Walking with Lions

We've spent the last 5 nights in Antelope Park, a resort / game park which has embarked on a mission to improve the large decline in the wild lion population that has been occurring throughout Africa.  Antelope Park has almost 100 lions which are semi-tame (i.e. since birth have been subjected to human contact).  Eventually the park wants those lions to breed completely wild cubs and lion prides that can be reintroduced to the wild in 'lion friendly areas'.

Photos will follow at another occasion, but Jen and I got to walk with two female lions (aged ~18 months), pat them and watch them stalk a Zebra, watch male lions compete for food in a massive meal frenzy and go on a night encounter where we followed 3 lions go hunting at night.  3 highly unique experiences, coupled with a very comfortable and picturesque setting.

Off to the Zimbabwe ruins today and then onto Harare I think (where we can add some photos)

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls is a small tourist town on the Zimbabwe and Zambian borders right next to Victoria Falls.  It is currently the high water season, millions of litres of water are pouring down the falls every second creating a spray cloud rising some 200 metres above the bottom of the falls (or about 100 metres above the top of the falls).  This made for an entertaining and very wet viewing session where we were absolutely drenched from top to toe.  

Hawkers on the street aggressively push all types of souvenirs from wood carvings to the now redundant Zimbabwean currency.  I couldn’t help myself from purchasing a 100 trillion dollar note - just for the novelty - setting me back a total of US$5 for a set of notes with incredibly long strings of zeros.  

I popped over the border for a microlight flight over the falls (think a bicycle with wings travelling at about 50 kmph) an absolute highlight and the best way to view the falls.  From the air you could really see the wind picking up the fall spray and blowing it over the land.  I also went along for an ‘adrenaline day’ of abseiling, flying foxes and gorge swings.  The end of each adrenaline activity required an excruciating climb back out of the gorge.  In about 30 degree (or more) heat and with a very steep final ascent I was spent on return and slept fitfully for over 12 hours.  Jen, who was less sold on the microlight idea, decided to spend her time viewing the falls from both sides of the border (she claimed she got even more wet on the Zambian side) and enjoying high tea at the Victoria Falls hotel (a very fancy colonial style hotel which overlooks the river on the low side of the falls and the bridge connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia).

We are now in Bulawayo and head to Antelope Park for 5 nights where we expect to go walking with the lions and possibly some game drives.  Don’t expect much internet for a little while, but will post when we next can. 

Africa night sky (30 sec exposure)

Rhinos at Etosha National Park

Sleeping lion at Etosha National Park

Zebra Crossing (Etosha National Park)

Mokoro Polers (Okavango Delta)

Moonrise (Okavango Delta)

Microflight over Vic Falls (notice the spray which covers the viewing area)

from one end of the falls looking towards the main falls in the background

The Trip So Far...

We’ve now been travelling for a little over 3 weeks and are writing to you from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  As we have a couple of days here it is an ideal opportunity to update you on our travels so far.

The truck has 24 passengers (which is its capacity).  There is oodles of personal space readily permitting all of our worldly possessions plus a few bottles of wine which we got on the first day and a small chilli bin for drinks and occasionally some food.

The gender mix is even, and our travellers range from age 19 to about 50 or so (there are some 3 or 4 people who are about 50, each of them travelling alone).  This provides for a great mix and variety in personalities.  Everyone is easy to get along with and so far the group dynamics have been just fine.  

Botswana and the Okavango Delta

We've just come back from a couple of nights in the Okavango Delta - so writing to you from the same internet cafe that the last blog post was made.  Once again adding photos may be difficult - I will see what can be done time permitting. 

Hello from Botswana

Hello all and sorry for the delay in our updates.  Internet is scarce along the routes we are travelling - but hopefully in a week or two we will have a few days with wifi where we can properly update you all.

We are currently Maun, Botswana, in an internet cafe that doesn't support wifi, so pre-prepared posts and pictures will have to wait.

Much has happened, but highlights include:

• Speeding down sand-dunes at over 70kmph in namibia
• Quadbiking across the same sanddunes
• A pork rib challenge where we were forced to consume as much as we could of 2kg of pork ribs
• Game drives in Etosha National Park where we saw zebras crossing the road (zebra crossing?), giraffes grazing next to the truck, oryx, springbok, a sleeping lioness literally 5 metres from our vehicle (who was most unimpressed that we were disturbing our slumber and proceeded to head into the bush), rhinos drinking from a floodlight watering hole at night and elephants in the distance
• perfect weather (almost cloudless skies, hot days and cold nights)
• Red clay mountains and ancient rock paintings
• Spectacular sunsets

must rush as we are heading to our campsight imminently and then to the Okavango Delta

Thunderstorms, Snakes and Scorpions

Our trusty vehicle

It hasn’t stopped raining.  Which is a little odd - especially given that we are going through the desert.  So far, we have heard that “it rains about once every 5 years like this”, “this is the most rain we have had in 30 years” and today “this is the most rain we have had in 118 years”.  There is no doubt however that as we are being rained on whilst walking across desert sand dunes all of us are thinking that this is something quite unique.  And quite annoying.  

No doubt about it, moving from the comforts of a hotel room that is cleaned daily with our linen and towels replaced to a tent that is either being rained on or collecting significant amounts of dew, is hard.  

But more about the weather later.  On our first morning we set off on the truck at 8 am for a  town about 1 hours drive North where we went wine tasting across 4 vineyards for the day.  The pours were generous and by the end of the second vineyard people were feeling pretty happy.  We stocked up with some 11 bottles acquired across the vineyards, ranging from Whites to Pinotage (a Pinot Noir and Hermitage blend) to even a Sweet Red (which is something like Port).  

Cape Town

From the top of Table Mountain

It rained in Cape Town - for most of the 4 or so days that we were there.  Rain in Cape Town in late April is unseasonable, the weather was also a lot colder than what is usual - although it was still warmer than our travels on the trans mongolian.  As such, our down jackets have continued to be employed on most days.

Cape Town is geographically stunning - nestled between mountains and the ocean, the city centre has a cosy feeling to it.  Highlights for any trip to Cape Town include a cable car up to the top of Table Mountain (about 1000m above sea level), a ferry trip to Robben Island (where political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela have been locked up), and cage diving with sharks.  Unfortunately, all of these events are weather dependent and we were only managed to squeeze in the first (cable car up Table Mountain).