muckinabout.com: Africa 2013

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Yeah, they were all done up for the tourists and some wore converse all-stars, but they sounded great and man could they dance!

This was "Walk with the Lions". The 2 female 18 month old lionesses were raised in captivity with constant handling by humans.

Laurie wants one

They appeared drugged as they were extremely lethargic and even walked
with a looping gate, but only after being smacked with a stick by the handlers.

It was all under the pretense of "reintroducing captive bred lions back to the wild". I felt sorry for them as they were
constantly being harassed by the staff who admitted that not one lion has actually made it to the point of being released.

The elephant safari was a much more pleasant experience.

We only saw a couple of herds of impala but had protection in case something else happened by.

Does this elephant make me look fat? This was Laurie's deal, so I let her choose, and she left me with the runt!

I was fascinated by her skin

Laurie was so comfortable with hers and fed her treats all day long.

You'd think she was an old hand at this - it was nice to see her so joyful with these animals. I guess they're not THAT different from horses.

The prickly hairs and rough skin amazed me

And I was mesmerized to the point of giddiness by her trunk, which was a writhing
tube of muscle straining for the feeding pellets while noisily inhaling and exhaling.

I chopped the heck out of this video too so please
excuse the abrupt audio transitions.

Vic Falls

Three and a half weeks on the road and still smiling together!

Vervet Monkey

Laurie in no man's land on the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe without a passport!

Our last morning in Africa. The local name for Vic Falls is Mosi-ao-Tunya, which means "The smoke that thunders"

Our own private British Airways business class pod sure made the 36 hour
return trip tolerable, eh what?