3rd July - Vic Falls

Oh Joy!!!  Another day of getting up at stupid o’clock. This time up at six am!  Sarah gets so excited about these mornings.

But it was worth it.  Today started with a visit to the see some Lions.

In the last 30 years the population of African Lions has dropped by80-90%, taking them from the threatened status to Endangered. We went to a group called ALERT - African Lion Environment Research Trust, a not for profit group that raises Lions for re-introduction into certain areas.

They have a great four-stage plan. There is a game farm 600km away where they breed lions. Cubs are taken for the parents at three weeks old and are hand raised. At around six weeks they start going on walks with the handlers. These cubs will never live in the wild.

Stage Two sees their cubs raised in family groups with genetic compatibility.

As the stage One hand reared cubs get older they are used in a program called “Walk with the Lions”. This is where tourists – read Raina and Sarah- have the opportunity to walk through the bush with both three month old and seven month old cubs. As they get older they have the opportunity to chase game. After this age, they move away from the humans into stage two. 

The year old lions in stage Two are encouraged to kill – given access to small game. By the time they breed they are self-sufficient and are in massive reserves with no human intervention.

Their cubs are Stage Three.

They live a wild life (in a reserve with no human contact) – again in genetically compatible groups.

Their cubs are Stage Four – totally wild lions who are shipped off to various parts of the continent where lion numbers have fallen. They never leave Africa and do not end up in Zoo’s or worse, as pets or in circuses etc.

We spent about an hour walking through the Vic Falls National Park. First with two three month old cubs, then with two seven month olds. Walking, patting, watching and laughing. Fantastic.

After that we then went back to the lodge, got a packed lunch and headed back to town.  Back to see the Monkeys and the Baboons, and the Warthogs. The day before we saw four juvenile warthogs who had somehow lost their parents. They were so obviously lost and were trying to find their way out of the National Park fence. They would snuffle around for a while then huddle up – four noses together making a cross. They squeaked and grunted, a few got cross then the huddle broke up and they all tried again.  We watched them for 20 minutes having the same problem trying to get through a drain. Very entertaining.

As we were walking along near the boarder crossing we saw them again. Happily united with the parents and all so happy.  Good team work kids!!!

Back for another look at Victoria Falls. We caught a taxi to Zambia – well three taxis. One from town to the Zimbabwe exit point. Through immigration, then another taxi across 3 ks of no mans land to the Zambian entry point. We walked around for a while and went to the most aggressive markets ever. And it was stinking hot. In the mid 30’s.

The guys at the markets nearly attacked you and tried to keep you in their stalls, hounding you to buy from them at any cost – almost with physical force. But they were so aggressive Raina thought it was no fun. Sarah loved it though, being firm when you have to and then eventually bargaining them down. Figuring out the best bargaining tricks for each place and person. Here the trick she learnt was to offer a price first, not let them suggest one. They would offer up stupid prices, like $60 for a bracelet if you didn’t start the ball park at your level.

We hired another taxi for a few hours to take us around to see a few sights.

We saw an awesome train rattling through town. It could have been from a Depression movie it was so old. It had people travelling on open cars, cattle in others.  All the school kids walking home ran and climber on and went for a ride all whooping and cheering without the train stopping.

We went to a tourist market – but much nicer than the markets near the Falls, and bought a few things.

We then went to the local markets where there were about 100 stalls selling plushy blankets – it was winter after all. Others were selling grog. It took a while for our brains to click that there were stalls at the markets selling every kind of spirit imaginable.  There was a stall of dried fish. Many selling electrical plugs and cord and another selling used nuts and bolts. So cool.

We then bid farewell to Zambia and returned to Zimbabwe. We decided that we would try High Tea again, but again went for the lovely cocktails. Sarah was allowed to chose her own this time and had an Espresso Martini – her first decent coffee hit in three weeks.

We had so much fun on the houseboat we decided that we would do the Sunset cruise…… It was OK. Saw a few Hippos and to Crocs.   We did see a young bull Elephant on a tiny island. Poor guy. Four very large boats full of yelling tourists got really too close to the island and herded him from one end to the other. Then back again. It was very sad to watch. We so strongly believe that if you are disturbing the animal you are too close. And these guys were certainly too close.

Our boat also went over the top of a Hippo. They were showing off a few on the left had side and didn’t see the one ahead to the right. As the Hippo swam away our boat happened to turn and go directly over the poor guy. 

We do love the whale exclusion zones in Australia.

There was a lovely sunset of the giant sun into the Zambezi River. Then the giant full moon hanging low in the sky, a blood red colour. Great.

It was then back to the lodge. We only just managed to stay awake and eat a few mouthfuls of dinner. It had been a huge few days. We slept!