Heading Towards Civilisation

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Geo: -20.1678, 28.5813

This morning we got up early and found it difficult to pack up. We were comfortable here and not ready to leave the wilderness. Finally we were packed and we slowly drove out of the national park. We left the camp site at about 6am. I rode in Francois' car as that 70km corrugated road was not going to be comfortable in our car, with the lack of functioning front shock absorbers.

I was hoping for a few more interesting sightings on our way out. Twenty minutes into our drive, I noticed a large tree that had been knocked down since we last drove past this area. Standing behind the tree to the right hand side was a large adult elephant. It was enjoying the leaves and I hope feeling guilty - 1 less tree in the national park!

Soon after we saw a spotted hyena running after a pair of impalas. I was hoping that we would be lucky enough to see a kill, but the hyena was too slow and clumsy. The impalas were fortunate enough to get away.

It took us about two and a half hours to get out of the park. The plan was to stay in Rhodes Matopos National Park. After a long day of driving, we arrived in Bulawayo at about 6. There wasn't enough time to continue on to the national park, so we found a place to stay in Bulawayo. We would then leave first thing in the morning for our walk with the rhino tour.

Unfortunately for me, our accommodation was across the road from a sports club. So we all went there to watch a game of rugby. After the game I was ready for dinner, but Francois and Paul wanted to watch another game, so John and I went into town to find some dinner. John set his GPS to take us to a pizza place and I drove. We were directed to the main street of town and the pizza place was very easy to find. We ordered a pizza for each of the four of us and any extra would be for breakfast.

When we got back I enjoyed a nice long shower, sat in bed, ate pizza and watched TV until Paul came back. It was nice to be surrounded by walls and have a roof above us after living in the tent for about two weeks.

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Photos

01 Knocked Over
A tree knocked over by an elephant - this happened overnight, as the poor tree was standing upright yesterday.

02 Closer Look
Upon a closer look at the dead tree, I spotted the culprit, to the right of this photo is the elephant, trying to hide behind his damage.

03 Hyena
A hyena running across the road in front of us.

04 Flock
A flock of Crested Guinea Fowl running across the road.

05 Young Ones
Two young baobabs, one by the road and one in the middle of the road.

06 Baobab
A baobab by the road on the way out of the national park.

07 Bumpy
The terrible bumpy road that destroyed our shock absorbers on the way into the national park.

08 Baobab
Another interesting baobab tree.