Zimbabwe Vacation #5

Day 5

This morning April 19th, at Miombo lodge we were woken up bright and early as usual by Gracie. She's quite the morning girl, usually by 6am she is up and ready for the day. Its amazing how God changes your mindset and perspective as life brings changes. Several years ago I couldn't imagine getting up at 6am on vacation. If I had to I would be quite irritable, and a little unpleasant to be around for at least a couple of hours. Now, even as we laid in our small thatched roof cottage we both enjoyed being up before sunrise. And as Beau awoke and decided to join us just before 7am it was wonderful just to lay there and see the 2 of them interact as they each took turns making the other laugh. Shea and I can't think of much else we'd would rather do then lay in bed and play with the kids, tell stories, and watch them laugh. I guess the old saying is quite true: “The best things in life our free”.

After enjoying a nice breakfast of eggs, sausage, tomatoes, beans and toast, we had a nice leisurely time by the pool. Beau loves to swim, but over the last couple of months he has started to realize why we adults don't love cold water. He used to love sitting in cold baths and showers, but has recently decided that being cold isn't as much fun as he once thought. But after some coaxing he gladly jumped in and enjoyed being thrown in the air as usual.

After swimming we had wonderful sandwiches for lunch, and jumped in our van and headed to Victoria Falls. Beau and Abbi did great on the drive, but Gracie is really starting to turn into a bad passenger. I think we have finally realized that she has spent so little time in a car seat over the last 4 months, that now she won't tolerated being strapped in for more then an hour. Poor Shea was trying everything, but finally the one thing that gave her some peace was a partially chewed ginger snap cookie (we have great pictures). Gracie loved them and finally calmed down....to the thrill of the rest of the vehicle. After our short 2 hour drive we made it to Victoria falls city, and to our lovely Lokuthula lodge. Its funny every time we arrive in a new place Beau rather loudly exclaims “We're home!”. I can't imagine what life must be like for the 2 toddlers, as they have lived in so many places over the last 1 year. I think wherever we lay our head for the night is home to them. So we're all just glad that they have been such excellent travelers.

Anyway, we made it just in time for check in and were greeting by several odd guests. We found about 10 wart hogs grazing right outside are door, as well as tons of little monkeys swings in trees right out back. The lodge we stayed at was huge. It was a very unique 2 story structure that was completely covered with a thatched roof. The back of the lodge was covered in canvas and the whole rear wall could be completely unzipped so you could see all the wildlife walking around behind us. Paul and April are always gracious enough to give us first choice on the room, since we have an extra crib to fit next to us. So we were lucky enough to get the top loft which also had a large canvas window that also opened up for an excellent view of all the wildlife and trees. It feels very much like staying in a tree house.

As I mentioned earlier when we first arrived there were wart hogs all around our lodge. We all spent a lot of time watching them eat, and interacting with one another, and came to the conclusion that they were quite docile animals. Well initial assumptions about wildlife are often slightly misguided as we found out. Shortly after our arrival Beau and I were walking by a group of trees watching all the monkeys swing from branch to branch with a nice sized family of wart hogs munching on grass near us. By then we had become quite used to having them close by, so I was much less vigilant about watching there every move. I'm not quite sure what happened, but Beau must have made eye contact that they didn't appreciate. In a blink of an eye I heard a large squealing sort of grunt and the male of the group made a quick charge at Beau. Fortunately I was right there so I quickly swept him into my arms, and any serious injury was avoided. So the moral of the story is never trust wildlife and don't tick off wart hogs.

The rest of the day we just relaxed in our nice lodge, and that evening we had a once in a lifetime experience at the Boma. The Boma is a world famous wild game restaurant that just happened to be 2 blocks from our lodge. The food and atmosphere were amazing! We ate animals ranging from eland, ostrich, impala, kudu, wart hog and even crocodile. The wart hog was by far the tastiest meat, and Beau and I made sure we ate a little extra to symbolically teach our little friends a lesson for there attack earlier. During the meal we had African dancers, face painters and drummers. We had a fantastic array of deserts (I think I tried at least 7-8 different kinds). The finale of the night occurred when the drummers actually gave us a little drum and dance lesson. Beau especially loved the drums and hes actually got some pretty good rhythm for a 2 year old. Beau and I were also were one of several called to the front to attempt a little African dance for everyone's viewing pleasure (I think everyone enjoyed watching his facial expressions more then my rhythm-less moves). Overall it was a great day and wonderful evening, and I look forward to melting into my bed with a nice full belly.