What do I want to be remembered for?
When I saw this question, my first thought was to ignore it. It made me feel uneasy. I'm not near retirement, and I hope, not near ready to kick the bucket. But when I thought about it a second time, I decided to think of it as a challenge. I also realized I could try to have a little fun with it. After all, the way I see myself is definitely different from the way others - friends, relatives, co-workers…
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Three Black Girlz on Safari: Zebras
Zebras fascinate me - each one's stripe is unique. [caption id="attachment_529" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Pretty stripes[/caption] Aren't they beautiful? [caption id="attachment_535" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Zebras[/caption] [caption id="attachment_532" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Lone zebra[/caption] (more…)
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Three Black Girlz on Safari: Hippo!
The day before we left Makalolo Plains was bittersweet. The team had made us feel very welcome and we knew we had made friends. On top of that, we had spent many hours watching animals at close range, and that was better than the best episode of a nature program. Towards the end of our morning drive, Godfrey spotted this hippo that appeared to sleeping at the edge of a watering hole. We were fortunate as hippos tend to spend…
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Three Black Girlz on Safari: Besides animals, what else is there to see?
If we didn’t know it before, we discovered pretty quickly that no two game drives are the same. While Makalolo Plains keeps a log of the types of animals that guests could probably see, they cannot offer a guarantee. During September, the time we in Hwange National Park, there was a high probability of seeing elephants (100%), zebras (100%), waterbucks (100%), widebeests (93%) and steenbucks (90%). But because of the size of the park, the animals have many places to…
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Three Black Girlz on Safari: Elephants and Buffalo at the Watering hole
On our last full day in camp, Judith and I were resting in the lounge after lunch. I looked out at Hwange National Park and noticed a jet black line in the distance. I wasn’t sure what it was and asked Emmanuel, one of the Makalolo Plains team. “Buffalo,” he said, not missing a beat. [caption id="attachment_431" align="aligncenter" width="390"] Cape Buffalo[/caption] Along with the lion, leopard, elephant and rhinoceros, the African or cape buffalo is one of the so-called Big…
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Three Black Girlz on Safari: Elephants at the Watering hole, II
Shortly after we started out on our morning drive on the second day at Hwange National Park, we came across a jackal that had just made a kill. It looked up as we approached. From where we had stopped, we could hear the bones breaking as he chomped down on his breakfast. Godfrey thought it probably had been a bird. Not long after we left the jackal, Sandra spotted an elephant just as it materialized from the bush a few…
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Three Black Girlz on Safari: Elephants at the Watering Hole, I
With 30,000 elephants in Hwange National Park, it wasn’t whether we would see any, but when and how many. As the sun came down on our first game drive, cold and blackness overtook us immediately. Dixon pulled out his infrared flashlight to make it easier to spot the animals that had become invisible to us. We were following the flashlight as it darted from side to side, and complaining, through chattering teeth about how cold it had become when we…
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Three Black Girlz on Safari in Zimbabwe: Stalking Big Cats
On the afternoon of our second day, we raced to the spot where Godfrey, our guide, had heard that a cheetah was seen. When we arrived, two jeeps of game watchers sat waiting patiently, eyes trained on a spot in the tall grass where the cheetah was supposed to be. We were looking at the same place for so long, I no longer trusted what I was seeing. Was that a log or the cheetah? The grass was so tall,…
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Welcome to Makalolo Plains!
After driving around for several hours in pitch blackness, suddenly, we were bathed in the lights that signaled the end of our first night drive through Hwange National Park. As our jeep came to a stop, we could see that a party was waiting to greet us. Tracey, Cynthia, Jeremy and Godfrey from Makalolo Plains welcomed us with warm towels and glasses of brandy and ushered us into the main part of the camp. We needed them. After the sun…
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Countries I want to visit?
Funny you should ask. Just yesterday, I emailed a friend and travel partner about visiting Gabon, a country I've [caption id="attachment_5503" align="alignright" width="150"] Sculpture from Gabon[/caption] visited and she wants to visit. Why Gabon? Well, besides the fact that I have longtime friends who live there, Gabon has stunningly beautiful wildlife, so a trip to the Lope-Okanda Reserve is a must; fabulous white sandal beaches, at Pointe Denis and Cap Esterias, for example. (I remember Le Cap being almost deserted.)…
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