Our last full day

Can't believe it, but today is our last day here ....... A beautiful sunrise

We see a sole lion on a termite mound - with an injured backside - he didn't look very happy.

We see a herd of waterbuck and their funny circled bottoms

Some ever present warthogs

We get another great rhino sighting

And then we come upon a very playful herd of elephants ...

One of them becomes VERY curious about our tracker ....

After the game drive, my mom, Gavin and I go on a tour of the local village - where many of the staff at Sinigita live.

We get to see a few different traditional dances, a choir sings to us, we get to taste some local food, learn to crush maize, and then we visit the preschool where the children sing to us.

My mom and I decide to stay back from the afternoon game drive to relax and pack up our things...

In the evening, we have our final dinner in Africa - Gavin once again showers us with gifts.  For some reason, the couple from Baltimore had jokingly told the Singita staff that it was my Dad's birthday.  So, they present him with a birthday cake and rose champagne - we don't have the heart to tell them it's not his birthday, so we just go along with it.

Thursday morning we do a game drive -  see the usual suspects - and head back to the lodge to finish packing up and head out.

What an INCREDIBLE month this has been.  I don't think this blog has even begun to do justice to the experiences we have had and the animals we have had the priveledge to see.

Not sure anyone is reading this besides my grandmother, but hope you enjoyed it if you did!

Cat Day

On our morning drive, we have an incredible leopard sighting.  He basically poses for us perfectly atop a termite mound.  The animals here are SO calm around the vehicles - Gavin explains it's because they have been seeing vehicles for 50 years here and know the vehicles won't bother them.  This is only our second leopard sighting of the trip - we haven't seen one since Vumbura Plains.

We see a few hyena just outside their den (this one slightly resembles Whoopi Goldberg's character in The Lion King, no?!)

We also get to see a cheetah - only our second sighting of a cheetah - haven't seen them since our first stop at Ngogogoro Crater.  

Mom and I hit the Singita shop after our drive - by far the best shop we've seen on this trip and I struggle to figure out how I will get all the things I want to buy back home....

After high tea, we head out on our afternoon game drive.  We see yet another leopard - the mother of the leopard we saw in the morning -

We happen upon yet another pride of snoozing lions....

We have our sundowner drinks, 

The staff sets us up our own private dinner in the library and then we head to bed.

Singita Ebony Sabi Sand South Africa

Yesterday was a travel day - we flew from Vic Falls to Joberg and spent the night in the airport hotel there.  Today we headed out for Sabi Sands in the Greater Kruger National Park - and we are staying at Singita Ebony.  When we get to Joberg airport, the woman informs us that we will be making 3 stops on our small plane - including a change of aircrafts.  My eyes literally roll into the back of my head as I picture all those take offs and landings.  As we wait in the lounge, Gavin disappears - and next thing you know, we are going to be the first stop - and then we switch to a King Air for a 2 minute hop to the lodge.  Gavin must have threatened that I would ruin their upholstery....
Our new guide/driver Sophia picks us up from the airport - the roads here (although still dirt) are smooth.  No more bumping around in the Rover... The main lodge room is cozy and intimate and very old world African safari.  My room is massive - a sitting area, 3 sinks, indoor and outdoor shower, tub, private plunge pool, deck, fireplace etc.... 
We have a lovely lunch on the terrace as Nyala (a South African antelope) graze around us.  Just below are a herd of elephants drinking from the watering hole.  

In the afternoon we take our game drive - we are joined by a couple from Baltimore who is on their first game drive ever - Sophia goes over the rules - when viewing the animals (especially the cats) talk quietly, move slowly and DON'T stand up.  

I get to see my first rhinos!  There are 2 cows and a calf - and the calf is suckling from his mother.  So sweet.  

Then find a pride of lazy lions....

We go around the corner, however, and realize why they are so sleepy.  They have a buffalo kill that the ones snoozing have just fed on - and the rest of the pride is now working away on it.  

Despite Sophia's instructions Ricky from the Baltimore couple pops right up out of his seat - I tell him to sit down before he gets us all eaten!

Sophia has gone WAY WAY off-road to get to this spot - and we are wedged between fallen trees and ravenous lions.  I was a little nervous - if anything happened, we could definitely not get out of there quickly.

After the afternoon drive, we had a dinner in their outdoor "hut" -- a huge barbeque with a wide variety of food - including kudu, crocodile and warthog.  

The Singita Choir then entertained us with traditional African songs and dances.... And when they invited anyone to join in, my mother LEAPED up and got her groove on!

Off to bed - 5am wakeup call.

Zimbabwe

We drive from Chobe Chilwero to the Zimbabwe border – we need to visit Botswana immigration.  We drive 2 more minutes down the road to Zimbabwe immigration.  We need to change over to another vehicle on the other side of the Zim border.  So our Botswana driver unloads all of our bags into the immigration office – and then we carry them across the border to our Zim driver.  Zimbabwe has been undergoing severely difficult times economically, politically, and socially.  While here I have read Peter Godwin’s book “When A Crocodile Eats The Sun” and it is a readable and vivid depiction of the downward spiral of Zimbabwe under the dictatorial rule of Robert Mugabe.  We drive from the border about an hour to Victoria Falls where we are staying at The Victoria Falls Hotel – a hotel built in 1904 and full of history.

 In the afternoon, we walk over to the local craft market.  As soon as we walk out of the hotel, there are men trying to sell us carved elephants, elephant hair bracelets, painted wood giraffes…. And at the market, they are ALL over us.  One building is just for the ladies who are selling – and we buy some woven baskets and bracelets from them.  We all buy a few other things from some other stands.  As the sun begins to set, and the market begins to close up, the prices seem to be dropping – to “sunset prices”.  As we depart, the men start to ask to trade for our clothes – they want my baseball cap, my shoes, even my hair rubberband.  We make one final stop so we can buy some now defunct Zimbabwean dollars – there are notes for 100 trillion dollars – inflation became so high that the value of the money would literally change hour to hour and 100 trillion could barely buy a loaf of bread.

My mother starts hard negotiating – and ends up trading the Zimbabwean dollars for her sunglasses – and then, my Dad’s sneakers ….. and he walks back to the hotel barefoot.....

In the morning we head over to Victoria Falls (or The Smoke That Thunders) – located on the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia.  David Livingston, the Scottish missionary and explorer, is said to have been the first European to have seen the Falls.  It is also one of the Seven Natural Wonders of The World.  What an amazingly overpowering sight.  The falls are beautiful – and they aren’t even “full” – a lot of the mile long stretch of falls is dry until the rainy season starts.  

There are complete idiots on the other side of the Falls who are trying to get photo ops – by placing themselves on the edge of the fall.  

We also have the chance to watch some bungee jumpers on the bridge between Zim and Zambia.  Gavin and I head over to the bridge to get a better look.  I get a total thrill standing behind these people as they prepare to jump – one woman standing there quivering with fear who keeps trying to work up her courage – but she backs out.  A few more jump with much less hesitation, but screaming the whole way down.  

We relax the rest of the afternoon and get ready to head out the next morning.  They had warned us to keep our windows closed in the hotel - and we found out why.  My mom and I were sitting in her room, when I caught a face out of the corner of my eye .... a monkey was staring at us through the glass.

Elephant Mud Bath

This morning Gavin allows us to sleep-in (7:30) and knows exactly when is the right time to head out on a game drive.  He wants to time it so that we are at the water when the elephants start coming out of the bush and down to the water to drink.  My mom and I are tired as we bump around on the red sands that have blown here from the Kalahari.  We head down to the water, there is one old bull drinking, and we park in the shade - and wait.  A small herd arrives, there is an awkward social interaction with the old bull - more of a standoff - and then the herd goes about it's business of drinking and splashing in the mud.  Another herd arrives, they lift their trunks in the air - they are smelling our scent as they come down the embankment to the water.  They pause - decide we aren't a threat - and carry on their way.  Then another herd, and another, and another.  Until we are literally surrounded by 100 elephants.  The closest ones being less than 10 feet away from the car.  As Gavin likes to say, "happiness is a wet elephant!".  They are drinking, and cooling off, spraying mud in the air, behind their ears, rolling around in the mud, wrestling in the water....  We are the only car around and we sit for at least an hour, entranced for these enormous creatures.

A horny bull is following around a cow– wanting to get it on with her.  But, the cow has a VERY young calf – he’s still pink (coated in mud) – and the bull knows the cow won’t mate with the calf there.  So the bull keeps grabbing one of the calf’s legs with his trunk – and trying to flip the calf over onto his back. 

This guy was just plain mean – and the mom was doing little to get rid of him.  She keeps nudging the calf back up onto his legs, but does nothing more.  Finally, some of the rest of the herd gets involved – there are lots of rumbles and trunk blowing and sand kicking …. And, we are right in the middle of it all.

We return to the lodge – I have a lovely massage.  And, when I return to my room my incredible boyfriend has sent me a bottle of champagne and a HUGE bouquet of flowers.  They must weigh 10 pounds!

In the late afternoon, we take another boat ride…we drive right along the Namibia border.  We get some more croc sightings

And then elephants swimming against the sunset.  Picture perfect. We spot trunks breaking the water surface for use as breathing tubes.  There is one small calf swimming along with the herd – and they are packed in so tight together that he is virtually being carried along on the larger eles’ backs.  His little tail is straight up in the air like an arial.