It’s not a goodbye but a see you soon

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Matopos National Park, Southern Matabeleland where my Zimbabwean journey ends with my last horse safari. It’s very sad to say but unfortunately my time in Zimbabwe has already come to an end, time just seemed to be flying by way too fast and almost 3 months have passed by since I have arrived! So many fun and exciting days with lots of lessons learned, adventures lived and wonderful highlights experienced. I am thankful for every single moment.

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My last safari with Ridezimbabwe was very special as I finally had the chance to get to sleep under the star sprinkled sky, in the middle of the African winter. Ah it was very cold during the night but also so unique! We slept close to the water at Toghwana Dam after a long drive finding that place. At least 3 times we got lost, everyone on the road directing us in opposite directions. It was driving me crazy! I neither speak Ndebele nor Shona but I still understood we were completely lost in the bush; driving madly back and forth and even in circles on the dirt roads. After 4 hours and 120km we finally arrived, pitched up our rustic campsite and enjoyed the bonfire.

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I chose to sleep next to the horses and saw plenty of shooting stars rushing through the pitch black sky. What a wonderful night outside, the perfect way to end my African adventure. 

The next day we had to get ready, pack everything and load our 8 horses into the big lorry to drive them back home to Umguza, where they can rest now after plenty safaris in the last weeks.

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I have spent my most interesting months here in Zim with plenty of fun experiences. It has definitely been the best job that I have had in my live so far; teaching me how fragile life can be.

I am so grateful that I got to witness a little foal being born, which was just the most magical moment in Cawston Wildlife Estate (see this blogpost). 

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I am so happy that I had the chance to enjoy plenty of magnificent sunsets in the African bush, one more spectacular than the other (see this blogpost). 

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If I have ever seen magic, it has been in Africa.

John Hemingway

I am so thankful that I was taught how to shoot a 0.22 and a 0.375 at the shooting range, definitely a fun experience (see this blogpost). 

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I just feel so blessed for all amazing people I have met and all the fun adventures I lived through in a gorgeous country, desperate for some economical changes. I could get to travel to different places in Zimbabwe such as: 

• Matopos National Park, where I got to see the rhinos (see this blogpost), 
• Hwange National Park, where I found some lions laying in the bush while I was riding (see this blogpost),
• Vic falls, a city full of adrenaline, which I got to know when I got mock charged by an elephant bull (see this blogpost),
• Zambezi National Park, where I saw the buffalos so that I had finally seen the big 5 here in Zim (see this blogpost), 
• And Bulawayo, where my Zimbabwean journey began with a little foal (see this blogpost).

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I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy.

Ernest Hemingway

My new lessons learned during my last horse safari in Matopos National Park:

1. Never trust people along the road when asking for road directions – everyone will direct you onto another path.
2. When sleeping under the stars in winter, choose a place under the trees – or you might wake up very wet.
3. Enjoy the dark sky with plenty of shooting stars – better have lots of wishes ready to choose from!

When you leave Africa, as the plane lifts, you feel that more than leaving a continent you’re leaving a state of mind. Whatever awaits you at the other end of your journey will be of a different order of existence.

Francesca Marciano

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, Africa has always its own special ways to find you somehow – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞