Firearm Check-In and Elephant Welcome

Our Safari Begins.
June 24, 2011. Isaac picks us up at the Sowetto Backpackers Inn promptly at 6:00 A.M. to drive us to the Joburg airport.  Yesterday he told us that we must leave by 6:00 A.M. or risk hitting traffic that will take us twice as long.  We arrive at 7:30 A.M; 3 ½ hours before our flight to Victoria. After checking our bags and getting our boarding passes we find an airport café for breakfast. Refueled, we head towards the security check and along the way John is amused to see a large official entrance way with an illuminated sign designating “Firearm Check-in.” 

Fire Arm Check In

South African Airlines

Victoria Falls Airport

Our flight to Victoria boards at 10:15 A.M. and we dutifully line up at gate 20A, hand over our boarding passes and board a bus that takes us out onto the tarmac where our plane waits. The bus regurgitates its load of passengers and we swarm up a rolling double wide metal stair case, show the stewardess our boarding stubs and enter the plane single file. A passenger ahead, finds someone in her seat and calls back to the stewardess to ask if this is the plane to Victoria? It is not.  Our entire bus load has been delivered to the wrong plane.  There are a few moments of pandemonium as all of us process this information and push back down the rolling metal staircase.  We board another bus and are eventually deposited at the correct plane.  The two hour plane flight to Victoria is otherwise uneventful and passes quickly. Upon arrival, John and I need double entry visas to enter Zimbabwe, which proves to be to our advantage time wise, since the line for these is much shorter than the single entry visas.  We pay our $45 each and are quickly through immigration and met by a Wilderness Safari guide for our drive to Davidson Camp.  We are escorted to a 12 passenger mini-van for the first 3 ½ hour, leg of the journey.  We travel a steady, 100 kilometers an hour along a two lane highway passing small family compounds of round mud brick houses with reed and thatched roofs. Our driver tells us that the soil on these farms is not good and that this land was recently taken away from the white farmers and given back to the local people. (If I understand correctly, this upheaval happened 6 or 7 years ago.) It is late afternoon and many children are walking along the side of the roadway, returning from school and wearing either red or blue school uniforms.  Our driver tells us that most children walk 10 kilometers each day to attend school and that the schools are expensive, costing upwards of $50 each month.  He has two children of his own and tells us that it is difficult and expensive to send them to school. 

We are stopped at several checkpoints and our driver’s credentials are checked and a toll paid.  We learn that mining is a major industry and see coal mines in the distance and flat-topped slag mountains, and when we come to a major town our diver takes the scenic loop. He tells us that this city has 150,000 inhabitants but I do not see a city, only a small town with a bank, several tiny markets but there are nearly 20 churches of various Christian denominations side by side on a stretch of the road leading into the town.

Arriving at Davison Camp – Linkwasha Concession, Hwange, Zimbabwe. June 24-27, 2011.  We finally arrive at the main entrance to park, use the simple facilities and switch vehicles. The excitement in John’s eyes is catching and we climb into an open sided Land cruiser and begin our safari.  Bully is our driver and Dixon rides shotgun….literally.  It is after 4:30 P.M. and the drive to the camp will be another 2.5 hours along dirt roads. Although we are in the national park the Davidson camp is in its own concession. The temperature is dipping rapidly and the wind chill in our open vehicle is biting.  We bundle up and wrap ourselves in the provided blankets. Much of the drive is on a hard packed road paralleling the railroad tracks, the demarcation between park and public land. We spot a variety of antelope, mostly impalas, families of wart hogs, giraffes and zebras in the distance. As interesting as all this is, we are cold and very hungry and anxious to arrive at camp. Some 30 minutes from Davison, a family of elephants is blocking the road. We forget our physical discomforts and watch this group for some time. Our vehicle is about 30 feet away and the elephants are keenly aware of us and the bull elephant flaps his ears, sways, snorts and takes several warning steps in our direction. The group soon turns their attention back to foraging the trees lining the road and 20 minutes later, they wander off, allowing us to pass, but this close encounter of the elephant kind is the perfect start to our Zimbabwe adventure.  

Road to Hawange National Park

Elephant Welcome

We pull into Davison camp after dark; Andre and Flores welcome us, assist me down from the land rover, and hand us each a hot wet towel to wipe the grime from our faces.  A large, welcoming, fire is burning in front of the open air dining-lounge area and there is a lighted watering hole beyond.  We drink a small welcoming “sherry” as we fill out indemnity forms and passport information. Andres walks us along a dirt pathway to tent cabin number 4. The semi-permanent tent is erected on a wood platform with support corner beams; it is spacious, with meshed siding on three sides and canvas siding that rolls down for privacy.  The en-suite bathroom is a single step up behind the bedroom area, but they have confused our reservations and assigned us a double bed, decorated with leaves and branches, arranged in the shape of a heart. Our luggage will be moved to another tent during dinner, but we are given a few minutes to clean up here and now. One of the safety rules is that guests may not walk alone between the tents and the lounge areas at night, so I request that an armed guide return in 20 minutes to escort us back to the central area. Dinner is served at 8:00 P.M, after Alan and Annette, a couple my age, return from their game drive with their guide Brian. Not surprisingly, they are from California and we enjoy an excellent dinner with them and our host and hostess, the camp managers.  The nighttime temperature has dropped to below 1 degree centigrade and after dinner, we stand close to the fire, storing up heat before taking the escorted walk back to our unheated tent cabin. We did not expect that it would be so cold in Africa and we have been wearing our long underwear continually, so we take off our outer wear and slip quickly under the covers.  John lets out a joyful exclamation when his feet discover a hot water bottle tucked between the sheets.  We both giggle with pleasure, hugging our new best friend and drift off into a cozy sleep.