On the Zambesi, July 30

Today was to be an easy day. We woke as usual about 6, and watched the sun come up through the haze of the dusty sky. We were on an "island" on a side channel of the Zambezi, very muddy and difficult in many ways. One of those was that there was no discreet place to go to the bathroom. However, we managed somehow, with the wake-up snack done and the packing finished, and we were off down the river.

Once we got into the river proper, we realized that there was a significant wind to battle. Even with the river current of 4-5 km/hr, the wind meant that we we were barely moving. And the waves were coming over the bows of the canoes. So it was not pleasant, and after an hour or so, we stopped for breakfast.

Bono let us sleep for a while, and we waited a bit until he felt that the wind was in fact going to settle down. We got back on the river, fought the wind for a while (so I doubted his thinking about the wind), but found that he was right (again), so went on. It then became quite nice, taking our time to go along the river, seeing some impalas, once an elephant, and lots of hippos as usual. After a while we stopped again for lunch, and had quite a nice site. I found a trench kind of hole, which turned out to be the former tunnel of an aardvark, now abandoned and collapsed. And lots of elephant dung, about the size if a soccer ball, dry and eaten by termites.

I am interested in the vegetation as well, and we saw the Bob Marley tree, the milk weed (with it's fruit which leads it to be known colloquially as the old man's balls plant). Also the winter thorn acacia, many ebony trees, and now again some baobab trees. I am told that baobabs which are three metres in diameter are a millennium old! And there is one in Zambia which is thick enough that they have put a bathroom into the base of it.

The island we are staying on tonight is in the False Gorge area, just before the final Gorge of our trip. The Zambian shore and the Zimbabwean shore are closer than we have seen for a week. This is a sandy island with a rocky part to it, some trees, but mostly sand. It is safe from the hyenas and the lions, although there are a multitude of hippos just off shore. And the water is faster here, so I have the sound of running water to lull me to sleep.

A vegetarian supper tonight, and I had some conversation with Scu, the youngest of the guides. He has just got a dog, is about to marry the mother of his son, and is working to get his guide's licence. An interesting evening.


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Location:False Gorge