Hiippos! And a 21st century voyage on the Africa Queen....

Here is a final pic from my Falls swim of the incredible and brave dancing guide as well as more of the Falls-

Leaving Zambia and walking thru the dense bush... I saw there warthogs-

Ok, so they were just off the main road as I walked back to my hotel room, but they could have been deep in the bush.  Anyway, after seeing them, I decided to eat them and tried  grill wart hog on the  menu- not bad, kind of like a tasty but tough pork.  Figures really.

After my Zambia swim, I had a evening dinner cruise on the Zambezi River, WELL upstream of the Falls.  But it was certainly not without danger.  Oh, no, as we proceeded upstream in our 80 ft barge, we came upon a pod  (or whatever they are) of hippos, statistically the most deadly of African animals.  Standing well back from the railing in case of a crazed hippo attack, which was not a problem because old ladies were standing there snapping photos, I faced the pod down-

As Andrea says, pigs have always had an honored place in the Kaulbach family and I have always liked hippos, as they  seem like giant water logged pigs-

After this frightening encounter in which I admittedly did much to calm the other dinner guests, we proceeded up the Zambezi-

Some vultures no doubt hoping I would fail in my mano o hippo encounter-

As you can see, it was a jittery crowd after the hippos

The free beer and wine did much to calm the nerves of the dinner crowd, and admittedly I partook a healthy amount myself.  In fact, I was befriended by a group of retirees from North Carolina with whom I chatted quite a bit, as well by the Captain who provided me with a good deal of info about hippo, elephant, vulture and other activity on the river.  It was a most pleasant evening- hippos, perfect weather, nice African sunset, good fellowship, an open bar, the wide Zambezi... If I die and go to heaven (unlikely as that might be), I might find myself enjoying a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi in Africa...with free beer and wine.  

My next stop is Kruger and my hiking safari in the wildest bush for 4 days.  It is quite possible there will not be any posts for 4 or 5 days while I try to see but not be eaten by the big cats.