Malealea with AB

Second time to Malealea, but this time with my favorite person. :D

We were a bit worried that it was forecasted to rain both days, but the weather turned out ok!

The first day we decided to hike to the waterfall - essentially continue past malealea lodge, then down the hill and follow that river down there.

Beautiful river bed with AB and our guide Jalulu.

Our guide Jalulu said he was struck by lightning 3 times and is still alive to tell the tale! He also said he had to drop out of 8th grade because his grandfather retired so he didn't have any more money to attend school.

Here we are at the waterfall! Can't leave without taking a dip right?

ON the way back we took a slightly different route.  Look how far we've come!

The next day we decided to do some pony trekking! It has been a loooooong time since either of us have horse riding.

Taking a break to enjoy the gorge view.

There's maize on the left and sorghum on the right...or the other way around? Anyhow, enjoying the Basotho Mountains!

Alan was not so comfortable with horse riding, so he had his personal guide. 

Saying good bye to Lady. 

So cute >_<

At the end of our stay we went to the local village and ate traditional Basotho food with a family.  Here's the cook with his mother and niece and nephew. 

Semongkong Abseiling

We did it! We completed the Guinness world record highest abseiling!

First day consisted of learning how to abseil on a small cliff-side. But the actual thing was quite different! 

On the day of, we all took horses and rode to the Semongkong waterfall. CY's horse went bizark, and looked like it was gonna run off the cliff! Thankfully one of the guides went after it and stopped it.

The actual abseil was quite exciting! The view was gorgeous! As we went down, the weight of the ropes was so much more than the practice cliff, so I could just sit there, and not hold the ropes, and still not go down. I had to literally pull the ropes up so that I would go down. It was so much fun with the waterfall spraying water on me. I enjoyed jumping off the side of the cliff - people on the bottom said with my green raincoat, I looked like a frog jumping down the cliff-side!

  

Alan's 2 week Lesotho/South Africa Visit

-21st Mon: arrive, Barcello's, sleep/rest
-22nd Tue: breakfast at home, drive around Maseru downtown and cultural center, eat at Number 7, pick up Cameron from airport, help me teach tennis, see Maseru Mall and Tikata for Indian food, Tuesday bible study.
-23rd Wed: Drive to Malealea - hike to waterfall, ate at lodge, played table tennis.
-24th Thur: Malealea - pony trek to gorge overlook, eat traditional food with Basotho family.  Back to Maseru to eat at Piri Piri (Portuguese food) with local friends.
-25th Fri: Tsehlanyane National Park/Maliba Lodge. Hiked upper and lower trail. Ate delicious 3 course meal at lodge, then camped.
-26th Sat: Tempelhoff lion cub petting, TY weavings, Kome cave on way back. Cooked at home.
-27th Sun: Victory church, ate awesome seafood at Prima Piati. Pizza and games at Kim's.
-28th Mon: Living life brunch, Bloemfontein to fly to Cape Town

Cape town:
-29th Tue: Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point, Boulder's beach (penguins), Bo-kaap colorful houses.
-30th Wed: Franschoek (winelands), awesome pork chops at Haute Cabbrierre Restaurant.
-31st Thur: Table Mountain, briefly Castle of Good Hope, VA Waterfront, Africa Cafe (buffet tapas of all kinds of African food).
-1st Fri: Botanical Gardens, Robin Island, VA waterfront
-2nd Sat: home. :(

We tried to book the test kitchen 1 month in advance, but they were booked 3 months out.  Other notable restaurants: La Petite Ferme (Franschoek, reservation needed), Tasting Room (winelands), La Mouette (no reservation needed).

Advanced booking required: Robben Island, Table Mountain Cable Car.

Restaurants in Lesotho: Primi Piati (Italian), Barcello's (Middle Eastern/Lebanese), Tikata (Indian), Roman's Pizza, Number 7 (European?), Piri Piri (Portuguese), Regal (Indian), Peace (Chinese).

Lion Walk/Encounter

This was more crazy than I had imagined. And it's for a good cause too! Apparently there used to be 100,000 lions, now down to 30,000, so LionAlert is a group trying to rehabilitate lions and also have lion encounters to raise awareness/fundraise.

How to avoid being a lion meal

Here not only did we walk side by side with a lion and a lioness, we also got to pet it! It was incredible seeing these gigantic beasts in such proximity. Initially we were all somewhat hesitant when we saw them approach, also when they greeted each other with some ferocity, but once the trainers showed us how tame they were, we took turns petting them.

Mom and dad walking and petting the lion

We were told to only pet back and not to approach the neck/head or else bad things may happen

The sticks were meant to be a distraction tool in case they got too interested in us

Look at the camera! I was always afraid I'd accidentally walk into the lion.

At the end, they seemed like ginormous kittens - with razor sharp teeth of course. Fortunately they were well fed before they came to use, so we went away unscathed! :D

Family Lion Walk

Looks like it's getting hungry - j/k, it's just yawning.  We were actually told not to crouch down, but I guess this is an exception?

Victoria Falls

 "Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." - David Livingstone (explorer)

David Livingstone

Arriving at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe:

From the airport, it's about a 30 minute drive to Victoria Falls town, which is right next to the falls. There are taxis and shuttles, we took a shuttle associated with our hotel for 4 people for $30 (Sheppy Shuttles, he was great). We had initially wanted to stay at the A'Zambezi Hotel, which was right next to the Zambezi River, but my mother had mistakenly booked a hotel room that was too small to fit the 4 of use, so we ended up switching to Rainbow hotel, which in the grand scheme of things, worked out even better because it was within walking distance to the Victoria Falls Park entrance (30 min) and town (5 min). In general, it's not necessary to rent a car because everything is pretty close especially on the Zimbabwe side, and there are either hotel shuttles or cheap taxi's. 

Pumba!

Baby vervet monkey getting some milk

The first day my family was really jet lagged, but I dragged my brother out to Victoria Falls park anyways. We walked to the Gorge Restaurant just to check it out and there we found the location for gorge swing and swing & slide. We were pretty amazed by the gorge, but unfortunately, you can't view the actual falls unless you pay to go inside the park.

You can see the string hanging down on the left for the gorge swing.

The next day we took the hotel shuttle to Victoria Falls Park ($30/adult, $15/child, $25 for SADC).  The park was very well organized and touristy, so there was a specific cement path that you take with about 20 viewpoints. The whole thing took us about 2 hrs to go from one end to the other including stopping to take pictures and mess around. But be warned, at various viewpoints, the water was sooooooo misty that it was like taking a shower. By the end we were all soaked. Some people had poncho's, but since it was a hot summer day (February), we enjoyed the shower.

First scenic view: Cataract Falls

Cataract Falls

 The first viewpoint on the west was Cataract Viewpoint, that was so named for one particular fall on the west. It was also the first place David Livingstone saw Victoria Falls and couldn't believe his eyes. Unfortunately, because we went when the water was super high, it was very misty and you can only see part of the falls from any one viewpoint.

Brother trying to take in some mist

At some points it was so misty you can't see anything

The rest is obscured by the mist. At some areas it was difficult even to see the falls on the very opposite side just because of how misty it was. One tourist even said we came on a good  day when it wasn't so misty. Yikes!

Open pasture view of falls

Rainbow falls area of Victoria Falls

Zambia side of Vic Falls

Danger Point view point

There were so many activities we could have done, but my family decided on some of the tamer things: Lion Walk/Encounter and Livingstone Island/Angel's Pool. Here's a more comprehensive list of activities: Shearwater Victoria Falls. Unfortunately a few companies dominate here so the activities are pretty pricey.


Livingstone Island/Angel's Pool:
During the high water season, access to Devil's pool is flooded and the current is too high, so the typical Livingstone Island visit is transferred to Angel's Pool, which is pretty much the same concept of getting into a pool right at the edge of the falls, but maybe two feet back.

Can you spot the hippo? Hope it doesn't go farther or else it's certain doom down Vic Falls!

The tour started at the Avani Hotel on the Zambia side (our tour included transport from our hotel), and we took a boat to Livingstone Island. After passing a hippo, we came to the island where we had a chance to change, and then the guide took us to the pool. We were amazed that he was hopping along the rocks on the very edge of the falls! It was a rather quick dip in the pool, but the guide took a lot of pictures and a video of our dip.

Then to our horror, he jumped off the edge! But then a few seconds later, we see his head pop back up, and we realize there is actually another pool a few feet down that we can't see unless we are standing closer. Wow, what a crazy guy!

We then walked along the edge of the pool (farther back) to another view point where guide pointed towards Devil's pool and showed us how it was completely flooded. We then took a few more pictures of the beautiful rainbow created by the falls. 

Zimbabwe Side Vs. Zambia Side:
We mostly spent our time on the Zimbabwe side because we heard it was where you can view most of the falls, whereas the Zambia side was where the water came down (so you were on top of the falls). It's not entirely correct, because the Zambia side you can actually see 1/3 (almost 1/2) of the falls if the water is high. So it's all season dependent:

Zambia side: just crossed Knife-Edge Bridge, so I was SUPER soaked.

View of Danger Point on Zimbabwe side.

High water season: I'd recommend going to the Zambia side because you can have a good view of the falls without as much mist obscuring your view (not as much water here), and you can experience knife-edge bridge, boiling pot hike down to the gorge, and Livingstone Island/Angel pool (Devil's pool equivalent for high water time).

Panaroma of the Zambia side. You can see the Zimbabwe side on the left.

Beautiful yellow flowers in the summer (February).

Low water season: I'd recommend going to Zimbabwe side because otherwise a lot of the waterfall that you can see from the Zambia side is dried off, and it's difficult to appreciate the grandeur of it without seeing the fall from the opposite side of the gorge from where the water falls down.

On the way down to the boiling point, we encountered some road blockage.

The bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe

The Boiling Point - so named because the water here swirls like a boiling pot. Bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe on left and you can barely see Vic Falls on the right.

On the Zambia side you can also do a short 1hr round trip hike down to the gorge called the Boiling Point (see pics).  There's another hike down to the bottom of Vic Falls, but in high water season (about Feb-July), the water is too high to safely go on that guided tour.

Maliba Lodge

Maliba Lodge (T'selanyane National Park):
We had a one night stay at this national park, mainly known for its five star hotel, Maliba Lodge. It's mainly for enjoyment of the beautiful comforts of this western hotel but since we didn't feel like shelling out $200 plus, we decided to camp. But we still got to enjoy the views and toilets at the lodge!

We got there in the afternoon, took about 3 hrs from Maseru. We decided on a shorter easier hike, so we did the Upper and Lower trail loop that goes through the Black Pools (3 hr round trip). We started from our campsite/river huts and up to Maliba lodge, then continued to walk along half way up the mountain, between some beautifully green, lush mountain peaks. There was an option for a scramble to the top of one of the peaks, but we didn't have the time or stamina.

The hike was very easy overall with mild elevation change, mostly in the first 500 meters. The black pools were a series of pools formed by a small river. We tried to get in the water, but only got our feet wet as the water was freezing cold! Refreshing none the less. The hikes back crosses a few streams as well, and mainly followed the river in the valley back to the river huts.

Afterwards we decided to go for a nice hot dinner at the lodge we didn't realize we were in for a full 3 course meal with a palate cleanser too! It was a meal fit for a king. But then afterwards, we had to go back to our tent. The contrast was too hilarious. ...