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January 1st 2007

Published: February 1st 2007

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Jumping off houseboat roof, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

Tuesday began with a leisurely breakfast on the houseboat. A few of the 'Naked Cagers' decided on a naked roof jump, which was hilarious, but happened so fast the photographic evidence is unfortunately just a blur. I can't imagine what the houseboat crew must think of us crazy Mzungu's (white people), they just sat up in the control room watching naked people wander past to redress. Most of us ended up jumping from the roof, but only about half of the group went naked, probably because nobody had been drinking & it was broad daylight. I jumped after a brief panic about the height & it was good except doing a pindrop meant I went underwater quite deep & it popped my ears, which were really sore for the rest of the day.

We ate lunch onboard then headed back to shore & retuned to Warthogs campsite. My ears were really painful, so I rested in the back of the truck for a couple of hours before heading to the bar with Rach & Blair for a drink. Dinner was prepared early as our night game drive had been brought forward, however nobody came down to the bar to inform

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Rach jumping off houseboat roof, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

us of this change. They had left some food back at the truck though, so we didn't miss out completely, just had to make do with a semi cold meal.

After rushing down a bowlful of Risotto, we jumped on the game drive vehicles & headed off into the night. The drive quickly turned into a comedy of errors, with one truck getting a flat tyre & having no spare to replace it with. They borrowed one from another vehicle which didn't fit properly, but they used it anyway to get by temporarily. Then the vehicle that had donated it's spare got a flat tyre, so it was abandoned & it's eight passengers were dispersed between the other two trucks. Our trucks' battery then went flat when we were viewing a heard of buffalo about fifteen metres away. The spotlight had drained the power & one of the drivers push started our vehicle backwards with about fifteen people onboard!

It was an experience just for everything that went wrong, but probably not worth the money as we didn't see all that much wildlife. Some people were so upset by all the stuff ups, they requested their money back.

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Rach dressin up on houseboat, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

Don't think they got it, but even a partial refund would have been a nice gesture of goodwill on the organizers behalf. I just hope they put that money towards getting their trucks roadworthy again, although this is Africa so I'm not holding my breath.

Wednesday was a long driving day & we stopped in Chynoi to buy three days worth of food. Arrived into Antelope Park & put up tents before it got dark. Antelope Park is where they have the Lion's you can walk with & elephant swims, so we sat down before dinner & watched the promotional video showing all the optional activities we could do. Most people chose a package including the elephant swim, but I'd done that in Nepal & decided on just a few activities because they were by no means cheap.

Up nice & early on Thursday for elephant training, which consisted of trainers giving the elephants various commands & rewarding them with treats. We watched for a while & were then able to jump on board, feed them a little & get some photos. We even got to feel their tongues, which were strangely soft & slimy.

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Lions in campground, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

After breakfast I went to my first of two lion cub playing sessions, which was just fantastic! I was in with three cubs aged around two to three months & although time was limited, I managed to sit with them a while & got some great pikkies. Even at such a young age, you can see they are already so strong & they can play rough sometimes, so we were warned not to let our guards down. It's not that the cubs want to hurt people, they're just used to playing with each other & don't realize just how powerful they are compared to us. I wasn't more wary than nervous going in, but I need not have worried, the cubs napped most of the time so it was easy to get up close. Can't wait for my second play session tomorrow & apparently we get to see the other group of four cubs who are renowned for being a bit more boistrous.

After an afternoon nanna nap, the group was split into two for lion walks. My group had three lions aged about eighteen months, but they were more like younger cubs because all they wanted to do

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Elephant training, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

was play. They had just come back from a walk with another group, but still had plenty of energy; they even took off to stalk a couple of giraffes. Needless to say they came back empty handed & after about an hour it began to get dark & our time with them came to an end. As with the cubs, I have another lion walk booked for tomorrow & again it is with a fiestier group, so I am looking forward to a bit more interaction with them.

Although the group was due to partake in a lion stalk early Friday morning, mother nature had other ideas & it rained all night making the ground too boggy to drive through. The organizers didn't cancel until the last minute, so I awoke with the alarm at four, received the bad news & returned to bed until eight; a real sleep in for Africa.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, a nice change from cold toast & I spent most of the morning reading my book. I was going to act as official photographer for the group going swimming with the elephants, however the truck had limited room & plenty of

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Elephant training, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

help on hand, so I decided a bit of down time on my own was in order.

The afternoon was go go go, beginning with the second cub play after all the elephant swimmers had returned. Straight afterwards we went on the second lion walk, which like the first was just great. Only had two lions with us this time, didn't walk as far & although they weren't as interested in interacting with us, they still provided plenty of entertainment trying to climb trees & stalking each other.

Romy had organized a group dinner at Antelope Parks restaurant paid for by kitty, which was delicious. Fortunately the weather had been kind to us during the day with no further rain & mostly sunny conditions, which meant the lion stalk had been rescheduled for after dark. We were collected from camp in a couple of four wheel drives, taken to release the four hungry lions & they followed us into the park where all the action was to take place.

The lions followed along side & behind the vehicles, whilst the handlers used spotlights to highlight any potential animals to be hunted. Came across a heard of Wilderbeast

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Elephant training, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

that the lions took an interest in, however the group obviously got wind of the lions & moved off rather quickly into denser bushland. We drove on until it became apparent the lions had disappeared, so stopped to regroup & plan the next course of action. I started to hear animal noises in the distance & all of a sudden the handlers were back in the vehicles or running towards the sounds & we were hightailing it through the scrub. Talk about bush bashing; we drove over ditches, bushes & small trees, & through Acacia tree branches until we arrived at the kill site. Although I was wearing a hooded jumper, I somehow managed to get punctured in the head by an Acacia tree & was bleeding a little. Was slightly worried about the lions being able to smell blood on me (like sharks), but soon realized they were much more interested in dismembering the baby wilderbeast they'd just caught.

The trucks came to a screaming halt at the kill site & unfortunately the lions weren't experienced enough to suffocate the wilderbeast, so were slowly ripping it apart whilst it was still alive. The sounds coming from the wilderbeast

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Elephant training, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

were pretty awful, but it was an amazing site to watch the four lions fighting over & eating the carcass. I managed to get some film footage on my camera, although even with the spotlights focused on the lions, it was still pretty dark & I'm not sure how clear the picture quality will be. Within ten minutes, all that was left was the wilderbeasts skull & the lions were receiving praise from the handlers, who were pretty happy they'd killed without their assistance.

One baby wilderbeast was not going to be enough to satisfy four hungry lions, so we drove on in search of more food. It came quite quickly with the discovery of two baby Thompson Gazelles nestled in the grass. Like the wilderbeast, they were only about a month old & had been left together whilst their mothers went to feed. With the help of the spotlight, the lions were soon in place for an attack, which happened right in front of us. All of a sudden there were animals scattered everywhere & one lions chased a gazelle within a bees dick of our truck; they got so close I almost thought it might jump in

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Elephant training, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

with us! Fortunately for the gazelle, the lion hit a ditch & lost momentum for a split second, which was long enough to escape death for another day.

Heading back to camp everybody agreed that the lion stalk was a highlight, if not the best thing on the trip so far. I was impressed by the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, but this by far was the most exciting & amazing experience to date.

Unfortunately we had to leave Antelope Park on Saturday morning, driving a couple of hours to Bulawayo. At the campground, we immediately transferred into trucks & drove about an hour to Rhodes Matopas National Park. Our goal for the day was to see Rhinos up close & personal & we certainly weren't disappointed. Firstly we walked through scrub following tracks which led to nothing, but then from the road our driver spotted a family & we all piled out to take a look. We got within just a few metres; so close I didn't even have to use the zoom when taking photographs. This was probably only possible thanks to the Rhinos bad vision, if they'd known we were there they might not have

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Nicolle cooking French toast, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

been so placid!

Lunch was followed by a walking visit to 5000 year old Bushmen cave paintings. Nobody really knows how old they are, but it's estimated to be somewhere between two & six thousand years. The problem is nobody in Zimbabwe has the money or know how to date them accurately & even our guide told us they would love to spark some foreign interest to study the area & assist in it's future preservation. Our guide was very informative, unfortunately I'm not a huge fan of rock art but was glad for the scenic walk.

The owners of Burkes Paradise had a brilliant surprise for us upon returning to camp; we were able to upgrade from our tents to rooms for only USD$1- per person! Not only that, Romy had arranged pizza for dinner & there was plenty of cheap cold beer in the fridge. The pizza was awesome, everybodys spirits were immediately lifted & to top it off, we watched Dirty Dancing on video & sang the night away.

Had an early start on Sunday morning & drove through lunch to get to Victoria Falls in time to make New Years Party plans.

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Zebras on horseride, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

Shared a handful of room temperature beers to usher in the New Zealand New Year & got in trouble with Romy. Absolute has a no drinking alcohol on the truck policy & I don't think she realised it was only a one off celebration for all the Kiwi's onboard.

Arrived mid afternoon at Shoestrings campground, watched a promotional video about all the available activities & booked in for the New Year. I decided on a full day of Adrenaline activities & a half hour helicopter ride over Victoria Falls; some of the more adventurous members of the group booked in to do a 110 metre Bunji Jump - crazy people!

Got caught in a torrential downpour en route to dinner at Mama Africa's & shivered away throughout the meal, then headed back to campsite & kicked off the party. Romy had advised us the fancy dress theme would be 'Cowboys & Indians' & I'm pleased to say although it may have been ONLY our group dressing up, most people made an effort. I went barefoot, wore my long brown layered skirt as a dress, had my hair in two plaits & wore one of the smelly cowboy hats

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Cub viewing, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

purchased in Kariba prior to the houseboat trip at Christmas. Pretty simple, but I think I managed to pass for a Cowboy/Indian hybrid. There was a stack of people partying from ours & other campsites & also a few locals in the mix too. The music was loud & predominantly techno, but after a few drinks most people were up dancing & our group saw in the New Year around the pool.

Monday was a pretty slow New Years Day & although I'd gone to bed fairly early (around three), I didn't bother to surface for about twelve hours after that. The weather was kind to us & it stayed overcast most of the day with a nice breeze, which kept the temperatures down in the tent & allowed us all to get a good rest. Rach, Blair & I took an afternoon stroll to the local markets, but we didn't trade or buy anything & plan to return another day. My hangover decided to kick back in, so I returned to the tent & skipped dinner in favour of more sleep.

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