Zim and Zam

We didn’t think it was possible but New Zealand has fallen from number 1 to number 2. Zambia is our new favorite.
Before we arrived in Zambia were in Zimbabwe where we ended our tour. We were there just long enough to see how Mugabe’s rule has affected the economy and people. For example, when we arrived we were told not to exchange any money at the Zimbabwe banks. The exchange rate at the bank was 250 Zim dollars to 1 US dollar. But on the black market the exchange rate was 70,000 Zim dollars to 1 US dollar which changed the next day to 100,000 to 1. Worse yet, a week after we had left we heard it was up to 400,000 to 1. People on the streets wanted hard currency or anything we were wearing like shoes, hats, glasses, etc. The grocery stores had nothing on the shelves and no one was shopping.
The reason tours stop here is for Victoria Falls. We hiked around the park, checked out the falls and went out that night with everyone from our group. The next day we said goodbye to our friends and we continued on our own to Zambia.
After
Vic Falls, Zimbabwe
Victoria Fallscamping for the last 3 weeks we decided to upgrade to a tent with an attached bathroom. We traveled to South Luangwa Park which is nicknamed the “gem of Africa”. Our new luxury tent was pitched on the banks of the Luangwa River with 24 hour views of hippos, elephants and crocodiles. The hippos were our morning alarm clock, the elephants were the gardeners eating the trees above our tent, while the lions were the cleaners taking care of any late night stragglers. Since there were animals everywhere at the campsite you weren’t allowed to leave your tent without the assistance of the night watchmen who would check the area for any of our “neighbors”.
On the game drives we finally completed our sightings of the “big 5”. We saw leopards on multiple occasions, 2 female lions hunting a puku, 2 male lions lounging in the bushes and one of the lionesses with her 3 cubs. Besides all of the big cats we also saw the rare wild dogs, honey badger, civet, several genet cats, and the remains of a leopard kill in a tree. We also did a walking safari with the armed guard Jackson. Somehow during the walk
Zimbabwe to Zambia
Crossing the borderwe ended up in the middle of a herd of Buffalo. We don’t know if Jackson wasn’t paying attention or was just itching to use his gun. While we stood silently behind a large tree he approached the buffalo so they could catch his scent while waving the gun at them. Unfortunately and fortunately the buffalo know what a gun is and turned away from us. The last 2 things that we were trying to see but no one else seemed to care about were the elusive aardvark and bush baby. Maybe we will get to see them in the Serengeti.

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