Africa 2001

Safari

On Tuesday we set off on a 500 kilometre coach journey south-east from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo, stopping after about two hours in the Hwange National Park for a bit of safari.

Our jeep driver complained that two hours wasn't enough to do justice to what there was to see, and he was right, really, but as a first taste for Lucy and I, it was great fun, and Kathleen finally got to see the elephants she never had on safari in Kenya.

Some guinea-fowl was the first wildlife we saw, but bigger things were to come.

Our first glance of an elephant can just be see centre-picture.

And suddenly there we were, up close to a group of young bachelors.

Then a lovely group of zebras

And this is apparently a red hartebeest.

A Senegalese cuckoo

Impalas

An elephant running away from our jeep.

More elephants in the bush

Warthogs near the watering hole

Those warthogs again

Lucy and Kathleen watch the elephant (just visible to the right of the lamp post) drinking, while they finish lunch

Lucy getting a closer look

Lunch at the Hwange Lodge

Arrival in Bulawayo

In the late afternoon on Tuesday, we arrived in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city (population about 600 000). After about 470 kilometres of forest with the occasional subsistence farm, we gradually started to come across some intensively farmed land.

We then started to see a few bungalows, and then, suddenly, after 500 kilometres without so much as a give-way sign, there was a set of traffic lights (called a "robot" hereabouts). They weren't actually working, but still, it was still a symbolic change.

After all those hours of wilderness, it was quite a shock to find ourselves in a city, with all the hustle and bustle that goes with it.

The welcome at the Bulawayo Holiday Inn

Wherever we went in Zimbabwe, the people were always extremely welcoming, and it is the only place I've ever been where the hotel manager is there to greet you in person as you arrive, and waves you off in the morning.