Zimbabwe part 1

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Day 40 Tete Mozambique - Harare Zimbabwe 17.7.09

Another early leave from the bush camp as we headed to the Mozambique/Zimbabwe boarder and this was the longest boarder yet (not to get into Zimbabwe’s but to actually leave Mozambique) with people pushing and barging and bribing the guards to get to the front of the queue. After a while it was out of the city and to our next campsite, Bird Gardens. Bird Gardens is based next to a lake and was very scenic although it had a very run down and ghost town feel to it, partly because it is the winter season and also because the birds are kept in seemingly poor conditions. In the evening we decided to treat ourselves to a purchased dinner rather than eat from the truck and I opted for a steak and chips while Michelle went for a huge piece of chicken and chips, gorgeous!

Day 41 Bird Gardens, Zimbabwe 18.7.09

Today was a free day to do whatever we wanted so we visited a local orphanage that Oasis supports and then went into Harare (Zimbabwe’s capital), a surprisingly up to date city that has a real western feel to it, especially now they’ve got rid of the Zimbabwean dollar (which was minting the 50 billion dollar note) and adopted the US dollar. We had a wonder around the city and visited the local art gallery for a little culture, they were displaying photography from local artists, some very good stuff.
At about 1ish we got a cab back to get ready for this afternoons/evenings fancy dress party. Everyone exchanged the costumes that were bought in Mzuzu, Michelle bought my costume for Cheryl as well as her costume for Andy (tour leader) she decided Cheryl should go as glam rock and Andy would go as Pocahontas, the costumes were awesome and although there wasn’t a prize for best one, Chelle would have definitely won for her choices.
Michelle was then dressed by Cheryl in a Cavegirl outfit (complete with stuffed snake) and I was dressed by Ralph in a very loud ladies shirt with a snoopy tie and three quarter length trousers (apparently I was an African business man… absolutely no effort was put into my costume).
Then the party got started with everyone getting stuck into the free punch, except me as I was still recovering and needed to avoid the alcohol for my medication, plus I was still giving up smoking (17 days today) and drinking makes that really tough. It was a good night all round with dancing and singing and rocking on the air guitar to the Guns & Roses.
Before long everyone moved into the bar/restaurant for the BBQ and we were visited by a 10 day old lion called Joe. Everyone was petting him and Michelle got to hold him, lots and lots of pictures taken. Before long I was calling it a night buying a milkshake and heading to bed proud that I’d gone the whole night with ought a drink and cigarette.

Day 42 Bird Gardens, Harare - Antelope Park, Gweru 19.7.09

Today we were heading to Antelope Park and very excited from the good things we’d heard and activities we’ve seen you can do there. It didn’t take long to get there, only two hrs and that included time to stop for lunch in the town of Gweru. When we arrived at the park we were greeted by several singers and dancers all singing “Welcoooome, to Antelope Park”, then offered complimentary soft beverages and wet flannels to freshen up, it was all very overwhelming compared to some of the dumps we’d stayed in!
After a quick introduction and guide around the park by Fanwa we where taken to a presentation room to decide on the activities we’d be wanting to do over the next few days, we were also introduced to Simba our personal guide (who was really cool), we had both decided on doing ’The Lion Package’, which includes 2 lion walks, an Elephant Ride, Horse Ride, Cub and Lion Feeding, Cub Viewing, Elephant Training and Unlimited Canoeing, we also chose to do the Night Lion Stalk (where you get to accompany grown lions as they hunt for their pray). After dinner Simba gave us our itinerary for the next few days and then it was bed, for the most freezing night of the trip so far! This is definitely a taster for the night climate of southern Africa.

Day 43 Antelope Park 20.7.09

Our first activity of Antelope Park was a ½ hr Elephant ride though the game park, we rode Chebe, a 21 yr old female. It was definitely an experience and left us walking like John Wayne at the end of it! It was then back to camp for a spot of lunch and on to our second activity, cub feeding, not as cute as it sounds! Huge legs of cow left in an enclosure near the fence where we stand and the “cubs” in the next enclosure (the cubs were about a couple of years old so fairly big). Then the adjoining gate is opened and the cubs run towards the meat and us at about 50 miles an hr, grabbing and fighting and ripping it to shreds, these were far from being cute! We went back to camp to enquire if there were any rooms free as we were desperate to avoid another night like last night, but no luck. So it was another cold night for us again, but not before I was on cook group and dinner was BBQ chicken with rice and peas (unanimously decided to be the best meal of the trip so far, including hog roast!).

Day 44 Antelope Park 21.7.09

Up at 6am for our third activity of Antelope Park and our first Lion Walk. We walked with two 11 month old lions so not too big but definitely able to do some damage, the walk lasted about an hr and they were being fairly lazy allowing us to get some pretty good photos sitting and stroking the lions, although when Michelle did it he decided to get up and wonder around her for a little while. After the walk we had some free time before our next activity, Lion Feeding but before then we were offered a room, hooray, no more cold nights. The Lion Feed was similar to the cub feed but a lot more aggressive with the lions actually slamming the fencing we were standing against, the males even more aggressing than the females as they haven’t yet established an alpha male. When we got back it was off to our room for a bit of R&R before our next activity, night stalking. We left at 5.30pm and drove to meet up with our lions (3 males) who were on their last stalk before moving on to the next stage of the program. We drove around the park for about 3 hrs while the lions accompanied us but they didn’t catch anything in the end, although they did get close to a mongoose bu he got away! When we got back Fanwa said that that was one of the worst stalks he’d seen and although they don’t guarantee the lions would kill they offered us the chance to go the next day for free, which was really good of them. After this it was off to our room for a warm nights sleep (much to a lot of peoples envy).

Day 45 Antelope Park 22.7.09

Again up early for another lion walk, this time with a couple of 6 month old cubs (seriously cute) although there should have been 3 cubs the sister had an injured foot and therefore couldn’t join her brothers. They were really active and ran about playing everywhere. After the lion walk it was straight on to the elephant training where the trainers demonstrated the elephants football skills, it was explained that the African method of training elephants is positive reinforcement (rewarding something done right) differing from the Indian method of punishing something done wrong. After the training there was time for a quick breakfast and then it was time for our horse ride (which was one of my favourite experiences here), we spent nearly 2 hrs on the horses riding through the game park, my horse was called Final-Ace and Michelle’s was called Whisky, both horse where really good to a couple of novices like us even giving us the confidence to move into a trot a few times. We got quite close to a lot of game, actually witnessing two giraffes fighting by wrapping their necks around each other and head butting. When we finished the horse ride it wasn’t even midday and we were already shattered. Our next activity was cub viewing which aloud us 30 minutes to pet and stroke the 6 month old cubs we walked in the morning, they were very sweet and everyone wanted to steel them! Finally at about 4.30pm we went on our free lion stalk with a different set of lions (3 females and a male), it was more intense with more stalking and more game on view but again they caught nothing, it wasn’t a huge disappointment as we still got to see them stalking and at one point thought we actually lost them, spending about 20 minutes trying to relocate them in the pitch black!

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