What an amazing last couple of days I have had.


The Sunset Cruise down the Zambezi River was beautiful. Unfortunately I needed to resort to drinking vodka as they didn't have JD . . . .


I met up with Elena and Andreas which was lovely. The Zambezi is MASSIVE, I didn't realise how wide it was until I was in the middle of it.


We saw some eles along the way, which was lovely as I never get tired of watching eles, and also some hippos. One of the eles decided she wanted to go for a swim which was fun to watch her splashing about. Although, once she was in the rest of the herd disappeared into deeper bush.


African sunsets are spectacular. The colours are so rich and vibrant and the sun sets so very very quickly. I doubt my photos will do them justice, but I know what they look like and that's all that matters. :-)



Today was amazing. Honestly one of my favourite morning's so far. I was collected (with another 4 people) at 6h20 and headed off to the Elephant Camp to meet the eles I would be interacting with for the morning.


There were 7 in total - two 10 years old males, one mother with her two bubbas, one MASSIVE bull who was about 25 years old and another female who was also huge and around 34 years old.


We were introduced to them all and allowed to touch and interact before we headed off to the "mounting platform" to meet our drivers (I don't think that is the right term) and get comfy on our ele.


I was the first up (eager much???) and was on Doji. He is 10 years old and weighs in at around 2.5 tonne (eeeep). He was an orphaned ele, found with another three males and brought to the camp.


In total, there are 18 eles at the camp, not all of them are used for the safaris.


To say that my time with Doji was amazing is a vast understatement. Being up so high and see the bush as he sees it . . Feeling the vibrations move through my body when he grumbled and communicated with his herd was truly wonderful. Liz, you HAVE to tell Shaun to come here. He would pee himself.


During our little safari, we came across a group of about 7 male buffalo. Buffalo freak the hell out of me as they are SO nasty. If it came down to me having to choose between a path with a pride of lion in the middle of it and another path with a single buffalo in the middle of it - I would pick the lion path every single time. A lion will more than likely mock charge you - a buffalo will charge to kill.


Although, I felt very safe perched a top the beautiful Doji. Once we came back from the safari, we dismounted and then fed them. It's SO funny. They hold their trunk up and you literally throw handfulls of 'elephant candy' into their mouths.

Ele's skin is so rough and they have all these funny little hairs on it. But it's highly sensitive.


I was terribly worried that the guides would use violent means to have the elephants do what they wanted them to. But they didn't. They use voice commands and their feet placed strategically to nudge the ele. Yes, they do have long staff things and my driver (who's name I cannot recall) would tap Doji on his head from time to time, but that was only when Doji forgot we were there and was too engrossed in digging up a tree root or eating branches and leaves. It was the lightest of taps, he actually did it on me too and it was fine.


After the ele's saluted us goodbye we headed up to have breakfast and what should be awaiting?? A cheetah. Yep, a gorgeous real life male cheetah.

My heart nearly stopped beating - I was definitely not expecting it at all. Rangers saw a female cheetah running away from some lions and thought they would investigate as she left reluctantly. They found a litter of four cubs - two cubs were already dead and one was severely wounded and didn't survive. He was only a few days old, eyes still closed and umbilical cord still attached. They retreated a little and watched and waited for the mother return, but she didn't. She was long gone. They knew he wouldn't survive so the decided to intervene. Since then, he's been in the care of humans and he is now part of an educational program teaching local farmers and youth about cheetah and how they vital they are to our planet and ecosystems. His name is Sylvester (which is the name of one of the rangers who found him).

I got to touch and loves him and as soon as I touched him he began to purr!! It was amazing. He hissed at nearly everyone else :-) I felt uber spesh indeed!!!!

He was so soft and shiny and his face *sighs* I want one!!!!!!!!! LOL

I came back to the hotel and had a mini siesta as I was total knackered from all the excitement and fun. Then after lunch I headed off to Vic Falls.


It's said that they are breath taking, and I can attest to that. My breath seriously caught in my throat.

The noise, the mist, the power, the rainbows, the SIZE - they are spectacular.


I ended up having a nice afternoon shower courtesy of the Vic Falls - was lovely :-)

Tonight is my last night and I'm thinking I might do a helicopter ride over the Falls tomorrow morning before I leave. I don't get collected until 1030, so hopefully I can book one in :-)


Tomorrow night I'm in J'Burg over night and then head to Hoedspruit for 3/4 nights.

Mande's Lesson from Africa No. 4

When leaving windows open to allow a nice afternoon breeze to enter your room, be mindful of what may enter your room via those windows.

Upon entering another room and walking back into the bedroom area, a baboon was sitting on my window - we both squeaked at one another and ran - lol

Annoyances / Frustrations

1. I went into town yesterday with some things I wanted to ship home. I didn't have much - two smallish masks, a couple of stone statues and a couple of wood carvings and other little things. I went to Fed Ex and they weighed it in at 6kg. To ship 6kgs from Zimbabwe to Australia is was going to cost me $440!! WTF!!! I then went to the Post Office - they charge $15 per kg but don't have any packaging material. So, now I'm going to have a very very full duffel which is not a good thing!! Hopefully it will be easier to ship from Cape Town.

2. My luggage lock is broken. First, I couldn't get it to lock and now I cannot get it to UNLOCK!! So, I don't know what I am going to do with my luggage for tomorrow. I have a feeling Vic Falls Airport is rather teeny and won't have luggage accessories available.

Anyways, my loves - I'm off to sit on the terrace and have some drinkies :-)

*loveloves*