ZIMBABWE: CANOEING ON THE ZAMBEZI RIVER

We started our first full day in Zimbabwe with a canoeing trip on the Zambezi River. We were picked up early and driven down a bumpy dirt road for over an hour. There were three guides and six guests. Besides us there were a father and his 13-year-old son visiting from Colorado (That's the son in the photo below with the towel over his head--still trying to adjust to the morning sun) and an engaged couple from Osaka, Japan (She was competent in English, but he couldn't or wouldn't speak any English). 

Some kind of antelope in the road in front of us

The Zambezi is the 4th longest river in Africa. At 1,599 miles long, it is much shorter than the Nile (4,258 miles long) and about 2/3 the size of the Mississippi River (2,320 miles long).

The Zambezi begins in Zambia and curves through northeastern Angola, returns to western Zambia, travels along the border between Namibia and Zambia, forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe (the part where we were), and then heads to the Indian Ocean through Mozambique.

Map from here

We didn't see other vehicles along the way, but we did see some wildlife, including this flock of guinea fowl:

Our guides pointed out several ancient baobab trees, sometimes called "The Tree of Life" or "The Upside-Down Tree." They can live as long as 1,000 years:

There had been a rainstorm the night before, and some parts of the road were pretty muddy:

When we arrived at our launch spot, we were given breakfast in a paper bag, which was Breakfast #2 for us. It was a good way to pass the time while we waited for the guides unloaded the rubber canoes. We needed four--three for the guests and one for two guides who would escort us. Two of the canoes were ready to go:

Two needed to be inflated:

It was fun to walk around, reminding ourselves we were at the ZAMBEZI River, a name and location that to me had always sounded so exotic:

Before we shoved off, we had a long, long lecture about what to do if we fell out of the boat, how to handle rapids, why we should stay away from hippos and crocs,  what to do if a croc tipped over our canoe, etc., etc. Generally scary stuff. Then it was time to launch:

We eventually got the hang of the kayak-style paddles and did relatively well, but the Japanese couple paddled wildly, zigzagging all over the place and bumping into people, all the while laughing hysterically:

Paddling down the Zambezi River was not something I thought I would ever do. It was yet another one of those "pinch me" experiences:

We hit some Class 1 and 2 rapids, nothing too scary but enough to get us a little wet:

We saw a few hippos and one croc, but they were all far away.

It took us a couple of hours to finish our run. We docked a few miles outside Victoria Falls:

The third guide who had taken the truck down the road to meet us had been busy cooking our lunch over a fire. It was quite a spread, including crocodile kebabs, chicken drumsticks, thin beef steaks,  fruit kebabs (which included chunks of pawpaw), salad, fire-roasted potatoes, julienned vegetables, rolls, and various sauces. Very impressive and quite delicious:

Our guides packed everything back into the truck . . .

. . . and we headed back to our hotel, but with plans to return to the river in a few hours for a "sundowner" cruise that we had rescheduled because of our late arrival the day before.