone joined me up on the rock as we
watched the sunrise.

After sunrise we packed up and made way for Etosha
National Park Reserve for 3 days of game viewing. 
This park is not so well known (As with anything
Namibian), but those who know of it, say it is one of
the best game viewing parks in Southern Africa. 
During the day we went on morning and afternoon
gamedrives and at night we sat by the waterholes and
watched for game before bed.  The first night we saw 5
white rhinos at the waterhole.  They were very slow
and cautious (like watching in slow motion).  I guess
they have bad eyesight so they are always carefull.

After I went to bed I was awoken at 3am by the sounds
of lions roaring!  So I got up, as Than slept soundly
through it, and went to the water hole to see what was
up.  We got to see 2 huge male lions making their way
to the water hole stopping occasionally to roar back
and forth at eachother.  The roars could be heard for
a long way and are very very impressive to hear. 
Several months before a man fell asleep at the same
water hole and had been killed by a lion that jumped
the fence (Scary, but not all that common).  

On the game drives we saw plenty of Springbok
antelope, wilderbeast, and Zebra.  We would also see
Jackels, Voltures, Storks, Warthogs, and Giraffes from
time to time.  We were most excited to see 2 cheetah
crossing the road.  They stopped and crossed
cautiously taking about 5 minutes while we got to
watch them from about 40 meters away!  We are
travelling during the beginning of the rainy season so
we were lucky to see what we did.  During the dry
season you can see even more.

On the 4th day we headed to Windhoek, the capital of
Namibia.  The drive was beautiful like the rest. 
Volcano shaped hills were common along the first part,
turning into rolling hills which looked remarkably
similar to Texas hill country!  Of course as with most
of Namibia the land was mostly bushveld (desert with
small brush and trees dotting the landscape).  The
weather for most of the trip has been partly sunny
with dark rainclouds around making for some dramatic
scenery.  Occasionally we found ourselves in
downpours, but mostly saw the rain coming down in
spots all around us.

Windhoek is a medium sized town, modern like most all
Namibian towns, nestled between the rolling hills.  It
was really a nice little town.  We have been amazed
with how nice the buildings, roads, and infrastructure
of Namibia have been.  

We ate and drank at a German beer garden.  That night
we feasted on Gemsbok antelope. The steaks were
delicious.  We all drank ourselves into oblivion that
night ending with a crazy Jenga game at the hostel.

The next morning we drove to Botswana and camped in
the bush between Windhoek and Maun.  The next day we
arrived in Maun which was our home for 4 nights.  Maun
is the site of the worlds largest inland delta.  Most
of the group went out to spend 2 nights on the delta,
going on Mokoro boat rides, game walks, and camping
completely in the bush.  

Than and I stayed at our campsite in town since the
delta trip was outside of our budget (Like EVERYTHING
in Botswana).  Be warned that Botswana and Tanazania
are amazingly expensive countries when compared with
their neighbors.  It was $130 extra to camp 2 nights
in the delta.

Instead, we took a 1 hour flight over the delta in a
Cesna.  It was a great flight and our pilot was cool
enough to fly us to down as close as 10 meters above
the delta!  We got to see large Elephant heards of up
to around 30 elephants at a time.  We also saw hippos,
antelope, giraffe, and water buffalo.  The delta
itself was very beautiful as well.  

Otherwise, we just relaxed for the time we were there.
 Our campsite had a nice pool and bar across from the
river where local kids came to swim everyday.

From Maun we drove on to Chobe National Park at the
Botswana and Namibian border near Victoria Falls.  We
took a sunset boat ride along the park and got to see
hippos and crocs around us in the water.  We also saw
elephants, antelope, and two beautiful fish eagles. 
The sky had dark rainclouds with the beatifull green
landscape lit up by sunrays shining through which made
for really beautiful viewing.  

The next day we arrived at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. 
After setting up camp we took a sunset cruise on the
Zambezi with all the booze for free.  You can imagine
what happened.  It was amusing to say the least.  We
were all singing on the ride back across the
Zambia/Zimbabwe border.  Our guides stamped eachothers
asses at the border post!  It was really funny and the
border control people were in hysterics.  

We ended the evening at the casino bar and then a
dance club before we all finally found our way home. 
It was our last night together and we had a blast.

Amazingly, we awoke at 6am the next morning
(yesterday) to go rafting on the Zambezi!  It was a
great time.  The gorge we rafted in was incredibly
beautiful and the rafting was wild.  My raft was
flipped once and people got knocked out from time to
time.  It was one of the more memorable experiences. 
Although, I think we will have to return and raft the
Zambezi again sometime.  Now the water is quite high
so the rapids were quite tame compared to when the
water is lower.  From the videos we saw the rafting is
just spectacular under those conditions.  I think it
must also be pretty terrifying as well!

So now our overland truck left this morning and we
will stay the night here in Victoria Falls before
going over to Livingston, just across the falls in
Zambia tomorrow.  There we can see the falls for $3
instead of $20 here in Zimbabwe.  Afterwards we will
take the train to Malauwi where we can see the big
lake and beautiful scenery.  Hopefully we can do some
hiking.  Then we will go on to Tanzania to visit
Zanzibar island, Dar Es Salam, Kilamanjaro, and
Ngorogoro Crater.

March 8th we will fly on to Delhi, India.  We just
found out about the earthquake and hope it will not
cause much of a hinderance to our travels there.  

Okay, hope you enjoyed reading this huge email.  We'll
try and email more frequently so we don't have to
write about so much at one time.

Hope everyone is doing well and we always look forward
to hearing from you guys and finding out how things
are back in the states or wherever you are.

Cheers,

Chris and Than