Mixing work and pleasure - last field work and whitewater rafting

This past Wes-Fri, I had the good fortune to do one more field visit in Kazungula, in Southern Province.  Field work is by far the best part of this gig – I just love it.  In fact, the reason I haven’t blogged in several weeks is because I’ve just been working in the office.  For you EDC readers, I’ve been building an ERM framework for Care Zambia – useful for them, but not too exciting for me!

Anyway, this week the team that did the LM3 research study with me (Brenda and Andrew) as well as Kat and I headed to Livingstone to report out the results of our field work study to the villagers.  According to Brenda, this was the first time CARE has ever done this – actually gone back to the people that were kind enough to volunteer their time to be studied and be told what was found.  Kat came too so that she and I could capture some video for both Care and EDC of our partnership in action.

Wednesday was a travel day – the standard 6 hour drive to Livingstone with 5 in a pickup truck.  Amazing what you get used to.  And once again, we stayed at my home away from home, the New Fairmount Hotel, where I spent 12 nights over the past few months.  Despite the reviews, it was the nicest place either of us stayed on all our trips!

Upon arrival in the village of Machenge on Thursday morning, the VSLA group was already singing us their arrival song as we pulled up.  This time I was prepared and hopped out of the truck with the video camera rolling.  It’s hard to explain how cool it is to have a group of 30 people singing to you when you arrive.  Maybe it was us, but it could also have been the bologna sandwiches and fanta that we brought along with us...  I would include the video, but with dial up internet that cuts out every 30 seconds, it's next to impossible.

We went to 2 of the villages that we’d been to twice before and it was great to see familiar faces in the field.  I had printed all the photos I had taken on my previous visits and handed them out to the villagers, which was very popular.  Our local reps told us that they might not have ever had a  pictures of themselves before.  Reporting the results out to the villagers was really incredible as they began to grasp what a big deal it was that they had pulled themselves up by their bootstraps with only training and support from CARE.

On Friday, we got to attend an annual “Share Out” meeting of a VSLA, where the group divides up the savings of the group plus the interest they have earned and everyone receives a big lump sum.  This took place in the village of Natebe and was incredible.  It was really a joyous occasion as everyone sang, danced and celebrated their payday by waving their cash in the air!  The people cheerfully shared what they planned to do with their winfall – buy a goat, buy some tin sheets to replace their thatch roof, or in the case of one woman, buy the land that she has been farming for years!  Unbelievable and very fulfilling to witness.  They all wanted to dance with us and shake our hands.

Of course no field trip to Livingstone is complete without some death defying adventure, so Kat and I, against the better judgment of her mom, had booked a whitewater rafting trip with Safpar.  Ironically, it was my mom, through a friend from her church that put me onto the idea, with the friend saying it was one of the most thrilling things she had done in her life.  She wasn’t kidding.

It was incredibly well organized and run and felt very safe, with rescue kayakers alongside the boats all the way.  Unfortunately though, there are no fitness standards for participants and we got started half an hour late because a group of overweight Brits could barely walk down the hill to get in the rafts at all!  Not a good start as 6 red faced puffed up tourists almost didn’t even get started.  They sensibly recovered with a quick smoke before we left.  Wouldn't want to leave your smokes behind on your rafting trip!

Our boat featured me, Kat, two younger Australian girls and a family of 4 out of shape, unskilled South Africans.  So basically the paddling was up to me and Kat!  Anyway, it’s hard to explain how amazing some of the rapids are – so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.  This is rapid 6 - a class 5 - I'm at the front right (starboard bow perhaps?) and Kat is right behind me.

On rapid 9, the craziest one, also a class 5, you could choose the easy way or the hard way. My whole boat chose easy, while I chose hard, so they moved me to another boat for that drop.  Here is the result. I'm second from the stern on the right side, also known as the guy that got buried the deepest.

All in all, it was an amazing day, with incredible views of the Batoka gorge, crazy adrenalin-fuelled rapids mixed in with a leisurely float down the river (not in the boat) at one point.

I’m really sad to see this amazing adventure come to an end.  The work has been incredibly rewarding, the weekends have been SO much fun and the friendships I have made will last a lifetime.

Hope you enjoyed the blogs – this will likely be the second last one until I get home if I can squeeze in a Botswana one before I leave.

Cheers,

Captain Bruce   

Safari in South Luangwa National Park

An intrepid group of Canadians, some more Zambian than others, set out on a long weekend safari October 24^th through 27^th.  The group included “Captain” Bruce Dunlop, John “Mbovu” Peters and Kat “Which Way to Devil's Pool?” Pipin.  October 24^th is Zambian Independence Day, a national holiday, so we took advantage of the opportunity to “hacer la puente” as they say in Spain and make it into a 4 day weekend.

After much research and even some spreadsheet creation, Kat and I had decided that we would go to Nkwali camp, as recommended by experience safarier Howie Clysdale, who had been there a few years ago.  Part of the decision was based on the fact that we qualified for the Zambian resident’s rate, which is about half of the foreigners rate and they would extend the deal to John also.  Sweet deal.

We flew on Proflight Zambia (“just plane smart”) from Lusaka to Mfuwe, where we were met by our guide Thomas in a Toyota Land Cruiser with no roof or doors and we knew the safari was underway.  It was about a 45 min drive to Nkwali, made somewhat longer by our visit to Tribal Textiles  As we pulled in the dirt track to the camp, we were followed by a herd of about 6 elephants, who waded into the camp’s pond for a soak – quite a welcome.  We were also handed cool face towels and given a welcome drink and knew we would not be exactly roughing it in the woods.  

(I took this picture while in the swimming pool)

Our rooms were standalone thatch cottages with only 3 walls.  The wall facing the river was completely open with just a curtain and the beds surrounded by walk in mosquito nets.  As a result, there was no way to keep the baboons out and we were warned to tuck away anything colourful as the baboons would assume it was food and steal it.  I didn’t pay careful enough heed and was soon chasing a baboon who was clutching my pepto-bismol.  He eventually dropped it from a tree when we opened the ziploc bag it was in.  Hilarious.

The daily routine at camp is: wake up at 5:15, breakfast at 5:30 by the campfire (oatmeal, cereal, toast cooked over a charcoal fire, tea, coffee) and then depart on the morning game drive by 6.  This drive, in a 3 tiered, open topped safari vehicle, could last between 4 and 5 hours with a tea break midway.  With temperatures in the mid to high 30s, total safari fashion, included wide-brimmed hat was required!  The morning drive ends around 10 or 11, followed by an incredible lunch buffet at 11:30 overlooking the pond, which sometimes had elephants, beautiful birds and even a crocodile in it!  The afternoon is full on siesta time (if you can sleep when it’s 35 degrees – I can’t) or cooling off in the pool and then it’s tea time at 3:30 and the evening game drive starts at 4.  You stop your drive at sunset (around 6) for a “sundowner” which you pre-order (gin and tonic or savanna dry cider perhaps?) and then drive back to camp with the spot light on looking for nocturnal animals, arriving around 7.  Then it’s a huge dinner at 7:30 and bed time.  Repeat.  Here are some day finds:

 And here are some night spotting successes:

The food and service was incredible at Nkwali.  And the most people that were ever there were 8.  On 4 of our 6 game drives, John, Kat and I had the whole vehicle to ourselves!

The most interesting man in the world

For the last 3 days, the only other guests at the lodge were Ray and Amanda Lombard, a couple from South Africa.  At dinner, one of us casually asked Ray “have you ever been to Zambia before”?  This led to several hours of being spellbound by his stories.  You see Ray is an evangelist and “church planter” who travels to the deepest, most isolated parts of Africa and tries to teach people the gospel.  His goal is to create a “firewall” of churches across Africa to fight similar attempts by the Muslim faith to build mosques across Africa.  Whether or not one agrees with his theology, it was fascinating to hear his stories.  He told us being dropped at a dirt airstrip in the Congo with nothing but a backpack and his “scrambler” (dirt bike), dirt-biking for 4 days through the jungle until there was no more road, then walking for 4 more days to arrive at a village of pygmies, who he then converted to Christianity with a snappy powerpoint deck.  He said he had to make sure to get back to the airstrip on time, because the plane only stopped there once every two weeks.  He has been to 32 African countries – next stop South Sudan, right after our safari.

As for animal spotting, it is just amazing to get SO close to the animals I have only dreamed of seeing in the wild.  Each of John, Kat and I had our favourite finds.  Mine was by far the leopard, which Thomas and Youbi (our spotter) tracked by following the distress call of a puku and then watching where it was looking.  Kat and John’s was probably the giraffes, who struck several poses for us.

On the last night in camp, I woke up at 1:30 am to the sound of a hippo munching grass just outside my bathroom.  The bathroom has no ceiling, so I could peek out and see him about 6 feet away.  On the last afternoon, an elephant walked through camp, right in front of our rooms as we watched in awe.

Overall, there was a lot of silliness, especially around sun-downer time and some incredible food and amazing service from the staff and like I said, a lot of the time, there we only the three of us to look after.  

 If a safari isn't on your bucket list, add it and check it off asap!

Bruce

Death defying weekend

After the week of long days spent surveying, we planned a stay in Livingstone to take part in some of the adventures that one can do in the “adventure capital of Africa”.  Saturday was Lion Encounter (across the border in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe) and Sunday was Devil’s Pool, back in Zambia.  “We” means me, Kat and my new BFF John Peters, EDC lawyer par excellence and a founding member of Team65.

Lion Encounter involves first patting and then going for a walk with two one year old female lions.  They weigh about 50 kilos each, so they aren’t huge, but it still looked pretty intimidating!  When we got to the office, they told us that there was some confusion about the group of 21 people that was to come with us, so we would be having a private tour, just the 3 of us – what luck!  The operation is a conservation and re-introduction program to try to save the African lion population, which is estimated to have declined by 80% in the past 20 years!  They say that by 2025 there may be no lions outside of private reserves. 

A 15 minute drive outside of Vic Falls and we were being given our safety briefing and off to meet the lions.  Since a picture tells a thousand words, I’ll stop writing.

It was an amazing experience to be able to interact with these huge cats and live to tell the tale.

Next stop was the Victoria Falls Hotel for a very colonial lunch 

before heading to see the Falls from the Zimbabwe side.  During the dry season you can really only see the biggest falls from that side – and we also got a close up view of Sunday’s activity – Devil’s Pool, where you bathe in a small natural pool right at the top of the falls!  Were we really going to do this????

We got up full of energy Sunday, made the short drive to the Royal Livingstone Hotel (again, colonial luxury but this one on the Zambian side) for the pick up by boat for our adventure.  After signing the standard waiver of all legal rights, we zig zagged across the Zambezi straight for the top of the falls!  We beached on Livingstone island, walked across it, changed in to swimsuits and were off with nary a safety briefing.  We clambered over rocks (that looked volcanic – I was very glad to have my Keen sandals), swam a short distance across the river (you had to swim on a diagonal because of the current) and then again climbed over rocks to the top of the falls.  Before we had any chance to re-think it, we were in.  Kat first, then John, then me, then the other 4 in our group.  We sat right on the edge of the falls and despite swearing we wouldn’t, we all did the Superman over the edge.  It’s a sheer 100m drop straight down.  People were waving at us from Zimbabwe.  It was one of the biggest thrills of my life for sure – tough to slow the heart down after that.  

If the photos aren’t enough to do it justice, check out this video.  Devil's pool video

After some more walking around right at the top of the cliff, 

we were served eggs Benedict in a tent and then whisked back to shore.  After a drink in the hotel bar with some Australian Lions Club members, 

we made one last stop at the crocodile farm to end the weekend with a bang!