Zambia World Wide

Along the Upper Zambezi is the Livingstone game Park which if we had the time would visit, we had some idea what to expect from having seen wildlife programmes on TV in the UK. It is very different being there and driving round the game trails looking for game than watching TV which give little idea of how vast the African Parks are. The best places to find game from midday to late afternoon is around the waterholes, unfortunately because it was late in the year many of the waterholes were dried up. There was as much game grazing in the bush as there was at the waterholes. We did see quite a lot of game, Zebra, deer, baboons, wild boar and rhino were numerous. It is impossible to find elephant as they walk in and out of the park whenever they wish. However we did see many elephants along the river just outside the game park. In the centre of the park there is a small café and animal orphanage, plus reptile house and snake pit. By the time we got to there we were gasping for a drink and the chance to get out of the sun for a while. After which we had a walk round the snake pit, reptile house and the orphanage

When we left the game park it was getting quite late, so we decided to park by the river and watch the sunset. We could already hear the sound of the crickets, and as the sun went down even further, other sounds could be heard. At the time we didn’t recognise many of the sounds, we were still relatively new to Africa. We stood on the bank of the river until the sun disappeared and there was nothing but the sounds of the night. We were tired, dusty but happy as we drove back to Livingstone for the night. When we were in the Field Museum there was map that we had found interesting. According to the map the original Livingstone was built at the side of the river, a little further along just past the game park. The cemetery was still there as a memorial to the early settlers, it is called the Old Drift Cemetery. We still had a day before we had to leave and return to Kitwe, so decided to try and find the cemetery, we drove along the river and right past, as it was difficult to see while driving. We tried again and on our second attempt found it. It was not far from the road but just round a bend in the road which is why we had missed it on our first attempt. As we walked around the cemetery we could imagine why they chose that particular spot. They chose that location because it was close to the river at a place where the river was shallow and could be forded. It was a mistake, not long after the settlement had been established, out-breaks of Blackwater Fever started which they knew nothing about. In a very short period most of the settlers died, they had no means of treating the fever that was killing them. Walking through the cemetery was quite sad, most of the settlers who died were in their early twenties and thirties plus quite a number of children. It was because of the Blackwater Fever and Malaria that the town of Livingstone was re-established on the present site about 4 miles from the river. Most days when driving to the falls we would pass a steam engine standing at the roadside, Gary had never seen a steam engine so we stopped and took him to see it, we also tried to explain to him how it worked. The time had come to return home, however we knew we would return at some time in the future. The Victoria Falls are beautiful and awesome and we now had some idea of how Livingstone would have felt, seeing them for the first time.