My fiance and I will be visiting Victoria Falls - Zambia side - in mid-September. What sort of animals can we expect to see in the area? I imagine elephants and hippos?
Thanks!

spot on the money, if you enter the Mosi-oa-tunya national park you are likely to encounter a variety of herbivores and this will include the white rhino.

If however you just elect to cruise the river, then hippo, ele, crocodile, vervet monkey and possibly the occassional impala.

birds, birds and more birds.

We also saw our first giraffes on the river cruise. Lots of vervet monkeys, some zebra and an elephant bobbing down toward the falls, all at the Royal Livingstone. We didn't take a guided drive through the park, although we heard it was nice. The falls are lovely. and wet. really wet. at least in May. Have fun - Sharon

If you are actually going to other safari destinations in either Zambia or Sa or Botsw.......i suggest not to do the Mosi park drive. Spend your time in vic falls area doing other activities. The park is very small and not worth missing out on the various activities on offer in the area.

Hari

Great! Thanks!
In fact I read a few posts about some sneaky monkeys who get into anything and everything, I'm supposing they're the vervet monkeys? Should be fun!
We'll be staying at the Royal Livingstone and this will be the first stop of our honeymoon and seeing animals for the very first time I imagine will be very exciting!
We will indeed continue on with a safari so I guess we should skip the Mosi park drive?
Am I wrong or was there a lot of rainfall this year?

There was plenty of rainfall this year.....and i would think the falls are spectacular.

Do all the other activities on offer at Vic and then do all the safari activities rest of the trip. May i ask what your itinearary is? When you do the Zambezi sunset cruise, you will automatically see hippos in the river and the elephants on the banks.

Hari

Our itinerary will be two days at Vic Falls (staying at Royal Livingstone). From there on to Cape Town for four days (Table Bay Hotel) followed by Kapama Private Reserve for the safari portion of our trip. Truthfully, I have a few reservations about this lodge as I'm fearful, it being a small fenced-in reserve, that the experience will be zoo-like. The final cherry on top will be four days of beachlife in Mauritius (Beau Rivage Hotel).
Reservations aside, for us it's a trip of a lifetime!

Can I say that planning this trip has been the most stressful part of my wedding planning?!! There are so many options out there and there's so much money involved and with my TA sometimes it was like the blind leading the blind. I have to say this forum has helped me tremendously!!!
I can't wait to post my travel report too.

Be sure you lock your patio doors because the Vervets will try them. I highly recommend the smaller "4x4" boat down the river over the larger sunset boat if you really want to see animals. The smaller boat holds about 12 and can get closer to the wildlife. You can rebook this with your tour operator to be sure or try once there at the tour center in the Zambezi Sun Hotel next door to the lovely Royal Livingstone.

Bridezilla,

Have a great trip.......sure you will have fun and be bitten by the african bug that, you will want to keep returning.

Congratulations on the wedding!!!

Hari

Bridezilla - you will love the Royal Livingstone. It is probably the nicest place we've ever stayed. We were there in May when the water was really high, so there were not a lot of river activities available, other than the "big boat" river cruise, which was OK but not great. However, we did end up spending most of the cruise talking to a local young man, which was fascinating. If you want to see some photos of Royal Livingstone, I've posted them on Kodak Easyshare. Here's the link:

http://olympus.kodakgallery.com/I.js...1&y=-fuu7s

Stamiya,
I tried to access your photos, but it says it's unavailable. How can I see your pics?

Nevermind Stamiya! I saw your pictures from your travel report. They're great.
I also enjoyed your report! That's funny about the crazy taxi driver. I had a similar private taxi/near death experience near JFK. This one lured me to his taxi, which had a Tweety bird air freshner hanging from the rear view mirror. I figured no cold-blooded killer likes Tweety, right?! Totally harmless, if we don't count his driving skills.

Maybe we should start a new thread called "Near Death Experiences with Lunatic Taxi Drivers" A couple of others have also posted about heart-attack inducing rides.

bridezilla,

This would only work if you had a couple spare days, but it is only a 2.5 hour road transfer to Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe for Big Five gameviewing.

Here are a couple different properties in Hwange:

www.africanbushcamps.com (Somalisa)
www.thehide.com
www.wilderness-safaris.com (Makalolo Plains, Little Makalolo and Linkwasha)

Bridezilla,

We just got back from Livingstone today. One of the things we did was a 2 hour canoe (inflatable canoes) on the upper Zambezi (Saf Par, I think - our lodge set it up). At least at this time of year it was a very peaceful, easy way to see some animals: hippos, a croc, vervet monkeys, baboons (a bunch of babies playing king of the hill on a termite mound - funniest thing!), some waterbuck, kingfishers, fishhawk, and then giraffe as we were driving away from the river. They said the river was high, but heading down. I don't know what the water levels would be like in September and how it would affect the actual canoing/canoeing (spelling? I'm a bit out-of-it from lack of sleep)and animal sightings.

Yikes. I think we'll pass on the canoeing, although it sounds great! My fiance and I are very challenged in that area. We went canoeing in the Ardeche River in France and just kept going around in circles!! All the while getting very frustrated! Wouldn't be a great way to start off a honeymoon! Thanks for the suggestion, though. You had no way of knowing!
Does anyone have any info on Kapama Lodge?

We will be at Victoria Falls next week, staying at the Zambezi Sun. Do you suggest that we book our river cruise and elephant safari before we arrive? Have used a tour operator that hasn't given me the fastest/best help on these aspects, so I am doing some of this part on my own. Would you recommend that I contact the Zambezi Sun now or do it on site? Will want the river cruise for the 1st night we arrive and the elephant safari for the following day? (btw: we are a family of 4)

trv, yes, I would try to book this now. Call or email the Zambezi Sun yourself if your operator has not been much help. I highly recommend the "4x4" river boat over the large sundowner boat if you want to enjoy the wildlife on the river. The boat only held about 12.

I too would recommend booking the elephant encounter ahead of time. That was our other planned activity at the Falls, and it was the equal of the canoeing just to be around the elephants. If it's the elephant encounter through the Thorntree Lodge, they only have 6 elephants and go out two to 3 or 4 (?) times a day depending on demand.