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Published: August 7th 2007
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Lion
Is it just me or does he look like he wants to eat me?! So here we are in the middle of Harare, Zimbabwe - I have to say that I feel more conscious of being a white person here than anywhere else we have been so far - that said, everyone has been very friendly so far, so it's not threatening in any way.
We arrived here yesterday - we had no trouble coming over the border, except for policemen asking for money, this wasn't a problem though as we actually didn't have any! There are certainly some very rich people here, the suburbs of Harare that we drove through have very large houses, some with swimming pools and all with bars at the windows. We spent the day in Harare and about 8 of us went to lunch at a restaurant only to have the chef and then the manager come and speak to us after we had finished the meal. They were so pleased to have tourists in their restaurant and wanted to make sure that we would come back again. We have since found out that tourism in Zimbabwe has dropped 95% in the past 5 years. Everyone who can afford to has left the country and the people who
So cute
The lion who accompanied us on the walk are left really want change from the Mugabe regime. It's so sad that they feel trapped in their own country and are powerless to do anything about it. We took a mini cab taxi back from the city to the campsite and everyone was looking out for our stop making sure that we didn't get lost - they were also saying to pass on to everyone how nice a place it is and to encourage people to go as they would love to see more people enjoying their country.
After that we moved on to a place called Antelope Park. It is a breeding place for lions which they then release into their game reserve. Here we got to walk with 13 month old lions - it was fantastic. The only thing that you take is a stick to distract them with, whilst you bend next to them to get your picture taken! It was brilliant to see them in their natural surroundings and to be so close to them...in the other group that went out one of the lions was a bit more play full than the others and it reached up onto one of the guides back
Walkies
We're not nervous at all..honest - even though it was being friendly, his t-shirt was all ripped and he was bleeding, apparently he tried to shrug it off it must have hurt a bit. We also did what they call a "lion encounter" where they take us out at dusk on the back of a van and the lions are taught how to stalk and kill their own food - one of them did get hold of an impala but I think it just sat on it rather than catching it and managed to escape - it was only the fourth time these lions had been out doing it and they obviously still needed some practice!
We then moved on to Bulawayo where we went out stalking rhino on foot. At first we didn't think that we would see anything, but one of the trackers found a trail and we all climbed out of the land rover and went walking off into the bush. After about 5 minutes we found a white rhino mother with her cub - we moved closer and closer until we were literally about 5 meters away. The mother wasn't fazed at all but the baby was slightly twitchy and
Antelope Park
Elephant coming through kept pacing about a bit but the guides advised us to stay put and everything was fine. For such big animals they are really peaceful and also easily camouflaged.
After that we headed up to Victoria Falls. We were supposed to take an overnight sleeper train but this had been in a head on collision the week earlier where many people had died and was still not operating. What amazed us about the town itself was how quiet and un touristy it was - another result of the lack of people going as apparently many people now visit the falls from the Zambian side instead. The falls themselves were stunning - even though it is winter/the dry season here the magnitude of them was breathtaking. We then did what Sam has really been looking to - the white water rafting. What an amazing day! We pretty much had a full 6 hours on the water - doing all the rapids, from 1 through to 25. It was pretty scary, especially when 2 of the rafts from our group capsized on the first rapid. Luckily our raft never went over - I don't know how, many times when going through
the rapid you'd look up only to see a wall of water 10 feet high coming down on you! I was catapulted into the river twice - I make a star appearance on the dvd that we got afterwards and you see me spring out of the raft, but luckily our guide rescues me seconds later. Our guide has been rafting the Zambezi for 9 years, but these days he only does it about once every three days due to the lack of people.
Zimbabwe has been an amazing country, so much to do and extremely friendly and genuine people, hopefully they will get the change that they wish for and so desperately need soon.
Unfortunately many people from our tour are finishing in Vic Falls, so now we are down to 12 people from 28 - there is so much room on the truck it's great. However, there is now not enough people to keep everyone entertained and it is a bit quiet - Sam, I think has got to that stage where he's had enough of some of the people and now there's no way of avoiding them - it could get interesting!
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