Safari

Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa: My Final Thoughts

SarahLeave a comment

I booked this trip in December last year and I think this is the trip that I’ve had the most questions about – like travelling through Europe, Asia and Australia is somewhere people would expect me to go, but not Africa.

Honestly, the trip was a lot of driving hours to places to spend around half a day doing an activity. Putting the tents up and down almost every day didn’t take too long but was a pain in the arse. With that said, what we did on the trip and what we got out of it was fantastic. I’ve been up close to the animals, learnt a lot about them and what measures are being put into place to try and prevent the rhinos from becoming extinct.

For me, the highlights were Hwange National Park; watching the elephants cross the road in particular, the day spent at Matobo National Park and the safari trip through Kruger National Park. One night in Kruger all but three of us had gone to bed, so I came up with the idea of finding lion sound effects on YouTube and parading it around our area of the campsite. I don’t think anyone was fooled, especially with us laughing, but it was funny nonetheless.

I’d love to visit Africa again. The group I joined were halfway through their tour and had been to Okavango Delta in Botswana, judging by their photos, videos and stories it was fantastic so I’d love to go. I’m intending to go to Egypt at some point this year, but I’d like to work something out starting in Botswana or Zimbabwe going into Botswana, and the surrounding area. This will have to wait a few years, until I work and save money to spend on another trip again.

After Africa comes China. I’ve never been and am not too sure what to expect, but it should be fun.

Kruger National Park, South Africa

Sarah2 Comments

Once again, we took our tents down in Blouberg and had an early start for a long drive to Kruger. The National Park is larger than some smaller countries including Brussels, home to a lot of species including the big five.

Upon arriving, we put up our tents to get ready for an evening game drive. Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about doing it as we were driving around at night, shining spotlights at wild animals. There’s so much said and put into practice about not disturbing the animals, yet shining light onto nocturnal animals is apparently ok.

During the drive we saw hyenas, elephants, owls, potentially zebras but probably impalas, a hippo out of water and a civet, which I had never heard of prior to the tour. There were two cars used for our group, and the others saw a family of leopards which I’m gutted that I missed – they’re the only ones I didn’t see out of the big five.

The following morning we took our tents down again to go on a safari. I took one of my favourite photos that I’ve ever taken of a giraffe, as well as heaps of elephants, impalas, zebras, buffalo, a couple of ostriches and species of birds.

IMG_3513.JPG

IMG_3519

IMG_3530

IMG_3540.JPGIMG_3533.JPG

IMG_3564.JPG

Getting towards the end of the safari, the one animal that we wanted to see, the lion, had not been seen, until someone shouted that they could see some. It was from a distance so the picture is not great, but still. They were around a watering hole and it was interesting to see the other animals drink from it in at least pairs; one keeping an eye on the lions.

IMG_3570.JPG

Hwange & Matobos

SarahLeave a comment

We took down our tents in Victoria Falls and went to Hwange National Park, which took a few hours. We were told that if we needed to get up in the middle of the night, to get our lights around to absolutely make sure there were no wild animals, such as lions and hyenas, as we were camping in the park.

After lunch we were picked up in safari cars to spend a few hours going around the National Park. We saw heaps of elephants, giraffes, hippos, baboons, impalas, as well as a lot of birds, though not a lot of animals were up close. It was my first time seeing wild elephants up close, and saw a herd of them crossing the road behind the car which was amazing.

IMG_3412

IMG_3414

We left the National Park in the dark, then went back to the campsite and sat around the fire until it started to get late. The next morning we took down our tents and went to Matobos which took the best part of a day to get there, then we put the tents up. In the evening we went for a walk/hike in an area near the campsite.

The following morning we set off for Matobos National Park, where we set off to find some rhinos. Once in the park, our guide took us to an area where he told us about the challenges that are being faced by the parks to stop the rhinos being poached for the horn, to the point where there are armed guards in the park who are instructed to shoot to kill any potential poachers.

The rhinos are being poached for their horns, which are wrongfully assumed to have medicinal purposes. Despite the fact that the horns actually grow back, they are being killed, and sometimes left to die whilst their horns are being cut off. It seems as though the parks in the country want to be able to sell the horns that they have collected in order to prevent poaching in order to bring in profit to help prevent the animals from becoming extinct.

After this, we got back in the van and drove for around fifteen minutes, then we got out and went on foot to get nearer the animals. We ended up getting around ten meters away from them.

DSC_0552.JPG

Afterwards, we were taken around the park, had some lunch and stopped off at a locally-run souvenir market, then we went to climb up one of the big hills in the park. Afterwards, we were taken to a cave where there are paintings from the Bushmen over 30,000 years ago still marked on the walls, which is painted the same way as the paintings in Ayers Rock. The animals painted are thought to show the animals in the land, to show others what was available to eat, as well as the dangerous animals in the area.

IMG_3442

It’s interesting to hear about the similarities of the Bushmen to the Aboriginals in Australia: they both treated everything, and each other in their environment with respect and only took what they really needed from the land. For instance, they wouldn’t kill an animal that they could not finish eating, and were resourceful as to how they would use the inedible parts of the animals. It is also thought that they had the same beliefs as to how the human race started, despite being thousands of miles apart.

After, we were taken to a local village to meet the chief, and then back to the campsite.