Beware of crocodiles

The restaurant at our hotel perches over the river bank…there is something wonderful about eating fresh mango and pineapple and watching the Zambezi river flow by.  Even though we are only about 1 km above Victoria Falls here, the river is quite lazy.  It’s very wide and weaves its way between several low islands.  The quiet munching of warthogs eating the grass blends softly into the background.  The Beware of Crocodiles sign seems unnecessary.

After breakfast we went to Victoria Falls.  It was very different than the last tir me I was here; then it was the end of the rainy season, now it is nearing the end of the dry season.  Even though there is much less water going over the falls, it is still an awe inspiring sight, and the constant rainbows add a magical touch.  Last time I was here it seemed full of German tourists here, this time they all seem to be British. We saw two elephants on one of the islands in the middle of the falls; sometimes they swim over there, and sometimes they get caught by the current and end up there. They looked very peaceful.

We ended up the day at a lodge that overlooks the savannah and a watering hole.  Sometimes big animals come there to drink, but tonight it seemed that it was only storks and vultures.  There is a hiding place dug into the ground right next to the waterhole and for a tidy sum of money you can spend the evening there.  There are no guarantees though, you might spend the money and see  a few birds, or you might see elephants, water buffalo and the occasional lion.  There are also crocodiles in the waterhole, so you might be right next to an impromptu meal as well.

Yesterday an elephant killed a tourist, so crocodiles aren’t the only things to worry about.  The only animal we saw was a hyena…the first one I’ve ever seen. I thought he was quite pretty, reddish brown with dark spots, but my African friends assured me that he was very very ugly.

We had a really interesting discussion today about why we say that Livingstone “discovered” Victoria Falls, when it was here long before he was.  He showed up here November 16, 1855  and landed on the same island where we saw the elephant. It would be more accurate to say that he became aware of it, or even that he stumbled upon it.  I looked it up and found that this is an ongoing debate, but the recognition of someone as a “discoverer” in Victorian England had a slightly different meaning than we use it today…it was heavily based on being the first person to get information about it into print.

This led to a discussion of post-colonial education, and why children in Zimbabwe had to learn the names of Canadian provinces.  All I learned about Africa was odds and ends: the Nile river,  Livingstone, the Tuaregs and  Mount Kilimanjaro.  I also learned about the Limpopo River from bedtime stories, and it was with some amazement that I realized that we had crossed it on our way here.  If you don’t know the story, it’s The Elephant’s Child, by Rudyard Kipling, “Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.’