October 2021
Safari Notes: Thorntree River Lodge, River Cruise #1 – Zambia
One of the activities I was hoping for on our stay in Zambia was a boat safari on the Zambezi River to explore the wildlife and luckily that was one of the activities at Thorntree River Lodge.
Sunset cruise safari notes
- Learned that Zambezi is the fourth largest river in Africa (Nile, Congo, and Niger Rivers) at 2,700 kilometers long.
- Crocodiles can be up to 6 meter long, weigh a ton, and jump over 2 meters – keep those arms inside the boat! We did not see a ton of crocodiles because it is mating season so they are actually inland for now otherwise there are typically tons of crocodiles in this area.
- African darter spotted – snake bird, different that the cormorants that we kept identifying incorrectly.
- White crowned lapwing – plays injured if eggs / nest is at risk to distract the predator and draw them away from the nest.
- Hippos – baby hippos have to stay on mom back for 6-8 months before being able to stand inn the river on their own. Hippos can stay submerged for up to 5 minutes. Hippos eat with lips and chew with back molars, front teeth are for protection / fighting only.
- Osprey spotted but did not stick around.
- Spotted waterbuck and kudu on the land.
- Many “ALT” (animal like things) in the water.
- Troop of baboons getting ready for bedtime.
- Saw the famous palm trees that are not indigenous to this area – they are brought by elephant dung as they eat from other regions and then through the process of digestion ferment the seeds that then grow when they are “pooped” out here in Zambia once the elephants migrate.
- There were points in the river where we were in Zimbabwe and is the only time you can be in the country without a passport. It is an agreement between Zambia and Zimbabwe on how they share the river but it is illegal to get out on land from the boat. Kevin and I turned to each other, yeah I think it counts as visiting!
- Treat to a lonely sunset!
