Yesterday morning we went on a morning safari drive through mosio-tunya national park in Livingstone. Mosio-tunya means "the smoke that thunders". The park is named after Victoria Falls, because when the first explorers/residents were coming down the Zambezi river they saw some smoke (mist) in the distance, then heard the loud noise the falls make. The park runs along the Zambezi river.
We knew we could only see 3 of the big 5 (animals this time) of Africa - the elephant, rhino and buffalo (there are no cats in Zambia - lion & leopard). Well, we were very lucky and saw all 3 plus many more!
Our guide was named Tony and he was the real thing - just off the safari channel.
One of the first things we saw was a very large python! Brother Al managed to jump over Kem to the middle of the seat, away from the snake. I wasn't too happy about it either because it was just beside our truck. We kept telling the driver to move on but he didn't seem to be in a hurry. We later found out that he told John West (who was riding in the cab with him) to let him know if the snake moved and he would take off! Scary...
We saw many zebra, buffalos, impala, wildebeast, & warthogs while on our search for elephants and rhinos.
We came across a national park guard that let us know where the black rhinos were. There is a guard that watches them 24/7 because of poachers. When we got to the location, they were sitting about 150 meters from the road. Our guide allowed us to walk out slowly so that we could see them from about 50 meters away. It was a little nerve wracking, as he explained how dangerous they can be. Hope this video can give you some perspective:
Our next adventure was with the elephants. We had already crossed paths with 3 earlier, but we now stumbled upon a whole pack of them going down to the river for water. They were blocking our path at first, and when we finally passed throughout them, one of the mothers "yelled" at us (similar to what can be heard at Bryant Denny stadium)...Enjoy the video below
One of the last animals we saw were the giraffes. Such interesting creatures
We felt fortunate we were able to see so much. Tony did a great job finding everything we wanted to see! Next stop, Victoria falls.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
