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During the short drive from the airport, I absorb with all my senses my first contact with real Africa.
The staff welcomes me personally with a freshly squeezed fruit juice while I am enthralled by the magnificent surroundings of my residence of the days to come.
My host shows me my private cottage where my luggage awaits me. I already have the feeling this is the place where I have always been. In front of me, the mighty Zambezi river flows for its last minutes quietly before tumbling into the Falls in a terrific thunder with frightening smokes.

The surroundings keep amazing me. Every detail is tastefully designed.
The immaculate linen on my four-poster mahogany bed has been stiffened like in the old days and on my side table a magnificent rose is delicately put in a crystal vase. A lovely pen made of porcupine quills and paper made of recycled elephant dung wait for my stories on a lovely little desk with a storm lantern on the edge.
One can imagine Stanley or Livingstone himself had just left the room!!

Elephant around Stanley Safari Lodge, Zambia

After a well-earned bath overlooking the Zambezi,
it was a pleasure to choose a nice outfit for tonight.
Instead of dining in our cottage, we choose to have dinner in the beautiful dining room and tomorrow we will enjoy dinner in the 'boma' around the campfire under the stars.
The cooking staff -clad in stylish uniforms- await us, one of them leads us to our table.
An immaculate tablecloth and the beautiful tableware brings us back to the old days.
The meal is delicious, it has been prepared by a French cook fond of African tastes.
After dinner, I enjoyed my cognac discussing the impressions of the day with my guide in the library.

The early morning game drive is my favourite. The sky is pale yellow, the sun is nearly ready to make its entrance on the scene, the animals come back from their nocturnal hunt... I am ready to go!
During the magnificent African sunrise and a few hours of exploration we saw elephant, hippo and rhino, to name a few.
Still fascinated by a couple of giraffes collecting their breakfast in a tree, I start to get hungry too.
Time to drive back to the lodge...
But in the meantime our guide had dressed a beautiful table right in the bush...
Nothing was left behind and we toasted with champagne to the beauty of nature!
This is exactly the breakfast I dream of on a lazy sunday morning.

Wild Elegance

Relaxing in my bath, dreaming away with the images I collected this early morning, I listen to the music of Nature.
I am ready to lay at the pool or in the hammock on my terrace with my book as long as the sun is gentle.
The library is definitely the place where you can spend hours and hours as ancient books relate the history of the region, others with beautiful images taken with patience in the wild, guidebooks about fauna and flora and even videotapes with unique footage of the animals surrounding us.
This afternoon, after lunch I think we will visit a traditional local village which is over 800 years old, unless I choose to stay for the handicraft workshop where our guide's wife shows us how to make my own basket or other crafts.
These people are so helpful.. Zambians are the friendliest people in Africa!

I hesitate to have lunch at the nicely dressed table on the lawn under a tree or on the outlook platform,
as I just have been told by our guide that a herd of elephants is taking a bath.
Plenty of delicious and colourful salads cover the table...
A warm breadroll hides in my napkin folded in the shape of a crocodile!
I ordered fish, fresh from the river, grilled on the barbecue.
The wine is light and refreshing, coming straight from the well stocked wine-cellar.

The next day we went in a lazy canoe ride on the Zambezi, the landscape gliding along us.
I enjoyed this way of discovering the wildlife, as most animals come to refresh themselves at the Zambezi...
We found grazing hippos and passed uncomfortably close to a crocodile.
Suddenly we were surprised by a herd of bathing elephants. They are so majestic!

At midday we arrived at a small island, where a superb lunch table was awaiting us.
Everything has been carried here by boat and porter!
After a short rest under a tree, we were woken up by a family of baboons.
Time to get back on the river...

Slowly we are approaching the Victoria Falls, I see its spray already!
Getting close to the Falls, we decide to step on shore to have a closer look.
I now fully understand why Livingstone renamed the Falls after his Queen...

Mosi-Oa-Tunya, the Smoke that Thunders