cerreta
Premium Member
Katherine has been in Lusaka, Zambia in Africa for the past nine months doing research on HIV/AIDS sponsored by University of Birmingham, Alabama. I met up with her for a month. We start our journey in Zambia with a trip to Victoria Falls, the worlds largest waterfall and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. From Livingston, we went just south to Botswana. We had a two day Safari which started with a river trip down Chobe river. We landed on shore and was picked up by a safari guide. We camped over night in the plains. The following day we did more safari driving and then took a watercraft back to the starting point.
#1 Livingston Victoria Falls
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...ivingston/?action=view¤t=1178602599.pbw
#2 Livingston Victoria Falls
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...ivingston/?action=view¤t=1178602989.pbw
#3 Chobe Safari
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...be Safari/?action=view¤t=1178603216.pbw
#4 Chobe Safari Day 2
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...ari Day 2/?action=view¤t=1178603619.pbw
We bussed back to Lusaka for a day before heading to Rwanda for the best part of our trip, to see the Mountain Gorillas. Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills. I think that is an understatement. There must be two thousand hills. The gorillas were amazing! We were about five to twenty feet away from them for one hour. There were a couple times when the silverback came right at us and we had to quickly move out of his path. The 220Kg beast was big, to say the least.
One story I like to share: The group we tracked had ten members: one silverback, four females with babies from 1 week to 3 years old, and one sub-adult female (8 years old and not breeding yet). Well, the silverback was munching away on vegetation when the females wondered up the hill. He kept glancing up the hill and made three soft calls for them to return. (Katherine tells this story better than I do). Then, Finally he had enough. He stood tall, beat his chest (no picture here, we were too scared and scurrying to move from his path) then ran to the edge of the path that led up the hill with a thundering roar. If we were to translate what he said into English it would be something like: “You *****es! Get the hell down here, NOW!†They were down the hill within thirty seconds. I have corresponding pictures of this event in the slideshow. You can see the silverback looking up the hill, followed by his gnarling teeth after the chest beat. Then, the mothers returned carrying the babies on their backs. This adventure was exciting.
#5 and #6 Rwanda Gorillas
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i... Gorillas/?action=view¤t=1178604571.pbw
From here we went to the capital of Rwanda, Kingali. We stayed for a couple days and visited the genocide memorial. It paid respects to the 800,000 Tutsi that were slaughtered in 1994. Of, course our government was slow to respond to the distress, as well illustrated in the memorial. The US called the event tribal conflict not a genocide.
#7 Kingi and Kigali
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...nd Kigali/?action=view¤t=1178604819.pbw
The next stop was Zanzibar. It is an island off the east coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar is known as the eastern slave trade headquarters, and spice island. In fact, 80% of all cloves sold throughout the world come from Zanzibar. Unfortunately, we were here during the off season and I missed out on snorkeling at one of the best coral reef parks in the world, Chumbe Island. This island is privately owned and off limits to diving. Only snorkeling is permitted and highly regulated. One can also stay in the hotel on the island for a mere $200 per night, per person! We did however get to snorkel. The entire island is protected by a fringing reef. The beach we stayed at was pleasant. The tide would go out about 800 yards at low tide due to the far away fringe. We also visited Stone Town and Jozani forest where the rare Red Colobus monkey resides. We had a spice tour in stone town. The nutmeg fruit was my favorite. It looks super cool!!!
#8 Kigali and Zanzibar
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i... Zanzibar/?action=view¤t=1178605121.pbw
#9 Zanzibar and Jozani Forest
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...ni Forest/?action=view¤t=1178605480.pbw
#10 Zanzibar Snorkeling
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...norkeling/?action=view¤t=1178605829.pbw
All the pictures were taken with a Nikon D40 camera (except the snorkeling photos) that I bought right before the trip. Of course, the lens is from my father. He shoots professional wildlife photography and it sure is nice to borrow stuff. The lens was a Nikon AFS 80-200zoom 2.5f. I used a Nikon 1.7x Teleconverter on the safari and at Victoria Falls. I did not need it for the gorillas or monkeys. I got some real winners in there. Together Katherine and I took over 1000 photos and these are just a sample of our work. Let me know if the slideshows do not work and I can post more photos. I added a few of my favorites below. (Whoa! I have a lot of favorites.)
#1 Livingston Victoria Falls
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...ivingston/?action=view¤t=1178602599.pbw
#2 Livingston Victoria Falls
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...ivingston/?action=view¤t=1178602989.pbw
#3 Chobe Safari
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...be Safari/?action=view¤t=1178603216.pbw
#4 Chobe Safari Day 2
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...ari Day 2/?action=view¤t=1178603619.pbw
We bussed back to Lusaka for a day before heading to Rwanda for the best part of our trip, to see the Mountain Gorillas. Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills. I think that is an understatement. There must be two thousand hills. The gorillas were amazing! We were about five to twenty feet away from them for one hour. There were a couple times when the silverback came right at us and we had to quickly move out of his path. The 220Kg beast was big, to say the least.
One story I like to share: The group we tracked had ten members: one silverback, four females with babies from 1 week to 3 years old, and one sub-adult female (8 years old and not breeding yet). Well, the silverback was munching away on vegetation when the females wondered up the hill. He kept glancing up the hill and made three soft calls for them to return. (Katherine tells this story better than I do). Then, Finally he had enough. He stood tall, beat his chest (no picture here, we were too scared and scurrying to move from his path) then ran to the edge of the path that led up the hill with a thundering roar. If we were to translate what he said into English it would be something like: “You *****es! Get the hell down here, NOW!†They were down the hill within thirty seconds. I have corresponding pictures of this event in the slideshow. You can see the silverback looking up the hill, followed by his gnarling teeth after the chest beat. Then, the mothers returned carrying the babies on their backs. This adventure was exciting.
#5 and #6 Rwanda Gorillas
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i... Gorillas/?action=view¤t=1178604571.pbw
From here we went to the capital of Rwanda, Kingali. We stayed for a couple days and visited the genocide memorial. It paid respects to the 800,000 Tutsi that were slaughtered in 1994. Of, course our government was slow to respond to the distress, as well illustrated in the memorial. The US called the event tribal conflict not a genocide.
#7 Kingi and Kigali
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...nd Kigali/?action=view¤t=1178604819.pbw
The next stop was Zanzibar. It is an island off the east coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar is known as the eastern slave trade headquarters, and spice island. In fact, 80% of all cloves sold throughout the world come from Zanzibar. Unfortunately, we were here during the off season and I missed out on snorkeling at one of the best coral reef parks in the world, Chumbe Island. This island is privately owned and off limits to diving. Only snorkeling is permitted and highly regulated. One can also stay in the hotel on the island for a mere $200 per night, per person! We did however get to snorkel. The entire island is protected by a fringing reef. The beach we stayed at was pleasant. The tide would go out about 800 yards at low tide due to the far away fringe. We also visited Stone Town and Jozani forest where the rare Red Colobus monkey resides. We had a spice tour in stone town. The nutmeg fruit was my favorite. It looks super cool!!!
#8 Kigali and Zanzibar
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i... Zanzibar/?action=view¤t=1178605121.pbw
#9 Zanzibar and Jozani Forest
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...ni Forest/?action=view¤t=1178605480.pbw
#10 Zanzibar Snorkeling
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i...norkeling/?action=view¤t=1178605829.pbw
All the pictures were taken with a Nikon D40 camera (except the snorkeling photos) that I bought right before the trip. Of course, the lens is from my father. He shoots professional wildlife photography and it sure is nice to borrow stuff. The lens was a Nikon AFS 80-200zoom 2.5f. I used a Nikon 1.7x Teleconverter on the safari and at Victoria Falls. I did not need it for the gorillas or monkeys. I got some real winners in there. Together Katherine and I took over 1000 photos and these are just a sample of our work. Let me know if the slideshows do not work and I can post more photos. I added a few of my favorites below. (Whoa! I have a lot of favorites.)
