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. :-)

Day 16: July 9, Hwange Park

Last night, Joanne and I heard a lion calling right outside our tent. It's so weird that I can now recognize the sound of a lion call. (It's even more weird that I could fall asleep while listening to it!) In any case, when we walked to breakfast, we saw several tracks on our pathway - apparently two male lions had met up right next to our tent during the night. Wild stuff.

I walked through a lot of poop today.

I opted for the game walk this morning, which was a nice break from bouncing around in the back of a safari jeep. We didn't see as many animals on the walk, of course, but what we did see was great. I don't think this Vervet Monkey was sticking his tongue out at us (I think he was eating a berry)... but I can't be absolutely sure: We also wandered across the bleached bones of a giraffe, re-assembled on the path:
A huge bull elephant was close by as well, and knocked over an acacia tree while we were watching. He was eating the roots, and we could smell the scent of the roots from where we were standing:

We saw lots of poop (elephant, impala, giraffe, zebra, and leopard)... and now I know how to tell the difference between male and female giraffe dung. I'm sure that knowledge will come in very useful one day in New York City. We also saw tons of tracks (porcupine, elephant, giraffe, buffalo, spring hare, hornbill) and we followed the tracks of a leopard as well, but only caught a fleeing glance of him through some underbrush before he disappeared. At one point, we found an area where elephants had lay down for a rest, leaving their prints and dents in the loose sand. Overall it was fabulous.

It's hard to believe that this journey will be over in just over a week, and that our bush trip will be over in a few more days. Then it's back to civilization - Victoria Falls and Cape Town.... then home. Slowly, curiosity about things like my job, apartment and life have been creeping back into my brain. It's hard to fathom not having access to any form of communication for over 2 weeks now. Wow. I've been unknowingly going through an information and technology withdrawal. I've also been going through a chocolate withdrawal, but that I have known about for a few days. Haha.

Really the only regret that I have about this trip is not being able to share it with someone. Ah well, one day... I'll just have to come back... As I write this in my journal, I'm watching the Vervet monkeys play outside our tent. Three are sitting on a log in front of me, and it looks as though they're gossiping... but they're probably just waiting for us to hang out our laundry so they can steal it and hang it on the tree branches around camp...
Afternoon:

Our drive started slowly, but we did catch some interesting sights. Here is a wildebeest crossing:
And we finally found our ostriches! These two males were "fighting" over three females that were off to one side. One male would approach, and then the other would "chase" him off. Then the first would doggedly return, trying to interrupt the second ostrich's attempt to mate with the females. This happened three times in a row. I put all of this in quotes, because neither ostrich ever walked faster than about 6 inches per second. They just walked around each other. It was like watching a soap opera love story one... frame... at... a... time... in... very... slow... motion... (hysterical.)

We also spotted a bat-eared fox (which I've been hoping to see for a few days now):
and finally spotted the silly giraffes striking a most unflattering pose in order to eat some grass:
I like this photo:
Then, we saw some elephants digging for minerals. Since elephants don't get much nutrition out of their grass diet, they seek out mineral deposits in sandy areas, dig them up with their tusks, and toss the mineral-laced sand down their throats. Here, the bigger elephant is trying to dig up a rock to access the minerals underneath:
As this big female tosses the mineral sand into her mouth (they don't chew it, since chewing would grind down their teeth too quickly. Instead, they simply toss it to the back of their throats and swallow it.) The baby with her is trying to get his share too:

And then, the baby started frolicking. I have never seen an elephant frolic before, but it was hysterical. At one point, the cute little thing actually tried to charge the vehicle... hee hee:
We also saw:

- Steenbok

- Kori Bustard

- Lilac-breasted Roller

- Baboons

- African Wild Cat

- White-tailed Mongoose

- Springhare

Sunset was gorgeous... as usual:

I love the color gradation in the sky:
And finally, FINALLY we reached the climax of the evening! We have, so far, seen four of the Big Five game - Elephant, leopard, buffalo, and lion. The guides told us that we probably wouldn't see the rhino, so just forget about them. Tonight, just as we had started our spotlighting for the evening, we came across a pair of rhinos! A male and a female. It was quite exciting, and the guide was nearly jumping out of the seat he was so happy. It was too dark for any of our cameras to get anything close to a good photo... but I got the best that I could:
At least you could see the horn shape... (*shrug*)

Meanwhile, it's definitely colder here than at any other camp, and the morning drives are brutal, especially with the winds whipping through the vehicles. Honestly, though, the hardest part is simply getting out of bed and putting on cold clothing! Brrrrrrr!

Day 17: July 10, Zimbabwe

This morning was another crisp, beautiful one and the camp was bathed in soft sunlight this morning. We visited Ngamo village today... ... and the school in the village...
The kids were fabulous - in 6th grade, aged between 10 and 13 years old. They were too sweet, and we talked about everything from customs to boyfriends, education system to favorite foods, etc. The girl who first approached me was named "Martha" (too funny) and she's in the center of the photo below:
She was too sweet, and once again, the kids had a great time taking photos with my camera:
They danced for us...

.. and even though they were not supposed to, they asked us for pens and school supplies anyway (how could they not? they're in 6th grade!) Martha told me at one point that she liked my hair... and I told her that I liked hers as well. It was too sweet:
The school buildings:
We also visited Johnston, the leader of the village (called the Headman) and his homestead. Johnston oversees a group of about 50 homesteads, and his family was so warm and friendly as they showed us around their home. Here is his granddaughter, Sandy, who was born at the homestead two years prior... an absolutely gorgeous child:
Their homes are gorgeous, and follow the local tradition of painting the outside. The tradition in this part of the world is to keep the exterior of your home as gorgeous as possible, as this shows that you have a happy, healthy and well cared for homestead that you are proud of. Johnston's son - and heir apparent - had painted this on his home. (Note the solar panel on the left, which was given to them by the government.)
As we were at the homestead, the Johnston kids came home from school, so of course we had to play with the digital camera again:

On our drive back to the lodge, we saw lots of animals, including zebra, kudu, giraffes, warthogs, wildebeests, monkeys, bushbucks, bat-eared fox, black-backed jackal, baboons, duiker, dwarf mongoose, ground hornbill, and an eland antelope (below):
Here's the front of our tent:
The afternoon drive was wonderful as well, and saw tons of animals at the water holes. As we left, there was a group of very happy elephants playing in the mud. (I especially love the little baby on the left who was having a grand time rolling around in the muck):
Here's a very happy, very muddy elephant:

It was rather a night of romance as well, as we stumbled across a mating pair of lions. I did give them a bit of privacy when they did the deed, though, and didn't take photos of the mating moment. (The researchers that had stopped to study them, however, were not quite as discreet. Side note that's completely irrelevant: Lion researchers are really cute!) The variety of animals was fabulous:
Here's a local bar:
And token dorky shot of me and an elephant:
Even the baboons were getting in the romantic mood, and several of them were mating too. (I didn't get a photo of that... just a few sitting on a termite mound catching the last warm rays of the setting sun.)
Sunset...

On the way home, more lions:
And that night, we had a drumming circle and we danced until we were all out of breath. They taught us some traditional local dances, and we taught them the Bunny Hop. (Yay Joanne!)
The stars here - if it's even possible - are even more impressive, especially now that there is no moon until after midnight. The darkness is complete, and the heavens are simply stunning with all of the stars twinkling in the sky. It's so painfully romantic I can't even express to you how breathtakingly beautiful it is to see. I am so sad that I can't get a photo of the stars... but I'll have to just take a mental photo and keep it in my heart...

It's brutally cold tonight... but tomorrow morning is our last game drive so I have to suck it up and go. I can't believe this trip has gone by so quickly, and that I'll be back in the states in just a few more days. First, though, we slowly move back into civilization, with stays at Victoria Falls and Cape Town... looking forward to that.

G'night.