Back to SusieQ's visit . . .
You last found me sitting on the side of the road with a broken down car. We got the car towed to a local Ford dealership and prepared for our trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. On the radio during that fateful drive back from the Elephant Sanctuary, we heard that Robert Mugabe had finally stepped down as President of Zimbabwe after a military takeover. I had been monitoring the situation and checking in with the woman that helped organize the trip. Victoria Falls is 900km from Harare. Tourism is the bread and butter of Zimbabwe so we felt pretty confident that they would do everything possible to avoid disrupting the tourism industry.
We woke up to a very promising headline in the Johannesburg newspaper.
We arrived in Zimbabwe in the early afternoon and our first adventure was a dinner cruise on the Zambezi River. It was a perfect way to start the trip. Unlike some of the other boats, ours had a very small group of people - less than 15. The staff was very attentive - our glasses were never empty (always the criteria you should judge a boat cruise by). We saw quite a few hippos and a crocodile or two as the sun slowly set.
This was also day 2 of anti-malaria medicine. Zimbabwe is in a malaria zone so we needed to start our medicine the day before the trip and continue taking the pills for 5 days after our trip. I must have a different kind from when I traveled to Kenya a few years ago because this medicine didn't make me sick like the Kenya medicine did.
Day two started with a tour along the 1.2km path that parallels Victoria Falls.
There are 13 points of interest along the Falls to visit. Victoria Falls is famous for the rainbows created by the light and mist from the falls. I didn't realize that we were traveling in the low water season so the Falls was not in all of the glory that it would be in July but we were able to see a beautiful rainbow at the beginning of our tour.
I thought I was checking something off my bucket list but instead I added "Go back to Victoria Falls in July!"
After our on the ground tour of Victoria Falls, we splurged on a helicopter ride over the falls and some of the local national parks grounds.
We not only saw the beauty of the falls from above but we also got to see some elephants, giraffes and buffalo in the national park.
During high water, this entire ledge would be water falls instead of only the 3 falls you see here
The hotel that we stayed at has a watering hole on the property that you could see from our room and also from the hotel restaurant. They also have a dugout that is supposed to look like a large termine mound called the Sidule hide. We had a late afternoon visit to the hide to try to spot some wildlife. Our guide picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the hide. He helpfully tried to point out what little wildlife we did see.
The hilight of the 2 hours was this little guy peering in the hide to see what was going on. He saw us arrive and just wanted to check out the party he wasn't invited to.
We saw a couple of crocodiles. We almost saw a crocodile snack but unfortunately the bird never hopped close enough for him to take a bite!
Our guide brought a cooler - SusieQ drank a beer. I drank nothing because there was no bathroom down there!
The Sidule Hide was kind of a bust, but it was really nice to sit in the quiet with nature for a couple of hours (except for the kids screaming at the swimming pool).
We saw so little wildlife, I have to add this frog to our list of animals seen list.
For dinner that evening we went to a drum dinner show that was at the resort next to our hotel. They had the Bamba Shuttle that ferried us over to dinner. The meal was served buffet style with many exotic animals (to Americans) to taste.
They also provided festive wraps for us to wear.
We had drums to play during the show that came at the end of dinner. The funny thing is, I actually fell asleep sitting at the table during the drum show. I think it was the lulling beat of the drums but next thing I know SusieQ is poking me asking me if I am ready to leave.
We accidentally (on purpose) forgot to eat the worm
On our final morning we had a 6am pick up for a game drive in the national park. We were definitely having a drought of animals. We saw a troop of baboons soon after entering the park but we drove for at least and hour and a half with out seeing anything except boring birds. Clever, our guide, pointed out every bird. I guess he was trying to show us some kind of wildlife.
Clever had packed a lovely tea and coffee service for us that we enjoyed near the end of our drive.
We were headed back to the park entrance when we finally spotted our first animals. We saw 3-4 giraffes enjoying a morning snack.
As we drove on, Clever spotted an elephant in the bush. We sat and waited as he slowly made his way out toward the road. SusieQ got a great video of him crossing the road in front of us.
Somehow we stumbled across an entire herd of elephants heading to the river. I couldn't count all the elephants heading through the bush but it was super cool to hear them calling to each other with their rumbling voices. We tried to wait to see if we could watch all of them cross the road but at that point we had been out for 30 minutes over our allotted drive so we headed back to the hotel. It was nice that Clever kept us out a bit longer once we finally found some wildlife.
We headed back to the hotel where we enjoyed our final breakfast looking out over the watering hole before heading to the airport.
It really was an amazing trip. The people had a fresh outlook with the ousting of Mugabe. "We finally feel free" one gentleman said to me. I only hope that there is truly a regime change and not just a transfer of corruption from one set of hands to another.
Until my next dispatch from Jo'burg. Totsiens and mooi loop!
My snack on the flight back - chenan blanc, gluten free muffins and a trashy novel.
