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Published: April 27th 2010
I have an internet connection, and I'm not afraid to use it 😊
Right then, where were we, oh yes Malawi (apologies if there's some repetition here):
Lake Malawi is lovely, and we were all pretty gutted about having to leave there, it was just beautiful and Kande Beach campsite was fantastic.
From there it was back into reality and civilisation via Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi to hang around while Mozambique visas were sorted.
The following day we started our transit through Mozambique via Tete, notoriously a troublesome route during civil unrests and used as a trafficing route, but now a safe route through to Zimbabwe (most other overland trips still avoid this route and Zimbabwe, and choose the less impressive route between Lilongwe and Vic Falls via Zambia, but going via Zim was one of the selling points of the Oasis Overland trip for me). We didn't have any stops en-route planned here, just an overnight bush camp in the middle of nowhere. We did have to cross the Zambeze river at Tete, and will see it again once we get to Vic Falls in a few days time.
Through Mozambique, and we get to the Zimbabwe border - officialdom at it's finest with every passport scrutinised and questions asked before being issued with the required visa.
Zim has some stunning landscapes, with rock formations lining the route from the border to Harare. We stayed about an hour outside the city at the Bird Park, set up by a South African couple many years ago, and kept in business by Oasis' continuous trips through Zimbabwe, when everyone else got out during the troubles. The Bird Park was once much bigger, but a lack of food during the height of the troubles meant that the Park was all but closed down. It's slowly regaining it's levels, but we heard some very bad stories about what had happened, and how the RSPB were told where to go after offering no help at all during the worst, and then turning up all smiles once it was deemed 'safe' to go back.
Moving on, after a very early start and a very long drive, we are now in Gweru at
Antelope Park . Despite the name, this park is mostly about the treatment and conservation of one animal - the lion.
So far we have watched the juvenile lions being released from their pens to feed on a cow carcass, from a distance of about 3 metres away, and spent half an hour with 3 of the youngest of the cubs here (about 4 months old) just playing with them and stroking them and just helping them to get used to being around humans while they are young (as they age and develop through the Antelope Park programme they are trained to become less and less dependant, eventually to a stage where they can be released back to the wild, where numbers are becoming fewer and fewer in many areas).
The cubs were great, but last night we took a night drive with 3 21-month old lions as they went out to hunt. They hadn't had a good catch for 6 nights, so confidence was high about them wanting to eat! (the Park don't intervene at this stage and manually feed them unless they've gone eight nights without a kill, which is very rare - again, part of the process to take them away from human intervention). We were warned that it could all be over in five minutes or it could take a couple of hours, depending what the lions wanted to do & what was out in the Park. After not seeing much in the first 90 minutes or so with the lions walking alongside two safari trucks, except for a few zebra (stayed away from the trucks), giraffes (too much even for three nearly fully grown lions to take on), and a lucky hare (too much of an effort just for a snack!), the lions were onto a wildebeast, and then the fun started.
The trucks were going off-road through the plains, wherever the lions wanted to go - we were told that if the lions went, we would give chase, whatever the terrain. Anyway, the lions started stalking towards a group of bushes, we turned off after them, and got stuck! The other truck kept going, and after a short time we could see the lights and camera flashes about 200m away, indicating that a kill had been made (flash photography was banned until the kill, so there were no distractions to the lions or surprising their prey).
Rule number one of safari - never leave your vehicle.
However, we were stuck to the axles, the winch was useless, and another truck would be needed. But we wanted to see the kill, so we walked with the guides across the plain to the other truck (fortunately it was a very clear night with a full moon, and we all had our night vision by then!). So we ended up standing in the open less than 10m away from three nearly fully grown lionesses chomping on their fresh kill, and taking hundreds of photos. Amazing. Normally the lions are allowed to eat for 10-15mins then their handlers remove the carcass back to the enclosure (otherwise the lions want to eat it all there and then, and then want to nap rather than return to their enclosure). However, as we weren't going anywhere, they got a good 20-30mins feed off this kill. Eventually our replacement truck came, and after a few more photos we were off - for about 500m then got stuck again, this time brute force and pushing was all that was needed to get us on the move again! We all got back to the campsite late, but with massive smiles and a great story. Even the receptionist at the campsite this morning was like "you did what!!!" when we told her about last night.
This afternoon is for taking the larger cubs (about 14 months old) out for a walk. Should be even more photos for the file! Tomorrow we're having a look at the conservation centre and the behind the scenes work the Park does. This is an absolutely incredible place.
Then we're off to Bulawayo for a couple of nights, then onto Vic Falls, where we have a bit of a change around in travelling companions with many leaving, and new people arriving, so we still end up with a full truck all the way to Cape Town in about a months time (via Botswana and Namibia).
That'll do for now, next update probably from Vic Falls in a week or so 😊
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anonymous
non-member comment
Marshalling skills putting you in good stead eh? :-)