African safari

I was born in Africa, in Rhodesia, a British colony. And although I was a city boy, I went into the bush every chance I could to see the animals in the wild. It never got old. It was always an amazing event. So when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe after a 15 year civil war, I left my homeland and emigrated to the United States, California to be precise, the San Francisco Bay Area. Got married, settled down. But I always yearned to go back and explore the bush again, see the animals, smell the smells, eat the food, talk to the people. If you love Africa, it seeps into your soul, and haunts you forever. So one year, my wife and I went back to Zimbabwe to visit my family, and show my American wife what I had been talking about for the last 13 years. We were going on safari.

we flew into Joberg, South Africa, where we were met by my sister who drove us to my home town, Bulawayo, in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. It was fabulous, unchanged. Oh, how I missed it. We saw our first wild animals once we crossed the border into Zimbabwe at Beit Bridge, giraffes. Then some kudu and zebras. They were beautiful. After a few days in Bulawayo, we drove west towards Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park, the biggest and the best game reserve in Zimbabwe. Now there are 2 ways to view animals when on safari. One, you can drive slowly on the dirt roads in your land rover or Toyota Land Cruiser, hoping you will come across some animals on the side of the road, or you can spend the day lounging in an elevated viewing platform overlooking a water hole, where the animals come to you. On this day we did that, packing a picnic lunch with an ice chest of drinks. The water hole was fairly large, with open grassland surrounding it and a sandbar on the far side away from the platform. We were the only 4 people using the platform that day, which was nice, my mom, sister, my wife and me. It was hot, but we were shaded and comfortable. So we chatted desultory while we waited for the show to begin. The first thing we noticed were 2 enormous crocodiles in the water near the bank of the waterhole, hidden in the reeds and tall grass. Then along came some zebras, who drank some water, avoiding the area where the crocs were, and then left. A constant parade of kudu, Antelope and wildebeest came down to drink the water and left. Then some giraffes came down. Very skittish and nervous. They were agonizingly slow, looking all around, finally stood on the edge of the waterhole and spread their legs wide and lowered their heads to the water and sipped. Then they galloped away in a rush. My favorite animals. Next in the parade was a small herd of Cape buffalo, about 5 adults, big and muscular, large black curled horns on their head. They drank some water, then lay down in the grass, except for one who lay down right on the edge of the water, rolling around on his back and stretching his legs, finally lying still with his back to the water, soaking up the sun as he dozed off for a nap. The two crocodiles slowly swam towards him, circling around the waterhole to approach him from both sides. Drama! We were going to see a kill in action. The minutes ticked by as the crocs inched closer and closer, positioning themselves for the attack. Our binoculers were crammed to our eye sockets as the tension grew, perspiration gathered on our faces. Just when we thought the crocs were going to launch their attack, the Cape buffalo stood up and joined the herd and they wandered off. I let my breath escape my lungs. I had been holding my breath without realizing it. That was close! The crocodiles swam away, one back to the spot where it had been sleeping before, and the other to a small island in the middle of the pond, where she took a big bite out of the misidentified island which was a bloated dead antelope floating on top of the water, and swam to the sand bar, regurgitating the meat onto the sand. Immediately the sandbar came alive with over a 100 wiggling, writhing baby crocodiles who started feeding. We were shocked and amazed. The sandbar appeared to be empty of life for hours since we had been there, but was in fact covered with well camouflaged baby crocs. We shuddered in slight terror. While we watched the sandbar we didn’t notice my wife slipping down the stairs to the ground level, where she was photographing a baby warthog who was running the length of the platform begging for food. Finally we noticed she was gone, and then we saw her standing about 3 or 4 feet from the running warthog snapping pictures. We all erupted in excited shouting, telling her to get up to us and away from the wild animal that could gore her with his deadly tusks. He was not a friendly cuddly creature! Basically he is a feral hog on steroids. She came back up and promised not to do that again. We left soon after and left the park. As we drove through the gates we saw a young elephant on the right side of the road, so we stoped to watch it. All of a sudden there was loud trumpeting and foot stamping. On the left side of the road. And there was an enormous elephant cow, probably the mother, angry and in a rage, because we were between her and her baby. She was flapping her ears and swinging her trunk into the bushes and trees around her. It looked like she was getting ready to stampede into our car. It looked very terrifying. My mother and sister were banging like crazy people on the side of the vehicle and screaming “go, go, go, get out of here!” to me, as if I didn’t notice the enraged elephant on my left. My wife was also pretty insistent that I floor it as well. Sheesh, the wimps. So to placate them, I drove away. The mother elephant joined her baby and they disappeared into the bush. That was fun.

which reminded me of another experience I had when I was about 4 or 5 years old. We were in the Matopos National Park just outside of Bulawayo, and we were animal viewing the other way, driving slowly on a dirt road in the park. My dad was driving, my mom was in the front passenger seat and my sister and I were in the back. All I remember of this viewing was the terrifying charge of the giant rhinoceros down the road towards us and my dad driving in reverse as fast as he could as the enraged rhino came closer and closer. My sister and I were screaming, as was my mom. I was so scared that I got down on the floor board of the car. We must have driven away successfully, because I don’t remember being struck by the rhino, which was probably heavier than our car. That was a memory 60 years old that I will never forget. To finish off our safari, that night we were tucked into our camp beds at the Hwange safari camp. At about midnight lions started growling and roaring, probably about 1 mile away. We guessed they had a kill, and the roaring went on all night until daylight. Sometime during the night we heard an animal padding right outside our tent, and I got up to see what it was. It was a really skinny yellow animal. There was no lights on outside, so I couldn’t tell what it was. There was a man standing outside in front of his tent smoking a cigarette, and when the animal got too close to him he waved it away. In the morning, the game warden spoke to us and told us it was a lion walking around. And he also mentioned that one week ago a tourist was dragged out of his tent by a lion and was killed. My wife wasn’t happy by that piece of news. Anyway, we survived the safari, and when we landed back home, my wife was ready to do it again. Yeah! Can’t wait.