Wednesday, April 8, 2015
At 5:00am I wake up and it is raining. It has been raining most of the night. I put on my clothes and wait in the tent until the others are ready to go. I am leaving in the earlier vehicle that will depart from the house, so need to be driven up there from the lake with my bags. Since it is raining, I’ll stay in the tent as long as possible.
At 7:00am we depart just an hour after the goal of 6:00am. I am in a vehicle with Dave, Mike, Georgina, and Rodwell. This vehicle is pulling Dave’s motorboat and driven by him.
Not too long after leaving, a vehicle coming towards us flashes their headlights for our attention so we will stop. They want to know if we want to buy a stone “like a gem.” No, no, no. Dave who is driving puts his hands up indicating ‘I’m not touching this.’ We say no thanks and continue on. Mike suggests that they don’t even have a diamond and all they are trying to find out right now is if you would buy one. They might actually be in the business of selling, or would just rob you of the money, or could be trying to find people that are in the business of illegal diamonds to provide that information to authorities.
At 3:30pm we arrive at our destination and start unloading our gear and food from the vehicles onto a houseboat. From the location of the vehicles, it is a steep hill down to the houseboat, there are stairs for part of the way but then after that it is dirt and rocks before the short ramp onto the boat.
Houseboat in the harbor.
One of the members of our group takes a fall at the bottom of the hill not far from the ramp onto the boat. He hits his head on several sharp rocks, causing a gash and four additional lacerations on his head. We have him resting on the ramp to the boat and he is very unaware and also nearly falling asleep. We keep him from shutting his eyes.
Once a vehicle is ready, we have several people help him back up the hill and stairs. He cannot remember much at all, not our names, or the wedding this weekend. I hadn't known until now, since we weren't in the same vehicle, that he hadn't been feeling well all day, hadn't eaten anything, and had already thrown up what he had drank earlier in the day. Since he doesn’t have lacerations on his hands or forearms from the fall, I figure he didn’t put them out and that he completely fainted and tumbled head first down onto the sharp rocks. Two others take him to the local hospital.
Some of the blood on the rocks from our injured friend. (I am a documenter.)
We don't leave the harbor tonight due to the time and that it will become too dark for where we are heading, and the injury didn't help on that. We are on Lake Kariba, the largest man-made lake in the world. With Kariba Dam creating the reservoir, it holds more than 4.5 times the volume of the Three Gorges Dam in China.
Later in the evening, our injured friend returns along with his escorts to the hospital. He has had two liters of saline and stitches for the gash. He can now remember our names, including mine, which he has really only known for one day, since he has been calling me Taron.
I sit at the table with him for about 15 minutes before he heads for bed. We need him to eat for nutrients and also to take painkillers, but he doesn’t feel like he can hold down food. We leave him food in a bowl by his bed in the cabin.
I check on him every 30 minutes. I have Wilderness First Aid training so should probably make use of it. I stay in the same cabin with him for the night to monitor him.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
At about 6:20am, two of us leave the harbor in a vehicle to go into town to buy some things and pick up another motorboat. We wait for shops to open to do our shopping and then fuel tanks need to be filled before we can leave in the motorboat. It is 19.5 feet with a 175 HP motor. We depart from the shore at about 10:00am and rendezvous with Dave’s boat in the middle of the lake, which has Dave, Mike, and Georgina onboard. Dave’s name for me is G.I. Joe, since nearly the first day at the farm.
The houseboat left the harbor shortly after we left this morning, so we head to its new location and arrive about 11:00am. It is southeast across the lake from the harbor we stayed in last night. There are hippos just 50 feet from where the houseboat is anchored on the shore.
In the afternoon, we take the boats out and go on a game ‘drive.’ There are actually three motorboats because one came with the houseboat. Two of them are being used for fishing as well as seeing animals. There are crocodiles, hippos, steenbok, waterbuck, impala, kudu, baboons, African fish eagle, and various others birds. One of the most fascinating occurrences to me is how close hippos and crocodiles are to each other and to other animals at times, and small birds that ride on the hippos and crocodiles! We even had hippos just 10 feet from boat!
Birds and crocodiles sharing the same sandbar.
For dinner we are still eating Christmas: T-bone steaks.
As I am heading to bed, I use my flashlight and see the reflection of crocodile eyes not far from the boat. There are two on port and three on starboard, one of which is moving through the water to shore.
Tonight I am sleeping on the mid-level deck. A firefly dances above where I am sleeping, and the stars are ever bright. And then a bat flutters by.
Lake Kariba: Day 1 & 2 Photo Gallery (There are two other galleries listed below.)
Friday, April 10, 2015
In the morning, all three boats go out fishing. As we are going full speed, the engine dies in the boat I am in. It appears to be an issue with fuel and although the engine is able to start a few times, it is not able to stay running. During this time that we are not able to move, there are large air bubbles that come up close to the boat a few different times, one time moving alongside the boat parallel to it. I just can’t imagine that bubbles as large as these are coming from a fish.
Today the houseboat moves to Antelope Island.
The roast beef sandwiches today and yesterday are from Christmas. This steer just keeps on giving.
We go for a sunset drive to see animals and the sun go down. The boat I am in is leading the way and becomes grounded on a rock. Three others jump out to free the boat while I am on croc watch. Dave says, "I don't know your mother well enough to be able to tell her you've lost a leg to a croc, so you stay in the boat." (He knows my mother not at all.) We stay out for a while after the sun sets and arrive back at the houseboat in the dark.
As the sun sets, it lights up the sky and shows the dark clouds for what they really are.
Tonight there are no crocodiles visible within sight of the boat when I go to bed.
Lake Kariba: Day 3 Photo Gallery (There are two other galleries listed above and below.)
Saturday, April 11, 2015
At some point before the sun rises, I awake and am too warm in my bivy. And I am not in the sleeping bag, just on top of it. I unzip the bug screen mesh and just the amount of heat that it was holding in makes the difference, the breeze too makes it cooler.
Then the sun wakes me up as it rises and lands upon my face. I hold one arm over my eyes and continue sleeping, then alternate that sun blocking technique with rolling on my side, facing away from the sun.
As the sun continues to rise, the foot of my bivy becomes shaded by the overhang of the wheelhouse. I sit on the mattress and lean against the wheelhouse, fully in the shade as the sun keeps rising.
Three of the others are out fishing only 50 feet away from the houseboat. They are next to another boat of locals. During an hour, the other boat catches eight fish, while the men from our boat do not catch one.
I make some tea and return to the part of my mattress in the shade. I sit and just think life over.
Some of the South African Contingent joins us on the houseboat, since they have been traveling separately.
The houseboat goes to move and grounds a bit on a sandbar directly by where we had been anchored. The boat spins in circles until it is off the sandbar and we go on our way. The commotion stirred up the water and sand massively right beside the locals still fishing.
As we are moving to our location for tonight, the captain spots ellies (short for elephants). The houseboat slows so that the motorboats can launch and go toward the ellies. Two boats depart. But there is not enough time to grab beers. I shout to George who is on the houseboat. The boat I am in is pulling away. George returns to the railing on the mid-level deck. He tosses one into perfect range and I catch it. We are still pulling away and he tosses the other. Tumbling through the air, it still makes it into perfect range and I catch it. The boat quickens in reverse, shifts into forward, turns hard, and speeds toward the opposite shore.
We beach the boat and to do so we all go to the rear to raise the front to maximize how close we reach the shore. There are crocs everywhere in this lake. Mike goes first and jumps into the water, dashing and splashing to the shore in haste. Amanda was about to go when we spot a crocodile in the water 20 feet away. She refuses to go. The croc is small, about a year old. It goes under the water. I approach the front of the boat to jump in next. The croc is small and couldn't take a limb or drown a man, but for sure shred apart an arm or a leg in no time at all. I wait until his head is above the surface, so I know where he is, and jump in, holding my camera above my head. I dash and splash and in 15 feet am on the shore. Stephan follows. We may have had our eyes on one croc, but there was no knowing what others may have been nearby.
Now there are three of us on the beach. I ask Mike what his thoughts are on entering the grass and approaching the ellies, which are still quite a distance away. He says we can but when he says we stand still or run, then we must. Agreed. (Mike grew up here. Stephan is from Austria.)
We go through the rough grass, following Mike. We stop at the remains of an animal, the bare bones of a hippo. There are many bones including the jaw and you can see where the tusks would have come out.
From there we continue closer to the ellies. There is a herd of zebra that we spot, closer to us than the ellies, but not directly between us. Mike says we should keep an eye on the zebra. They are focused on us but they will shift their focus to the greatest danger, a lion if there were to be one.
We go a ways further and take some more photos of the ellies, still quite a ways away. Then we return to the boat.
The three elephants we went on shore to see.
When we reach the shore, we have the conversation of going one at a time or all at once to return to the boat. We go all at once, Mike entering last after pushing the boat from the beach, before Dave starts and lowers the motor into the water. We head off in the direction of the houseboat.
As we near the houseboat, it is still approaching the shore where we will stay for the night. It will then be roped to anchors hammered in on shore, since there are no trees to tie to. We take the motorboat to the shore rather than tying onto the back of the houseboat. As a rope is being tossed to someone ashore, someone mentions there are zebra close by.
I wouldn't have put my sandals on otherwise, except for the unknown distance to the zebra. I leave the boat for the shore and we reach the top of the short bank to see five zebra. On the left are four, two full-grown and two young ones. And separate from those, off to the right, is one on its own. We first approach the single zebra, which is just to the left side of a path defined by vehicle travel, so far less to worry about for what may or may not be in the grass.
The zebra does not appear scared or startled by our presence. We continue closer, becoming way closer than expected, within 25 feet of this wild zebra. With many photos of that zebra, I move across the grassy area toward the group of four. Some of the others that also came ashore head back to the houseboat, leaving just Amanda and I to be entertained and captured by the presence of the zebra.
She is already closer to the four zebra as I approach from a different direction, able to photograph her and the zebra in the same shots. Of these four, it seemed quite obvious that it was two mothers with each of their young, as they stayed in pairs just as such. And this suggested that the other we had already been with was the male of their group.
We take many photos as we continue to approach closer between short photo shoots. We are able to approach quite close but they are moving away, not seeming to be due to our presence but naturally as they are feeding. We feel we shouldn't pursue them further and also have many photos of them.
The male who is still on his own has now laid down, so we decide to return to see him and capture some more moments. As he lays on the ground and we approach, he does not stir at all, showing no concern or fear over our presence. We stop and take photos, and then move slowly closer, stopping again to take photos. We are shocked of the situation of how close we are able to approach. I lay on the ground 12 feet from this wild zebra taking photos. I stop taking photos and just take in the moment, the moments. I look into his eye as he looks back into mine. He takes in what is me laying on the ground as I take in what is he laying on the ground. There is no knowing who is more fascinated with whom. He may be more entertained with I coming to him to see me up close than I feel I am to have done to see him. Either way, being so close is fascinating for both of us, and extraordinary to say the least.
I don't want to approach any closer. Being 12 feet away is close enough, to try to be any closer feels to impede his space, if I’m not already. And he is still a wild beast nonetheless, no knowing what he could do or how he may react, possibly being either fight or flight, regardless of these moments that it seems we have shared.
Amanda and I cannot possibly take any new photos from what we already have. We have stayed in the presence of this beautiful animal quite some time and not all beautiful events can last forever. We rise up and back away slowly. Then walk back towards the houseboat. Beauty. Adventure. Both have been had.
Our friend the Zebra.
We are staying near Charara tonight. About one person a week is eaten by a croc near here.
For dinner we have T-bone steaks again. Merry Christmas!
Tonight we can see the reflection of the stars in the lake, seeing into the heavens twice. Unreal, but real.
As I lay down to bed early, to allow time to look at the stars, I spot something not a star: Venus. I later use the phone app Night Sky to confirm. (The app can't identify shooting stars, however.) This blanket of stars, and planets, is extraordinarily amazing. And to think that looking at the stars is actually looking at thousands of years of history because of how far away some of them are and how long it takes the light to travel to be seen today. The light from the closest star, other than the sun, takes four years to reach earth!
Sunday, April 12, 2015
The houseboat starts off just after 6:00am, followed by the speedboats pulling away from shore. Once the houseboat is underway, it slows in the open water and the motorboats approach and tie to the back.
We arrive at the harbor and pack everything off the houseboat into the vehicles, return a boat, and load Dave’s onto a trailer, and we are on the road by about 11:30am. The vehicle I was in took a quick stop at the dam viewing point.
The Kariba Dam.
Lake Kariba: Day 4 & 5 Photo Gallery (There are two other galleries listed above.)
Map of Zimbabwe:
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." – Henry David Thoreau
Author, philosopher, abolitionist. July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862