Where else in the world...?!
Trip Start
Nov 07, 2005
1
64
75
Trip End
Nov 04, 2006
Antelope Park, Gweru / Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe
Monday, September 18, 2006
Our next few days were spent at Antelope Park where we were shown a cheesy video about the activities we could do which were world exclusives (apparently) such as walking with lions.
I opted for just the lion walk, cub viewing and horse riding - the elephant activities were a no go out of personal beliefs.
I was in two minds about whether or not to do the lion walk for the same reasons - the uneccessary amount of contact with wild animals for touristic, money-making reasons. It was probably a bit hypocrtic of me to go, but I was intrigued as to how they would react.
Although it was amazing to see, walk with and touch the lions, it felt totally unnatural and I felt quite uncomfortable doing it as a tourist. They had a volunteer program but at 1450 pounds a month there's no way I'd ever be doing that.
We ended out lion walk with a fried breakfast at the camp which has to be the most overpriced breakfast ever - the portions were tiny, but I was too scared of the kitchen manager/portion controller to say anything. I later labelled her the kitchen bitch. Fortunately when it came to paying my bill on departure, they'd neglected to include my brekkie.
I went on a horse ride through the game park in the afternoon, even though it was only beginner and meant follwing each other nose to tail. We got up close and personal with impala and giraffe and at one point there was even a giraffe ambling alongside me, slightly too close for comfort.
I returned to the campsite to find that my only pair of trousers had been stolen off the washing line along with Mel's fleece. I was still fuming about the theft when some of the others from our group who'd been on the afternoon lion walk rushed back in terror - AP (Andrea) had been attacked by a lion! She was rushed straight to hospital, stitched up and returned high on painkillers. We were all called into the staff room for a chat about the what had happened amongst severe apologies as well as them unsubtlt asking us not to tell anyone about the incident. When I asked them what they'd do to prevent this happening again they just said they'd use younger cubs. Apparently they usually retire the cubs from lion walks at 22 months old, and these ones we'd been walking with were 23 months old. I'd been having doubts about the ethics of the whole place anyway - the pricey volunteers fees (there didn't even seem top do any work apart from sunbathing), the unnecessary interaction of tourists with the wildlife and the rumours of what happended to the lions when they were retired, and this situation just confirmed my beliefs that they shouldn't be doing lion walks.
Wild animals are always wild and people who work with them on a daily basis run the risk of getting injured, let alone tourists. On top of that it was obviously just a big money making activity with no obvious benefits to the wildlife.
I cancelled my cub viewing session - even though I would have loved to have played with young cubs, I didn't want to do it in a touristy way. Instead I decided it was time for the braids to go and spent hours unwinding my hair with the help of Zoe. I was blessed with a lovely afro when I'd finished but luckily it was easily washed out.
That night was no less eventful. Whilst sitting around waiting for dinner I suddenly realised I hadn't seen Ribo in a while. No one else had seen him either and after a check of his tent revealed he wasn't having a kip I went to tell Romy. It turned out he'd hired a canoe just before sunset and now it was pitch black and if he was still in the canoe he'd be hopelessly lost of a crocodile infested river. I feared the worst, remembering what had happened to the twins that got lost when I was in Tonga. The staff rushed out with a rescue boat and after a while returned with a slightly wet but perfectly safe Ribo.
The next morning as another group went on a lion walk, the guide was clawed by a different cub.
We were quite happy to leave Antelope Park, and frankly I think they were quite glad to see the back of us. We made our way to Bulawayo, detouring via the hospital to get AP's dressings changed. A group went off to watch the football at a pub whilst the rest of us watched old fuzzy versions of movies like Cocktail, G.I. Jane and Point Break. It seems your standards slip when you've not watched movies in months.
Romy surprised us all with a pizza delivery and it seemed like it was going to be a great night. That was, until the pub group returned home, and Dustin had an argument with a Canadian from the other truck, which almost ended in a fist fight.
