Off to Zimbabwe. If you are uncomfortable in small planes, this is the safari itinerary for you. We drove from Vic Fall to the camps in the Hwange National Park.

To be continued.....

Part Two

The Zimbabwean people are the kindest sweetest people you will meet, much to their detriment. They have been abused and taken advantage by their government. They have been tricked, stolen from and lied to. The difference between rich and poor is unconscionable. Yet the people say we must hope that tomorrow will be better. It is not in their culture to be aggressive or revolt. So they just keep putting one foot in front of the other and bear incredible poverty. The best one can do is visit the country, spend dollars so that these lovely people will have jobs. Zimbabwean guides are the best in all of Africa. The requirement to become a safari guide is like getting a college degree. It’s a 4-year program. No where else in Africa are guides trained as well. The professionalism was obvious.

The animal drives were everything you want on safari. We only saw our own jeeps. We had the territory to ourselves. Both camps were on a major watering holes, so the animals came to us. I learned that safari in dry season has many advantages. There is less foliage, so easier (not easy) to spot the animals. You would think a zebra with black and white stripes would stick out like a sore thumb. No way. A giraffe with its long neck? Nope. Elephants are huge. Well they hide among trees very well. The small watering holes are dried up, so the animals have to come to more centralized, larger watering holes. In the wet season, there are water spots all over and they don’t have to move around as much. They spread out more and harder to find.

We saw lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, giraffes, zebras, cape buffalo, wilder beats, warthogs. hippos, crocodiles, baboons, monkeys, fox, mongoose, all kinds of birds and maybe some insects I’d rather not have seen. There were only 8 rhinos in the park. The guides said they don’t like to find them and if they do, they stay clear. They don’t want to tip the poachers off about the whereabouts of the rhinos.

Poaching is a huge problem. We met with many conservation organizations. We even met with an anti-poaching group. they had to leave mid presentation because they got a call and had to respond ASAP. The anti-poachers are outnumbered and out spent by the people that pay the poachers. Education is the key. The Chinese need to learn that rhino horns and pangolin scales are exactly the same as fingernails. There is no special healing of enhancement property. There is no pride in ivory carvings if it means elephant extinction in 30 years. The locals are being educated that the animals will bring them more money in the long run then the poachers pay them now. All of this takes time and money. The best you can do is go to Africa, see for yourself, the amazing beauty and natural treasures that need to be saved. Saved from poachers and over mining.

In Africa you see up front and personal, how well nature works and how badly things go when humans interrupt.

My last day was in Johannesburg. Very different from Cape Town. More like Los Angeles, spread out with incredible traffic. The Apartheid Museum is a must. So well done, very emotional. A tour of Soweto is a must too. Nothing like what I expected. That little town is not all shanty homes. There are beautiful homes with gardens and Mercedes, Audis and BMW’s parked in the driveways. The rich kids are in private school uniforms walking down the lovely streets to school. The poverty-stricken kids run around the streets in shabby clothes and use communal toilets and showers. All within blocks of each other.