Wonder Boy and his Yellow Bird

Wednesday 27^th July

What an amazing experience we are having. Today was just brilliant – and a great night last night also.

Dinner last night was a great meal, and today’s picnic lunch and dinner tonight have also been excellent. To make dinner last night even more special a herd of elephants arrived at the waterhole just near the camp. Unfortunately too dark to get photos but when we came back to our tent we found that the elephants were less than 30 metres from us. Still couldn’t get photos but was great to see them so close.

A very early start this morning – up at 5.30 for an early breakfast and then off on our all day game drive. (No animals at the watering hole this morning.)

Sunrise

Our lunchtime picnic

What a fantastic day we had – we saw lots of animals early in the day with a bit of a lull around lunchtime, and then later in the day it was lots of elephants. Just amazing. We didn’t get back here till 6.30 and when we arrived back the herd of elephants was again at the watering hole.

I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

This big fella started off on the opposite side of the road, then crossed only about 10 feet in front of the car and walked into the grass only about 15 feet from where I am sitting in the car.  Everyone was super quiet as he passed. Heart stopping. 

Kicking up his heels in the dust.

This was one of two lionesses sitting in the shade.

Hippo - he didn't cooperate and come right out for a photo.

Love the way the giraffe spread their front legs when they bend down to drink.

Beauty therapy time. 

Sun sets on a magic day.

Brilliant day and we are all very tired but very happy. What will tomorrow bring?

Must explain the title - the name of our chalet is Wonder Boy, and himself took a photo of a little yellow bird that turned out to be a leaf. He won't live that one down.

An Exciting Welcome - What next?

Tuesday 26^th July

An amazing day and it is still only 4pm as I sit on our balcony overlooking the waterhole and waiting for the wildlife to arrive. We have been watching lots of different birds – Rob may turn into a twitcher.

Behind me is a channel of the Zambezi river and where this channel drops as part of the falls.

Our day started with early breakfast and on the road by 8am. We had 190km to travel but it was not going to be 2hrs; more like 5hrs. Our tour group is active in supporting the locals so first stop was to the local markets to buy supplies as gifts to a local village we would visit on our travels today. Each of us was given a task of what to buy – Rob and I had to buy soap and salt. A bit of a challenge for the soap as it was in huge green bars – nothing I have seen in our markets.

We called at a small homestead which is a family community as part of a larger community headed by a chief. In the family we visited there were 5 adults and 8 children. Only 4 of the children were home as the rest were at school. Very interesting to see and hear how they live. One of the mothers there was 24 with 2 children and the other ‘girl’ there was 16, already married and definitely pregnant. Apparently in the small villages marriage is the next step when they finish school (about 4^th form) and where the family cannot afford to educate them further. They explained to us about the woman’s role in the home though we didn’t hear a lot about the men. We gave them the supplies we had bought at the market and they were very grateful. Our guide said they had not visited this community before so this was something entirely new to them – the youngest child cried when we all got off the bus; either too many strangers, or plus the fact we were white.

This is the kitchen - it is only a traditional slab hut with thatched roof, but the inside was so clean and tidy.

Grinding millet - at the rate we were doing it, dinner was never going to happen.

The children had such lovely faces and beautiful eyes.

We continued on to our camp arriving about 1pm and as we drove in the last kilometre we saw our first ‘oh wow’ animals. Three giraffes were wandering in the bush very close to the road and we were able to get some great photos. The camp is called Elephant Eye Lodge and is a private concession next to Hwange National park. We are the only guests here (11 of us) and we have permanent tents on stilts that all look out over the waterhole. We have been sitting on the balcony (cooler out there) watching across the clearing and seeing all the birdlife near the water. The giraffes made another appearance but it is the elephants we are waiting for. There is a huge pile of elephant dung under the tree less than 50 metres from our balcony so let’s hope they come tonight (or any of the next 3 nights).

Hold on Tight and Let's Get Out of Here

Monday 25^th July – Zimbabwe

We’ve had a few busy days of travel but are now well settled here in Zimbabwe.

Saturday it was clean the car, do the laundry, return the car, repack the suitcases (everything loose in the car needed to go back in) and head to the airport. Paris airport is not a place you want to spend a lot of time waiting. Eating options are very limited and really fall into the fast food category, duty free shopping was average, and waiting areas just average. Unfortunately our flight was delayed 2 hours so a 3 hour wait turned into a 5 hour wait. I had some sewing and my kindle so passed the time OK. Rob had a couple of naps.

Flight to Frankfurt was quick, a quick transfer because we were late, and on our way to Johannesburg. Apparently the earlier flight was late because of thunderstorms over Germany and their policy that if there is storm activity then all airport activity is on hold. There is also an 11pm curfew at Frankfurt so as the pilot said, hold on tight and let’s get out of here. It’s a long flight to Johannesburg (10 hours) and was quite bumpy at times, but we arrived in Johannesburg on time.  Another transfer to our flight to Victoria Falls, and finally we were here after 36 hours on the go.

Our hotel last night was quite good – good aircon, a short walk to town and next to the craft and curio market. Yesterday we just ate, had a nap, short walk around the market and in to town for dinner.

This was one of the African shops near the hotel.

Next door to the hotel were three cages with crocodiles in them. You could have an experience and go underwater in a cage to swim with the crocodiles. No thanks. This albino crocodile was at least 12ft long and is 50.

One of the warthogs wandering the hotel area.

Today we have transferred to the tour hotel for one night (we leave on the tour in the morning) and been into Victoria Falls to explore the town. We had afternoon tea on the terrace of the Victoria Falls Hotel where you can see the ‘smoke’ from the falls and the bungee jumping and zip lines from the bridge. Afternoon tea was pretty amazing.

Our hotel - teh A'Zambezi River Lodge. Our room had a view of the Zambezi river. Definitely no swimming in the river. We thought about a swim in the pool but the water was far too cold.

The Victoria Falls hotel where we had afternoon tea on the terrace. This is a very colonial style hotel. Lots of English people out on the terrace, and 'Sam' tinkling the ivories in the lounge. 

View of the bridge from the terrace - it was a very hazy day so our photos are not great, but enough to prompt our memories.

When we arrived at the hotel we ran into a family from Newcastle (mum, dad and 20yo daughter) who we sat next to on the plane. Turns out they are on the same tour as us.  Just talking briefly to them and turns out one of their bags had the locks taken off and had been rifled, and Rob’s backpack also had the locks taken off though if they’d rifled it they left it pretty tidy. Nothing valuable in it and nothing missing but either Johannesburg airport or Victoria Falls has some dodgy baggage handlers. We were actually surprised our bags arrived because we checked them through from Paris and after the delay and short connection we weren’t too sure.

We have a few animals wandering the grounds of the hotel – baboons, warthogs and banded mongoose. Tonight we have our tour meeting and then we are going to a Boma dinner with music and drumming and local food. Should be great.

A banded mongoose in the hotel grounds. There was a large family of them.

What's for dinner? The baboons are very mischeivious. The security guards carry slingshots to shoo the baboons.

First impressions of Africa - the country is very dry and the predominant colour is yellow. The grass (such as it is) is yellow, and the dirt is yellow. Most of the trees are quite stunted and our taxi driver told us it is because the elephants tear the tops off for food when it is so dry. The town reminds us a little of Bali of 15 years ago - quite rustic and 'unmade'. Lots of people standing around trying to interest you in their crafts and their shops and all with an 'early morning price'. We didn't buy anything today - we don't want to carry it all over Africa for 3 weeks. But I must say there are some lovely carvings of both stone and wood. Where we were staying last night we found FedEx and DHL - ready to ship home the big stone carvings we buy at the market!

And still we find interesting villages

Friday 22^nd July

Our last full day in France today and we didn’t waste it. We have both been feeling very tired today but I think it is a bit of let down/sadness that this part of our holiday is coming to an end.

Before we left Autun we had to go and check out these pizza 'machines'. We've seen them a few times. You pick your pizza from the limited menu, pay your money and it is cooked in 3 minutes. Can't vouch for what they are like because we didn't have one. Maybe next time.

We moved northwards from Autun to Melun which is about 60k from Charles de Gaulle airport. Along the way we stopped at three recommended villages. First Avallon – we stopped there last time we were here but for some reason we didn’t go right into the old part of the village and missed seeing the medieval part of the town and the old remparts. Pretty amazing.

The clock tower in Avallon. This is as far as we saw last time. This time we actually entered the historical part of the town and wandered around.

The walking trail denoted by the frogs in the footpath.

Part of the remparts.I should have put in some photos of the church - it had a downhill slope in it as you entered and walked down the aisle. 

Next town was Joigny. This too was a fortified medieval village and on our drive through the village we found some really interesting buildings, streets and laneways.

One of the interesting laneways in Joigny.

...and some fabulous buildings.

One of the old entry gates that used to be part of the remparts.

Finally Moret sur Loing. This was also an old fortified medieval village. Three things of note here – they have a barley sugar factory where the same recipe has been used since 1638 and was originally made by the nuns. Secondly, in the church is the oldest wooden organ in Europe which has been reconditioned and is still working, and finally Alfred Sisely did a lot of his painting here.

The northeren entry gate in the village of Moret sur Loing.

The old wooden organ.

Part of the old mill on the river Loing.

A very satisfying day to end our France tour. Tomorrow we clean the car, do the washing and head for the airport. We fly out at 6pm – next stop Africa. Hopefully we will have wifi from time to time and will be able to keep the blog updated. Au revoir from France.

A long walk through ancient history

Thursday 21^st July

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog the countryside as we passed from Tossiat to Lapalisse. Around Tossiat the main crops seemed to be hay and corn. There was a lot of cutting hay going on and it wasn’t unusual to come across a tractor towing a big trailer full of round hay bales. We had to pass a lot of these, and make way for those coming the other way. From the corn growing country we then passed through wine growing country along the Saone and Loire rivers. The area was mainly Beaujolais wines – we didn’t stop for any tastings. We were also now into the chateau area. Every couple of K it was ‘have a look at that chateau’. There were far too many to stop and take photos of them all. Some were fairly ordinary but some were just stunning. From the wine country we then moved back in to corn and hay.

One of the chateaux we did stop for. I guess they didn't have porsches and mercedes to show off, so this was their 'mine is bigger and better than yours'.

Yesterday we visited the chateau at Lapalisse. This chateau has been in the same family since 1430 – 30 generations. The family is still living in the chateau and only parts of it are open for tourists. No photos allowed so we just had to enjoy the moment. There was a group of school children on the tour with us and the guide was speaking slowly and to their level (about 10 yr olds) so we were able to understand a lot of the French – and we had backup printed English information.

The chateau at Lapalisse. A couple of the rooms had really interesting wood ceilings - some in Italian renaissance style, and some French renaissance.

We had a bit of time to kill so we took the scenic route following along one of the canals in the area. We found lunch in a lovely restaurant in a small village and did a further detour to the Nevers Magny Cours race circuit. Rob had a bit of a wander around and took some photos but in the 36deg heat it was too hot to spend too long there. A couple of bikes were doing laps but other than that there was no action.

Nevers Magny-Cours race circuit. 

Our final destination for the day was Autun where we are staying in a B&B. I might have to add aircon to my list of requirements when looking for accommodation if we are here again in summer. Our room is upstairs and it was so hot last night. It rained a bit overnight and today started out much cooler.

Today we headed for the archaeological site of Bribacte, where they are excavating a Gaul ‘city’ – sometime around 50BC. The site is on top of a mountain (800m) and it was much cooler up there and in fact foggy this morning. We first looked at the museum where they had an abundance of information – too much to take in. From there we went up the hill (courtesy bus) to the excavation sites. They have exposed a lot but I think they will be digging there for years to come. It was a long walk back down the hill visiting the various sites, but thankfully it was not the 36deg of yesterday. It was actually quite pleasant walking through the beech forests in the fog.

It was lovely and cool walking the paths through the beech forest. - and so quiet. 

We also visited the cathedral in Autun which we couldn’t see last time we were here, and did a bit of a tour around the town visiting the other medieval sites. We are here for another night (hopefully cooler) and tomorrow head back towards Paris.

The funeral pyramid out of Autun. From there you get a good view over the town. We took a couple of panorama shots but they don't look so good on the blog. 

The cathedral in Autun. Looks pretty stunning from a distance as it sits on the hightest spot in town, 

We’ve just watched the end of today’s Tour de France and they are now in Megeve where we were 10 days ago. Pretty spectacular scenery! Sadly we won’t be able to watch any of it on Saturday and this is when they will go up one of the climbs that we did by car when we left Megeve. If you are watching at home – Col de Aravis I think was the name.