Gael warning in the Congo

Then we got a bit more up close and personal with the elephants. Firstly this is how small a rider on a little Suzuki looks next to a large elephant. This time there was no drama, the elephant just wanted to cross the road.

As Kit and Simon missed out on the elephants coming down from Maun I was keen they would get a good viewing on this road and suddenly we spotted one. They manoeuvred the GS up and I got in position to photograph. The elephant was feeding and initially in the shade. Finally he came out from behind the tree and Kit and Simon were trusting me to keep an eye on the elephant, while they posed for the photo. Actually I was just focussing on framing the shot, but the elephant remained chilled and we did have comms if he suddenly got frisky. Another special moment of the trip.
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Jim: thanks for keeping your eye on the elephant!

The GS has been reaping a harvest of butterflies as we go
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Did Jim mention the croc at the bottom of the garden? It would quite like to munch on one of the resident warthogs which disturbed my reading IMG_3162.jpg


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We were struck by the long lines of trucks approaching Kasane. It seems they are queuing for the Zambia border...and the queue to cross the pontoon bridge is usually about 14 days 1IMG_3150.jpg


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Crossed the Zambezi there in 2015, jumped the queue though����
Try and book a swim in devils pool when you get to Livingstone, a great thrill at the top of the falls.
 
The last few days have been spent in Kasane, in the North East of Botswana, close to a point where the borders of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia all meet. We stayed in a lovely old B&B, called The Old House, named by the same consultancy firm that named the Irish Pub in Mainz, The Irish Pub. This place is relaxed, has a lot of charm and access to the Chobe river for great views, sightings of crocodiles, hippo footprints in the garden, oh, and extraordinary sunsets.

Apart from The Old House, the reason for being in Kasane is it's location near some rather large waterfalls. When I was thinking of joining Simon on this trip, I bought a guide book on Southern Africa, while in Dublin. Opening the book I scanned the map to see the layout of the countries we would visit and one thing caught my eye, Victoria Falls. It was not something we thought of visiting but it was hard to dismiss it once the idea was planted. To visit the falls, meant trecking up to this corner of Botswana, past bad roads and meandering elephants and entering Zimbabwe, but in the end we all felt it was worth giving it a go. So two days ago we left our bikes at the Old House and boarded a minibus, crossed into Zimbabwe to see the falls.

Some photos and comments below.

Entering Zimbabwe, particularly at the moment was not something we were particularly relaxed about. However, we minimised the risk and complications by not taking the bikes and used an experienced courier recommended by the B&B. This got us through the border with ease, though there was some concern about the use of credit cards to pay for the visa, 55 US.

The drive from the border to the falls was under an hour, though lush green forest. At the falls there was a charge to enter, also paid in US Dollars, then you could wander along the paths.

The 2nd photo shows the river just before meeting the falls.

This next is a waterfall is to the side of the main falls but magnificent in itself. The mini rainbow illustrates the amount of spray thrown up by the falls. In fact, they were selling capes when we arrived and at times they would have been useful as, we got soaked even with our waterproof jackets.
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This first view shows the depth of the drop and again illustrates the presence of spray.

The next photo is the classic view of the falls. The flow is not as it's maximum this time of year it normally peaks in May/June.

In the last photo he Zambezi river continues on its way below. These falls were a big hindrance to river travel as trade was opening up with central Africa in the 1800's. In fact even today trucks line up to cross the Chobe river, a big tributary of the Zambizi, to use the one truck pontoon crossing. This means truck drivers have to wait up to a fortnight in the queue. A massive bridge is currently being built to ease the situation.
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This small bridge links Zimbabwe with Zambia but is not heavily used. The biggest users while we were there were cyclists on robust bikes ferrying goods across the border. It seems goods on bicycles do not incur duty, hence the heavy use of bicycles. Simon and Kit walked over the bridge and dipped their toes in Zambia, it counting as another country visited, right Simon?

The monkey was on the path, staying back from the spray.

The statue is of the gentleman is the first European to see the falls and if you are not sure who he is, ask Mr Stanley!
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Our last trip while at Kasane was to take a cruise on the Chobe river. A great experience and a wonderful way of seeing wildlife. The following is a series of photos of the wildlife seen, so if that's not your bag...

These are the birds, the ones I know are, Black Egret, Golliath Heron, Giant White Egret and Red Bishop Weaver(I think you'll work out which one this is). The male weaver weaves a nest for the approval of the female, see right of photo. If she is not happy with the standard he starts again. This process can be repeated.
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Now bigger stuff! Two pictures of Kudu, one grazing, the other licking soil. The soil here is full of minerals and the Kudo ingest some to maintain healthy bones. Then the water buffalo, one of the most dangerous animals here. The last one is pretty dangerous too. There were lots of crocodiles swimming and like here resting on the banks. They are mostly active at night and need to warm up in the sun so they can stay active in darkness.
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Now really big stuff. Firstly the hippo which were grazing on the lush banks and islands. Some were also swimming in groups and we kept an eye on them as the boat manouvered among them.

No apologies but more elephant photos. The first is a big fellow, munching grass he's pulled up, after first shaking off the sand and soil. The next was photobombed by a butterfly while posing in her bath and turns away in disgust. The third one is pushing mud on to his trunk and then flicking on to his body. He flicked some at us when we got too close. Last elephant photo is one I like, with this family group, in lush grass, set against a wonderful sky.
Of course, a sunset to finish.
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Back to the bike trip, Simon and Kit headed off east today through the Chobe National Park along the Caprivi Strip. They aim to get to the coast at Walvis Bay. I'll head back south tomorrow, on route to Windhoek via Nata and Maun.

Here's Kit and Simons departure from Kasane, all loaded up.
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To partly answer a question asked about our route, I thought I'd post the output map from my Garmin InReach Explorer tracker. This shows where we've been so far, starting in Congo where I bought the bike and now in north east Botswana.

For those not familiar with the Garmin InReach Explorer device, this is it. It uses satellite tracking to send up a location signal every 10 minutes, which is what is plotted on the map. It can also send messages including location and has an SOS button to alert the emergency services in which ever country you are travelling through.

Best not to sleep with it under your pillow pressing down on the buttons, as a guy in the US did and then wondered why a helicopter was hovering over his tent.
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Kit and I travelled back into Namibia yesterday and a long hot ride down the Caprivi Strip to Rundu.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprivi_Strip

Fascinating history of the Strip!

Ended up in mediocre hotel with great view over Kavango river. Right hand bank is Angola. Photo to follow when I can get poor WiFi to work!


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