7/7/19
We had an early start and crossed the border into Botswana. We did a bit of shopping in Kasane, the closest down to our campsite. The campsite is really cool being right next to a watering hole, where you can hang out at a bar "hide" to watch the animals come to drink. The group did a sunset boat ride, but Elisha and I arranged an afternoon game drive instead, since we had done a lot of boat rides (where you mainly seem hippos, crocs, and elephants), and wanted to try or luck at a game drive where you can sometimes see carnivores like cats.
On the game drive in Chobe National Park, we some some big male Kudu, which was awesome as they are beautiful animals with their spiraling horns. The most amazing thing; however, was how many elephants there were. Hundreds! There were so many of them coning down to the water, and also just everywhere that we drove. Little cute babies abounded. We got really close to many and were even mock charged to within 1 feet. The mock charge was scary enough in our open-sided vehicle that Elisha and a German guy with us, quickly jumped to the other side of the vehicle.
The town of Kasane, the gateway to Chobe, is a lot like Estes Park, in that there are baboons, warthogs, impala, and elephants wandering around town. At one truck stop, there was an elephant sniffing around the parked trucks.
When Elisha and I got back to the campsite, we went down into the hide and a family of elephants came to the water hole to drink. The hide is this bunker that is underground and that is about 15 feet from the waterhole. It's so magical to be so close and at ground level looking up and observing the elephants. It's a very unique angle to be at the level of their feet and look up at the elephants. After a dinner of some beef roast, Elisha and I went back to the bunker and watched for several more hours. Family after family came in as they rotated through the waterhole. Sometimes there was a slight Kerfuffle when they came to the waterhole and asserted dominance, which would often lead to lound trumpeting. The elephants also made cool grumbling sounds. The little babies are super cute to watch drink. Some don't know how to use their trunks to drink, so they kneel down like a cat. Just magical to sit there with the elephants through the night.
7/8/19
Today was crossed back into Zimbabwe and drove to Hwange National Park. We first visited the Painted Dog (African Wild Dog, which I had previously studied at Mpala) rehab and conservation centre where we learned about painted dogs and also saw 2 of the dogs that were in captivity due to broken legs from poacher snares. We bought a pair of "love" giraffes made from snares that had been removed in the national park after poachers had set them up. Wild Dogs caught in snares meant for game animals is a major cause of their decline. We bought the giraffes because they benefit wild dog conservation and for our 2 year anniversary gift to ourselves.
In the afternoon we met the guide we'd have for the next few days, Ian. Ian is a white Zimbabwean and an impressive naturalist and great story teller. He is a very passionate guy. So our game drives were interesting. It was a lot of interesting talk about animals and plants and some very interesting facts. Animals and plants are just so fascinating and amazing. We learned a lot about medicinal plants as well. On the game drive we saw kudu, hippos, crocs, waterbuck, steenbok, and even 4 lionesses.
We had a chicken curry dinner, and then we went for a a night drive. It's the winter here, and Hwange is a dry area, so it's cold at night, so we bundled up for the night drive. It was a cool (literally and figuratively) game drive. We saw lots of springhares ("African Kangaroos") that jump around lke kangaroos, cute bushbabies (galago) that jump so quick through the trees. We also saw an African Wildcat! AND we saw a young female leopard walking along the road. Beautiful! We warmed up by the fire upon our return and then went to bed.
7/9/19
In the early morning we had another game drive in Hwange NP. We saw the same cast of animals as usual, including a few female lions sauntering down the road. We also saw some jackals and a new subspecies of Zebra we hadn't seen before. After the game drive, we had a delicious brunch of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.
We then drove to the city of Bulawayo where we camped on the grounds of a cool old colonial Zimbabwean house that had a nice garden and pool. For dinner we had spaghetti bolognese.
7/10/19
Happy 2nd Anniversary to Elisha and me!
We actually got to sleep in a bit, and I did some laundry. We then left with Ian for a full day excursion into Motopos National Park. We started the day with a very passionate speech by Ian about the terrible plight of the rhino. In his speech he talked about why he believes the rhino horn trade should be legalized (that they should be farmed as well as cut the horns off of the wild rhinos in national parks, all for sale, legal and managed sale). Since a rhino horn is made of keratin (basically a giant fingernail) it can be cut without hurting the rhino, and it will grow back. However, there is much debate in the conservation community about legalizing the rhino horn trade.
Next, we went on foot to track some wild rhinos. We found 4 of them lying in the shade of a tree. We could get really close, within 20-25 feet of them. On the way back to the truck, we witnessed 2 giant pythons mating.
We drove through the park and had a picnic lunch up on a hill with a nice view. The park is full of hills with all these giant boulders everywhere on the hills. The landscape is otherwise covered in tree and scrubland. Next, we drove a touch out of the park to a small village and hiked up through the boulders to a cave that was full of paintings from bushmen. The bushmen have been around the area for 200,000 years and the paintings here were ?????? years old. Ian told us all about the bushmen people. They have mostly vanished, but there are 2500 left.
We heard lots of interesting stories and facts, but here are a few: The bushmen might be the most moral people around. They share absolutely everything and believe no one owns anything. They have no word in their language for lie or deceit. They are hunter-gatherers and always consume every piece of the animal they kill. They have these special fat storage areas on their hips (like a camel's hump) used for storage of fat for the hard times. The rest of them will be quite skinny, but they store all the fat on those hips. When a man wants to choose a wife, he shoots her in the bum with a dull arrow (it just bounces off of her) while she sits around the fire. If she wants him, she clutches the arrow and runs off into the bush. He follows and, thus, they are married. If she doesn't like him, she snaps the arrow in half, and he leaves broken hearted. This is all very cupid like.
We then drove to a hill and walked up to watch the sunset from a top the boulders. We watched little elephant shrews sipping water, and Ian told us the story of the famous Cecil Rhodes--his grave site was up there on the mountain top where we were. His grave area is known as world view.
We brought champagne up to celebrate our anniversary, so we climbed some rocks and watched the sunset with the bubbly. It was very beautiful! We also took some cool sunset silhouette photos. Strangely, when we were on the rocks, some tourist woman told Jodi, Norbert, and me that she wished we'd fall and hurt ourselves. So strange! I scampered down and confronted her about it, to ask why she would say such a cruel thing. She just sat there drinking her coke and ignoring me.
We then had a fairly long and cold drive in our open vehicle back to camp. I had left my pack towel at our previous came in Hwange, and we had contacted a guide that was coming today, so he brought my towel to me, which was awesome!
7/11/19
We got up really early to drive to Gweta in Botswana. We crossed the border into Botswana and stopped in Francistown to shop. Elisha and I had Indian food for lunch, and we also got some ice cream. We're staying at a nice campsite/lodge in Gweta.
Some other interesting Zimbabwe info: They don't put prices in supermarkets and other stores because the currency fluctuates too much. Their coal power plants have been shut down for one reason or another and Zimbabwe is too in debt to South Africa and Botswana to buy power from them, so most of the country only has power for a few hours a day. We had chili con carne for dinner and sat around the fire at night. Some local dancers came and danced with us.
We had an early start and crossed the border into Botswana. We did a bit of shopping in Kasane, the closest down to our campsite. The campsite is really cool being right next to a watering hole, where you can hang out at a bar "hide" to watch the animals come to drink. The group did a sunset boat ride, but Elisha and I arranged an afternoon game drive instead, since we had done a lot of boat rides (where you mainly seem hippos, crocs, and elephants), and wanted to try or luck at a game drive where you can sometimes see carnivores like cats.
On the game drive in Chobe National Park, we some some big male Kudu, which was awesome as they are beautiful animals with their spiraling horns. The most amazing thing; however, was how many elephants there were. Hundreds! There were so many of them coning down to the water, and also just everywhere that we drove. Little cute babies abounded. We got really close to many and were even mock charged to within 1 feet. The mock charge was scary enough in our open-sided vehicle that Elisha and a German guy with us, quickly jumped to the other side of the vehicle.
The town of Kasane, the gateway to Chobe, is a lot like Estes Park, in that there are baboons, warthogs, impala, and elephants wandering around town. At one truck stop, there was an elephant sniffing around the parked trucks.
When Elisha and I got back to the campsite, we went down into the hide and a family of elephants came to the water hole to drink. The hide is this bunker that is underground and that is about 15 feet from the waterhole. It's so magical to be so close and at ground level looking up and observing the elephants. It's a very unique angle to be at the level of their feet and look up at the elephants. After a dinner of some beef roast, Elisha and I went back to the bunker and watched for several more hours. Family after family came in as they rotated through the waterhole. Sometimes there was a slight Kerfuffle when they came to the waterhole and asserted dominance, which would often lead to lound trumpeting. The elephants also made cool grumbling sounds. The little babies are super cute to watch drink. Some don't know how to use their trunks to drink, so they kneel down like a cat. Just magical to sit there with the elephants through the night.
7/8/19
Today was crossed back into Zimbabwe and drove to Hwange National Park. We first visited the Painted Dog (African Wild Dog, which I had previously studied at Mpala) rehab and conservation centre where we learned about painted dogs and also saw 2 of the dogs that were in captivity due to broken legs from poacher snares. We bought a pair of "love" giraffes made from snares that had been removed in the national park after poachers had set them up. Wild Dogs caught in snares meant for game animals is a major cause of their decline. We bought the giraffes because they benefit wild dog conservation and for our 2 year anniversary gift to ourselves.
In the afternoon we met the guide we'd have for the next few days, Ian. Ian is a white Zimbabwean and an impressive naturalist and great story teller. He is a very passionate guy. So our game drives were interesting. It was a lot of interesting talk about animals and plants and some very interesting facts. Animals and plants are just so fascinating and amazing. We learned a lot about medicinal plants as well. On the game drive we saw kudu, hippos, crocs, waterbuck, steenbok, and even 4 lionesses.
We had a chicken curry dinner, and then we went for a a night drive. It's the winter here, and Hwange is a dry area, so it's cold at night, so we bundled up for the night drive. It was a cool (literally and figuratively) game drive. We saw lots of springhares ("African Kangaroos") that jump around lke kangaroos, cute bushbabies (galago) that jump so quick through the trees. We also saw an African Wildcat! AND we saw a young female leopard walking along the road. Beautiful! We warmed up by the fire upon our return and then went to bed.
7/9/19
In the early morning we had another game drive in Hwange NP. We saw the same cast of animals as usual, including a few female lions sauntering down the road. We also saw some jackals and a new subspecies of Zebra we hadn't seen before. After the game drive, we had a delicious brunch of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.
We then drove to the city of Bulawayo where we camped on the grounds of a cool old colonial Zimbabwean house that had a nice garden and pool. For dinner we had spaghetti bolognese.
7/10/19
Happy 2nd Anniversary to Elisha and me!
We actually got to sleep in a bit, and I did some laundry. We then left with Ian for a full day excursion into Motopos National Park. We started the day with a very passionate speech by Ian about the terrible plight of the rhino. In his speech he talked about why he believes the rhino horn trade should be legalized (that they should be farmed as well as cut the horns off of the wild rhinos in national parks, all for sale, legal and managed sale). Since a rhino horn is made of keratin (basically a giant fingernail) it can be cut without hurting the rhino, and it will grow back. However, there is much debate in the conservation community about legalizing the rhino horn trade.
Next, we went on foot to track some wild rhinos. We found 4 of them lying in the shade of a tree. We could get really close, within 20-25 feet of them. On the way back to the truck, we witnessed 2 giant pythons mating.
We drove through the park and had a picnic lunch up on a hill with a nice view. The park is full of hills with all these giant boulders everywhere on the hills. The landscape is otherwise covered in tree and scrubland. Next, we drove a touch out of the park to a small village and hiked up through the boulders to a cave that was full of paintings from bushmen. The bushmen have been around the area for 200,000 years and the paintings here were ?????? years old. Ian told us all about the bushmen people. They have mostly vanished, but there are 2500 left.
We heard lots of interesting stories and facts, but here are a few: The bushmen might be the most moral people around. They share absolutely everything and believe no one owns anything. They have no word in their language for lie or deceit. They are hunter-gatherers and always consume every piece of the animal they kill. They have these special fat storage areas on their hips (like a camel's hump) used for storage of fat for the hard times. The rest of them will be quite skinny, but they store all the fat on those hips. When a man wants to choose a wife, he shoots her in the bum with a dull arrow (it just bounces off of her) while she sits around the fire. If she wants him, she clutches the arrow and runs off into the bush. He follows and, thus, they are married. If she doesn't like him, she snaps the arrow in half, and he leaves broken hearted. This is all very cupid like.
We then drove to a hill and walked up to watch the sunset from a top the boulders. We watched little elephant shrews sipping water, and Ian told us the story of the famous Cecil Rhodes--his grave site was up there on the mountain top where we were. His grave area is known as world view.
We brought champagne up to celebrate our anniversary, so we climbed some rocks and watched the sunset with the bubbly. It was very beautiful! We also took some cool sunset silhouette photos. Strangely, when we were on the rocks, some tourist woman told Jodi, Norbert, and me that she wished we'd fall and hurt ourselves. So strange! I scampered down and confronted her about it, to ask why she would say such a cruel thing. She just sat there drinking her coke and ignoring me.
We then had a fairly long and cold drive in our open vehicle back to camp. I had left my pack towel at our previous came in Hwange, and we had contacted a guide that was coming today, so he brought my towel to me, which was awesome!
7/11/19
We got up really early to drive to Gweta in Botswana. We crossed the border into Botswana and stopped in Francistown to shop. Elisha and I had Indian food for lunch, and we also got some ice cream. We're staying at a nice campsite/lodge in Gweta.
Some other interesting Zimbabwe info: They don't put prices in supermarkets and other stores because the currency fluctuates too much. Their coal power plants have been shut down for one reason or another and Zimbabwe is too in debt to South Africa and Botswana to buy power from them, so most of the country only has power for a few hours a day. We had chili con carne for dinner and sat around the fire at night. Some local dancers came and danced with us.
1 comment:
Nice post . I really appreciate it.
Wix
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