Elephants With Wet Feet: African Safari by Boat
by Karen Misuraca
Between rising cloud columns in a limpid yellow sky and lavender
jacaranda trees below, we flew low in a six-passenger plane on a hot,
sticky afternoon, our first day in Africa. As we banked over the curve
of the wide green Zambezi River heading for a red dirt airstrip, we made
our first sighting, a herd of elephants huddled at the foot of a giant
baobab tree. Just as a dozen striped impala danced across the runway, we
bounced down into the dust.
Mom, fifty-something, and daughter, thirty-something, we had come to see
the Africa of our dreams, the romantic, tented safari of a hundred years
ago, and hoped we were not too late to find it. We planned to stay at
fly-in bush camps that are inaccessible, or nearly so, by road, and to
forsake the traditional vehicle drives in game parks for expeditions by
canoe, kayak and other watercraft.
Floating and boating on rivers, deltas, lakes and lagoons in Zimbabwe,
Zambia and Botswana over a month's time, we encountered only a handful
of other travelers. We got a proper dose of the "big five": elephant,
buffalo, lion, leopard and rhino, and had the added pleasure of seeing
the marvelous birds that frequent watery habitats. Take it from us, you
can get closer to animals in a canoe than in a Land Rover, close enough
to hear a 2,000-pound Cape buffalo sniff and snuffle, close enough to
look into the liquid brown eyes of a hippo as big as a Lincoln
Continental.
We got our first taste of the bush at Chikwenya Camp on the banks of the
Zambezi in Zimbabwe, where we flew in that first day. The thatch-roofed,
open-sided lodge is shaded by leafy umbrellas of huge mahogany trees.
Scattered along boardwalks are tents with teak floors, thatched roofs, private bathrooms
and bamboo-enclosed outdoor showers, with mosquito netting for walls.
Built entirely of native woods, the common room is softened with bright
wall hangings, carpets and art work. Kerosene lanterns and candles
provide the only light. No phones, no electricity most of the time, no
electronically-produced sound -- the better to hear wildlife and
wilderness.
The first night, after being led to our tent by an armed guide who
flashed his "torch" back and forth into the bush and told us not to
venture out for any reason, we huddled on our beds while several
elephants rubbed against our deck outside. Later in the night, we woke
to the sound of lions screaming and Cape buffalo thundering through
camp.
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