Thursday
night I took the bus to Windhoek, arriving early Friday. Leokadia had invited
me to stay at her house; so I did. Since she lives out of the city center, I
had a quiet day reading and relaxing in her house, which was good.
Saturday
morning at 4:45, I was picked up to go to the airport. Not my time of day, but
it was necessary. I was surprised how busy the airport was at that hour. Check
in took forever. Then the plane left 50 minutes late. The pilot apologized,
saying that as far as he understood, the delay was due to a new reservation
system that they are getting used to and that has some kinks causing it to take
a long time. Because the flight arrived in Johannesburg 40 minutes late, I had
an overlay of 45 minutes instead of 1.5 hours. I figured that this meant my
checked bag wouldn’t make it to the connecting flight, but I was glad that I
was going to make it. This plane left and arrived 40 minutes late. Since my bag
didn’t make it, I was in the office for half an hour waiting and reporting my
missing bag. The man said it wasn’t missing, just delayed, and was confident
that it would arrive on Sunday.
Because
I had to wait so long, my pickup driver had to leave with his other passengers,
and I had to wait another half hour for the next driver. This meant that there
wasn’t time to check in at the guesthouse before my sunset river cruise. So the
driver took me directly to the cruise and informed the guesthouse that I’d
arrive afterwards. And all was good.
At the
dock we were greeted with a group of Zulu singers and dancers. Since I was one
of the first passengers to arrive, I got a seat on the top, which I prefer. As
the boat filled, I heard a woman comment to her friend that all the tables were
taken. So I invited them to sit at my table. They were a group of three women
and a man who were taking the cruise before a conference that began on Sunday.
It was enjoyable to share the experience with them.
The cruise included
beverages and a snack that became my dinner.
The boat went slowly up the river
toward the falls. We saw an elephant eating on the shore 
and a small crocodile
that was so camouflaged that it was barely visible.
In the distance on a side
branch there was a group of elephants in the water.
Toward the end of that
branch we could see spray from Victoria Falls that made it hazy.
We also saw a
number of hippos in the water in that area. They would pop the top of their
head up for a very short time and then disappear; so seeing them was a fun challenge.
In the area with rocks in the river, the hippo heads blended in quite well.
On the
way down the river we had a good view of a bushbuck near the shore.
And then
more hippos that kept the top of their heads up longer.
The sunset was lovely.
I had hoped for a sunset and hippos and got both plus elephants and bushbucks. It
was a perfect ending for the day.
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