Day 18: July 11, Not a great day

This morning we went on our last game drive, and true to tradition, we saw something we hadn't seen before - a banded mongoose. We also saw quite a dramatic scene of two lions hunting a warthog. The were slowly stalking the warthog, who was just blissfully grazing away unaware of what was going on. The big mouth baboons started screaming, though, and before the lions got too close, the warthog dashed off and the lions didn't get their breakfast. All of this drama happened to far away for my camera to get any photos, but we did spot another lion hiding in the brush on the way to the airport... can you spot her? We also saw some absolutely gorgeous zebras (too cute)
And said one final farewell to the collection of beasties at our water hole outside of our tents...

We also spied a herd of sable antelope which were absolutely beautiful:
We also spotted the remains of a 5-year-old elephant, who had - a day or two prior - fallen prey to some lions. The skin looked like a deflated Macy's parade float... and it was surrounded by hundreds of lion tracks.
A little steenbok said goodbye to us as we darted off, and we caught a glimpse of a steenbok calf before it dashed into the brush. (So cute!!!! These guys are tiny - about the size of a big dog.)
This is the Hwange Park international airport:
The day sort of went downhill from here. For some reason, I got sick on the plane ride back to Victoria Falls, and used up all of the barf bags on the plane. (Really weird, since I've never gotten sick on a plane before!) I felt pretty awful for the next hour or so after we landed, but I turned around OK and by the time we got to the lodge in Vic Falls, I was feeling much better. I didn't get a chance to take photos of the baboons hanging out in the central square or along the sidewalks - they were hysterical.

We dumped our stuff and headed straight out to see the Falls, and since I only had space for a few more photos on my digital card, I took it out and put in my extra card... and I broke the camera. Even when I tried putting in the original card, it said it was "unreadable". To put it mildly, I was really bummed out.

I did take some photos at Vic Falls (the photos are stored in the camera itself - so as soon as I figure out how to get them off the camera, I'll upload them and share.) The falls were stunning, and overwhelmingly huge. I got completely soaked and nearly froze my tush off, but it was worth it.

When I got back to the lodge, I noodled around with the camera and finally got the original card to work again... and there was no way I was going to take the card out and risk messing things up again! So tonight, I have to go through all of my photos and make some room on the card.

Tomorrow is "activity day" - lots of cool stuff to do in Victoria Falls - but it means an early wake up call, so I'm off to bed. Phew! I hope tomorrow goes more smoothly than today... bleh.

P.S. Joanne finally got her bag today! After 17 days of no luggage, she got it all back today... Joy!

P.P.S. We're in a "real" hotel tonight... which means we have heat! Ohhh, so nice....