Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Estate, Northern Matabeleland where I help for about 2,5 months with the horses. Unbelievable, but we have another new member in our family that was born in the middle of the bush on the game reserve, a little female donkey. She is now in the paddock with the male baby donkey as well as our lovely foal. All running and playing happily.
Little baby donkey with its mommy
All babies being happily together
For one day, I got to go on another bird shoot and this time I could also walk through the bush with everyone to find guinea fowls to be shot at. It was a very interesting day with lots of birds that got catched. In the evening we had a braai in the middle of the bush with a magnificent sunset, it seems to be very special each night, just fabulous!
Preparing for the shooting in the sunrise
Trying to find the birds
Waiting for some guinea fowls to fly out the bushes
Giraffes interfering with our shooting
Braai time
For the next couple of nights, I went up to Victoria Falls to see the mighty Zambezi falling into the gorge. It was a fantastic 2 days trip, where I got to go to the Zambezi National Park, saw elephants, giraffes, kudus, zebras and even buffalos. I have finally seen all big fives here in Zim and just feel so lucky about it!
Ellie in paradise
Drinking by the Zambezi
Sunset view in the Zambezi National Park
Beautiful baobab tree
Riding along the last sun rays
On the way to the gorge, where I wanted to do the Zipline, I got mock charged by an elephant. Luckily, I wasn’t alone as I probably would have just run into the rest of the herd behind me. The young bull was on the opposite side of the rest of his group, which I just noticed later. This encounter was the most adrenaline kick during these days, way more than the Zipline itself.
Last picture before the incident
The Zipline goes through the Zambezi gorge, just after the falls, where the water finds it way in a zick zack pattern. The ride was quite fast and a lot of fun, especially the way back to the starting point offered an epic view towards the majestic bridge, connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The Zipline gorge
Afterwards, we passed through 2 border posts to make our way from Zimbabwe to Zambia with a short visit of Livingstone and a hike along the falls on the Zambian side. Here, I had the chance to walk all the way down into the gorge and be on the same level as the Zambezi. The river should be at a very high level now but due to rain shortages, the river carries only a fraction of what it should. This gave me the opportunity to actually get some nice views of the falls with plenty of rainbows. Of course I got wet but not soaked as it normally would be the case during this season.
The falls from the Zambian side
Down in the gorge
From this eastern tip of the falls in Zambia, I walked my way back to the most western point of the falls on the Zim side, where I had the perfect view of the sun setting behind the falls. Such an amazing day and a wonderful experience! Glad I had the chance to take off of work for 2,5 days and enjoy this great journey.
Golden hour on the Zim side
The Zambezi ready to fall into the gorge
My new lessons learned while experiencing the Vic falls:
- If you get mock charged by an elephant, pray for some competent friend to be around you.
- Watching the Zambezi falling into the gorge on the Zim side, is at its best during golden hours.
- You can hike down into the rocky gorge on the Zambian side of the falls.
Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, hope to see you soon – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞
