Hi! Here is a post of the past seven days because we had no internet. Sorry I didn’t post this earlier!!
July 29, 2018, Sunday
Hey! Today my family and I got on a plane to Zimbabwe! Once we landed and got settled in our hotel room, we went on a wild and marine life river cruise on the Zambezi river, half of which is part of Zambia. We saw a family of hippos (there must’ve been at least five of them) with a little baby hippo! All of the hippos kept bobbing in and out of the water quite close to us. One of them was so close that when he/she yawned we could see all the way down into his/her throat! On the boat, we also saw two crocodiles and the neck of a giraffe in the far off distance. However, as we headed back to the dock we saw two giraffes at the water’s edge. They were beautiful. Once we saw the beautiful sunset, we went to a local restaurant for dinner. There, there were about twenty people completely drunk and singing songs in Mandarin…
July 30, 2018, Monday
The next day, we went on a tour of the Township, where people with jobs live, and the Village, where the people farm for their own survival, barter with livestock, and can’t pay for running water (they have a pump installed by UNICEF) or electricity. Family groups that live together work like this: If parents have both male and female children, the males and their family live with them while the females live with their husband’s family. Villagers prefer females because they receive a dowry and therefore live better, but males are also good because they take care of their parents when they’re old. A man may have multiple wives. The huts that people live in are made of mud and water molded into rounded brick shapes. The roofs are made of dried and have to be changed or covered every seven years. The walls of the huts are painted with natural paints made of rocks and plants. At one hut I noticed that the paint was painted on with a toothbrush! The family living in the enclosure of huts were very friendly, and one girl with wild hair was very enthusiastic and sweet. They live by a very interesting ideal: Their last name translates to “Baboon”, so they make sure that all the baboons are safe from harm and that no one is hunting them. In this way, all the families are responsible for protecting their name and there is harmony. Once we’d left the Village we went to one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Victoria Falls. This was one of the reasons for our whole trip and had reason to be. The falls are the largest above ground in the world and are so powerful that even on high ground far away from the water the mist it creates soaks innocent bystanders…
July 31, 2018, Tuesday
The following morning, we drove across the border of Zimbabwe to Botswana in order to get to our hotel, the Chobe Safari Lodge. In the afternoon we got into a Jeep and drove to Chobe National Park in the hopes of seeing some animals. In the end, we saw over 31 types of animals; giraffes, elephants, zebras, hippos, impalas, kudu, lilac breasted rollers, fish eagles, maribou cranes, guinea fowl, crocodiles, baboons, vervet monkeys, lions, mongooses, water buffalo, cape buffalo, african buffalo, wildebeest, leguaans (water monitors), kori bustards, african wild dogs, puku, bushpig, pangolin, bushbuck, common eland, vultures, waterbuck, warthogs, and the rare Sable Antelope. We saw many of these animals closer up because of our Jeep companions’ shared binoculars (thanks guys!). They knew a lot about birds. There were many interesting occurrences on the safari, but I’m only going to mention a few. The first thing happened when we drove to the water’s edge to see the hundreds of elephants together (which is already odd because that almost never happens), and we saw twin baby elephants!, which is very rare. Before we drove away the second thing happened (which my parents insisted I include). We saw two baboons mating. Once we headed back into the trees, we went to the meeting area for a break and to stretch our legs. There, one of the vervet monkeys stole a bag of chips from another Jeep! Then, when we headed out again we saw rare Sable Antelopes! They are really rare! Then, as we headed back to the lodge, we saw a hippo to our right. This was incredible because they rarely stray away from the water, but then it got even better. The hippo crossed the dirt road immediately in front of us and yawned! Just when we thought the day couldn’t get any better, we saw the hundreds of elephants we saw earlier climb up the sloping ground to their sleeping areas. This doesn’t seem very amazing without seeing it yourself, but it was absolutely magical…
August 1, 2018, Wednesday
The next day, we woke up early in order to have a safari partly in the dark. Though we saw many of the same animals the day before was indisputably better. However, we saw five lions instead of the two lions we saw the day before. After the morning safari, we went to breakfast and witnessed quite a few warthogs casually enter the restaurant and just walk around. Later on that day we went on another boat ride along the river and saw many animals on the island between Botswana and Namibia, including more elephants, buffalo, crocodiles, hippos, and more birds, a new one including the kingfisher…
August 2, 2018, Thursday
The following afternoon we crossed over the Botswana border back over to Zimbabwe after suffering through a very long line, ate lunch overlooking the Gorge by Victoria Falls at a restaurant called the Lookout (duh), walked around the town, and did little else…
August 3, 2018, Friday
Once again, we woke up early in the morning. This time it was in order to take better sunrise photos of Victoria Falls, courtesy of Troy (thanks a lot Troy!!). Sure enough, the view was much better and we could see more of the falls without the sun gleaning off the mist. We even saw more rainbows this time! After a small breakfast, we got on a plane back to Cape Town, ate dinner, and went to sleep…
Today
Thanks so much for reading, guys! I really had fun on this excursion and am looking forward to our next one, whatever that may be. This post has taken me hours to write, so once again I apologize for the posting delay. I love you guys!
Ella
5-3-12-6 19-1-23-1-26 21-23 1-13 4-8-17-1-5-4! 1-26-’14-14 7-6 8-21-13!!
🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁