Elephant Hills Resort Victoria Falls

Vossup!

Well im definately in Africa...........its hot, hot , hot ..........as one local Namibian man told me "Africa is Hot Man!"

There is african music blaring out of nearly every shop window in town.........people move at an african pace (not in any rush or with any real determination) ........women balance their shopping (and everything else) on top of their heads.......trucks fly past carrying 15 guys stood in the back.............Villages made of sticks and mud fly ...

hello!!

I have made it to the end of the trip...Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

This has been an awesome trip and I am really sad to leave the friends i have made...we have really become a little family in teh past few weeks!

Since the delta, we travelled to a little town called Nata, Chobe National Park where we stayed in a really terrible campsite with no running water or working toilets....which ...

... in front of me and I kneed him in the bum. Lucky he just turned around and gave me a disgusted look and kept walking. I am sure he was thinking about just how slow the reaction time of humans is! We then went to see some of the older cubs at the conservation area. They were caged in and we got to try to run beside the cages to see how much faster they were. It was crazy; I was running as fast as I could and switching directions all the time ...

... Wasn’t all about the lions though, T went for an Elephant ride as well.

Next stop Bulawayo where Littleman’s shoulder decided it was time to play up again. Unfortunately it was painful enough to prevent him going walking with the Rhino’s. T went though and it was an amazing day. Our two trackers followed rhino tracks and rhino poo to find several families of rhino. We followed the rhino through the bush and were able to ...

... not for our rooms but with Russell driving us through the maupani forest for our first game drive. My first heart stopping moment was to see giraffe...a journey of giraffe to be exact, happily munching beautiful little white flowers off the tops of a native bush. We have learned so, so much which makes me so, so happy.

The journey of giraffe was followed by a herd of elephants, a dazzle of zebra (let me stop right there ...

... we had a delicious meal around the fire and got quite merry on the unlimited wine provided - Jeremy certainly felt the effects the next day...
Nevertheless a game drive is a great hangover cure - we spotted a hyena munching on a bone, a jackal, giraffe, impala, kudu, zebra and a big hairy bush which was actually a lion (with some imagination and high-powered binoculars).
Back in Livingstone for a day relaxing before heading back up to Lusaka tomorrow.

... Victoria Falls, and 50 km from the Kazungula border connecting Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Natural Mystic is covered in a dense Mopane forest combined with deciduous Savanna Grassland. Nature's sounds of bird life, frogs, baboons, monkeys and hippos create a mystical mood. Free roaming elephants are also frequent visitors to our grounds.

I know I am a bit late posting this - it took me a while to get it all down, then have time at the internet cafe to enter it. This is my last Friday in Livingstone.

Woke this morning with mixed feelings - excited for the activities of the day, but sad this is the last day I would be with my students. Along with pencils and exercise books (smaller versions of our blue books) with their names written on them, another volunteer also brought other school supplies to donate. She heard ...

... morning 3 hour Walking Safari in the neighbouring 66 sq mile National Park. It was chilly as we left at 7.15 am for the short drive. Seeing the animals at ground level and being able to track them was different. There was me and just 2 others along with a guide and a park person armed with rifle in hand just in case! Highight besides seeing more but different breed of giraffe, more zebras, wilderbeasts, impalas, gazelles, bird life were to see 3 of the Park's 5 white Cape ...

... shops were closed, much to Oliver's relief. We checked out "The Kingdom" which looks like something straight out of Vegas. Big castle type hotel/casino with shops and restaurants. Went in for a browse and the place was totally deserted. Actually Katherine, who had visited Vic Falls some years back, said the whole town was deserted. She couldn't believe how quiet it was as last time she was here it was a hive of activity. Another thing to suffer under Mugabe's regime. There was ...