DAY 3: TRAVELING TO HWANGE NATIONAL PARK: I DREAM OF AFRICA

crcscout

Sep 1

FYI: WiFi is not very plentiful so far. I have a few minutes with it while waiting for our flight to Zambia so I can at least get out one day of our adventure. I will post more days when I have the opportunity. The trip so far is wonderful! I may not be able to add photos but will do so when I can. I'll go back and add photos when I am able as well

What can I say, I am back in Africa so the day was fabulous! It did start a bit earlier than I would have liked though. Even though it was after midnight when I hit the hay, by 4:50 AM I was wide awake and couldn't go back to sleep. I finally gave up trying to sleep around 5:30. That's okay. I was productive and didn't wake Doug up.

We had breakfast at 7 AM and met OAT travelers from other groups. One group was leaving today on their pre-trip for their Ultimate Africa adventure. Another lady was heading out on her South Africa tour. We will be doing the same thing when this adventure winds down. Our couple from last night rounded out our breakfast group. Neither Doug nor I could figure out where the other 9 people in our group were.

It turns out that they had all come in a day or so earlier and were all at a different hotel. AND there was only six of them. Three had cancelled at the last minute. I felt badly for them but was kind of happy for us. It meant that now we only had five people in each safari vehicle. The vehicles each hold ten passengers. With five per, nobody has to sit in the middle seat. It was a win-win for all of us.

We were suppose to be ready to board our van for the airport at 8 AM. Doug and I got down to the lobby early. Our facilitator showed up around ten til. This is when we found out that our group was in two different hotels and we were down three people. The four of us were meeting the rest of our travel family at the airport. So we loaded up and headed out.

Check in went smoothly. I was a little nervous about our duffle bags. When we walked away, they were still sitting out in front of the counter as there was other luggage still on the scale. I could just see it still sitting there when our plane took off. I tried using my AirTag but it was not helpful. It showed my bag on an empty map. Oh, well….

Security was interesting. We put our bags on the belt then walked through the metal detector. Although I didn't set it off, I still got patted down. Some countries are like that. It certainly isn't the first time that has happened. Then they had to go through our carryon which was crazy. They didn't go through all of it but enough to be annoying because they weren't looking for anything specific that showed up on x-ray. They were just going through it. The lady was totally confused about the hand sanitizer I had attached to my backpack. She couldn't understand why it wasn't in a plastic bag. And here I thought they had banned the use of things like that! She wanted our boarding pass as well even though we had shown it to the lady at the beginning of security. I had put my away in my purse. It hadn't come through x-ray yet when she asked for it. She had to wait. Then she went through my backpack and took literally everything out of it. I'm surprised she could fit it all back in

Eventually we made it through and were off to the gate. We thought we were cutting it close since Security took so long but I should have remembered where we were—Africa. The first lesson I learned when Joyce and I came to South Africa was that you have to come with lots of patience :-). Nothing ever runs according to schedule. Our flight to Victoria Falls certainly did not. We were suppose to leave at 9:55. Nope. Even when we did finally start the boarding process, we ended up on a bus for probably 30 minutes. First they took us to the incorrect airplane. We we finally made it to the correct one but when we got there we discovered that they had the flight crew but not the one-person cabin crew. Regulations state that you cannot board if there is no cabin crew. So we had to wait for her to show up. It's never dull

Once we got into the air things went much more smoothly. The flight attendant passed out bottles of water and a snack box that ended up being our lunch. It was an interesting combo of jerky, an energy bar, cheese crackers, and orange juice. I was good with the jerky which even came with a couple of toothpicks. The plane itself wasn't even half full. Even though there were empty seats up in the front, we were sitting literally in the back of the plane. The overhead bin was just large enough to fit my carryon. Whew!

The flight went by quickly. Soon we were touching down on the small tarmac amidst the parch land of Zimbabwe. They are just coming out of winter which is their dry season. Towards the end of October and in November the rains will begin for the Big Green. I'm sure it will look quite different here then.

The airport for Victoria Falls is quite small although larger than the one we flew into in Alaska. We literally zipped through Passport Control/Visa. They had given us a couple of forms to fill out at the Jo'Burg airport and we had used our waiting time to fill them in. Doug and I had already completed one before we left home. It was basically a passenger locator form. We did have to complete the Immigration form. We all worried about filling them in correctly but we shouldn't have fretted about it. They barely looked at the passenger locator sheet. The man collecting them circled something on it and that was it. The passport guy didn't pay any attention to the immigration form either other than see the "D" another gentleman had written on it denoting that we wanted a double-entry visa. He filled out the visa and stuck it in our passports. Doug paid him the $45/each and we were set. By the time we got through, our duffels had arrived. They had made it.

We met Mado who is our trip leader and he went with our couple with the missing bags to see what could be done. While he handled that, I got our carryon ready to be left behind as well as stowing stuff in my duffle that I didn't need in my backpack while driving. Turns out we aren't leaving our bag today. We are coming back through here on Thursday and that's when we will leave it. So I'll have a few days to make sure everything is in there that needs to be in there.

From Victoria Falls Airport we had an hour and a half drive to the gate of Hwange National Park where we were staying for the next three nights. Dominick was the driver of our 17-person van. We got a quick education on how bad the roads in Zimbabwe are. It was a paved road but it bumped us all around. There was one section that was particularly bad because heavy trucks hauling coal dust to a Chinese factory making coke had beaten it to death. The company was suppose to be responsible for the maintenance of that section of the road but obviously they let it slide. Dominick our driver had to drive off the road in several places because the actual road was so terrible. I had to laugh when Mado informed us that as bad as this road was, it was the best one in the country. It's the most important as well as it connects all of the major cities.

As well as seeing the Chinese place manufacturing coke from coal dust and spewing ugly fumes into the air, we also saw how coal mining was ravaging the land in the area. They were doing open mining or what we would call strip mining. It was a huge eye sore. The mine laid waste to so much land. On the other hand, unemployment is rampant here. The mine creates jobs. It's tough situation. I believe we are going to have a talk while we are here about coal mining.

As we drove Mado shared a bit of his history with us. He was born in a small, rural village not far away from the airport. He pointed out the gravel road leading to it. When he was a young boy, he would have to take the family's livestock out the graze. Although there were wild animals, he and his friends never really worried about them. Animal attacks were rare back them. However, animals attacks these days are escalating. Just last week a traveler was attacked by an elephant. He ended up with a fractured shoulder. He was lucky. Of course the first thing I thought when I heard about this was "What did the person do to tick off the elephant?" People don't always use common sense when dealing with wild animals.

The area we were driving through is the Mopane Woodlands area. It is filled with Mopane trees. These trees are a special source of protein for the tribes that live here. Why? Well, the tree attracts a specific type of larva—the Mopane larva. These larva are a delicacy and we'll get to try them in a couple of days. I think we are going shopping to bring some to the family that is opening their house to us.

Before we even entered the park, we saw our first wild animal and no, it wasn't zebras :-). This time it was a troop of baboon. This particular type of baboon was the Chacma as opposed to the olive that we saw in Tanzania. Mado told us that if you saw one baboon, there were probably 60 more around that you just didn't see.

We spotted a good deal of elephant dung in the road around the coal mine as well. That valley used to be filled with animals before they started mining there ten years ago. It looked like from all of the dung that the elephants were trying to take it back.

Although I personally didn't see any elephants there, one of our ladies and Mado spotted one a good ways off in the bush. I never did see it. I did see the impala though. Spotting animals here isn't nearly as easy as it was in the Serengeti. Here there are lots of trees and bushes that make viewing difficult. I can only imagine how hard it will be once the rains begin and the leaves begin to put on leaves. Right now everything looks pretty dead.

Before coming to the main park entrance, we made a pit stop at a nice truck stop type area. We could use the toilets here for free. We also had a chance to try Zimbabwe ice cream. As well as selling gas, you could get food. There was Pizza Inn, Chicken Inn, and Creamy Inn where you could get a plain vanilla soft serve cone for 50 cents. So after using the facilities, we all stood in line to get our Yummy (their word) cone. You had to eat it fast before it could melt in the heat. It wasn't the best ice cream I've ever had but it was cold and I was hungry.

Then we were back in the van for another 45 minutes to Hwange National Park. When we arrived we said farewell to Dominick as we were transferring over to a couple of safari vehicles. These would be our source of transportation in the park. Our driver is Godfrey. He offered us beer and soft drinks before leaving the gate area. Doug got a Zambezi while I had to be satisfied with Castle beer. They only had one Zambezi.

Not far from the gate at all, we spotted our first critter in the park. A young male giraffe was standing right in the road. Two others were in the bush on the right side of the road. They were much more skittish than the male. We really didn't get a good look at them because they ran away when we stopped. The male, however, hung around so we could enjoy him. We knew he was a young male because his coloring was light rather than dark and his horns were bald on the tips. These particular giraffe were Southern Giraffe or Maasai Giraffe.

Doug and I both noticed as we drove, that the animals here are far more skittish than those in Tanzania. They would see us and immediately run away. Maybe they don't get as many tourists here as in Tanzania. Or maybe these animals are just smarter. Who knows. Even the small group of warthogs we saw ran across the road and into the bushes before we could even breath.

We also began spotting birds. We saw a plethora of weaver nests. They were all in the trees. The white-brow sparrow weaver which are the nests we saw, build messy looking nests on the west side of trees to protect them from the easterly winds. Godfrey try to convince us that the nests were clumps of grass giraffes had left in the trees for when it was dry and and there was no grass on the ground to eat. He's a sly one

Hornbills were also flitting about. Every time I would get focused on one, it would fly away. As many as we saw today, I'm sure I'll have more chances to nab a picture. Probably the most impressive bird we saw was the Bateleur. It is a bird of prey with black feathers and what looked like a red beak and legs. It was a ways off at a tiny watering hole so I couldn't see it really well, but it was a big boy.

On the way to the camp, we drove through one area that looked like somebody had come in and chopped all trees and bushes down to the same knee-level height. Godfrey informed us that it was the work of elephants. Interesting. This looked carefully manicured while other places the elephants had knocked trees over and ripped off or broke branches.

As we drove, slender mongeese darted around the sides of the road. They were a blur of motion. We saw more baboons and a few monkeys as well. Doug spotted some type of antelope creature but wasn't sure what. We all spotted what I think was a female kudu but I'm not sure and I didn't hear if Godfrey said what it was. However, the best view of the day was a small herd of elephants at a man-made watering hole. Two other vehicles were already there watching the elephants' antics. They did put on a show.

I guess there were six or seven which included one tiny baby and a couple of older babies. As soon as we drove us, the adults circled the smallest one, protecting it from us. It was interesting to watch although it DID make it difficult to get a picture of the baby. We sat there for a while watching them and gradually they relaxed although one never stopped watching us. Eventually the baby came out. He was so tiny and cute as a button. Off to the right side in the bushes was a young male who was missing his tail. Godfrey said that hyenas had ripped it off when he was little. The rest of the herd kept trying to chase him off. They didn't like him. Poor thing.

One elephant was standing in the water putting on a show. He was splashing water all around and digging at the bank. Occasionally he would trumpet at us like he was all big and bad. It cracked me up. The little guy climbed down to the water and got himself a drink. I just loved sitting there and watching them.

Eventually we had to leave. It was pushing five and we had to get to our camp—Kashawe Camp East. The west camp was just right next door. The camp itself is quite nice. They greeted us in the car park with chanting and singing. Then they led us up to the lounge/dining area. It's one big area with a canvas roof and no sides. You could look out over the valley below. They gave us a raspberry/orange drink as well as beef meatballs, chicken strips, and Swiss roll to nibble on. Terrance, one of the managers, gave us our orientation to the camp.

The rules were pretty much the same as what we had in Tanzania. You can't walk around on your own after dark. Once you are in your tent for the night after dinner, you aren't leaving it. You are tucked in for the night. If you have a life and death emergency, there is an air horn for you to blow. They don't have walkie talkies here. They will come around 30 minutes before breakfast and give you your "wakie, wakie". We have to let them know that we are awake so they can move to the next tent. They also let us know if it is safe for us to walk to breakfast on our own.

Interestingly, they gave each tent a green bag to lock our valuables in. You put your extra money and passports in them and lock them. Then you give it to the camp people and they lock it into a safe. Interesting set up.

After getting the scoop, one of the staff escorted us to our tents and showed us how to turn on the lights, do the shower, etc. They are on the power grid here so we have electricity in our tents. That's nice for charging up my iPad, phone, etc. It's a luxury we won't always have. The bathroom has hot water at will. It's heated with solar power during the day. You need to take your night shower quickly before you run out of hot water as it starts cooling off when the sun goes down. It was fine for us tonight after dinner. During the day you pretty much have as much hot water as you want.

One of the nicest features of the camp is that they do your laundry for free! They don't do undies but they do everything else. So no sock washing for me here :-). Doug was happy about that as well. We did both wash our "smalls," as they call them, tonight when we showered. Tomorrow I might get my pants and shirt washed. It's pretty dry and dusty so I'm going to take advantage of the free laundry service.

We had around an hour before dinner so we got unpacked and everything situated the way we wanted it. It is so nice knowing that we don't have to pack up and leave tomorrow. That was the only downside to the trip in Tanzania. Every day we were off to a new camp. You really couldn't get settled in anywhere.

We finished up our chores and wandered up to the lounge for Happy Hour and to take our green bag of valuables. I had also gathered us some spare toiletries for Kathy and Bryan as they aren't really sure when they will get their luggage. We sat outside and enjoyed the Bush TV (fire) and relaxed. Gradually others showed up and we all chatted amiably. So far it seems like a really nice group of people.

Dinner was very good. We had butternut squash soup which seems to be popular in Africa. The main course was roasted potatoes and chicken, green beans, and carrots. There was also a vegetarian stew for anybody who wanted it. I'm not a big fan of cooked carrots but these were good. I liked how they were seasoned. It was all very tasty. For dessert we had a small square of sticky toffee pudding. I haven't had that since New Zealand. I enjoyed it!

It was a bit late but after dinner we all introduced ourselves (by now we pretty much knew each other) and Mado went over our schedule while we are in this camp. After we finished up our informal meeting, we headed off to our tent. We were too tired to enjoy Bush TV after dinner tonight. Maybe tomorrow night.

Tomorrow we have two game drives on tap. We have an early morning drive and then one in late afternoon. I believe in our down time we are going to have a history lesson as well as discuss the controversial topic of coal mining. All in all, it should be another fabulous day in Africa!

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