Day 15: July 8, To Zimbabwe

Morning:
This morning was quite an exciting adventure! It was an early (and c-c-c-cold) start to along day of travel as we head towards our next lodge in Zimbabwe. It was definitely the coldest morning yet - close to freezing. All during breakfast we could hear the lions calling to each other in the not-too-far-off distance. But as we were driving to the airport, someone in our troop yelled "Leopard!" and pointed off to our left. It wasn't a leopard, but a hyena, sitting in the middle of a clearing. This was sort of weird, and he was just hanging out. We also saw a few jackals wandering around, and a giraffe that was just standing about... and then started running off suddenly away from us. We couldn't figure out the weird behavior until we caught sight of...
More lions!
Not only did we catch sight of the lions, but also caught the smell of their breakfast... another zebra. They allowed us to get frightfully close to them as they were cleaning off the bones of their kill:
We weren't more than about 20 feet away from them. But full bellies lead to sleepy cats, so this guy gave us a nice big yawn:
How'd you like this to be the last thing you see before you die? Ow.
We definitely got close to them, as they were lazing about in the sage brush... it was really eerie to be this close to a wild predator like this:
And a little further down the road, we spotted... yes... another lion with another zebra kill. That totalled three zebras killed by two lion groups in 24 hours that we saw. It was, in short, a really bad weekend to be a zebra.
And the hyenas were just waiting for the opportunity to steal some...
While it warmed up considerably, we took a flight from the lodge and are now in a bus heading through Zimbabwe to another teeny-plane flight to our next lodge. (I don't know why this shot is crooked - the sign was straight, but apparently my head was on sideways that morning. I'll have to straighten out my horizons when I get my 'puter up and running.)
(As I write this, there are baboons crossing the road in front of us... I wonder how much baboon road kill they have here.) The border crossing was uneventful (more free condoms on the wall), and we made it through the smuggling checkpoint in the highway without fuss.

Afternoon:
The drive to the lodge here was FILLED with elephants! Apparently they have a huge overpopulation of elephants in this particular park... so they are everywhere... One charged us: ... others mooned us ...
... and a few reminded me of Reservoir Dogs.
I love the camp here - Linkwasha 2 Camp in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. I think this might be my favorite camp so far. The tents look quite humble on the exterior:
But inside is quite luxurious... (see what I mean when I say it's romantic?)
Even the shower was cool! We have to be escorted to our rooms at night by an armed escort carrying a rifle. I assumed it's for the animals, but after hearing that there is a train station not too far off, I'm not sure if it's not for people protection, too. (I asked the guides later, and they said that it was for animals, so there's the answer.)

The evening drive was beautiful, with more elephants...
... more gorgeous sunsets (here's me on a viewing platform over a water hole. The black spot in the water to the right of my arm is a hippo.)
Tomorrow is another game walk in the morning. Tonight... hot water bottles on cold toes. :-)