We spent our first night in a holiday park on the coast in Busselton.  Accommodations in this neck of the woods tend to be family holiday parks, much like we’d have stayed in when traveling back in the 50’s.  Most are spotlessly clean cabins which include kitchenettes and are run by very friendly and helpful locals.  If you’re looking for Hyatt or a 5-star resort, this is not the place for you.  But if you’re looking for laid back, beautiful and uncrowded beaches, great wines and lovely people, come!

​Our second day south of Perth we passed through towns with names like Yallingup, Cowaramup and Prevelly/Gnarabup.  We were torn between the natural glory of the beaches and the Margaret River wines this area is known for.  True to our philosophy of life as “and” rather than “or”, we managed to do both.  We stopped at three wineries, sampling multiple varieties including the Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon this area is so famous for.  The tasting rooms are intimate, wines fabulous and tastings free unless you want to try to “premium” stuff, which of course we did.  This is like Napa and Sonoma in the 70’s.  Well, not quite.  Wine is expensive here – the least expensive bottle we saw was $20A ($16US), but $50 - $130A was more typical.  

We spent our first afternoon on the veranda of the iconic Victoria Falls Hotel.

Mary Ann, Byron, Karen, Randall and I selected a "Walk with the Lions" option we'd found on the internet before leaving home.  This is a lion rehabilitation and re-introduction organization.  Very young orphaned lions are raised by people until about 24 months of age, when they are released in a controlled environment where they learn to hunt and survive on their own.  They cannot be released to the wild because they have developed trust for humans.  Their offspring have no interaction with humans and once they learn to hunt from their parents they are released to the wild.

We enjoyed our farewell dinner on the Zambezi River.

You've heard enough about our camps and game drives.  How about a little about our cultural interactions?

While in Zimbabwe we visited a local homestead, a compound which is home to an extended family.  But before our visit, we stopped at a grocery store to buy basic foodstuffs for the family.

When we visited the family they introduced themselves, showed us their homes, offered us coffee and cookies, and told us about their lifestyles.  This extended family is proud of it's traditional culture but is ensuring their children are well educated.

We also visited a school which the Grand Circle Foundation helps to support.  There are 800+ students.  Most classes have 40+ students.  We visited a pre-school and 6th grade classrooms.  We were astonished at the level of math (geometry) the 6th graders were studying.  When we asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, the most common response was pilot.  

Zambia is a country of almost 15 million people with English as the official language and many tribal languages.  It is bordered by Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. 

The earliest known inhabitants of Zambia were the San, a group of hunter-gatherers who relied on stone tools to hunt antelope and search for fruits and nuts.  Zambia was the San people’s favorite hunting ground up to the 4th century when other tribes from the north began arriving.  The new tribes were the more technologically advanced Bantu people.  As they migrated south they turned the hunting lands into farmland and the San were slowly edged out.  Decedents of the San still live in this area and are known for their unique “clicking” language, but most of the other tribal dialects are derived from the Bantu language.

Chitenge is a 2 meter length of colorful cloth.  Single girls wear it below their belly button, wiggling their hips when they walk.  “Unavailable” women (married or widowed and not looking) wear it above their waist and don’t wiggle their hips when they walk.  The chitenge is also used as head-wear, to carry baby on back, etc.  ​​

Because we've had sporadic internet service, my blog posts are a bit behind.  I'll catch up - eventually.  Stay tuned.

Kafue is Zambia’s oldest park and is by far the largest – the second largest national park in the world and about the size of Wales.  It has been little developed until recent years and is still a raw and diverse slice of African wilderness.