Thursday, February 17, 2011

Well, as you will see following this post, I'm finally back on Wifi so can send pictures.

We had a fabulous day yesterday -- went to ChobeNational Park which is in Botswana. We went by bus to the border then crossed the Chobe River in open aluminum boats. The river is the borderline between Botswana and Zambia where we were staying. We had to do lots of paperwork each time we crossed those borders. The first activity was a boat tour of the Chobe River. We finally had a good look at hippos. The river seems quite shallow with lots of grassy areas in the middle. After a delicious lunch at a lodge, we went on a game drive where we saw hundreds of elephants. What a sight! And many of them were playing in the water -- all ages. The youngest we saw was only a few weeks old.

We were beseiged at the border with the seller of carved hippos and rhinos. They are desperate to sell and it is quite distressing for us. I would buy more if they would let me alone so I could browse.

Our hotel at VFalls was definitely probably 6 star. Someone told me today that the going rate for a room there is $880 per night!!! There is a butler for each unit of 10 rooms. He/she stands outside most of the day waiting for something to do for us. So I gave him my dirty shoes -- got soaked from the falls then the red dirt stuck to them. He did a beautiful job on them. The president of Zambia was arriving today to stay there!! Lots of military around.

This morning we left for Port Elizabeth (I know I said Capetown in a few emails but that wasn't correct). We got to Joburg and had to pick up our luggage then go through customs again as we were now back in South Africa. Well, Don's suitcase never showed up and as we were extremely tight for time, we couldn't get the search started until we got into Port Elizabeth. So, the suitcase is either still in Livingston or has gone on one of the other two international flights which went out about the same time we did!! So, we don't have high expectations of ever seeing it again. But they have our tour guide's # and will contact him if they find it. It actually was an exhausting day for most of us as the airport hassle seemed endless. No more flights until we head for home thank goodness. The rest is by bus.

Port Elizabeth is on the Indian Ocean. Looks very prosperous though didn't see much of it. The drive from the airport only took about 10 minutes. Dinner at the hotel was good as usual.