Hwange: Nature's Life Cycles

Though it wasn't intended, my recent trip throughout the land of Zim proved to be a lesson all about Mother Nature's relationship with the rawest, most beautiful continent in the world...

If our three year old learned nothing from the rest of our road trip, he certainly learned a ton at Somalisa.  That's because he watched three lionesses, eight cubs, and one male lion eat the insides out of a giraffe.  Death and life, everywhere; the ultimate lesson.

To back up a bit, we had decided that no visit to Africa could quite be complete without a quality safari.  When American Abbie emailed, "Do you think we could actually see some giraffe?!?" before coming to visit, I did not have to think twice or ask any one else.  Yes.  Absolutely we would see some giraffe.

What I did not know was just how lucky we would be.

We stayed in Hwange National Park, just a few hours south of Vic Falls, for two unforgettable days and nights in a bush camp a few hours into the park.  We could not have asked for better.  (Translation: I am about to sicken you with a plethora of animal photos.)

Hwange National Park is a monster.  Weighing in at oh, approximately the size of Belgium, this giant combination of woodlands and grasslands makes up the largest game reserve in Zimbabwe. It is teeming with large and small game and over 400 varieties of birds, all sitting atop Kalahari sands that have blown in from Botswana's famous desert for centuries.  Here is a tiny portion of our adventures in a magical place called Hwange:

 

 Love it.  Solar powered pumps located intermittently throughout the grasslands draw water to the surface from boreholes deep in the ground.  It looks strange in the wilderness of Africa, but this provision of water saves thousands of wildlife lives every dry winter. One of the most high tech things I've seen in this country. Love it.

 Giraffes love using the roads.  We followed this giraffe for a few km before he stopped off for a Slurpee at 7-11.

 Termite mounds everywhere.  Looks small, but this one is probably 12-15 feet tall.

 Nature's toilet seat, the waterbuck, who actually rarely hangs out by the water

 A herd of impala, easy to identify with the male's large horns

 Baboon are surprisingly seen on the ground more than in the trees.

 Score.  We got so lucky to see a kill within twenty yards of our vehicle. What made it incredible was not just that that would keep the lions and vultures in one place for days, but that we were introduced to eight energetic, playful lion cubs.

  We woke to the roaring of a lion close-by on our first morning in the camp... an incredible, gutteral, slightly terrifying sound. This hard to find predator was calling to locate the rest of the pride.  A day later he showed up at the kill to eat his share, pay alimony, and have some visitation hours with his cubs.

 Hundreds of gorgeous vultures waited patiently near the kill, anticipating their turn after the lions.

 A shy steenbok peeks out of the bushes

 Elephants galore.  I have about three hundred pictures of the famous elephants of Hwange alone, so pardon me while I over enthusiastically share one of my favorite animals of the grasslands.

Elephant bones littered the landscape.

 
The ever illusive hippo...

Cape buffalo will win any staring contest.

Someone had a bad day.

Wildebeest, well known in these parts for being many pieces of animals sewn together into one strangely ugly one.

  Some strange looking humans also showed up...

 Zebra , cape buffalo, and jackals

My favorite bird -Zazu in the Lion King- the hornbill

 Zebra, ostrich, and giraffe

Sunrise in Hwange. I'm in love.

Bush Breakfast

 

When I suggested to Kurt that we try making a traditional African breakfast on the fire, his eyebrows raised.  But when I told him that in the bush and among rangers in the national parks they cooked on shovels, I then watched his eyes roll.

"Seriously?  I am not eating off of a shovel.  You are crazy," he'd said.

It took a few months, and large number of following eye rolls, but I convinced him finally.  We decided to try our experimental meal at brunch with a set of good friends and their good humored visiting relatives.

So much fun. 

 Extra credit points for Julie, the brave one who jumped in first!

Bush breakfasts vary, but often have a British flair to them... On the menu?  Always cooked tomatoes (standard element of an English breakfast), eggs, chipolata sausage, and pancakes.  Delicious and highly recommended.  But don't forget to wash your shovel first...

Victoria Falls: The Power of Nature

Though it wasn't intended, my recent trip throughout the land of Zim proved to be a lesson all about Mother Nature's relationship with the rawest, most beautiful continent in the world... 

Victoria Falls, "Mosi-oa-tunya", or Vic Falls as it's lovingly called in our country, is nothing if not powerful.  As I opened our car door for the first time, over a mile from the falls, the smell of fresh misty river water hit me in the face.  Our dry six hour car ride from Matopos led us past cracked fields shaded with baobab trees to the world's "largest sheet of falling water" in the world.

Vic Falls is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world.  But it is claimed to be the largest, based on its width of 5,604 ft and drop of 354 ft.  Numbers, shmumbers.  They really mean nothing until you stand at its side and feel the rumbling magnitude of the falls' force with nothing but some weeds between you and a plummeting cliff.

Awesome. Intense. Gorgeous. And so so wet.

The Zim national park across from the falls offers 16 different views of the curtain of water that roars between the border of Zim and Zambia. The waterfall runs parallel, first to the park's dry bush, then wet rainforest, vegetation that overlooks the Zambezi River's gorge of rapids.  Ponchos outside the park are rentable for a few dollars.  The first day we scoffed at ponchos as we entered, boiling from a hot trek, and laughed as we exited a mushy soaked mess.  The second day, older and wiser, we walked through the hot afternoon sunshine to enter the park and laughed again at the ponchos, but this time only because we had extra clothes zipped into plastic bags for our post-waterfall exit.

I am sheepish to admit I looked forward to Mosi-oa-tunya ("The Smoke that Thunders") the least of all our stops on the trip.  Like our visit to Niagara just nine short months earlier, before experiencing it I thought it would be good for about fifteen minutes of looking before I yawned and turned away with a, "What's next?"  And, worse yet, before visiting I had nightmares in which I watched my three year old slip off the side of the waterfall, falling to the crocodile-infested gorge below while I jumped in after him.  (Dysfunctional dream interpretation anyone?) We had also been warned that just after rainy season our hopes of actually seeing the falls through the mist were slim, and that the touristy town of Vic Falls would be the most expensive leg of our adventure.

So you can't blame me if I was less than excited when I had just begrudgingly left the incredible hills of Motopos. But oh how wrong I was.  Check off another World Heritage Site on our list; this is one place we never wanted to leave.

 Crocodile on a bed of linguine... something textured between chicken and fish- delicious!!

   

Wild animals run all over throughout the town as a calm collection of baboons, vervet monkeys, warthogs, and occasional elephants.  Charming.

 Scandalous.

The dry bush just a mere hundred yards before the dripping, muddy rainforest (below).

So many angles, some wetter than others, but all gorgeous!

 

 

Rainbows everywhere!!

Here friend Abbie stands in front of one of the islands that sits in the middle of the waterfall

Soaking soaking wet and so much fun!

 

The last view in the national park is the Victoria Falls Bridge, which connects Zambia and Zim.

 Down a dusty road from the national park is "The Big Tree," a 1000-1500 year old baobab tree with an 18 meter girth. We stand in front of it (below) and wish we could touch it.