20250124 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 60/96 - Victoria Falls and Game Drive

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 60/96 - Victoria Falls and Game Drives - A long, good day

Ugh. Early mornings suck. Unbeknownst to me, it will get worse tomorrow.

We were up and ready to go on our first game drive at 6:30.

When I approached the lodge, this was on the wall - it was still there at breakfast three hours later - must have been a slow moth day

Our stadium seating Toyota Land Cruiser - our group of ten used two so there was plenty of room to spread out

We departed, looking for wild game. It didn't take long.

Baboons, hanging out in the road as we departed the lodge

Crossing into the protected area of the game preserve

We found this group of eland, but one of them seemed a little different

Nobody seemed to notice anything was wrong

Just hanging out

Eland are huge - almost moose-sized

We found this dung beetle, pushing this ball of what we assume was dung, down the road

A smaller dung beetle

Giant African millipede

It was as thick as my pinkie

Look at all those legs

Finally, something larger - this stately giraffe in the road

The giraffe had its tail slightly raised and these two little guys were going to town under there

They were red-billed oxpeckers and they eat ticks, keeping the giraffe's private area clean - but something was up and it looked worried

Ahh...that explains it

They moved up top and started up again once business was completed

Southern red-billed hornbill - this same bird as Zazu in The Lion King

We saw lots of impala again today

Our driver said they are fast food for lions

We stumbled upon this family of five giraffes

The male has bald knobs on its head

The female's and juvenile's knobs have fuzz

Nom nom nom

Next, we ran into Pumba from The Lion King - a warthog, with a buddy that wasn't Timone

Giving us the evil eye

A face only a mother could love

It turned around

And headed back into the brush

We saw several kudu - they were the most skittish of any of the animals

We kept seeing giraffe

They are so big and so graceful that it's hard not to take photos

We saw several helmeted guineafowl

After driving for a while, it was time for a refreshment break.

They had light snacks, tea, and Amarula, an African cream liquor

There was water, so you know where Arlona was

A pair of African fish eagles made the stop extra-special

They resemble American bald eagles but with a lot more white and different eyes

The one on the ground flew up with presumably its mate

They both took off at one point

So majestic

Arlona, taking a closer look

African wattled lapwing

Ring-necked dove

Hippo tracks - Arlona's foot for size reference

Refreshed and ready, we climbed back into the Land Rovers and continued on.

More zebra

Each one's stripes are unique - like a fingerprint

Almost like seeing a big cat - a leopard tortoise

OK, it's nothing like seeing an actual leopard but it was still cool

That wrapped up the morning game drive. We returned to the lodge and had a nice breakfast before turning around and leaving for a tour of Victoria Falls.

Victoria Falls creates the largest sheet of falling water on the planet during its high season. We were not at Victoria Falls at high season so there wasn't as much water falling, but it was still spectacular. It is on the Zambezi River, the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. It is 5,604 feet wide and 354 high, so in easy language, it's huge.

The Victoria Falls Bridge that we drove over yesterday to enter Zimbabwe from Zambia

The Zambezi River, after the falls

I'm going to let the Falls photos speak for themselves.

In high season, this would be one continuous sheet of water

The amount of spray in spots was incredible

A nice spray rainbow

This guy was fishing just above the falls

Dr. Livingstone, I presume?

We spotted the elusive Livingstone Turaco

What a beautiful bird

I couldn't identify these but the underside of their wings was a brilliant red

Skulls of animals from the area - that's an elephant out front

We left the falls and went to our lunch spot, the Lookout Cafe.

The open-air restaurant overlooked the Zambezi River downstream from the falls

The ten of us on this week-long adventure, left-to-right, front-to-back, Garry, John, Arlona, Torie, Ann, Alex, John, Barbara, Alvina, Barry

Restroom signage - women are elephants

Men are warthogs

Arlona was trying to get a photo of these beauties all day and finally got a good shot at the restaurant

'nuff said

After lunch, our driver drove us through some residential areas near the falls and brought us back to the lodge. We made about a 30-minute turnaround and were back out for our evening game drive in search of black rhinos.

Kudu, hiding out

We spotted this giraffe, drinking

Check out that crazy stance to steady itself

It is a long way down to the water

Round #2

The Baobob tree, or tree of life

African grey hornbill

Flame lily - Zimbabwe's national flower

We drove around for more than two hours, looking for black rhinos when finally...

We spotted our first one

The horn has been shaved down to discourage poachers who kill the animal for the horn

It is an imposing animal, even with that goofy grin

Our luck had turned as we saw more

The big one still had its horn and it was impressive

We saw more zebra in the waning golden hour sunlight

As we were working our way out of the preserve, we stumbled upon another one

We actually found one more but it was too far away to photograph

As we rounded another corner, on the other side of the fence from the preserve...

We spotted a group of African elephants on public land

Just before arriving at the lodge, our driver saw this beautiful but venomous puff adder

We got back around 7:30. Neither of us felt like a long and heavy dinner. It was a shame as we have heard great things about the chef and the cuisine here. We planned to go to the room and just have snacks. 

This was waiting for us - a nice surprise

We head out tomorrow morning at (yikes!) 5:30 for a morning game drive. We'll eat breakfast after that, pack, and leave around 11:00 for Botswana and Chobe Game Lodge. We will be there until February 28 when we'll return to the ship in Cape Town. It is 11:22 as I am finishing this so it looks like I'll be dragging tomorrow.