Thursday, January 28th -  Matobo Hills to Hwange, Zimbabwe

I was up about 7:00, packed up and got ready to go down to breakfast.  A couple of the group went horse back riding so we were leaving at 9 when they got back.  Apparently they saw many animals and very close up as the wild animals did not mind the domesticated animals in the area.  By 9 the bus was loaded and we were on our way for a seven hour journey.

We have a bet going on as to how many times the police will stop us along the way.  Right now we are at a speed trap and our driver, Andrew, got caught speeding - so the police say but he disagrees - so had to pay a fine of $30.  They use old hand held radar guns that are calibrated not very frequently.  He tried to argue but apparently lost, or maybe he got the fine down a bit. I'm not sure.  I should also mention that the guys all got off the bus at this point for a bush break.  The ladies were more civilized and just stayed on board.

The countryside is beautiful and it's green because of the trees with all their leaves, but basically it is incredibly dry and the ground is just loose dirt.  There are big trees along the road and small bushes and trees farther away but there is very little agriculture.  The river beds are dry so there might be no chance of anything growing, although we did see a few corn and potato fields in one stretch.  There were once large farms run by the whites but they were kicked off and their farms destroyed.  I don't know whether any of those were in this area at one time.

There are several hot springs in southern Africa and we passed near some of them.  Most are about 36 degrees but the hottest one is actually 95 degrees!!!  We passed through the town of Luponi - not a big town but it has a university so lots of young people around.

We drove near the largest lake in the country.  It is now only at 12% of capacity, which is bad for the agriculture in the area but is good from other perspectives as the dam at the head of the lake was damaged by a recent earthquake.  If it breaks it will wipe out a whole lot of Zimbabwe and Mozambique because it would flow into a large damned lake in Mozambique and likely cause that dam to collapse as well.  Hopefully they can get things fixed before that happens!

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Our hotel is very nice and it is right on a watering hole in Hwange National Park, which is Zimbabwe's largest game reserve.  The hotel itself is really nice and there are large yards in the front and back.  In the back toward the watering hole there are benches so you can relax and enjoy the action and their are floodlights for night viewing.  There is also a lookout that you can climb up to and watch from chairs up there.  You didn't really even have to go that far though.  Most of the rooms had a view of the watering hole and could see the animals as they came along.  We had a few too many trees in front of us so we had to get out to actually see anything.   In my few viewings I saw lots of zebra and Impala and some elephants.  There were likely other animals too but I did not see them.  

The baboons were all over the yards at times.  There were hundreds of them and they were old and large to very young and small.  They were fun to watch but you certainly couldn't leave anything outside your room or leave your windows or doors open or they were liable to come for a visit and try to take something.  There was quite a mess when some of them got into some garbage and started helping themselves to the contents.  Even in the main atrium of the lobby they had a tree that was just full of yellow birds and their nests.  I believe they were weaver birds but I'm not sure.  The funny thing with them was that they kept singing their little song and flipping upside down while they were singing.

That afternoon we went on a game drive to see more of the park.  We started out driving past the watering hole and then continued on our way down numerous roads and trails in 4x4 safari vehicles.  It had rained recently and was indeed spitting while we were driving.  This apparently makes the animals very happy and the impalas were leaping and running around each other, the zebras were running and play fighting and the wildebeests were chasing each other.  They looked like they were having a great time so they were fun to watch.  We also saw jackals, impalas, water bucks, Malibu storks, crocodiles, kudus, wild or painted dogs, Guinea fowl and other birds as well.

At one point we were driving down a road beside a cleared area with large hydro towers in it.  The towers were full of baboons.  As we approached they didn't know whether we were friend or foe so they started climbing down the poles.  A couple of them even grabbed some of the zip lines and rode them down to the ground.  This was fun to watch but probably scary for them.  Apparently they climb up the towers at night so the leopards cannot get them.  We never saw any leopards on any part of our drive but I'm sure as soon as we drove past the hydro towers the baboons all went climbing up them again.

The most entertaining part of the drive was a herd of elephants.  It's always fun to talk watch them at any time and they had lots of different ages in the herd including some babies.  However, the one who really had us intrigued was a young male elephant, probably a teenager according to the guide.  This young male decided to save the herd from us so he was faking charges at our vehicle and trying to look really mean and menacing.  He even trumpeted us a few times to try and scare us away.  We were simply amused by his antics but it got even funnier when he stepped across a downed tree or log and then got stuck on it when he couldn't get his back feet over it.  He tried a few times to free himself and we were not very helpful as we were laughing at him but then I'm not sure he really knew that was what we were doing.  Eventually he did free himself, gave us one last charge, trumpeted us and then quickly turned and ran off to his mother.  He was incredibly cute to watch.

Although there were some great sights on the drive and we all enjoyed it, the drive itself was way too long and the driver was going way too fast.  We would see things and yell stop but by the time he got stopped and backed up the animals had run off.  Most of the time he was just going so fast that you really couldn't see anything and you certainly couldn't T take any pictures.  I would have preferred covering less ground at a slower pace.  We had a lovely sunset while we were out on the drive and after that it was virtually impossible to see anything, especially given how fast we were going.

We got back to the hotel with about half an hour to spare before meeting in the lounge for a drink to celebrate Eva's birthday.  About half an hour after that we were supposed to have dinner.  We had all ordered so it should have been pretty quick and well organized but it wasn't.  We waited a really long time and then some people received their food and had eaten it before others were even served.  Aside from the logistics it was a a great meal.  A few stayed up to party after dinner but most people were simply ready for bed after another long travel day.