Stanley Exploration & Safari Company

<body background="images/paper.jpg" bgcolor="#F0C891" text="#626332" bgproperties="fixed"> <p align="center"><img src="images/title_lod.gif" alt="title.gif (2104 bytes)" width="321" height="48"></p> <div align="center"><center><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="100%"><p align="center"><font size="2">During the short drive from the airport, I absorb with all my senses my first contact with real Africa.<br> 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.<br> 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.</font></p> <p align="center"><font size="2">The surroundings keep amazing me. Every detail is tastefully designed.<br> 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.<br> One can imagine Stanley or Livingstone himself had just left the room!!</font></p> </td> <td width="158"><img src="images/el_sunhe.jpg" alt="Elephant around Stanley Safari Lodge, Zambia" align="right" hspace="0" width="150" height="229"></td> </tr> </table> </center></div><div align="center"><center><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="207"><img src="images/ze_fight.jpg" alt="Zebra's in action" align="texttop" width="200" height="144"></td> <td width="100%"><blockquote> <p align="center"><br> <font size="2">After a well-earned bath overlooking the Zambezi,</font><br> <font size="2">it was a pleasure to choose a nice outfit for tonight.</font><br> <font size="2">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.</font><br> <font size="2">The cooking staff -clad in stylish uniforms- await us, one of them leads us to our table.</font><br> <font size="2">An immaculate tablecloth and the beautiful tableware brings us back to the old days.</font><br> <font size="2">The meal is delicious, it has been prepared by a French cook fond of African tastes.</font><br> <font size="2">After dinner, I enjoyed my cognac discussing the impressions of the day with my guide in the library.</font></p> </blockquote> </td> </tr> </table> </center></div><div align="center"><center><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="100%"><font size="2">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!</font><br> <font size="2">During the magnificent African sunrise and a few hours of exploration we saw elephant, hippo and rhino, to name a few.</font><br> <font size="2">Still fascinated by a couple of giraffes collecting their breakfast in a tree, I start to get hungry too.</font><br> <font size="2">Time to drive back to the lodge...</font><br> <font size="2">But in the meantime our guide had dressed a beautiful table right in the bush...</font><br> <font size="2">Nothing was left behind and we toasted with champagne to the beauty of nature!</font><br> <font size="2">This is exactly the breakfast I dream of on a lazy sunday morning.</font></td> <td width="205"><img src="images/bushdrin.jpg" alt="My Sundowner after an exploration day" width="200" height="130"></td> </tr> </table> </center></div><div align="left"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="100"><p align="center"><img src="images/le_grace.jpg" alt="Wild Elegance" align="left" hspace="0" width="97" height="220"></p> </td> <td width="100%"><p align="center"><br> <font size="2">Relaxing in my bath, dreaming away with the images I collected this early morning, I listen to the music of Nature.</font><br> <font size="2">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.</font><br> <font size="2">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.</font><br> <font size="2">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.</font><br> <font size="2">These people are so helpful.. Zambians are the friendliest people in Africa!</font></p> <p align="center"><font size="2">I hesitate to have lunch at the nicely dressed table on the lawn under a tree or on the outlook platform,</font><br> <font size="2">as I just have been told by our guide that a herd of elephants is taking a bath.</font><br> <font size="2">Plenty of delicious and colourful salads cover the table...</font><br> <font size="2">A warm breadroll hides in my napkin folded in the shape of a crocodile!</font><br> <font size="2">I ordered fish, fresh from the river, grilled on the barbecue.</font><br> <font size="2">The wine is light and refreshing, coming straight from the well stocked wine-cellar.</font></p> </td> </tr> </table> </div><div align="center"><center><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="110"><img src="images/antilope.jpg" alt="Watching the Sun go down" align="left" hspace="0" width="98" height="98"></td> <td width="100%"><p align="center"><font size="2">The next day we went in a lazy canoe ride on the Zambezi, the landscape gliding along us</font>.<br> <font size="2">I enjoyed this way of discovering the wildlife, as most animals come to refresh themselves at the Zambezi...</font><br> <font size="2">We found grazing hippos and passed uncomfortably close to a crocodile.</font><br> <font size="2">Suddenly we were surprised by a herd of bathing elephants. They are so majestic!</font><br> <br> <font size="2">At midday we arrived at a small island, where a superb lunch table was awaiting us.</font><br> <font size="2">Everything has been carried here by boat and porter!</font><br> <font size="2">After a short rest under a tree, we were woken up by a family of baboons.</font><br> <font size="2">Time to get back on the river...</font></p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="110"><img src="images/baobab.jpg" alt="Majestic Baobab" align="right" hspace="0" width="98" height="98"></td> </tr> </table> </center></div><p align="center"><font size="2">Slowly we are approaching the Victoria Falls, I see its spray already!</font><br> <font size="2">Getting close to the Falls, we decide to step on shore to have a closer look.</font><br> <font size="2">I now fully understand why Livingstone renamed the Falls after his Queen...</font><br> <br> <img src="images/vf_suns1.jpg" alt="Mosi-Oa-Tunya, the Smoke that Thunders" width="451" height="160"></p> <p align="center"><a href="index.htm" target="_parent"><img src="images/b_home.jpg" alt="go to Home page" hspace="3" vspace="5" width="61" height="22"></a><a href="f_lodge.htm" target="frame_main"><img src="images/b_lodge.jpg" alt="Visit our Lodge" hspace="3" vspace="5" width="55" height="22"></a><a href="f_vicfalls.htm" target="frame_main"><img src="images/b_vicfalls.jpg" alt="Information about the Victoria Falls, Zambia" hspace="3" vspace="5" width="120" height="22"></a><a href="f_impression.htm" target="frame_main"><img src="images/b_impres.gif" alt="Impressions from visitors" hspace="3" vspace="5" width="116" height="22"></a><a href="f_essential.htm" target="frame_main"><img src="images/b_essent.gif" alt="What to take? 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