Day Five

Neither of us were looking forward to this part of our trip but it has been a major pleasant surprise.  The hotel website doesn't do it justice.  It's probably one of the prettiest hotels I've ever stayed in.  Beautiful grounds with impala, giraffe, zebra, and the naughty monkeys roaming freely on a perfect lawn on the Zambizi River.

We got up early to do a helicopter flight over the falls.  Very pretty but I wasn't prepared for the low flying into the tight gorge right above the river, I tried to keep the chopper level by leaning left and right and I noticed no one was helping me.

We had been warned about the naughty monkeys, not to feed them and to keep the locks on the sliding doors.  Caroline and I were sitting on our balcony and I opened a bag of chips, oh my gosh, they materialized form nowhere just from the sound.  I ran indie and closed the door leaving Caroline to fend for herself, her eyes were big as saucers, I don't know what I was thinking leaving my child with The Planet Of The Apes.  They took her coke and drank it and got the chips too.  I nearly wet my pants laughing and why not, I was safe.

No caption needed. 

We went for a walk to photograph the animals.  A man offered to take us into the woods to show us where they were and we were both just starting to think this is what everyone back home warned us about.  But all was well, we found the zebra and giraffe. At first we were scaring them but the tables turned and soon we were running from them.  It was comical.

The lion walk was great for a lot of reasons.  Photo ops, scenery, and the chance to be so close to lions.  Two lionesses and one male, they said, "the lion is the most docile, one female isn't friendly, and the other 50/50".  We had seen videos and photos but there are a lot more men around keeping the lions distracted so they don't notice us too much and to keep the customers out of harms way. It was very special.

Dinner on their patio having Zambezi bream and stuffed chicken breasts with onion mashed potatoes was lovely.

We leave today and head to Camp Jubulani for elephant back safaris, hot air ballon ride and a visit to a cheetah/animal rescue center. I'm tired...