Victoria Falls
Our first full day
Dinner last night was, culinarily, a gentle
introduction to Africa, with Alan preparing roast chicken, jacket potatoes,
butternut squash with cinnamon, gem squash and gravy. A sense of being away
from home was provided by the bugs flitting around and occasionally on the food.
The most numerous were the stinky bugs, so called because of the odour they
apparently make if you crush them. Since they are so small and easy to flick
away we didn't need to do this. The girls clearly were not used to being
attended at dinner by so many insects but handled it quite well and ate as much
as they would have at home. Later we sat indoors to read and also saw more
exotic small fauna including a beautiful large moth and a small orange gecko.
Zoe took this photo of a praying
mantis:
We slept under mosquito nets, and the girls did well again to overcome their apprehension sleeping under nets on their own single beds with the door shut and the lights out. The ceiling fans seemed effective at deterring bugs from hovering around the bedrooms, and the net/fan combo made for a comfortable night. This morning when I went into their room the girls were sitting very happily in bed colouring, each under her own net like a princess under a canopy. (Amazingly, we managed to get out here with none of the girls' books, which we'll remedy at the airport en route to Fes at the end of the month. So far this is the only packing error that we've discovered.)
This morning after breakfast we had our first formal learning session. After a 30 minute quiz we began gently with a guided half hour discussion about learning, and how we'll be doing it this year. Then Paula joined us and we decamped to the treehouse and started reading The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. We were distracted at one point by an African harrier hawk-hanging on the underside of the next tree pecking at the bark, presumably after insects or a lizard. I was a little sceptical that a hawk would be doing this but the behaviour is described in Alan's Birds of Southern Africa book.
Later we went to the Victoria Falls. I guess I should have posted one of our photo's, or even Zoe's movie clip of the falls, as it's certainly far more impressive than a praying mantis. But maybe you can come to see them yourself one day. the falls really are vast, especially at this time of year after the rainy season when it falls in full force. I haven't ever seen Niagara as a comparison. The girls were especially keen to walk along one of the tracks where you get wet from the spray. These also turned out to be my favourites, partly because they are so atmospheric and partly because the dryer path that goes out towards the bridge seems to run about 30 cm from a fall of several hundred metres (although the severity of this is occluded by the foliage). While the "wet" paths lead out to views of the tumbling water, there is a path that heads out to the head of the falls. It's so tranquil there that only the background noise and the ominous cloud of spray rising over the fall's edge give any indication that you are within a few metres of such an immense phenomenon.
Another subject where we have photo's that are more interesting than a photograph of an insect on a stick would be the baboons. One tableau in particular that will make it onto the web site is the family of four baboons we came across on a path as we were heading out of the Victoria Falls park. The mother was grooming the father, eating the insects that she plucked from his fur, while also nursing a baby. Next to them a young infant was larking around. When we get a chance I'll post some photo's on our web site.
On the drive home we came behind a funeral, which comprised two flat bed trucks, in one of which lay a coffin and both of which carried about a dozen mourners, all of whom looked young. Maybe it was another AIDS death. There is an alarmingly high HIV infection rate, according to the Red Cross reaching 50% in some parts of Southern Africa, and anti-viral drugs are unaffordable for most of those afflicted. The cortege, such as it was, headed off to the informal cemetery next to the national park, where the dead can be buried at much lower cost than at the formal graveyard down the road in Livingstone.
Paula and the girls are back from a walk down to the river, where they were enjoying the late afternoon sun and perhaps optimistically hoping to see an early hippo. Alan is just back with the dogs (he has a border collie who came over from England, a black labrador that was inherited with the lodge and a local mongrel) and he's starting to prepare the braai for dinner tonight. And I'm ready for another beer...
We slept under mosquito nets, and the girls did well again to overcome their apprehension sleeping under nets on their own single beds with the door shut and the lights out. The ceiling fans seemed effective at deterring bugs from hovering around the bedrooms, and the net/fan combo made for a comfortable night. This morning when I went into their room the girls were sitting very happily in bed colouring, each under her own net like a princess under a canopy. (Amazingly, we managed to get out here with none of the girls' books, which we'll remedy at the airport en route to Fes at the end of the month. So far this is the only packing error that we've discovered.)
This morning after breakfast we had our first formal learning session. After a 30 minute quiz we began gently with a guided half hour discussion about learning, and how we'll be doing it this year. Then Paula joined us and we decamped to the treehouse and started reading The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. We were distracted at one point by an African harrier hawk-hanging on the underside of the next tree pecking at the bark, presumably after insects or a lizard. I was a little sceptical that a hawk would be doing this but the behaviour is described in Alan's Birds of Southern Africa book.
Later we went to the Victoria Falls. I guess I should have posted one of our photo's, or even Zoe's movie clip of the falls, as it's certainly far more impressive than a praying mantis. But maybe you can come to see them yourself one day. the falls really are vast, especially at this time of year after the rainy season when it falls in full force. I haven't ever seen Niagara as a comparison. The girls were especially keen to walk along one of the tracks where you get wet from the spray. These also turned out to be my favourites, partly because they are so atmospheric and partly because the dryer path that goes out towards the bridge seems to run about 30 cm from a fall of several hundred metres (although the severity of this is occluded by the foliage). While the "wet" paths lead out to views of the tumbling water, there is a path that heads out to the head of the falls. It's so tranquil there that only the background noise and the ominous cloud of spray rising over the fall's edge give any indication that you are within a few metres of such an immense phenomenon.
Another subject where we have photo's that are more interesting than a photograph of an insect on a stick would be the baboons. One tableau in particular that will make it onto the web site is the family of four baboons we came across on a path as we were heading out of the Victoria Falls park. The mother was grooming the father, eating the insects that she plucked from his fur, while also nursing a baby. Next to them a young infant was larking around. When we get a chance I'll post some photo's on our web site.
On the drive home we came behind a funeral, which comprised two flat bed trucks, in one of which lay a coffin and both of which carried about a dozen mourners, all of whom looked young. Maybe it was another AIDS death. There is an alarmingly high HIV infection rate, according to the Red Cross reaching 50% in some parts of Southern Africa, and anti-viral drugs are unaffordable for most of those afflicted. The cortege, such as it was, headed off to the informal cemetery next to the national park, where the dead can be buried at much lower cost than at the formal graveyard down the road in Livingstone.
Paula and the girls are back from a walk down to the river, where they were enjoying the late afternoon sun and perhaps optimistically hoping to see an early hippo. Alan is just back with the dogs (he has a border collie who came over from England, a black labrador that was inherited with the lodge and a local mongrel) and he's starting to prepare the braai for dinner tonight. And I'm ready for another beer...
Posted: Wed - April 6, 2005 at 10:07 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM