WOW Victoria Falls

It has been a hectic week, this is my last weekend in Katima Mulilo, next week I an going to Rundu, on the banks of the Okovango River for a change, which will be my home for the next 3 months. Since my time here was running out, I thought I had better take the opportunity while I am so close and go over to Zimbabwe and visit Victoria Falls, Wow I'm so very glad I went, it was amazing, Sandi and I came here in "91" and have very fond memories of it, and it didn't disappoint, although, I was sad that I couldn't share it with my family, especially Sandi.

This 'small' waterfall is the very left hand side of the falls, and is next to the 'devils cateract'.

If you click on any of these shots they should give you a big version, this one is worth it. the photo above this one, is on the very left of the falls. If you look on the road in front of the falls you can see 10 Semi-trailer trucks parked end to end waiting to get through the boarder post, it gives you an idea of the scale, the falls are 1.7km across. The bridge on the right hand side has a little structure in the middle, it is a bungy jump shed, that is where the Australian girl had the cable snap a few months ago, check out the rapids just below the bungy spot, there are crocs too. All of the land on the right is Zambia, I shot this from a chopper.

If you look at the valley with the bridge and follow it to the bend, but look at the building above the end of the valley (you will have to zoom it in and it will be a bit pixelated) you should see what is in the next shot.

Look in the distance between my friend Abuid and me, and you can see the bridge, we are in the garden of the Victoria Falls hotel, a very famous and beautiful hotel at the end of the valley with the bridge.

Looking down the falls.

Then on our way home, as we were going through Chobi national park in Botswana,  we were treated to this, just look at how she dissapears below the grass.

It is a little difficult to see the size of this cat untill you see the next shot.

This is not a technicaly very good photo, (camera shake, as the driver started moving off) however, you can clearly see how lean and fit this magnificent animal is, I have said many times that the ones in the zoo just don't look like this.

You get a much better idea of the power of the falls in this vid. If you look at the first arial shot at the top of the photos above, (the second photo) we start going along the walkway which is opposite the falls and on the left hand end. it starts of dry-ish but as we get further into the middle of the falls, the wind and wet, get very strong. The helicopter ride is a bit boring on vid, but was fantastic in real life, you will have to do it one day, tell me if I'm right.

On Friday, we had the "End of Year" celebration, which was a little late, but never mind that, it started off with a fantastic meal at the Protea hotel, which is the closest thing you can get to a Hilton or Hyatt in Katima Mulilo. Then a boat cruise down the Zambezi toward the Botswanan boarder, of course I went fishing.

 Just walk down here through this long grass to the boat, oh don't worry about that sign, nobody has been eaten here in ages.

 Yes the beard is real, but the gut is fake.

My fellow shipmates

So,... what is this?

Yes my friends, I finallly made another post, in general, I'm just working, that means that I wake up 5 days a week at 6am to get ready for a 7am start, except on Tuesday and Friday, when we have our staff meetings, which start at 6:45am so that we minimise disruption to the students schedule. (most of you can see why my blog posts are thin on the ground)
Today, an anomily to this routine was "what is for dinner?"

So I got the mince out of the freezer and was about to cook it when  I decided to look at the label to see if it might be too old,... I don't remember buying this, but obviously I/ did.
But the question still remains, "What am I about to eat?"
After actually eating it, I recon iy was my favorite,... yep,... Kudu, ...just never know, with a label like that, which screams "Road Kill".
For those that are wondering, the price is about A$1.20.

What? no photos!!

I just took a trip today to go to a meeting in Rundu, which is 500km from here at the other end of the Caprivi strip, that means we have to drive through the national park, the strip is only 50km wide, but about 500 km long.
On this one trip I saw Elephant, Lions (the first I have seen since being in Namibia) Honey badger, Baboons, Ostriches and bushbuck, amazingly for me, I didn't get one photo of any of them, but they were all very close to or running on the road in front of us, but this was a business trip, not a sight seeing tour, so no photos.
If any of these creatures are not familiar to you, you could look them up on your favorite search engines photo page.
The two lionesses were BIG cats, and were just off the main road by about 10 meters, on a side road, they seemed to be just watching the cars go by, they made eye contact as we went by, quite thrilling. By the way, the village in the photo below is in the exact same area as these animals, so any one of them could walk right on in any time.

                                           A typical Caprivian village.

Nothing like Africa to grow em big, big cats, big snakes and big Millipedes, this thing felt about as heavy as a sausage, hardly surprising I suppose.

Back in Namibia

After a whirlwind trip back to Oz, it feels strangely like I never went home, except for the bit where I have lots of great memories and lots of toys which I didn't have last time, e.g. my digital sound recorder, a great family photo calendar, and heaps of learning materials for the students and staff here.
Everyone here were extremely welcoming upon my return, and are all conscious of my now fast aproaching re-assignment to the Rundu training centre, which is likely to happen around the end of February.
For those of you who dont know, Rundu is about 500km away from here (Katima Mulilo) and is on the banks of the Okavango River, yes, the same one which flows into nearby Botswana and becomes the Okavango Delta. (I'm sure going to try to get down there whilst I'm in Rundu)
lots of work to be done here with the students and trainers before that though, so

I'm not sure what has happened, but some of my posts have mysteriously vanished, Oh well, they were a bit boring anyway.
Since I was in Oz lots of tropical rain has been falling on this part of Africa, consequently, my dustbowl of a yard is now more jungle like in nature.

This time of year the river which is very nearby, floods, and so all of the animals that live in the bush along the river head our way, two of interest are Spitting Cobras and Black Mambas, so getting the grass down is kind of important, if one of these guys or one of their cousins is in my yard I would like to be able to keep an eye on them    This vid was created, and edited on my phone, so sorry for the lack of volume control.