Zambia and Zimbabwe

Next up was Zambia, but while we were in Livingston we took the opportunity to zip across the Zambezi to Zimbabwe to check out Vic Falls from both sides. Zambia was quite nice, but the area around Livingston and Vic Falls was very touristy. I had a lot of fun there and it was nice to be able to get a decent coffee, but I would have preferred to spend slightly less time there and spend some more time at Kruger NP.

 The mighty Zambezi. This was the view from the resturant at our hotel.

 Above and below: Vervet monkeys were everywhere!

Victoria Falls

 

A family of warthogs invading a petrol station lawn :)

Malawi

Next stop was Malawi. We spent almost a week in Malawi, camped in a couple of different spots around the shores of Lake Malawi. Lake Malawi is so big it looks like the ocean, but isn't very inviting to swim in because of the parasites it contains. Malawi was one of my favourite places I visited because the scenery was gorgeous and the people were friendly and beautiful. Some of my best memories of the whole trip are of talking to the locals in the villages we visited in Malawi. I also found it a very confronting place because the level of poverty is extreme and disease like malaria and aids are really prevalent there. I would definitely like to go back to Malawi and spend some time volunteering with one of the hospitals or schools there.

RIP Darcy

Unfortunately, my beautiful Darcy passed away while I was in Tanzania. I was unable to be with him in his last days, but he had the very best of care. He was simply very old.

I miss him heaps.

Tanzania and Zanzibar

 I joined up with my tour group in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Unfortunately, I didn't have a very good first impression of Dar, being stuck in a traffic jam for four hours in the most hot and humid place I've ever visited. Dar was hot, smelly, extremely poor, and very overcrowded. Everything about it was overwhelming. I didn't get any photos of the overwhelming parts of the city simply because I was too overwhelmed to get my camera out.

Thankfully, we didn't spend much time in Dar, but caught a ferry across to Zanzibar. Stonetown in Zanzibar is also hot, smelly, and overcrowded, but it isn't as bad as Dar so I got a few photos there.

  

This is the monument to the slaves that were sold in this slave market, chained to a tree. Several of the holding cells still exist and we were taken through them to see the appalling conditions that the slaves were stored in before they were auctioned off. The whole place made me feel sick.

When we left Stonetown and went to the beach, I started to enjoy my time in Zanzibar more.

My favourite part of Tanzania, though, was when we finally left Dar again and headed inland. The rural parts of Tanzania are beautiful and the coolness of the mountain air was such a welcome change from the heat of the coast.

Lulu and Lala

During my time at Naankuse, I also got to be involved in a baby baboon rescue mission. One of the sub-adult baboons gave birth shortly after I arrived at the sanctuary. This was an unplanned pregnancy from the sanctuary's point of view and was the result of a wild baboon visiting the baboon enclosure. The staff knew that there could be some problems for the new mum, Lala, and her baby, Lulu, because Lala was very low in the social structure of the group so they kept a close eye on the situation. A few days later, one of the dominant females who had been showing signs of jealousy stole the baby and wouldn't give it back. The staff waited for a few hours, but eventually had to make the decision to intervene before the baby got dehydrated and malnourished. The plan was to tranquilise the kidnapper, but the baboons recognise both the tranq gun and Rudie, the only person with a tranq gun license, and get aggravated. In order to try and keep the baboons calm and make it easy to get a good shot they decided to take a new approach and get us all involved. Our job was to cluster around Rudie and walk him to the baboon enclosure so that the baboons wouldn't spot him in the crowd. It worked perfectly and they successfully managed to reunite mother and baby and move them into an enclosure with a younger group of baboons where Lala would be more dominant and not face the same problems again.

Lala and Lulu recovering from their ordeal before being moved into another enclosure

Einstein

During my time at Naankuse, a wild cheetah named Einstein was brought into the sanctuary and we got to watch and assist as he was tranquilised, vasectomised, and had his gps collar removed. Einstein's territory encompassed several properties in southern Namibia, including Neuras. Several farmers in the area were suffering stock losses by cheetah predation and the team at Neuras thought Einstein might be responsible. They managed to trap and fit Einstein with a GPS collar while he was visiting the Neuras property and the GPS points proved that Einstein was ignoring the native game and choosing to predate on stock instead. When he decided to kill and eat a very expensive prize ram he effectively put a target on his head. The farmers of the area were planning to shoot all cheetahs on site to protect their stock unless the Neuras team could prove that they had removed the problem cheetah from the area. Thankfully Einstein returned to Neuras and went into one of the traps. He was then transported the 5hr drive up to Naankuse to be processed and put into an enclosure. The team are planning to build a large free-range enclosure for him at Neuras so he can return to his home, but unfortunately he will have to live out his days in captivity. I'm sure all that lamb and beef was tasty, but it probably wasn't worth it. Personally, I find kudu to be just as tasty as beef.

Its sad that Einstein will no longer be a wild cheetah, but by removing a proven stock killer from the area, Naankuse and Neuras are building relationships and respect with the local farmers and are protecting all the other cats in the area from persecution. It was a privilege to be involved in the work they are doing.

Neuras

While I was in Namibia working with Naankuse wildlife sanctuary, I had the opportunity to travel south to one of their other properties and do a bit of work tracking wild leopards. Neuras is a working vineyard and tourist operation as well as base for big cat research and is a beautiful place to stay.

 
During my week at Neuras, we had a day trip into the desert to Sossusvlei to climb the sand dune known as "Big Daddy" and see a bit of the Namib desert.

When it wasn't pouring with rain at Neuras, we spent our time tracking wild leopards that the team there had fitted with radio collars to gather data on the way they were using the habitat and what they were eating. We found two kill sites of one of the leopards, both of which were springbok carcasses. We tracked one of the leopards to within 15m, but even at that close range we didn't manage to get a glimpse of her. It was probably my best day of the whole trip.

  Leopard kill site in small cave

 

 Wild leopard paw print

The team at Neuras also feed and service a large free-range cheetah enclosure at Solitaire. We spent one day there feeding the cheetahs and refilling the water sources. Great cheetah photo opportunities.