2nd July - Victoria Falls.


Cannot believe the day we had today!

We had to get up early today – 6.30am as we had an appointment with Sylvester. Sylvester is the resident Cheetah at Elephant Camp in Victoria Falls. 26 months ago a park ranger was out and witnessed a lion kill a Cheetah and three cubs. He went to look around and found one cub alive and hiding. The ranger, named Sylvester took the cub with him and Elephant Camp became his home and he was named Sylvester. 

Cheetahs do not rehabilitate after being hand reared so he was to become a Cheetah Ambassador, raising awareness and meeting people. He has a great pen and a PA named Ed as well as an assistant.  We were lucky enough to get a special visit up to Sylvester’s pen. They imported a lure machine (designed for grey hounds) and have set up a 150 meter track where he chases it around as well as climbing all over his ramps platform (as cheetahs like to get a high vantage and look) etc. He also gets taken out for free runs with the wild game. As he has never been taught to hunt he has no idea how to kill but likes to chase things. The animals in the area know this and they then chase him back. Apparently it is very funny to see Warthogs chasing a grown Cheetah.

We learnt so much about Cheetahs.

They are not cats. They are close to cats but are of there own genus-  Acinonyx. And is the only living member of this genus (others are long extinct).

They are very similar to sight hounds – such as greyhounds or Afghans and are superbly designed to run.

Their claws do not retract (as a cat’s does). They stay out like a dog and act as running spikes.

A cat paw has a three lobed footpad. The Cheetah has two lobes and a space (almost a U shape) that acts as brake pads for turning.

The tailbone and muscles are not round like a cat but are a flat shape allowing it to act as a flat rudder when cornering at speeds.

Their head is tiny in relation to the body size and the neck is set on a horizontal gyro allowing it to move back and forth rather then up and down thus creating a more aerodynamic running machine and steady vision so they can keep their eye on the target.

They have the fewest teeth and smallest teeth of any of the large cat and dog carnivores and cannot kill anything much bigger than a small antelope.

They are also more dog like with their trainability and have been used as trained pets for centuries.  We saw Sylvester sit on command, came to a whistle and follow other commands.

After out private viewing he then went down to meet the guests before breakfast- so we got to cuddle him more.  His purr is SO loud. Almost a growl. It was fabulous.

Of course we could see the mist billowing on the falls in the background.

After breakfast we headed off for our fist look at Victoria Falls. From above – in a Helicopter. That too was fabulous. It is hard to understand how the Falls work and why they produce so much mist. But it is a waterfall into a great big slot canyon. The water flows over the long side of the canyon and crashes into the opposite wall, having nowhere to go but up.

Spectacular. 

We then went for a wander around town. The main attraction, being mobbed by the guys selling things – carvings, Zimbabwe money, tours, bracelets and on and on. Once again Sarah was a genius with these guys. Setting her price and refusing to budge!  She often won. Raina as usual hatted it.

We then went to the Victoria Falls Hotel. The hotel in town – built in Colonial times and still run in that manner. We went for the famous high tea but thought a cocktail would be far more appropriate. Raina had a “Dr Livingstone” and forced Sarah to drink an “I Presume”.  We then sat on the deck of this very grand hotel, being served by men in white safari-esque suits, overlooking Victoria Falls, imagining a bygone era and toasting, naming our cocktails…….”Dr Livingstone”….”I presume!” Hahahahah  

We then went back to Elephant Camp for lunch and to prepare for the afternoon activities.

 First up…an Elephant Ride. We ditched our first booking that we made with our accommodations as we found a far better deal. The place we were staying at was owned by a group called “Wild Horizons”, who have a total monopoly over the town. Most activities were run by them and were very much the big production, a pure money making factory.

The other mob we found was a small outfit, we were the only customers for the session. We each got our own Elephant and went for a lovely long ride through the national park.

They picked us up in town and drove us out to the place. We met people on the houseboat who were saying that one of their elephants was tiny.  “I want a big Elephant” was Raina’s quote. Well, be careful what you wish for, because as Sarah mounted her large Elephant we both realized just how big Raina’s was  - we both nearly had a heart attack. It was close to 3 meters tall. And it dawned on us how screwed we were if the elephants desides to ignor the tiny fleas on their backs with a stick to control them with and run off. There is no way you could survive bailing out, the fall would damage you severely and then you would be stranded on the ground at the mercy of a huge and intelligent creature. Luckily though, elephants are charming and gentle creatures. Not to mention, fond of a food reward.

So off we went on our Elephant ride – accompanied by a man on foot with a huge rifle and ‘Talent’ the videographer – running along with us.

The elephants are trained with food rewards. Sarah’s girl was still fairly young (only 16, Raina’s was 32) and interpreted this to mean that she would get a reward if she did something good. She had been taught to pick up items that the guide might drop and pass them to him. So all the way along the ride she would pick up stick and pass them to the driver, expecting a treat. “Tricks for treats?” Sarah kept saying she could as well as hear the elephant say. Raina’s Elephant was like a pony that needed grass reins and kept stopping to snatch a mouthful of food. But her idea of a mouthful was often a fairly large branch or even a whole tree.  She would strip off the leaves then chew the bark off and spit out the sticks. Some branches would not snap off, so she would give it a bash with her foot and break it.

Riding an Elephant was surreal and amazing.

 We then went back into town and walked down to ‘THE’ bridge. The one that joins Zimbabwe and Zambia, is three kilometers of no-mans land and is the one the stupid people jump off with a piece of elastic tied around their feet. NO, we did not even contemplate bungy jumping!  But we did watch idiots jump. 

Instead we looked at the magnificent falls and got wet from the mist.

And Sarah threw a  glass Coke bottle off the falls!  (as in, "the gods Must be Crazy)  

Not really. Just pretended.

We then went and fed the monkeys (the food we picked up off the cround that they were already eating) until it was time to go onto the next activity. At one stage one Monkey was cross that he was not getting the food.  He jumped off the fence, ran up behind Sarah and whacked her on the butt. Very Very funny!


A Lunar Rainbow or a Moonbow.

These happen at only four places in the world and are produced by light reflecting off the surface of a very full moon. They are fairly faint and appear off white as the light is too faint to make the cone receptors in the eye react. If long exposure photos the colours will come up. 

We didn’t take the good camera as it was pouring. Well not really raining, just dumping with mist.

The Vic Falls Lunar Rainbow can only be seen in the dry season, only of three nights a month and only when the sky is perfectly clear. About 10 or 12 times a year. AND WE SAW IT!

It was a funny tour. Cost $40 each to get in. We were then told that “This is a strictly guided walk….we will all stick together”. Then off they go bolting along the wet slippery track in the total dark – through a national park in which we had watched Baboons and warthogs and buchbuck to name a few, earlier in the day. Only took 10 minutes for us to be wandering along, alone in the dark through a thick rainforest. And dressed in our big heavy raincoats. But we did eventually make it to ‘Danger Point’ – great name for this walk and saw the rainbow. It was very cool.

We then bumbled along again in the dark, back to the start and made it out!

(This is not our photo - stolen from Google!!!!)

Our pick up was there waiting for us. Back to Elephant camp, to dinner then into bed and collapse. What a day!!!!