Well, here goes. First, some general impressions.

Rocco (Destiny Africa) and Jenny at Chiawa Camp did a great job in putting all the ground transportation in place. Except for 1 missed message that made us miss breakfast (quelle tragedy…), and 1 delayed departure due to a Japanese couple who refused to get off an Air Zambia flight so we could get on, everything went extremely smoothly. We didn’t have any advance info on flights etc, but each time we were due to leave one camp for the next, somebody would tell us what time to be ready and off we’d go, with a plane waiting to take us to our next destination, where we were met by our new hosts.

Zambia is a lovely country and the Zambian people are wonderful to be around. Great sense of humor, among other nice personality traits, and very friendly. All of the camps we visited in Zambia were great, the guides were uniformly good, the owners or managers were very attentive and helpful, the food was lovely, and we met a lot of interesting and enjoyable travelers.

South Africa is also a beautiful place, with really good roads! Although people do drive like bats out of hell. And on the wrong side of the road…

The parts of Africa that we saw were like no other place we’ve ever been, which I suppose is why people rave so about their trips to Africa. The amount of open space and the many different habitats, the variety and numbers of animals and birds, the “big sky” - well, you just don’t see that in L.A.

OK, on to the trip report. But first, a little cautionary tale…We landed in Johannesburg after 30-plus hours traveling. To say we were somewhat dazed and confused would probably be an understatement. As we exited from customs, we were surrounded by a yammering crowd of men all trying to get our attention and offering to take us to our hotel. Richard, who was clearly and understandably not in his right mind at the time, said “yes” to one of them, and the chosen one promptly grabbed our luggage cart and took off through the crowd, with Richard and me hot-footing it after him. By the time we realized this might not be the best idea in the world, we were jogging along after our “taxi driver” down in the bowels of a parking garage with not another soul in sight. About this time, our guy popped the trunk on a late model car, tossed our bags in and invited us to get in. We got in, figuring we’d either get driven to our hotel, or be taken somewhere and mugged; I think we were too exhausted by this time to care which! But oh, no, the fun was only just beginning. At the top of the onramp to the freeway, this rocket-scientist “taxi driver” realized he’d taken a wrong turn and needed to be on a different freeway, so he slammed on his brakes, shoved the gears into reverse and began BACKING DOWN THE ONRAMP. By now, I’ve gone completely numb – I am positive we’re going to spend our entire vacation in a hospital in Johannesburg, and I’m mentally reviewing our trip insurance to see if this insanity is covered. Obviously, the gods were watching over us (or maybe Mr. Taximan), because we made it back down to the bottom of the onramp, all the while waving cars around us (and the amazing thing was that no one seemed to think it was particularly odd that this bozo was reversing down the onramp of a freeway). The one reassuring thing about this experience, was that we were pretty sure at this point that we weren’t going to be mugged or even over-charged; this guy was really determined to get us to our hotel by the shortest possible route! After this introduction to Africa, close encounters with hippos, lions, crocodiles and even spiders didn’t faze us a bit.

Our hotel in Johannesburg was the Airport Grand Hotel and Conference Center, about 5 minutes from the airport (a little longer if you played chicken on an on-ramp or two). Nice enough place, not fancy (think Marriott), decent food and very good service – good value for the money. Flew out the next day to Livingstone, to recuperate at the Royal Livingstone Hotel from the rigors of those godawful long flights in coach. For those of you who have never been there, it’s a fabulous place. I think there were 3 or 4 staff for every guest, including guys who did nothing but stand around all day and keep the vervet monkeys (and the occasional zebra) away from the serving areas. High point of our 2-day stay (other than gorging on sinfully good food and wine at sinfully spendy prices) was seeing a large elephant bobbing down the river to reach an island – we all thought he was going to go over the falls!

The Victoria Falls are a short walk from the hotel; we could see the mist rising hundreds of feet into the air and creating continuous rainbows, and hear the roar of the falls, from our room, which was very nice. A suggestion for anyone visiting the Falls when the water is high – either wear a bathing suit or get a rain slicker from your hotel! You won’t just get wet – you will be completely soaked. Half the time we were wading in water to get to the viewpoints. Even with the high water, the Falls are wonderful to see.

We took one of the sunset cruises on the Upper Zambezi and saw our first giraffes. A young German couple got engaged on the boat (bended knee, ring, tears and all), and some South African women spontaneously burst into a native song (which we assumed was meant to be congratulatory…); quite an experience, although you have to wonder what that couple will do for their honeymoon after such an engagement trip. Also met a young man who worked as a driver for Bushtracks, who gave us some fascinating insights into what growing up, living and working in Livingstone was like; he spoke 7 different tribal dialects (of the 75 or so in Zambia) as well as proficient English, and thought nothing of it. He asked so many questions about the U.S., California, and the world in general; we were astonished that so many things that are part of our daily life were completely new and fascinating to him (sort of like our fascination with village life, multiple wives, lions and elephants in your back yard, etc…). Travel is a mind-expanding experience all right. More later. Following is link to first pictures (mostly of Royal Livingstone). Hope it works

http://olympus.kodakgallery.com/I.js...&y=-fuu7sr

Great first installments! I think this is going to be a great read... The other Sharon

This is great! i loved the little vervet on the balcony - how could you <b>resist</b> letting him in??

Cyn

Hello hello hello!
Can't wait to read the rest and see the rest of the photos too! Thanks for sharing and hurry up and give us more!

Great start Sharon, short Sharon right? Were you with Richard or Richard? Glad you had a great time can't wait to read more. What did you ALL do in Zambia to take so much time to write a report? More please and make it snappy!
Aloha, Dennis

Sharon,
Great to see your report....looking forward to the following installments and pictures.
Seeing your Victoria Falls pictures makes me wish we had managed to include them in our trip!
S

Am loving your report.
Concerning Destiny Africa (Rocco?)--Rocco, do you now have your own business? Nothing wrong with that, and a lot of us on the boards would gladly put ourselves into your hands, but don't you think, in light of the need for disclosure, that every time you post from now on, you should mention that? Either way, though, it's advertising.

Bo2642,

I have to rush to Rocco's defence by pointing out that neither he nor his partner Julian have ever promoted their product on the Fodors board. As a matter of fact I have never seen them even as much as mention the words Destiny Africa or the fact that they are professionals in the travel world in their many informative mails to this board. The only time you have ever heard about them as Destiny Africa on Fodors has been when other Fodorites have commented about the services that they have attained from these two avid and knowledgeable Fodorites via their travel operation. Stamiya's opening comment in this thread is equivalent to what I am speaking of. Furthermore judging by these comments Rocco and Julian certainly seem to be helping many Fodorites in the right direction when it comes to their Africa and in particular safari travels. Thus I dont believe that their being read about on this board is as you put it &quot;advertising&quot;. As a matter of fact their being mentioned by others on this board represents nothing other than referral statements from other Fodorites and if you ask me these are exactly the type of comments that readers and contributors seek on this excellent travel board.

Stamiya please complete your trip report soonest as I cant wait for the rest in that your style of writing is so infectuous.

Just my twopence worth.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

I have to agree with Selwyn on this one. Both Rocco and Julian have been tremendously helpful to me in planning my trip, without so much as ever promoting their interests as travel professionals. They are a true asset to this group and I am excited everytime I see one of their postings because I know what they have to say will be accurate and their recommendations will be top notch!

The falls are really something else! What a contrast to what I viewed last Dec. Enjoying your report so far, and your taxi story reminded me of a death ride I had in Puerto Vallarta after too much tequilla years ago. Did you post your itinerary somewhere? You're so right, we don't see anything like this in LA.

More, more, more, please!

Part 2. South Luangwa Park, Zambia

You’ve already read Star’s (Tiger Paw’s) report about Luangwa River Lodge. Not much to add, but much to second. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. This was our first experience with an African Bush Lodge, and it was a wonderful introduction. Victor was probably our favorite guide of the entire trip. He was so knowledgeable about the park, the animals, the ecology of the area, the birds, etc., plus he had a wealth of stories and fables to cover almost every situation. In addition, he was really good at finding game, and then positioning the vehicle so that everyone could view it. Our best walking safari of the trip was with Victor. We now can identify lots of animal tracks and animal excrement – really great survival skills for living in L.A.

We saw so many animals at this first camp (we spent 4 nights here), and the chalets were lovely (great copper sinks and huge bathtubs, comfortable beds, friendly hosts, cats to pet, internet access, really nice setting). Meals were quite good; Marco the chef excelled at preparing really wonderful brunches and pastries. The company was excellent, even after Star and Richard left. My favorite memory from Luangwa River Lodge involves Felicity, a lovely woman from England who’d come to Zambia to see a friend working with the British embassy in Lusaka. After hauling myself up into the middle seats in the safari vehicle on one of our game drives, and watching her struggle up into the topmost seat, some 8 or 10 feet above the ground, I said “how in the world will we get down from here?” Her response, delivered in a dry british way, was “Oh, I suppose we’ll just hurl ourselves over the side…” Star and I and our respective Richards thought this was too funny!

Just for fun, I tried to keep track of all of the animals and birds we saw on our first game drive in South Luangwa: Animals - Elephants, Pukus, Impalas, Zebras, Waterbucks, Cape Buffalos, Warthogs, Hippos (in and out of water), Lions, Leopard, Chameleon, Nile Crocodiles, Nile Monitor Lizard; Birds – Ground Hornbills, Redbilled Hornbills, Lilac-breasted Rollers, Pied Kingfisher, Nightjar, Rosy-faced Lovebirds, 3 different kinds of Doves, African Skimmer, Martial Eagle, Sacred Ibis, Hadeda Ibis; bee eaters and swifts nesting in river cliffs, Spoonbills, Yellow billed Storks, Guinea Fowl, African Jacana, Greenbacked Heron, sparrow weaver, Egyptian Geese, Francolin and some others whose names I just couldn’t remember! So many new and beautiful animals and birds – it was almost overwhelming!

Our best animal sighting in South Luangwa Park was on a drive from Luangwa River Lodge. A leopard was stalking a group of impala in daylight, along a grass-filled ditch right next to the road. This was on an overcast morning which I guess is why he was hunting during the day instead of laying around like a sensible cat. He missed the impala, and then displayed some classic cat (housecat?) behavior – nuzzled a bush, scratched his chin on a branch, licked himself, and altogether nonchalantly insisted that he’d really never been serious about trying to catch that impala…

Most funny sight was on a night drive when we were spotted on a genet in the brush about 30 feet from the vehicle. The 2 lion brothers came strolling out of the darkness behind the genet. The genet looked at us, looked at the lions, looked back at us, looked back at the lions – it was a classic case of “uh-oh, what do I do now?” The genet finally broke and ran when the lions were only a few feet away. One of the brothers took a half-hearted swipe at it, but couldn’t be bothered to chase the little guy. Must not have been hungry, or the genet was too small to bother with. That was a very lucky genet.

Our next stop was Puku Ridge, which was about an hour and a half away (including a river crossing on a raft). This is a permanent tented camp with enormous tents, private balconies, indoor and outdoor showers, sunken tub and 2 sitting areas - it was like being in a suite of rooms without any interior walls. The camp overlooks a meadow of approximately 50 acres, which in late May was always occupied by a variety of animals. When we were there, herds of puku and impala, family groups of warthogs and elephants, a few buffalo and various birds were usually in view. Lions were resting in the bushes at the far edge of the meadow on the day we arrived. One afternoon while I was sitting on our balcony writing in my journal and enjoying a cold Mossi beer, an elephant and her baby passed by almost directly beneath me. I could hear mama yanking up grass and shaking the dirt off the roots before stuffing it into her mouth. The baby trying to imitate her, but didn’t yet have the trunk control to actually pull up the grass! Very cool indeed.

Puku Ridge is a camp I would definitely recommend. We only spent 2 nights here, which meant we had only 1 full day of animal viewing. There is a different pride of lions (the Chicheli pride) in this area of the park, and the game viewing would probably be very good if you had more time. Our best game viewing experience here was watching the Chicheli pride during their late afternoon siesta. There were 4 young adult males and 2 females laying about when we parked about 10 feet from a male and female who were laying close together. After a few minutes, the lioness got up and started to walk toward the other male lions. Her companion, who had apparently staked his claim on her, immediately got to his feet and growled loudly at her. After growling back and giving him the stink eye, she gave in and lay back down. The boss man, having gotten his point across, lay down as well, oozing self-satisfaction. I guess size does count…

The food was quite good at Puku Ridge, and at dinner we had our first experience of hearing some of the staff sing acappella. We surmised after talking to a number of people in Zambia about this, that most Zambians are strongly church-oriented, and since there is a tradition of music in the villages, attendance at choir practice is very high. Whatever the reason, the men have lovely voices and sing together beautifully; they also “compose” their own songs and harmonies. Hearing them sing was an unexpected pleasure.

A final note about Puku Ridge – 2 nights is not enough at a camp. If at all possible, we will always in the future have at least 3 nights at each camp. Because of the travel time between camps, you lose at least part of one day in getting there, and one full day is just not enough time to really see what’s available in the area.

Photos of South Luangwa Park (Luangwa River Lodge and Puku Ridge) should be accessible on the link below, if you’re interested. Some of the photos are kind of blurry – we discovered the hard way that a 200 telephoto with a 2x extender needs to be held realllllly still to get a clear shot. And it’s all but useless on night drives. Oh well, live and learn.

http://olympus.kodakgallery.com/I.js...1&amp;y=wgv9xx

Carla M - our itinerary is posted somewhere on this board, but god only knows where. It was pretty simple - 2 nights royal Livingstone Hotel (Victoria Falls), 4 nights Luangwa River Lodge, 2 nights Puku Ridge, 5 nights Chiawa (lower zambezi area), then 7 days driving around northeastern South Africa in a rented car. And in case it hasn't been clear from our pictures and reports, we had a fabulous time!

Some great shots and sure brings back the memories... keep going! (And when you get to Chiawa, remember - what happened in camp, stays in camp...)

;-)

Great report, really enjoying it.
Can't get in to see the pics. They insist that I join...

Sharon, GREAT pics! Loved them all! Nice to see the places I've been. Thanks for sharing, especially the one from Diamond!
Aloha!

Africnow - I'll try to change the setting on the Kodak site so that you can view pictures without registering. S.

Sharon,
Trying to write my report and reading all the other fantastic reports on Fodor's right now is challenging. But somehow I think I'll survive.

Thanks for posting this and your photos. I'm expecially interested to hear about your self-drive in S. Africa.

Happy 4th. I better get cooking or I'll show up to the bbq with empty hands.

Here is a new link to the South Luangwa and Victoria Falls pictures that hopefully doesn't require you to &quot;sign in&quot; -

http://olympus.kodakgallery.com/I.js...0&amp;y=65zjq6

Thank you for the pictures. Very different feel than E. Africa pictures and really enjoyed them. Animal close-ups seem very personal. Also liked the Baobab tree.

Selwyn_Davidowitz - are you are tour operator/agent/camp owner? Based on some earlier posts also wonder if you have business relationship with Destiny Africa.

lovetodiscover,

I believe if you had more of a history on this board, other than only two self-serving threads you have initiated and others to which you have contributed, that you would understand that Selwyn, Eben, Sandi, myself and others, while, in fact, being in the industry, have gave unselfishly to this forum for many years.

I started out as just a regular traveler/safarigoer like some of the others I mentioned, but my love for Africa has come full circle and I am now &quot;in the industry.&quot;

There is no hidden business relationship between my operation and Selwyn. I (and many other Fodorites) have been referring people to Selwyn for years, long before I ever dreamed up the idea of starting my own tour operation.

I think if you open up your mind a little, you will see that the contributions from those of us in the industry are very helpful rather than merely self-serving. People are free to take my advice and do whatever they want with it to whatever tour operator or travel agent they want. Go to a qualified tour operator and ask more than a couple questions and see how quick they will charge you a planning fee and even then they are likely not as expert as those in the industry on this very forum!

I suggest that you go back and read some of my threads over the past few years and you will see that I am the biggest consumer advocate on this forum, and believe it or not, I still consider myself a consumer advocate, no matter my newfound position. That is why when a newbie appears and says that Singita is a bit expensive, I list everything from Singita down to Elephant Plains, which is about 1/6th the cost of Singita but also in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve.

Lovetodiscover, welcome to the Fodors Forum but don't rock the boat. Just kidding!