Setting off on an African adventure

We first see them crossing the runway. Backpacks slung over a shoulder, a big grin on Dad’s face as he strides across the runway beside our new friend, Myffie.

They must have been the last people off the plane because we had waited in the café overlooking the airstrip at Livingstone Airport in Zambia as weary traveller after weary traveller appeared from behind the propeller-powered plane.

Bags are picked up, passports stamped. Hugs shared. And so begins our African adventure.

At Ngoma Lodge the staff greet us with big smiles and enthusiastic recommendations for our stay in Livingstone.

Our first stop is the Mosi oa Tunya National Park. A little taste of African wildlife. A little taste of what it means to be on safari in Africa.

The open top jeep picks us up early, just as the first rays of light fall across the township of Livingstone, named after the first European to explore the area, David Livingstone. A cold breeze swirls around us and we all wish we’d brought just one more jumper to get us through the cold morning.

A man with long dreadlocks and red Masai blanket draped over his shoulder sits behind the driver facing straight ahead, he barely acknowledges us as we clamber up into the jeep, while a man behind us greets us warmly. He chats to us amicably and we assume he is our guide for the morning. That is until we stop at the ATM, hand over a hefty wad of Zambian quacha to pay for the safari and he promptly departs.

Our guide, who is also our driver, introduces himself and once again we’re on our way.

Our first wildlife sighting is a hippo, almost completely submerged in the Zambezi River. We crane our necks, pull over to get a better look, take photos and sit in awe at the creature before us. It’s the first of many ‘pinch me’ moments we’ll experience over the coming weeks.

Within minutes of our encounter with the hippo we see water birds and land birds, waterbuck and bushbuck, even a crocodile gliding along the water’s edge. 

Each wildlife sighting brings a new excitement, and Africa weaves its way under our skin just a little bit further.

The first elephant we see is small. It stands alone on the opposite side of the road, but we turn our heads slightly and see its mate; a second elephant ambling off into the scrubland. 

This is the wild Africa we came to see.

We watch two big elephant bucks having a feed, shaking a palm tree to get the nuts down, we see warthogs and baboons and impala and vervet monkeys.

After a couple of hours driving through the scrub, our guide pulls over and we all climb out of the jeep. A ranger guides us further into the scrub, but this time we’re on foot. He’s already warned us to walk single file. And to stick together.

And so we walk, through the African scrub, with nothing between us and the wildlife but a single ranger with a gun. We walk for about 100 metres and then the ranger stops and points, but we don’t need any guidance, the rhino is clearly visible against a small bush. 

She is laying down with her baby standing beside her. We move slightly closer to get a better look. The mother watches us but doesn’t move. We hold our breathe. We all stand in silence, watching, scarcely believing we’re here, in this moment. We’re less than 100 metres from a rhino and her baby. In the African bushland.

We’re equally excited and nervous, awed and humbled. She is bigger than we imagine, but she barely acknowledges our presence. Not even the clicking of the camera, or the rustle of leaves and twigs beneath our feet as we jostle for the best photographic angles disturbs her.

We stop for lunch at the Royal Livingstone, watching the spray from Victoria Falls rise into the sky from a balcony on the edge of the Zambezi, while zebra nibble the grass around us. It is fancy, seemingly a world away from the morning’s safari and yet it is very African. An African lodge that provides a glimpse of colonial times. 

At night we take a sunset cruise on the Taonga, a small agile boat where our guides cook us a barbecue and the only three other passengers chat and make small talk and insist on having their photos taken with us.

Ade watches the shore, camera in hand, capturing anything that moves, and the rest of us watch as the sun disappears over Zambia and hippos, impala and bushbuck hang out at the water’s edge.

And so ends our first day in Africa. 

Fast Facts

We travelled to Zambia on this trip in 2023. It was my second and Ade’s third trip to Zambia.

We stayed at Ngoma Lodge.

We were here for two nights.

Was it long enough? There is still a lot more for us to explore in Zambia, but it was long enough in Livingstone.

Highlights: Watching an elephant shake coconuts off a tree in the jungle, standing close to a rhino and her baby.

Read more about our adventures in Africa here.

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