**This blog is our family journal that we print for our own keepsake each year – apologies in advance to anyone not us who has to wade through our occasionally over-detailed account of an experience we never want to forget!
After months of preparation and anticipation, we have had our once-in-a-lifetime tour of the Southern Hemisphere, and it was wonderful! As we finish up our time in Angola, we considered how best to take advantage of our Southern location to do some things and see some places that will likely not present again, and experience a bit of winter at the same time (we haven’t been cold in months). The trip was amazing and unforgettable and well worth the investment of time and resources.
After months of preparation and anticipation, we have had our once-in-a-lifetime tour of the Southern Hemisphere, and it was wonderful! As we finish up our time in Angola, we considered how best to take advantage of our Southern location to do some things and see some places that will likely not present again, and experience a bit of winter at the same time (we haven’t been cold in months). The trip was amazing and unforgettable and well worth the investment of time and resources.
Bri printed out our 8 page itinerary for the month of traveling, and gave each of the kids their own copy. We had answered a zillion questions leading up to our departure, many of which were repeat questions asked by Rhea, our 7 year old "Flibberty-Jibbit" that has a memory the size of a gold fish when it comes to calendar and timing inquiries. It was wonderful to have the kids ask us a question, to which we could reply, "Please refer to page __ of your itinerary." :)
The first Saturday in July, the embassy expediter picked us all up in the morning and took us to Luanda International to board a flight to Windhoek. Our first destination was to be Victoria Falls, but with no direct flight there, we had to stay a night in Windhoek, Namibia. We didn’t mind though since we had such a pleasant time on our earlier trip to Namibia over spring break. We had the same great Air Namibian experience on this leg as last time, and soon we were in Windhoek looking for a rental car. After digging a little deeper into the rental insurance agreement and our own overseas car insurance, we realized we don’t have any liability coverage and none was available, so we skipped the car and grabbed a taxi into town. We were greeted by the same baboon troop we saw last time and several grazing warthogs as we drove on to Windhoek. Bri booked a place right next to a mall for the night and we all looked forward to walking around a real mall for a bit and getting some KFC at a food court. However, after trying unsuccessfully to find the place, we figured out the company was actually a lodge called Arrebusch about five miles from the mall where the company was headquartered. But we were pleasantly surprised by the lodge and the quality and size of our space when we actually got there, so we rolled with the serendipity. The weather in Windhoek was nippy and chilly as Swakopmund had been on our visit a few months back, and we tried to acclimate to the weather as best we could.
The weather in Windhoek was nippy and chilly as Swakopmund had been on our visit a few months back, and we tried to acclimate to the weather as best we could. That night we ate at the lodge’s restaurant, a funky German/Dutch/Afrikaans/Africa game lodge vibe that we love about Namibia and Swakopmund. The roof was a thirty-foot vaulted lodge thatch with plaster and dark wood beams and a fire going in an open stove in the corner that could not have been more cozy and comfortable. We enjoyed the meal and our accommodation there in Namibia where everything is so cheap.
On Sunday morning, we headed back to the restaurant for breakfast, followed by a long walk through the facility and its pools, fountains, and lodges. Back at our room, we improvised a short family sacrament meeting (we have the permission of our mission president to go it solo from this point out for our time in Angola given we sold our car). It was an intimate and special chance to gather together as a family and boil the gospel down to its pure essence: a little family alone in the veld singing a simple hymn and sharing a pancake and a cup of water in remembrance of the Savior, with a short message and discussion afterwards, another hymn, and a closing prayer. All too soon our taxi driver arrived and we loaded up. A couple of warthogs and a neighborhood-roaming baboon were our farewell committee as we left Windhoek and caught our next flight to Victoria Falls in a little shuttle-style jet we had mostly to ourselves.
From the moment we landed in Vic Falls, it was clear this was a more relaxed and less bureaucratic Africa than Angola (and even Namibia), and we felt instantly at home. The airport was beautiful, new, and clean, and we went through customs without drama. At one point, the customs official actually told us to use our diplomatic passports instead of our personal and skip paying the $300 visa fees for the family, and we were grateful for the tip. We grabbed a taxi and headed to Vic Falls about 30 miles away. The terrain was flat and it was definitely winter here, but the temperatures were low 70s and there were a lot of trees in spectrums of green and fall colors that were spectacular. The entire place felt more feral and less formal; as if to reaffirm the point, three big elephants unexpectedly crossed the road right in front of us five minutes out of town. The last one turned back and trumpeted at a car coming in the other direction and prepared to charge, thought better of it, and kept going. It felt so vibrant to be that close to untamed nature on the grand Africa scale!
Vic Falls itself was a small, very functional town that had the vibe of an African Springdale, Utah. Coming into town, we saw warthogs and baboons everywhere.
We again had some drama finding our hotel, but the taxi guy stuck with us and we found our hostel. The Mambo Backpacker’s Guesthouse was a run-down place owned by a young Zimbabwean couple, Mambo and Bridgette, who are just getting their start as a backpacking outfit, and it showed: there were mosquitos everywhere and this was definitely not quite a one-star establishment (bed slats fell off numerous times and the pillows felt like small bags of cotton balls), but we were living like locals and the price was really cheap so we rolled with it (better than $250 per room/per night at the hotels).
After a brief family council and committing to stay, Bri and I asked Mambo where we could get some dinner, and he recommended a place called Mama Africa and called us a taxi to get into town. When we arrived, the place was empty, but the taxi driver still had to work it to negotiate a table for us, which we thought was a little odd. Bri left to grab some anti-mosquito lotion (we were getting eaten alive at the hostel and restaurant) and some breakfast food at a local grocery store while I ordered for the adults and the kids. After a few minutes, the place began to fill, and within an hour they were bringing out card tables to eat outside it was so full. Bri reappeared a half-hour later, negotiating just outside of the restaurant with a guy selling old Zimbabwean money (Zimbabwe started using US dollars and their own coins for currency about ten years ago to get out of hyper-inflation, and all over Vic Falls the vendors were hawking the old bills, which went up to a 50 billion note before the switch). We enjoyed fried chicken and French fries for the kids and Bri and I shared a dutch-oven style bush pot of curry and another of beef (and rice) by candle light.
A live band started up about halfway through our dinner and we all enjoyed the ambiance (especially Thomas, who loved the music). Afterwards we headed back to our mosquito nest and settled in to a warm night without air conditioning. At 10pm and again at 1:30am, we had some of the local backpackers sleeping out back wake us up watching tv and talking loudly in the common area 10 feet away, and no one got much rest, but we tried to make the most of it. Side note: I'll never forget Bri's sacrifice for me on our last night there. I went in to use the toilet before bed, only to find about 30-40 mosquitoes on the ceiling, window, and walls that started flying around as they sensed my movement. I walked right out and explained the situation to Bri. He immediately took his shirt off and without saying a word, walked in and shut the door behind him, shut the window that someone had left open, and started swinging his shirt around, swatting the mosquitoes until every last one of them was dead (I loved my view that I had through the small window at the top of the door). After a good 5 minutes of effort, he walked out like a true Boy Scout with a smile on his face and pronounced the bathroom a mosquito-free zone. :)
The first Saturday in July, the embassy expediter picked us all up in the morning and took us to Luanda International to board a flight to Windhoek. Our first destination was to be Victoria Falls, but with no direct flight there, we had to stay a night in Windhoek, Namibia. We didn’t mind though since we had such a pleasant time on our earlier trip to Namibia over spring break. We had the same great Air Namibian experience on this leg as last time, and soon we were in Windhoek looking for a rental car. After digging a little deeper into the rental insurance agreement and our own overseas car insurance, we realized we don’t have any liability coverage and none was available, so we skipped the car and grabbed a taxi into town. We were greeted by the same baboon troop we saw last time and several grazing warthogs as we drove on to Windhoek. Bri booked a place right next to a mall for the night and we all looked forward to walking around a real mall for a bit and getting some KFC at a food court. However, after trying unsuccessfully to find the place, we figured out the company was actually a lodge called Arrebusch about five miles from the mall where the company was headquartered. But we were pleasantly surprised by the lodge and the quality and size of our space when we actually got there, so we rolled with the serendipity. The weather in Windhoek was nippy and chilly as Swakopmund had been on our visit a few months back, and we tried to acclimate to the weather as best we could.
The weather in Windhoek was nippy and chilly as Swakopmund had been on our visit a few months back, and we tried to acclimate to the weather as best we could. That night we ate at the lodge’s restaurant, a funky German/Dutch/Afrikaans/Africa game lodge vibe that we love about Namibia and Swakopmund. The roof was a thirty-foot vaulted lodge thatch with plaster and dark wood beams and a fire going in an open stove in the corner that could not have been more cozy and comfortable. We enjoyed the meal and our accommodation there in Namibia where everything is so cheap.
On Sunday morning, we headed back to the restaurant for breakfast, followed by a long walk through the facility and its pools, fountains, and lodges. Back at our room, we improvised a short family sacrament meeting (we have the permission of our mission president to go it solo from this point out for our time in Angola given we sold our car). It was an intimate and special chance to gather together as a family and boil the gospel down to its pure essence: a little family alone in the veld singing a simple hymn and sharing a pancake and a cup of water in remembrance of the Savior, with a short message and discussion afterwards, another hymn, and a closing prayer. All too soon our taxi driver arrived and we loaded up. A couple of warthogs and a neighborhood-roaming baboon were our farewell committee as we left Windhoek and caught our next flight to Victoria Falls in a little shuttle-style jet we had mostly to ourselves.
From the moment we landed in Vic Falls, it was clear this was a more relaxed and less bureaucratic Africa than Angola (and even Namibia), and we felt instantly at home. The airport was beautiful, new, and clean, and we went through customs without drama. At one point, the customs official actually told us to use our diplomatic passports instead of our personal and skip paying the $300 visa fees for the family, and we were grateful for the tip. We grabbed a taxi and headed to Vic Falls about 30 miles away. The terrain was flat and it was definitely winter here, but the temperatures were low 70s and there were a lot of trees in spectrums of green and fall colors that were spectacular. The entire place felt more feral and less formal; as if to reaffirm the point, three big elephants unexpectedly crossed the road right in front of us five minutes out of town. The last one turned back and trumpeted at a car coming in the other direction and prepared to charge, thought better of it, and kept going. It felt so vibrant to be that close to untamed nature on the grand Africa scale!
Vic Falls itself was a small, very functional town that had the vibe of an African Springdale, Utah. Coming into town, we saw warthogs and baboons everywhere.
We again had some drama finding our hotel, but the taxi guy stuck with us and we found our hostel. The Mambo Backpacker’s Guesthouse was a run-down place owned by a young Zimbabwean couple, Mambo and Bridgette, who are just getting their start as a backpacking outfit, and it showed: there were mosquitos everywhere and this was definitely not quite a one-star establishment (bed slats fell off numerous times and the pillows felt like small bags of cotton balls), but we were living like locals and the price was really cheap so we rolled with it (better than $250 per room/per night at the hotels).
After a brief family council and committing to stay, Bri and I asked Mambo where we could get some dinner, and he recommended a place called Mama Africa and called us a taxi to get into town. When we arrived, the place was empty, but the taxi driver still had to work it to negotiate a table for us, which we thought was a little odd. Bri left to grab some anti-mosquito lotion (we were getting eaten alive at the hostel and restaurant) and some breakfast food at a local grocery store while I ordered for the adults and the kids. After a few minutes, the place began to fill, and within an hour they were bringing out card tables to eat outside it was so full. Bri reappeared a half-hour later, negotiating just outside of the restaurant with a guy selling old Zimbabwean money (Zimbabwe started using US dollars and their own coins for currency about ten years ago to get out of hyper-inflation, and all over Vic Falls the vendors were hawking the old bills, which went up to a 50 billion note before the switch). We enjoyed fried chicken and French fries for the kids and Bri and I shared a dutch-oven style bush pot of curry and another of beef (and rice) by candle light.
A live band started up about halfway through our dinner and we all enjoyed the ambiance (especially Thomas, who loved the music). Afterwards we headed back to our mosquito nest and settled in to a warm night without air conditioning. At 10pm and again at 1:30am, we had some of the local backpackers sleeping out back wake us up watching tv and talking loudly in the common area 10 feet away, and no one got much rest, but we tried to make the most of it. Side note: I'll never forget Bri's sacrifice for me on our last night there. I went in to use the toilet before bed, only to find about 30-40 mosquitoes on the ceiling, window, and walls that started flying around as they sensed my movement. I walked right out and explained the situation to Bri. He immediately took his shirt off and without saying a word, walked in and shut the door behind him, shut the window that someone had left open, and started swinging his shirt around, swatting the mosquitoes until every last one of them was dead (I loved my view that I had through the small window at the top of the door). After a good 5 minutes of effort, he walked out like a true Boy Scout with a smile on his face and pronounced the bathroom a mosquito-free zone. :)
On Monday morning, Mambo’s wife Bridgette made us a tasty breakfast of eggs and corn mush of some sort as we got ready for our day of rafting on the Zambezi river and riding elephants.
Tobbs from Shockwave, our excursion company, picked us up in an open-air tour jeep and we all huddled for warmth. We had signed up for our excursions with the small but highly recommended tour outfit owned by a Zimbabwean named Philani, who has been a river guide for twenty plus years all over the world and would be our personal guide for the day. We arrived at their offices and met the Adams family out of Denver and their three kids Kendall, Caroline, and Kevin, who would be in our raft for the day. After an initial introduction we re-boarded the open-air safari-type vehicle and headed about 20 km out of town, again freezing in the slightly chill morning air.
Once there, we grabbed our gear and had an orientation at a breathtaking bend in the trail above the river, and afterward hiked down the gorge to the water.
The hike was steep but beautiful, and at one point it felt like we were passing through old India -- very green with a lot of glades of rooty trees in steep cliffs, water pools, and interesting rock crevasses, just the sort of place you would find a rural guru contemplating existence. After getting to the bottom and jumping ahead of about five other rafts that were still getting situated, Philani directed us out into the open water, showed us how to maneuver, and we were under way. I was grateful for the company photographer that captured pics and videos for us!
Philani asked for a kid from our group to demonstrate what to do if we fall out of the raft and Savvy jumped right in – no fear! Out on the water, Philani was a great guide and deftly guided us, and no one fell out on our boat (the other Shockwave raft dumped once and had a little Cameroonian lady fall out another time). The rapids were BIG and many had five-meter and larger waves, and we negotiated several class 4 and one class 5 during the day.
I loved the freedom I felt on this river without the rocks that we have in the rivers of the Western States that I’ve rafted on before. It gave me, as a mom, a lot more peace of mind at the thought that one of my kids might fall out of the boat. And crocodiles could never make it to the stretch of river on which we were navigating. :) We all had a blast. We enjoyed joking around with Philani and the Adams family as we tried to coordinate our paddling, where Caroline, the new college graduate, finally took it upon herself to count out loud to keep her father and brother in time with the rest of us. :)
I will always remember looking at Rhea and laughing hysterically with her every time we went through some rapids--we loved the bouncing raft and trying to dodge the incoming water, all the while trying not to fall out. Her first natural instinct is to laugh at everything, and that is what she did! Two rapids before completing the river run, we enjoyed a short visa-less break on the Zambian (left) side of the river while looking at Zimbabwe across on the other side. We finished out the run, made it up a serious hike out of the canyon that left Bri and I sore for days (Savvy was convinced she could never make it to the top!), and ate a barbecue with the group up on top.
We were again reminded of our privileged position and the reality of local conditions when the guide workers discreetly finished whatever food was left on our plates behind the bus.
Tobbs from Shockwave, our excursion company, picked us up in an open-air tour jeep and we all huddled for warmth. We had signed up for our excursions with the small but highly recommended tour outfit owned by a Zimbabwean named Philani, who has been a river guide for twenty plus years all over the world and would be our personal guide for the day. We arrived at their offices and met the Adams family out of Denver and their three kids Kendall, Caroline, and Kevin, who would be in our raft for the day. After an initial introduction we re-boarded the open-air safari-type vehicle and headed about 20 km out of town, again freezing in the slightly chill morning air.
Once there, we grabbed our gear and had an orientation at a breathtaking bend in the trail above the river, and afterward hiked down the gorge to the water.
The hike was steep but beautiful, and at one point it felt like we were passing through old India -- very green with a lot of glades of rooty trees in steep cliffs, water pools, and interesting rock crevasses, just the sort of place you would find a rural guru contemplating existence. After getting to the bottom and jumping ahead of about five other rafts that were still getting situated, Philani directed us out into the open water, showed us how to maneuver, and we were under way. I was grateful for the company photographer that captured pics and videos for us!
Philani asked for a kid from our group to demonstrate what to do if we fall out of the raft and Savvy jumped right in – no fear! Out on the water, Philani was a great guide and deftly guided us, and no one fell out on our boat (the other Shockwave raft dumped once and had a little Cameroonian lady fall out another time). The rapids were BIG and many had five-meter and larger waves, and we negotiated several class 4 and one class 5 during the day.
I loved the freedom I felt on this river without the rocks that we have in the rivers of the Western States that I’ve rafted on before. It gave me, as a mom, a lot more peace of mind at the thought that one of my kids might fall out of the boat. And crocodiles could never make it to the stretch of river on which we were navigating. :) We all had a blast. We enjoyed joking around with Philani and the Adams family as we tried to coordinate our paddling, where Caroline, the new college graduate, finally took it upon herself to count out loud to keep her father and brother in time with the rest of us. :)
I will always remember looking at Rhea and laughing hysterically with her every time we went through some rapids--we loved the bouncing raft and trying to dodge the incoming water, all the while trying not to fall out. Her first natural instinct is to laugh at everything, and that is what she did! Two rapids before completing the river run, we enjoyed a short visa-less break on the Zambian (left) side of the river while looking at Zimbabwe across on the other side. We finished out the run, made it up a serious hike out of the canyon that left Bri and I sore for days (Savvy was convinced she could never make it to the top!), and ate a barbecue with the group up on top.
We were again reminded of our privileged position and the reality of local conditions when the guide workers discreetly finished whatever food was left on our plates behind the bus.
We rode through the bush straddling the elephant, with a guide walking out front with a rifle “just in case” (of what???). Before long, there was a ruckus up front of us, and the guy with the gun ran interference with other feral elephants in our path and scared them off. We enjoyed being close to the elephants, and while en route we saw some impala, big storks, and the ever-present vultures. The guides each told us all about the elephants, and we were all sore when we finally got off the elephants (think bow-legged horse riding x 2). We ended by feeding them and having some final interaction with them, including receiving a “salute” from them where they put their trunks back behind their ears and bow.
This was a fun little adventure with a big price tag, but we were glad to have had the experience.
We hadn’t seen the Victoria falls yet (they are in a separate park area), and were anxious to have this experience before running out of time on a tight schedule here, so we asked the driver to drop us there instead of the hostel.
He did so and helped us get some ponchos once we got there, we paid the US $105 (!) entrance fee, and rushed in to see what we could in the 45 minutes we had before the park closed. The falls were absolutely spectacular – the pictures will never capture the size and wonder and mystique of this wonder of the world. Twice as much water goes over these falls as Niagara, and they’re spread out along about a mile of canyon with a tall island in the middle on one side.
We were there as the sun set and basked in the ambiance of the place, and managed to see as much of the falls as are visible (about half of it is obscured by the falls’ mist until the dry season, and you can see the mist rising from the falls 50 miles out) before rushing for an exit to avoid getting locked in the park overnight, Etosha-style. Rhea sadly slipped and fell in some mud as she was running around, so we got her washed up as much as we could too before heading out (she sat on our camera bag cover to keep mud off the taxi seat :) ).
The staff here (along with everything else) were more mellow than in other parts of Africa where we’ve been, and the gate attendant graciously let us use the restroom and stay in the park just a bit longer when we got out exactly at 6 pm. The driver waited for us, looking for one more taxi fare for the night, and we had him drop us at a pizza and chicken place we saw earlier in the day. We enjoyed the food, caught a taxi back, and settled into a much quieter evening; we had a talk earlier in the day with Mambo about last night’s noise and had gone so far as looking at other accommodation options before deciding to stick it out. Mambo made good on enforcing his rules and things were much better for the rest of our stay.
On Tuesday, we woke up early and had another great breakfast cooked for us by Bridgette, got ready, and were picked up by Philani, who took us and Mike (a German/Swiss in the other boat from the day before) the 45 minutes to the Botswanan border for a day river and jeep safari in the Chobe game reserve.
En route we saw some big hornbills on the side of the road, the first of many birds we would see during the day. Philani got us through the Zimbabwean exit and Botswanan entry customs, hooked us up with our Botswanan driver, and we were off to the Chobe Safari Lodge, a big 1950’s era African game lodge on one of the Zambezi river tributaries about 80 km above the falls. Entering the lodge was like stepping back in time to old Africa, with baboons and monkeys running up in the vaulted wood rafters and warthog and exotic birds rooting around on the grounds.
We met our river guide who told us to call him G, entered the raft, and started downstream while we waited for our paperwork to enter Chobe to clear.
As we traveled, we saw several types of cormorants (including red and the white-breasted), the lilac breasted roller, the darter (like a large cormorant), jakava, fork-tailed drongo, spoon bills, the lovely malakite kingfisher, as well as the big birds—fish eagles, the great white egret, the yellow-billed stork, and the gray, purple, and mighty goliath herons. This last one was enormous and has a wingspan approaching four meters and was spectacular.
Closer in to the falls we saw several big crocs basking in the morning sun (pretty well hidden in the grass).
As we traveled, we saw several types of cormorants (including red and the white-breasted), the lilac breasted roller, the darter (like a large cormorant), jakava, fork-tailed drongo, spoon bills, the lovely malakite kingfisher, as well as the big birds—fish eagles, the great white egret, the yellow-billed stork, and the gray, purple, and mighty goliath herons. This last one was enormous and has a wingspan approaching four meters and was spectacular.
Closer in to the falls we saw several big crocs basking in the morning sun (pretty well hidden in the grass).
We saw a couple of hippos at a distance, and dozens of the lovely yellow-billed storks in several trees that were nesting.
We then turned back, checked in at the Chobe park dock, and entered that part of the river. There, we saw several massive, slow-moving hippos up close,
water monitors,
and a few cape buffalo grazing on an island in the river.
The guide took us in to watch a troop of baboon overrun some tied-up boats, and we enjoyed watching them play and race around on the two-story tour boats.
The guide kept watching the hills, and sure enough about fifteen bull elephants came down for a swim and then cautiously as a group swam across the river just feet away from us. They were majestic and slow and we couldn’t get enough of them! Much of the time all we could see were there trunks above the water, blowing water out of them. We were all shocked at their ability to carry their weight across a river swimming especially with how slowly they swam, always staying in a line until they could feel the ground again. And then they assumed the line formation again as they moved further onto land. This process was beautifully organized and orderly. After watching them and playing on the river for a little longer, we headed back to the lodge for a buffet lunch and to start the jeep afternoon tour.
They were majestic and we couldn’t get enough of them! After watching them and playing on the river for a little longer, we headed back to the lodge for a buffet lunch and to start the jeep afternoon tour.Edson, our afternoon guide, took us into Chobe in a jeep and almost immediately we saw lion. It was a little surreal being in a big open-air jeep with a hundred impala standing stalk still watching three lions fifty feet away from us to make sure they aren’t attacked. We saw a couple of hundred elephants in five or six groups spread out across the river delta and valley, including several that were in the water in one herd and several going to the water. At one point we had elephants passing in front and behind us just a few meters away. It was likely as close as we will ever be to wild elephants, and it was exhilarating and awe inspiring.
We also saw several groupings of hippos. They were mostly lounging or grazing very slowly, and there were three or four groups of a dozen packed in tight in muddy little inlets off the river. We got up close and personal with about a half dozen giraffe, including some darkly-marked older giraffe. We saw some kudu and buffalo in the distance and assorted bush buck and a few zebra, but these animals that we saw in their thousands in Etosha we saw only in the tens and twenties here.
We never saw any rhino, and at this point are resigned to not having seen them during our time in Africa. We left Chobe, dropped Mike at his Botswanan lodge, and made our way through peaceful lazy Northeastern Botswana to the border as the sun started to set over a pretty place that was a treat to experience. We hooked up with Philani at the border crossing, made our way through immigration, and ticked off a few more elephant and giraffe grazing along the road on the Zimbabwe side. We bought some t-shirts from Philani at his office, had some more pizza and chicken, and headed back to Mambo spent and happy.We woke on Wednesday to the news that labor leaders had called a country-wide strike, and our morning and transportation plans were in limbo for a bit while Mambo beat the bush to find us a scab taxi. After a last tasty meal from Bridgette, we hooked up with the driver Mambo found us and headed to a large crocodile farm. At the farm, Wayne gave us a tour of the facility, starting off with letting us hold and examine a baby crock and then touring the different incubation ponds. It was surreal to see so many crocodiles so close.
We could not believe this guy's green eyes!
The tour culminated in Wayne feeding some big crocks (some four meters long) for us and we thrilled to see these big predators active and attacking.
We also had a chance to see the farm’s three lions (Mickey and twins Shadow and Lilly). Wayne asked what Bri did at some point and from then on the entire discussion was about political issues and potential work at a diplomatic mission.
From the crock farm we headed into town and picked up some souvenirs. We made our way through about four dozen strikers and found our earlier taxi driver who gave us a lift back to Mambo. We finished packing and loaded up for the drive to the airport and said goodbye to Mambo and Bridgette. We all had a great time here, and I think all of the kids were sad to leave Zimbabwe and our wonderful experience here.
Just US | August 24, 2016 at 6:43 PM
So cool! I'm loving reading about your travels!