{"id":230,"date":"2009-11-21T09:49:50","date_gmt":"2009-11-21T14:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vincentmistretta.com\/blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2009-11-21T09:49:50","modified_gmt":"2009-11-21T14:49:50","slug":"africa-first-stop-zambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vincentmistretta.com\/blog\/africa-first-stop-zambia\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa, First Stop, Zambia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello All,
\nI am back from Africa and I have a lot to share with you. I know some of you are asking why I am back so soon. Well, the short answer is I had a bad reaction to the malaria medication I was given and it forced me to end my trip 6 days early. It was a devastating set of circumstances given I had planned this trip for 12 months. However, on the bright side, I am home, safe and under the care of my own doctors. But I will admit that the 28 hours it took me to leave camp and land at JFK were extremely stressful. That all said, I expect to be fully recuperated in time for Thanksgiving dinner!<\/p>\n

So our group had their first stop at Toka Leya<\/a> camp in Zambia. This camp is fairly new, approximately 1 1\/2 yrs. old. It sits right along the Zambezi River, a few miles up river from Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls are one of the seven natural wonders of the world.<\/p>\n

Our first game drive was a sunset boat ride along the river (I know, if my wife or mother finds out I was in a small boat, in the dark, on a river filled with crocodiles and hippos I might not see Thanksgiving Day). <\/p>\n

Speaking of hippos, as soon as we entered the water we saw our first herd.
\n

\"Yawning
Yawning Hippopotamus in the Zambezi River, Zambia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Hippos sometimes yawn to show potential threats how fierce they are. We didn’t need much convincing!<\/p>\n

The Zambezi River is shared by Zimbabwe and Zambia as are Victoria Falls. The ecosystem is filled with wildlife, both mammals and birds. We could have stayed in the river for several days and not had a chance to photograph all that we witnessed.
\n

\"Zambian
Zambian sunset from the Zambezi River<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The summer months in Africa are considered the rainy season. An advantage of being there during this time are clouds! The rest of the year has just plain blue or grey skies which can get pretty monotonous.
\n

\"Sunset
Sunset over Zimbabwe, from the Zambezi River<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Over the next few days\/weeks, I will journal for everyone our daily game drives as well as provide information about our experiences during the trip. Many people have asked me about what I brought and how I packed. A separate post would be necessary to do justice to this topic and I will provide this information at the end (most likely after the holidays).<\/p>\n

If you have any comments or questions about the trip either drop me a line of leave a comment. I will most definitely be around the next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello All, I am back from Africa and I have a lot to share with you. I know some of you are asking why I am back so soon. Well, the short answer is I had a bad reaction to the malaria medication I was given and it forced me to end my trip 6 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mammals","category-travel","category-wildlife"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t