Livingstone, I Presume? Part One

Last week Tracy, Adam, and I journeyed down to Livingstone. Situated at the Zimbawbwe-Zambia border, it is named after David Livingstone, the great Scottish missionary of the 1800’s. Although it is usually a six hour trip by car, it took us eight hours. The last 60 km (38 miles) were riveted with potholes and took us two hours to navigate. Thankfully, the traffic is sparse, as we had to swerve and weave in order to prevent damage to our car. As you can imagine, we arrived at our motel rather frazzled.

Rising early the next morning we grabbed a taxi to take us to the Zambia-Botswana border. After a short speedboat ride across the Chobe River, the Chobezi Safari Tour guide picked us up in his truck. Botswana’s economy is more prosperous than Zambia’s and is evident by their roads, houses, and presence of streetlights. Although Botswana may have more wealth, its population is one of the hardest hit by AIDS. Botswana, however, will always be dear to my heart as the setting for the The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books. It was not hard for me to imagine Mma. Ramotswe sitting inside one of the round huts, drinking a cup of her African red bush tea.

Before our safari into the bush we ventured out onto the Chobezi River in a scenic riverboat. Joined by several South Africans and Japanese tourists we viewed life from the river for several hours. Water monitors, crocodiles, various birds, impala, kudu, puku, baboons, elephants, and hippos. The crocodiles were Adam’s

favorite part. The highlight for me this time around was watching a

hippo yawn. For Tracy it was simply enjoying the boat ride.

After lunch we boarded the safari truck again to travel through Chobe National Park. Seeing elephants on land thirty feet from you is a little more intimidating, especially when your truck is between a mama and her baby! In addition to elephants we saw water buffalo, sable, warthogs, giraffe, and for the first time, LIONS! A mother and her three young children lay in the shade, resting after a meal. Our guide brought the open-sided truck to a halt about thirty-five feet from them. What a treat!

Being on safari gave us the privilege of seeing just how creative God is. What fun He must have had at the dawn of time stretching out the giraffe’s neck or twisting the kudu’s horns into curls or plugging the warthog’s hide with stiff bristles. I even found myself thinking these wild pigs were cute! What an amazing God we serve!