Today we traveled from Kruger National Park in South Africa to Victoria Falls/Livingstone, Zambia. That involved a 2.5 hour car ride, couple hour wait in an airport, and a flight on a very empty plane to Zambia.  We arrived in Livingstone in the mid-afternoon, got taken to our new “camp,” and got settled in.

Zambia, like much of Africa, was colonized by the Portuguese followed by the British. At one point they were called Northern Rhodesia, named after Cecil Rhodes, who funded the Rhodes Scholarship and started the diamond company DeBeers. They did not gain independence until 1962. English is the official language, but there are multiple regional/local languages that are spoken, the most common being Bemba. Their biggest export/industry is copper. We were told that much of this industry is owned by China.

After a late lunch, we were taken on a cruise of the Zambezi River. At this point, the Zambezi forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Because of COVID, Zimbabwe will not allow ground border crossings other than for commerce, so we will be staying in Zambia, even though we can see Zimbabwe from our room.

The Zambezi River is the 4th longest river in Africa at 1,599 miles long. It is in or borders Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Mozambique. It is the longest African river that flows eastward and it empties into the Indian Ocean. It contains the well-known Victoria Falls.

The river here is home to many hippos and crocodiles, so it isn’t anywhere you would want to swim. 

The hippos are funny because they spend their daytime on sandbars and other shallow areas of the river where they can stand and keep their heads above water. They are huge and don’t actually swim, but rather walk on the bottom of the river (or lakes, if that is where they live). They can hold their breath for a few minutes at a time. Their skin is sensitive to the sun, so they stay underwater during the day and graze near shorelines in the evenings when the sun isn’t a problem.

We saw a few crocodile. These are Nile crocodile and they throughout much of Africa. They can grow over 20 feet long and weigh over 2000 pounds. 

Since much of our day was taken up with travel and getting settled in there aren’t many pictures.