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Hello, everybody. As the time approaches for our departure (we have less than two weeks left here), we wanted to stop and recap our big "vic falls" trip for ourselves and for you, of course. If we don't write some stuff down, the memories will just be fuzzy later. This is just downright wordy, and I apologize. But hey, it's basically a journal entry for our family. So here goes:
After six weeks in the bush, we were all good and ready for a break in the action. We'd been on call lots prior to leaving, just as we are now. I think we're on 14 of 17 nights or something according to John. I don't really keep track. The call nights aren't as bad as back home, as I mentioned before. Oh, I did eat my words after the last blog by the way. I got called in immediately after writing!
Anyhow...back to the trip. We packed all things needed for a 10 day vacation in Africa for a family of three, The Epperly family of four, and our neurologist buddy, David. David was just visiting and thus was taking all of his stuff back to the capital city for departure to the states. We also had some stuff to take back to the mission office in Harare. Needless to say, we loaded our big blue Land Cruiser to the gills, and headed out into the wild blue yonder- adventures ahead of us and work behind.
I crammed in the back with April and half the gear, the kiddos snug in their middle row car seats, John driving with Dave and Shea beside him in the front seat. The other half of our gear was tied to the luggage racks on top of the truck. I'm not talking Toyota Camry luggage racks. These are things are real "man" racks. You could, for instance, tie another Land Cruiser with it's man rack all full of gear up there and you'd be just fine. I guess getting it down would be a trick, but it'd ride OK.
You should know that there are two ways to drive through the middle of nowhere to get to Karanda. The long way and the longer way. Going the long way, you drive through a river, wind around through the bush a lot and then head out onto a highway. The longer way just drive until you find what must be one of the narrowest bridges in the world, drive over it, then wind through the bush and out onto the highway. This time, at the advice of our boss, we headed for the river. Now, men like to do things like drive through rivers. It makes our testosterone surge and gives us something to grunt about. As we headed to the river, we drove right past a group of locals bathing and washing there. We let out a hearty guffaw as we plowed right into the waters. The adrenaline filled excitement quickly turned to nail biting anxiety as we realized that the waters probably shouldn't cover the tires completely. I got my video camera out and captured some really tension filled moments as the waters surged up near the bottom of the truck windows. When you're in the middle of a river though, it's a little difficult to turn around and go back. John drove on, disregarding the competing instructions from us to "stop"," go", "go faster", and "slow down" all at the same time. As the dripping hulk of a vehicle emerged from the waters, we were grateful to God for our safe passage. The blue skies ahead welcomed us to the road and we happily left work behind us for a time.
After three hours or so in the car, we made it to Harare. Upon arrival we got some good eats at Jacob's Well, a local coffee house. Great food and great coffee. We make a habit of not cooking or cleaning too much in Harare. After unloading our stuff, April, Abbi, and I headed to the Spar, our local grocer and geared up for our trip. We bought plenty of good-for-you food, enough cookies, beef jerky, crackers, and candy to feed an army. We even found some "musk" flavored mints. They tasted like grandfathers smell plus soap. They weren't a big hit.
We had pizza that night from Pizza Inn. It's a really tasty pizza shop in Harare that's only a couple of miles away from the TEAM office. So, we eat there at least twice every time we go to Harare. We repacked our gear, readying our families for our driver to come get us in a "van" in the morning. I envisioned, with agony, traveling a couple thousand kilometers in an old Ford Astrovan with five adults (including our guide), three (screaming) kids, and all of our junk. Just to help you stretch your imagination:
You can imagine our surprise when our guide, Stephen, rolled up in an extended 8 seater mini bus style van with a huge cargo bay, towing a cargo trailer. We got all of our gear into the van with plenty of room to spare- didn't even need the trailer. Stephen, a super cool yet very mature 20 year old Zimbabwean native was great to travel with. He drove, cooked, made all of our lodging and tour arrangements, and became much more like a friend than a hired guide. Hiring his company ACTS (African Christian Travel and Safari) was a huge blessing, allowing us to just focus on family time. Stephen's incredible maturity may have something to do with being orphaned as a child and coming up in the world the hard way.
We bounced through the country side, stopping often at police road blocks. It turns out that if you're super polite, they usually just wave you through. Our first stop was "antelope park, " which is a fairly interesting small game reserve about 4 hours from Harare. (
http://www.antelopepark.co.zw/index.html) It's interesting in that it is a Lion rehabilitation reserve by purpose and a small game reserve by accident. The owner (who now has one arm due to his occupation) raises lions from birth, teaching them to hunt on the reserve grounds at night, and eventually releases them into areas where Lions are endangered. Here, you can swim on elephant backs, walk with lions and lion cubs, and just enjoy the grounds- which are stunning in their own right. We arrived at dusk and checked into our "deluxe river tent," which is basically a waters-edge safari tent turned into a hotel room with a hot shower and nice tiled bathroom added on to it. Before a delicious buffet dinner cooked over wood fire grills, we strolled through the grounds of the fenced off lodging area within the park itself. Passing by the dinner grill, we headed off to the opposite shore of the lake we were staying on via a long wooden bridge. The waters, clear as glass, below us were no good for swimming, as a crocodile had been spotted in the waters previously and, as they say, "you only swim with a crocodile once." So, we ventured around the lake shore, perusing the buildings on the opposite side. Three villas were set up, one with lots of bunk beds and two others as "honeymoon suites." The suites were gorgeous, thatched roofs two stories high with a glass wall facing the lake. A large cast iron bath tub sat in the back section of the studio apartment like layout. The water for that tub kept hot by a wood fire, perpetually stoked under the water tanks out back. The sound of drum beats called us back to the grill area where we feasted.
Abbi was absolutely thrilled with our accommodations. She said "it's awesome" as she rolled around on the soft beds. We really enjoyed sitting on the personal porch of our river tent together, just taking in the sights and sounds of the wild life in the water in front of us.
We woke up early the next morning. Refreshed, having spent the night under several blankets from the cool weather, we walked to breakfast surrounded by mist coming off of the lake in front of us.
April, Abbi, and I took a dip in the pool before heading off for a sunset pontoon boat ride. The lake itself reminded me of Lake Bracken, a lake dug for steam engines on the railroad in Illinois that I grew up swimming in as a kid. The sunset was breathtaking, as you can see in the sunset photo above.
As we headed out early the next morning to our next destination, we were sorry to leave this little paradise. We traveled about six more hours towards Victoria Falls, and stopped at a rustic Safari Lodge called Miomba Safari lodge. The cabins were sparse, one room villas with thatched roofs. Abbi took one look around and said "it's not awesome." And, that's how I felt initially, too.
It is 14,600 square kilometers (9,000 sq. miles) with 105 mammal species and 27 "large species" including 8 large predator carnivores.
Naturally, Abbi was up and ready to go on the third morning of our trip. So, I decided to let April sleep and take Abbi "exploring." I figured I'd get some coffee and we'd kill some time looking for rocks and sticks. Standing by the pool, looking at bugs, I heard a little movement from the other side of the pool. Quietly, I picked Abbi up - still in her footie pajamas - and headed over to check out our new find. Sure enough, a huge elephant had wondered into the lodge grounds. Abbi and I hid behind a tree and watched him bathe himself in the water hole there. When we got back to the room, I said "Abbi, what did we see when we were exploring?" "An elephant" she answered nonchalantly. Miomba, it turns out, was awesome.
The ride to Victoria Falls was a quick and uneventful 2 hour drive from Miomba. The town of Vic Falls proper isn't much to look at. It has your usual tourist trap stuff, from open markets (with very, very aggressive sellers) to adventure sports outfitters, etc.
We pulled up to our accommodations for the next two nights, Lokuthula Lodge. The building we stayed in had a back wall made of canvas that completely retracted. This allowed us to watch the warthogs that were constantly in the yard. The monkeys and warthogs that live in the lodge area are much too accustomed to humans and are fairly tame, but will charge a person when challenged, as Beau found out. Watching him tell the story with wild hand gestures and squeals is really funny. Abbi referred to the warthogs as "horkhogs" and Beau called the "hotdogs."
We ate that night at "The Boma," a unique outdoors African restaurant, where we feasted on warthog, crocodile, kudu, mopani worms, ostrich, buffalo, sirloin steak, lamb, and a variety of local delicacies. African dancers flitted about during the meal and afterward, the staff passed around a few hundred drums for a group drumming session. The sound was immense, the kids had a blast!
