May 10, 2019
After a quick breakfast and goodbyes to the hotel staff, we met our new driver “Corbin”, loaded up our luggage and drove to Victoria Falls for a walking tour. The path through the rainforest park provides 15 or so different lookout points as “Victoria Falls” is actually made up of many different major falls. Unfortunately because of a light breeze, the spray was wafting up in the air and obscured our view except for silhouettes here and there through the mist. The exception was the very first in the series of falls and we were able to see it pretty clearly. Regardless, it was nice to be walking for a change as we’ve been doing SO MUCH SITTING! After the tour we stopped in the town of Victoria Falls because I was looking for a high speed SD card - my current cards are taking too long to write in between pictures so there is a 2 to 3 second delay before i can take the next picture. Anyway we went to 2 different kiosks trying to find a faster card but no luck, even though the merchant was desperately trying to convince me that a 95bps card was just as good as the 300bps card I was seeking. (HA!). While standing there a very sad looking man in a wheelchair came up behind us begging for money, he had no legs and one arm missing. We felt badly for him and handed him some money only to turn around and the merchant was tsk-tsk-ing us - I said “should we not have done that?” He explained that the guy was a former thief and was caught stealing in a neighboring village which is why they chopped his limbs off. It’s still a very sad story, but I guess we were sucked into a scam. We kind of stick out down here being light-skinned and carrying cameras and all....
Hwange was our next destination and the sign said 90 km away but our itinerary said it was a 4 hour drive, didn’t compute but we had yet to learn why it was a 4 hour (which turned out to be about 8 hours) to our next campsite. After the 90km ride in the van we arrived in the town of Hwange to pick up another member of the camp team who turned out to be our guide during our stay. I was thinking we were maybe 15 minutes away from camp being in Hwange. Oh, no, our driver said, it’s another 80 km to where we are going. Ok so that is just another 50+ miles, no big deal. We arrive 80km later at a remote train station and were then told we were taking a 2 hour rail car ride to our camp. At this point we are all starving and tired of traveling but what are we gonna do, we are in their hands. We waited at the train station for about an hour before getting clearance to leave, then embarked on our bumpy 2 hour journey. It turned out to be an ok experience, they fed us on the train and the bar was open. I say train when really it was just one open sided car with about 24 seats with tables. The guides would point out wildlife along the way and sometimes we’d stop and view. When we were just 10 minutes from our camp the train stopped, jeeps were waiting and the guide said “we’re getting out here because there’s been a cheetah sighting which is very rare, so we’ll go to camp later” - we file out of the train and load up into the jeep. Well it was worth it because we hadn’t seen a cheetah yet and it was a female with her cub that was about 6 months old. They had killed an ostrich and were sleeping off their gorging. Side note: Our guide said it was the last known ostrich in the area, so sad! They did get up and move here and there but most of my pictures are through blades of grass unfortunately! We watched for quite a long time while our guide told us all about her and her family. Next stop was “sundowners” at a hippo filled water hole, then FINALLY off to camp. This was another camp where you don’t set foot outside your room during dark hours without a guide accompanying you. The occasional elephant or lion has roamed through camp, also monkeys and baboons. Anyway, nothing I want to meet on the path! Dinner was once again delicious and we were in bed by 8:45PM, such a long day!
Hwange was our next destination and the sign said 90 km away but our itinerary said it was a 4 hour drive, didn’t compute but we had yet to learn why it was a 4 hour (which turned out to be about 8 hours) to our next campsite. After the 90km ride in the van we arrived in the town of Hwange to pick up another member of the camp team who turned out to be our guide during our stay. I was thinking we were maybe 15 minutes away from camp being in Hwange. Oh, no, our driver said, it’s another 80 km to where we are going. Ok so that is just another 50+ miles, no big deal. We arrive 80km later at a remote train station and were then told we were taking a 2 hour rail car ride to our camp. At this point we are all starving and tired of traveling but what are we gonna do, we are in their hands. We waited at the train station for about an hour before getting clearance to leave, then embarked on our bumpy 2 hour journey. It turned out to be an ok experience, they fed us on the train and the bar was open. I say train when really it was just one open sided car with about 24 seats with tables. The guides would point out wildlife along the way and sometimes we’d stop and view. When we were just 10 minutes from our camp the train stopped, jeeps were waiting and the guide said “we’re getting out here because there’s been a cheetah sighting which is very rare, so we’ll go to camp later” - we file out of the train and load up into the jeep. Well it was worth it because we hadn’t seen a cheetah yet and it was a female with her cub that was about 6 months old. They had killed an ostrich and were sleeping off their gorging. Side note: Our guide said it was the last known ostrich in the area, so sad! They did get up and move here and there but most of my pictures are through blades of grass unfortunately! We watched for quite a long time while our guide told us all about her and her family. Next stop was “sundowners” at a hippo filled water hole, then FINALLY off to camp. This was another camp where you don’t set foot outside your room during dark hours without a guide accompanying you. The occasional elephant or lion has roamed through camp, also monkeys and baboons. Anyway, nothing I want to meet on the path! Dinner was once again delicious and we were in bed by 8:45PM, such a long day!
Denise playing conductor
Vic Falls
John Boy
Beautiful female cheetah
Yet another sunset from where we had sundowners tonight
The gang on the train
These two cuties are local Hwange girls, their Mom works the rail station
More Vic falls
Rainbow at Vic falls
Herd of impala as seen
From the train
The rain forest at Vic falls
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