Morning with the pride

Quickly that morning, the guides (in the truck with Buli today) found the pride if lions catching a morning drink and rest by another watering hole. The pride consisted of a grown female and male, their 2 daughters, and 5 cubs ranging in age from a few years to the babe at about 4 or 5 months old.

The lions were resting and socializing with each other under the shade of some trees. They were aware we were there (maybe 20-30 ft away), but were relatively unfazed by our presence. The guides explained that ad long as we remained in the vehicles, the lions viewed us as one big thing. And they were familiar enough with the big thing to know it didn't pose any harm. If we were to get out of the vehicle, the lions would see us as a weaker entity, attracting attention. All fingers and ties stayed in the vehicle!

Sunrise at the bush camp

We were stirred early the next morning with a 5:30am wake-up "call". Opened my eyes with the first view out of our hut... Beautiful sun rising, and wilderness as far as the eye could see. There is a watering hole just out behind the camp where we heard animals roaming in the night, but until daylight, we had no idea where we were.

A quick turn in the am, we had coffee and pastries in the main sitting area of the camp, and were back in the safari vehicles at 6:30am fir the morning game drive. Early start is key to catching the animals out and about before it gets to hot in the heat of the day.

Bonus sunset pic!

Wildlife all around!

And so the afternoon went... We drove, identified, listened, learned, observed... And were simply overwhelmed by the diversity of things we saw. Mama giraffe with a baby on the left... Herd of zebra to the right. Kudu, impala, cape buffalo all around. Birds all over the place! Favorite bird I didn't manage to photograph was the Lilac breasted Roller. Look it up, simply gorgeous! Oh look... There's a herd of elephant crossing the road up ahead. Go figure. Just another day in the bush.

Zeeeeeebra!

I never get sick of seeing these guys! The guides are kinda like "there are some more cows" or something mundane like that.... But they are real live zebra! Horses with stripes! OMG!

Check out the pregger belly on the lady at the back. With the spring rains come the baby animals. Some animals such as zebra can hold off giving birth to their young until the grasses have grown in enough to provide food for the young! Jeez nature is smart sometimes. Didya also know you can tell the sex of a zebra by the width of the stripe on it's butt! Thick ass stripe is female. Thin ass stripe, male. Giraffe can be identified by the hair, or lack thereof on their horns. Little boof of black hair, female. Bald, male. Elephants? Shape of the forehead. Squared angle to the head, female. Rounded, male.

Rest stop and skull graveyard

Mid-way through our drive into the park, we made a quick pit stop at the "rest area and skull graveyard".

The safari vehicles at the watering hole

Strutting his stuff...

The croc decided to steal a little attention, and let his domain be known...while everything around the watering hole paid attention, he strutted his stuff outta the water, and settled in on the shore. Little yawn to show his teeth, and settled in for a nap in the sun.

...lurking in the watering hole!

While checking out the giraffe, I noticed this bugger lurking in the water. Hello mr. Croc!

Working for our wildlife identification!

Our journey through the park was slow and FULL of wildlife sightings and amazing amounts of info from our guide. Sibs definitely made us work for our experience! Out came the binoculars. He would stop the truck... Point something out, and have us observe the characteristics of a bird, for example. Then with a little guidance in a category, we had to work together with the book to identify the species we had sighted. There were a lot of "points" given and taken away for our identification skills! Ha. It was such an awesome way to interact with the game drive tho. All the work helped us to remember what we were observing instead if just asking "what's that?". And Sibs (and all the guides for that matter) would then talk to us in depth about the species, characteristics, habitat, etc.

This bird was my first species spitting and identification! The Southern Yellow-billed hornbill. Yea! Robin got a point!

On safari!

After a celebratory dinner at the Boma restaurant in vic falls (African meat buffet and drum circle performances), we bud Laurence a farewell as he headed back to the states, and we boarded a bus to Hwange national park. It was a 2+ hour ride to the entrance to the park where we net our guides, and had a bite for lunch. From there we loaded up into the open air safari vehicles (loaded up on the sunscreen again!)... And headed off into the bush. Our guide / driver Sibs informed us it would be a 3+ hour drive to the camp "depending on what we saw along the way".

Off bumping down the single track dirt road we went! No idea what to expect...

Sunset at the watering hole

As the sun began to go down, we rolled up to a large watering hole... Full of late afternoon activity!

As we sat in the vehicles less than 20' from the hole... We were overwhelmed by a parade of elephants heading in for an evening drink, swim, and mud bath! Over the course of 20-30min, there had to have been over 100 elephants come across the field, and join the fun at the pool. The mamas ushered their babes into the pool. The families drank and socialized together. The young males stutter their stuff, and raised a little hell with each other, even taunting the surrounded bunch of hippos in the pond (lumps in the water in the right corner of the pic).

The sun set was amazing, and the guides had to tear us away from the scene playing out in front of us.

As the dark set in, we continued the drive... Getting pelted by bugs! Yum! When we arrived at the "camp", we were greeted by the friendly staff, given a after briefing (camp is in the open bush, no fences. No walking alone after dark, Must be escorted by armed guards). We stayed in pairs in tent/huts... Huge separate structures with electricity (all solar power!), awesome beds, writing desk, porch, full bathroom sporting all copper sinks and fixtures, Indoor and outdoor shower, all in the confines of a tent/hut. Of course, no outdoor showers after dark!

We shared a wonderful meal together, then passed out overwhelmed by the enormity of the day!

Hello sweet data!!!

Just made it to j-berg s. Africa, and my dear iphone is once again connected to the data world! Yea!

Uploaded a handful of safari pics to Facebook. Will work on catching up the blog as soon as I get checked through to London, and have a beer in hand!!

:)

Sent from my iPhone

alive and well... sans wireless!

lori and I said our farewells to our fellow travelers on friday morning after an AMAZING 4-day safari in hwenge national park (and an overwhelming outstanding 12 days of traveling together!), hopped on a bush plane back to vic falls... and began the independent travel portion of the program!

i have a TON of amazing pictures to post from the safari (pride of lions, rhinos, hundreds of elephants bathing at sunset, birds, bugs, etc....) but until i find a wireless connection again, they are trapped on my phone. i think i'll be able to connect when i get back to vic falls... otherwise, i'll be a busy bee posting everything from the airport in London (thank you 8 hour layover!).

throughout our entire trip, we have been chatting up the giudes and any local zimbabweans we could find... looking for advuice on where to travel for my last 4 days. we arrived back in vic falls with a ton of ideas, and planted ourselves at the backpacker travel office to work it out. we finally settled on taking a bus to a city called Bulawayo, and head out to see a national park called Matobo for the day tomorrow. The travel agent took care of booking us a place to stay (very minimal, but totally fine), and we arrived in town this afternoon. It has been a whole new chapter leaving the "tour" circuit, and wandering around an african city.  Just spent the afternoon wandering around. Small city, so we covered most of the downtown area. there is really nort much for us to "do" here... but it is fascinating to jsut observe people living. We are basically the only white people wandering around, and we have been convinced all day we could end up uin the newspaper jsut for the novelty of it. Folks have been super nice and helpful tho.

tomorrow morning we will be picked uop and taken to the park for the day... we staty here the night tomorrow, and then i return to vic falls on Monday. Lori is workingout her next move as we speak.. but i think she is going to continue south from here on the bus back to south africa to continue her journey.

from vic falls i am taking one final day trip to Chobe park in Botswana on tuesday, then i begin my journey back home on Wednesday. Oh what an adventure it has been.

More pics to come when i am able to connect!

scouting ghost rider

now, here is where pictures completely fail to represent the situation in any way shape or form. ghost rider is a tight canyon, pinching the mighty Zambezi into the biggest wave train I have ever seen. right off the top there are three monster waves. the set up into the rapid is river right over the right shoulder of the first giant, smack the second one head on, and hang on and pray to hit the third one as straight as possible. sometimes scouting is almost worse when you know what is coming. the only redeeming going about this rapid is it is just huge water... and a flip would likely flush pretty nicely. not that it wouldn't be a nasty swim drinking a bunch of river... but few bad rocks.

I was super nervous going in (sitting in the front left corner of the boat!).. but our paddle crew was so together, and Laurence nailed it! we all made it through upright, having had the white water ride of a lifetime! :)

vic falls from above

it was so breathtaking, it literally brought tears to my eyes to look down on such an amazing wonder!

I can't believe what a fortunate girl I am to have thus once in a lifetime experience!

from the heli pad, we returned to the bush "camp". we are cleaning up, this afternoon, resting, blogging (ha!), and packing up again. tonight we go into town for a dinner and celebration with our guides... and maybe our on the tow a bit. tomorrow morning, we leave for three days in a nearby game reserve.

life is good.

zigzag of the river canyon

we followed the zig zag of the river canyon all the way up to the falls, where the pilot looped us around a few times!

post high flight!

after the high of ghost rider, and four amazing days rafting the Zambezi, we were picked up on the edge of the cliffs above the rapid by helicopter for a scenic flight up the river canyon back to vic falls! I have never been in a helicopter before... and it was soooooooo exciting! I was a giddy little girl jumping into the chopper :)

day 4, portage #3

shortly below camp on day 4, we unloaded the gear boats at the spot where they were taking it all the gear out of the canyon, and we continued down in 2 light paddle boats, and portaged another waterfall... all on our way to the last rapid of the day... ghost rider! also the biggest raftable rapid in this stretch of the Zambezi. nervous!

campsite with a view

our river campsite on the third night was a lovely natural ampitheater in a little nook of the river just below lower moemba falls. we had a lovely sandy beach, with a croc free swimming area, an upper ledge for camping, and a short walk over the ledge for views of the falls (previous pics).

after a lazy afternoon floating in the river, and sone relaxing time to chat with the Zimbabwean guides... we had a delicious dinner... and talent show around a big fire. I have no talent (threw our a few pirate jokes... although totally couldn't remember the good ones), but the guides sang a bunch of songs for the group. it is really a culture of song and dance and group celebration. the results are infectious!