Lufupa Game Drive

The country is much more open than Botswana. We could alternate between treed areas, including palm trees, open grasslands, and swamp or river areas. Instead of Kalahari sand, the soil is clay which makes for deep pot-hole driving where the elephants or hippos had crossed the road during the wet season. The soil change also changes the shape of the termite mounds, instead of tall structures, they are huge mounds with trees or bushes growing on the top. Then there are the tombstone-like mounds of the snouted termite.

Puku

We were introduced to a new antelope, the puku, which looks like an impala, but without the M marking on the tail, and bright white stomach. This area also has a lot of hippos. We saw a large variety of birds: Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Goliath Heron, Grey-headed Parrot, African Fish Eagles, the White-fronted Bee Eater, Yellow Canary, Ashy Flycatcher, Grey-crowned Cranes, Egyptian Geese, and the Wattled Crane. We also spotted a lone Wildebeest who hadn’t migrated with the herd. He joined an impala herd for their mutual protection (watching for predators). We came upon a water hole where we could count over twenty crocodiles. Our game drive ended with the spotting of a Defassa Waterbuck, one of the subspecies of waterbuck. The Defassa Waterbuck doesn’t have the circular target on its butt like those we saw in Botswana.  

Fast moving Hippos

Picture courtesy of Bob Brian 

The other vehicle had a more exciting drive. They observed how fast hippos can move out of the water. Then they surprised an elephant herd which crossed the road in front of them. One of the females was ready to charge to protect her calf, so Brian their guide backed the jeep away quickly until the elephants passed.

Protective Mother Elephant

Picture courtesy of Bob Brian

In the evening, we headed about five miles south of our camp (an hour trip) because lions had been spotted. No lion when we got there, so we slowly searched the area. As the sun set, we stopped for our break. And then we heard a lion to the west of us. As it was getting dark we started searching with our spot light. We weren’t having any luck until we heard a loud lion grunt that seemed right next to us. But we couldn’t see anything in the tall grass. We called the other jeep over to search since there was a ravine between us and the grass mound. Sure enough they spotted him, an old lion with a problem with one eye. We crossed over the ravine and could watch him ourselves. It now very dark as we started the trip back to camp. On the way, we spotted two small-spotted Genets, a mongoose-like creature that climbs trees and two Lesser Bushbabies, the smallest primate, which were leaping from tree to tree (they can leap over two meters). 

Zimbabwe Story

In the afternoon, we got to try Baobob fruit – the fruit is a white sour tasting paste around a seed. It reminded me of Cacao fruit (from which we get chocolate). Sanction told us the story of Zimbabwe here, because it might not be safe to talk about it in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe means big house of stone, named for the 12-15^th century architecture used by the kings of this land.

In the 19^th century, the British offered protection for the Shona people against the invading Zulu from the south. Little did they know that they were signing away their land and minerals to the British. The British called this country, Southern Rhodesia, honoring Cecil Rhodes who was instrumental in developing the country. Ian Smith became Prime Minister of Malawi, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and Southern Rhodesia. In 1964 Britain gave independence to all three countries, but Smith refused to let there be majority rule in Southern Rhodesia and issued his own Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Britain petitioned the U.N. for sanctions against Southern Rhodesia. Black leaders like Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe started a guerilla war to oust Smith. In 1980 Zimbabwe gained independence and Mugabe became its first Prime Minister. But Nkomo objected to a Shona takeover of the country and wanted the Southwestern part of Zimbabwe, the home of the Matabele tribe to have its own independence. Mugabe slaughtered many of the Matabele tribe until conflicts ended in 1987 with a unity government between Mugabe and Nkomo. A new constitution was written and Mugabe was elected President.

Mugabe was considered to be a good leader (if you forget the genocide) for the country. Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa. Zimbabwe’s GNP was second to South Africa. Mugabe built schools and hospitals, even sending adults to school. Today Zimbabwe has a 93% literacy rate. Most of the white farmers stayed after independence. The constitution promised a “willing-buyer-willing seller” arrangement for land reform. But by 2000, only 30,000 blacks had resettled on the land. People demanded their land back, since the 2% white population controlled 70% of the land. In 2000, Mugabe promised that the war veterans and tenant farmers could get their land back from the whites. Most of the white farmers left, and blacks fought among themselves for the land. Sanction’s mother got the land for the farm she had worked her entire life. Most people got 6 hectares of land, but government officials ended up with large plots of land. This redistribution of land to uneconomical plots, drought, and lack of external financing, led to a sharp drop in the agricultural economy.

In 2008, when we were last here, the opposition party, Tsvangirai, took 73% of the vote. But the results were delayed and the election commission declared that neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai had gained a majority. Mugabe sent his militia into the countryside to intimidate the people. The opposition candidate pulled out of the run-off election to stop the slaughter. 2008 was a disastrous year. Inflation was rampant (30% in the 3 weeks we visited), the Zimbabwe dollar bills had expiration dates – in the end a Zimbabwe $100 Trillion note was worth US$20. In 2009, Zimbabwe formed a unity government and went to the US$ as their currency. But most people lost their life savings because you could only convert a fixed amount of Zimbabwe dollars to US dollars. In 2015, the government allowed you to again convert money based on the size of your bank account in 2009. 0-$175 Quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars were converted to US$5 and you got another US$1 for every 35 Quadrillion above that. Food did reappear in the stores, but people could barely afford food. Today, Zimbabwe still has 80% official unemployment (but entrepreneurs are counted as unemployed). If you are employed, your US dollars of salary are given to you as $2 and $5 Zimbabwe bond notes, only good in Zimbabwe. Foreign investment is minimal. Partly because Zimbabwe citizens must have control of any company. Life is still very difficult for most Zimbabweans.

One Hundred Trillion Zimbabwe Dollar Note