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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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GWERU (CONT.), ZIMBABWEWe also did lion walks with the 8 month olds - Lucky, Leo, and Luke - and the 10 month olds - Bill and Ben. Besides Timba, Bill and Ben were also my favorites. They were extremely playful - tacking eachother every 5 feet and taking a few swipes at our ankles. They didn't give as many "naughty looks" or track us as much as the older ones. Oh yea and on one of the lion walks one of the big 13 month olds jumped on Lisa's back about to take her down before Matthew stopped him. Whew!
Wow it was really amazing hanging out with the lions! Yeah I know I keep saying it but it was. We also went on game drives and saw Giraffes, Zebras, Kudu, Impala, Vultures, ect. We loved talking to the guys that worked at the place - who, by the way, are badly in need of a union. They have to work 6 full weeks of 12-14 hour days before getting 10 days off. Geez! Oh yea and did I mention it was FREEZING every night and during the day when the sun wasn't out. If you go during July - bring long johns, some fleece, gloves, and a jacket!
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During our second walk with the 13 month olds, the lions got up on a small hill and Matthew told us to go up and get our pic taken with them. I went up (as you can see from pic above) and Emma was getting a bit frisky. Even though she was only lazily pawing me, my heart starting beating pretty fast. She layed down after a couple of No's! and I got the pic on the next page. However, when I stood up on the hill to get back down, Timba was tracking me and almost pounced before Matthew got his attention.
We also got to hang out with the lions when they were fed. They had to put down a horse that day so when we got into the truck - there were hunks of fresh dead horse on the floor. We drove around to all the enclosures, they threw the meat in, and then let us in to 
When we left Antelope Park - we hitched a ride from an overland tour group to Bulawayo. They took us to the bus station so we could take a bus back up to Victoria Falls. But when we got there we had just missed the bus - so the overland driver arranged for a guy to take us to the next town to try to catch up to the bus. We arrived at the next town and the bus was already there. We ran a block through a flea market to catch it. Everyone was laughing at us and yelling "run! run!" and "faster!" 
When we got on the bus, it was packed and we got the last 2 seats. Mind you the seats were made for 12 year old girls no taller than 5'3." After 45 minutes my knees were killing me and I was getting hot flashes - besides really having to go to the bathroom. Oh and funny thing about some busses here in Zim, supposedly the ones that pick up folks from villages weld the windows shut because some think that bad spirits will come through open windows. Well, don't know if that's true but the windows would not open for whatever reason. So the bus was hot and the body scents around us were VERY strong. It was going to be a LONG 5 hour trip. At that point I missed the freezing cold train that could have had a head on colision at any moment! We arrived back in Vic Falls about 8:30pm and checked back into Vic Falls Backpackers.
