Now we’ve done the whole syllabus

Saturday was our last 5 am wake -up knock, and it will be nice to sleep in tomorrow. We had coffee and zucchini muffins and climbed into the jeep around 5:45. It was chilly! We saw some elephants just waking up and 2 warthogs with big tusks. We ran across the giraffe with no tail and claw or bite scars on his inner thigh. This time the scars were apparent. He happily munched on the top of a tree quite close to us. 

We saw more warthogs and several more giraffes, including one with a couple birds on its neck. We found a herd of wildebeest and were snapping some photos when we heard the roar of a lion. Ona got very excited and drove like a maniac to find the lions. He surmised it was the 2 males who are part of the area pride. It took a bit but when they roared again, we were able to find them. There were indeed 2 big males laying in the scrub, but Ona thought they weren’t the ones from the area. We watched and took pictures and even videos hoping they would roar again. One of them started moving and we followed him. Ona was driving over pretty large bushes and branches with abandon. We were stymied by a thicket at one point so we drove to where Ona thought the lion would emerge, and first came one and then another walking by. Determined to follow them in case they hunted, Ona kept driving behind them in the scrub. All of a sudden he said “Oh I think we have a problem,” and he jumped down to check the front tire. Sure enough it was punctured. His reaction was “Now we’ve done the whole syllabus” which we take to mean our safari is now complete. He said the lions were heading away from us so that it would be safe for us to get down from the jeep. We climbed out and he made quick work of jacking up the jeep, removing and replacing the tire. Getting the old tire into the truck was a challenge, as it was very heavy. But he managed to lift it into the back row of seats and we were on our way again. We estimate the whole process took about 7 minutes. Ona said we couldn’t drive off-road anymore since we now didn’t have a spare. But at a couple points he did anyway.  He said we were a group of risk takers??? We drove off in the direction the lions took and on the way spotted impala, elephants and kudu.  As we spotted animals along the way, Ona would give a friendly alert to them “Watch out for the lions!”  We did find the two lions again, laying down in the shade of a large bush by the river. Satisfied that he had tracked the lions even after stopping to fix a flat tire, Ona drove us back to the camp. 

We had an hour to pack and then we had brunch where we said goodbye to Ona. He truly was a wonderful guide with a great sense of humor. One example is when we are approaching camp, Ona always calls the camp manager to let them know we’re coming. They are always waiting with cool damp washcloths we use to wipe the dust off our hands and faces. One time he was calling Sele (pronounced Selly)  and giving her the ten minute warning, and Sue said, “We could play a trick on her and I could call her and say ‘Ona has fallen out of the truck and Julie is driving.’” Without missing a beat Ona said “And we’ve just seen a sign that says Welcome to Angola!”  He had a wealth of information and good suggestions about how to photograph the animals. We tipped him generously. 

Our last meal was eggs to order, bacon, sausage and French toast. Ona was going to Maun and we were going to Kasane airfield which are opposite directions. So while we were eating a tall gentleman approached and said “I am Emmanuel. I have lost my name tag. I will be driving you to the airstrip.” Sue asked “Since you have lost your name tag, are you sure you know the way to the airport?” This caused the staff members to crack up in a big way. Emmanuel appreciated the joke and said he was pretty sure he knew the way. The camp staff sang us a goodbye song. 

We arrived early and the plane was late. It was now 97 degrees. Finally the plane arrived and it was the young woman pilot we had flown with before. It was 10 minutes to our first stop and we watched as 3 men (including a passenger) and a woman struggled to get a disabled man off the plane and into his wheelchair. He kept yelling at them in German that they should stop. Once he was finally sorted, we had a 35 minute flight to Kasane airport. We saw giraffes standing under trees and hundreds of elephants near the Chobe River. 

We were collected in a comfortable van driven by Duncan who gave us lots of information and quizzed us on the presidents/leaders of various countries. We finally got Trudeau right for Canada. We had to stop at the Botswana side of the border to get our passports stamped which took very little time, but it was more than made up for on the Zimbabwe side. First we stopped at a health booth where we had to show our passports and vaccine certificates. We were asked “How old are you?” (I think that information is right on the passport but they asked anyway.) Also they wanted our occupation and where we were going in Zimbabwe. Then we went to another booth,
showed our passports again and were given a long form to complete. Duncan was waiting in the van and the clerk was not very helpful, but we managed to fill out the forms, pay $30 each and get our visas. Back in the van, Duncan pointed out hundreds of trucks, cars and busses parked around the border checkpoint. He said people import the vehicles from England and then they have to pay duty on them before they can drive them away. We passed forests of teak trees, with no foliage now, but they will leaf out when the rains come in November and December. 

We passed the Chobe River which flows into the Zambezi River and eventually flows into the Indian Ocean at Mozambique. We passed a farm growing bananas and papaya. We saw many trucks on the road carrying copper. Duncan explained that Zambia’s main industry is copper mining. The copper is carried on trucks to South Africa and then put on ships bound for China. At one stretch we had passed at least 10 trucks in a row, with Duncan saying “Copper … Copper …Copper…not Copper. And an occasional “China”. 

We were driving in the Zambezi National Park at a high speed and occasionally stopping to look at animals, such as giraffes. It made us wonder if there were a lot of accidents and Duncan said not really, especially at night people drive slowly to avoid hitting animals. But there was an incident where a truck driver killed 16 buffalo. Duncan said the meat was divided among local villages. Julie thought maybe Duncan driving 110/km on the Hiway while trying to play game guide was not the best idea but we made it in one piece.

We arrived in the city of Victoria Falls, population 50,000. Duncan said it’s a friendly town but don’t walk in dark places at night due to animals. We were welcomed to the Ilala Lodge but there was a glitch with our reservation so we had to wait an inordinate period of time before checking in. We walked along a path to our rooms and could see the spray rising from the falls. 

Julie and Nick finally had wi-fi and could catch up on emails and news. Duncan had told us about a restaurant called 3  Monkeys which was walking distance from our hotel. We went there for dinner and it was very atmospheric but the pizzas we ordered were only so-so. Felt a bit tourist trappy. We returned to the hotel for a nightcap and turned in early, relishing not having to awaken at 4:45 am. We are very excited for our tours tomorrow.