Lions!

Hi from Antelope Park!  It's hard to believe that tomorrow is already our last full day in Zimbabwe.  Here's our update from the last few days.

We left Vic Falls on Thursday and drove to Hwange National Park with our new tour group (including 9 of us from our previous group).  We stayed at a place called the Ivory Lodge, right beside a big watering hole where all kinds of animals come during the night.  They have lights shining down to the water so that you can see the animals when they come.  The campsite was great, but it's either getting colder, or we're getting wimpier.  The last few days, except for a few hours each afternoon, have been quite chilly.  Today, it's cloudy, and although we would usually be seeking shade at this time of day, we're instead sitting on our hands trying to keep them warm.  At Hwange, we went to the Painted Dog Conservation Program, and saw all the wild dogs.  This reminded us of our dog, Bailey, who we miss very much!  The highlight of Hwange, though, was seeing a cheetah!  We weren't even too sure we had seen one at first.  We were driving past a group of Sable, and they suddenly all looked in the same direction.  Our guide said they usually do that when a predator is near.  It took the combined efforts of all the binoculars and cameras in our group to pick out the cheetah, but it was definitely a cheetah.  It was amazing how well it camouflaged.  It just looked like a shadow in the grass until it wiggled its ear or moved its tail.  We got some good video of it, though, which we'll definitely share when we get home.  Hwange also gave us lots of opportunity to see some interesting birds.  We thought of how much Katie's grandma would have loved to be there!

At supper that night, we had a person from a local tribe talk to us about their culture, and we shared about our cultures.  It was interesting, yet disturbing at the same time.  Some of their customs are very strange, and definitely not G-rated.

Yesterday we drove to Antelope Park, near Gweru, Zimbabwe.  We stopped for shopping in Bulawayo, which is Zimbabwe's second largest city.  It was in Bulawayo that I discovered one of the greatest treasures of Southern Africa... Biltong.  Now, biltong is basically dried meat, like jerky, but I've learned that not all biltong is created equal.  When you buy beef jerky at the convenience store, it's called biltong (I tried some ostrich jerky in Botswana, which was good), but yesterday I discovered what biltong was meant to be.  At the shopping complex, there was a butcher shop run by a South African couple.  I walked in, and they had a whole wall with hanging strips of meat on it.  I asked for some biltong, and she pulled down one of the strips and asked if I wanted it sliced.  I didn't want to be too much trouble, so I said, "No thanks."  What I got was a roughly 16 inch by 4 inch piece of pure deliciousness--dried to perfection on the outside, yet still rare on the inside.  The lack of slicing, however, makes me look like a wild animal whenever I bite into it.  I'm conviced, though, that this is how biltong was meant to be eaten.  It was an appropriate snack for what we were about to experience later that day.  (Also, cigarettes were only 60 cents at the supermarket.  No wonder so many people smoke here!  The cashier was shocked when I told her that a pack costs $10-$15 in Canada.  Not that I was buying cigarettes...)

From Bulawayo, we made our way to Antelope Park. What a beautiful place!  Here, they have a lion breeding program, where they raise lions in captivity and gradually train them to be set free into the wild.  Last night, we had the opportunity to visit some of their "cubs" (18 months old).  It was pretty unforgettable to be able to walk side-by-side with these huge animals that could kill you with one blow.  We got to pet them, and Katie was able to hold one's tail while walking with it.  I was able to feel one lion's claws.  I'm pleased to report that they are indeed sharp.  Normally, you'd walk a fair ways with them, but the lions had just finished devouring part of a cow, so they were in a pretty lazy mood.  We mostly just stood around and hung out with them, which was fine.  We joked that it was kind of like walking Rick and Margot's dog, Sophie.

They have a huge selection of activities here including elephant training, swimming with elephants, horseback safaris, elephant-back safaris, feeding lion cubs, feeding full grown lions (and you're not even the food!), and the grandaddy of them all, the night encounter.  On the night encounter, you get to follow the lions on an evening hunt and, if you're lucky, watch them stalk and kill an impala or a zebra... not for the squeamish.  I wanted to go, but it was $95.  It only happens every 5 days, but last night was the night, and a number of people from our group went.  They reported that the lions weren't successful in making a kill, but that they had several chases, and it was really cool to see the lions stalk their prey.  Today we're going to the lion feeding.  The workers here described it as "intense".  Apparently, they just throw a huge chunk of meat over the fence, and the lions come charging out and rip it to shreds about a foot away from you. (We'll be behind a fence, though... don't worry.)  We'll be excited to let you know how it goes!

That's about all the news for now!  We have about 700 pictures so far, and we'll look forward to posting some, likely when we get home.  The internet is pretty slow here, and internet time is at a premium, so that's why we haven't been posting them.  Tomorrow we visit the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, and after that we're back into South Africa for the last 6 days of our tour!

D&K