The one where Sara’s a giant drama queen</strong>

22 January 2020 (day 50)

It’s another relaxed start to the day and we get on the road around 8am and drive to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city. We arrive at a small-ish open air mall at lunchtime and Sara and I decide to eat in a pub which does pretty decent food, has an excellent view, and provides us with a bit of “just us” time. I have a steak (which comes in an unexpected sauce) while Sara has calamari and prawns in a peri peri sauce.

Private lunch with a view, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

After lunch we do a bit of grocery shopping and each get a double malt ice cream from a vendor who tells me that her daughter went to Matopos National Park yesterday (we’re going tomorrow) and got so sunburned that she couldn’t close her eyes to sleep (sunburned eyelids sound horrendous).

Onwards to Burke’s Paradise, our camping ground for the next two nights. There’s the main area our group camps in which is right by the swimming pool, and there’s a second site away behind some buildings and beside the upgrade rooms. We decide to upgrade, as do Melissa, Ryan and Taylor, and Emily and Jim pitch up their tents outside our rooms to be away from the expected partying.

We enjoy a quiet afternoon on our balcony until dinner back at the truck and then an early bedtime.

23 January 2020 (day 51)

After breakfast, the 4x4s arrive to take us all to Matopos National Park. The main activity is rhino trekking to try to find white rhino, and there’s also the option of upgrading to a full day in the park to see the bushmen cave paintings and to visit a local village and its chief and hear some stories from him. The group will therefore split in two after the rhinos (if we’re fortunate enough to find them), when half the group will leave and the other half will continue on for lunch and the afternoon’s activities.

Sara and I are in a 4x4 with Melissa, Olly, Ted, Jan, Emily, Ryan, Taylor, Nihiko, and Jim, and we set off for the park via a Spar in Bulawayo to pick up some refreshments and snacks for the day.

When we arrive at the park around 45 minutes later, we’re taken to a sort of introduction area / curio shop where Jordan, one of the two guides for the day, talks to us about the rhinos in the park and the horrifying consequences of poaching. As it stands right now, if rhino poaching continues at the current rate, in just 7 years time rhinos will be extinct in the wild worldwide. Poaching continues because rhino horn, which is made of keratin, exactly the same as human fingernails, is falsely thought to have health properties in the Far East. In China there’s been a huge campaign by local celebrities to stop the use of rhino horn, and the younger generations have largely gotten the message which is encouraging for the future. Vietnam, however, has now overtaken China as the biggest threat to rhino, with a huge market there for rhino horn. Just one kilogram of rhino horn fetches $100,000, and a full horn from one rhino can therefore make someone $1m or more. To try to protect the rhinos in Matopos, the rangers undertook an initiative of dehorning the rhinos, a process which is exactly like trimming fingernails and causes no pain assuming that the horn is cut above the equivalent of the quick. The initiative failed, however, as even after de-horning the rhinos retain about 1kg of horn which makes them worth $100k or more to a poacher.

We learn that Zimbabwe has one of the harshest penalties for poaching: anyone suspected of being a poacher is shot dead on sight. There are guards throughout the park responsible for sectors and the rhinos within them, but for security purposes the guards don’t stay with the rhinos as it would signal to poachers where rhinos are. The rhinos are completely free to move between sectors but if that happens the guards never follow as a fellow guard may see them with rifles and shoot them as suspected poachers.

Zimbabwe’s proposed solution to poaching is to legalise the trade in rhino horn. Although it sounds anti-intuitive, Zimbabwe’s parks hold enough rhino horn (confiscated from poachers or taken from animals after their natural death or through de-horning) to sustain current demand levels for 40 years. This would provide both time and funds to re-educate buyers away from the myths surrounding rhino horn with a view to significantly diminishing, if not eliminating, the trade entirely. In the event that the trade continues past available supplies, legalised trade would allow horns taken from painless de-horning, a completely sustainable practice as horns grow back just like fingernails, to be sold instead of those taken through poaching. However, when Zimbabwe proposed legalising the trade to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, an organisation with a representative from all countries, the proposal was voted down by western countries. If you’re wondering what you can do to help rhinos and agree that legalisation is a potentially viable solution, or at least better than continued inaction which has unequivocally failed in changing the rate of decline in rhino populations for the better, find out how your country’s CITES representative voted and lobby your rep hard if he/she voted against the proposals.

After a quick reminder of the differences between white and black rhino (white rhino comes from a mishearing by the English of “veit” or wide referring to the rhino’s mouth, and black is then the other because it’s opposite; white rhino eat grass and are effectively a lawn mower while black rhino eat leaves and shrubs and are therefore a hedge trimmer), it’s back in the 4x4s and off in search of some white rhino. There are only 63 rhino in the park but we’re hopeful of seeing some. There’s also the possibility of seeing leopards as the park has the highest density of leopards in Africa, but the park is made up of enormous 63 billion year old “balancing rock” formations, some of the oldest rocks in the world, which provide plenty of hiding places for leopards to pass the hours until sunset. It’s worth noting that a PhD student came to the park for 5 years to study leopard populations and density and didn’t once see a leopard in that time, so our chances are very slim.

Off to find some rhinos on our gap yaar! Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

About 15mins drive later, we stop by some guards at the road side and set off into the bush, prepared for a walk of up to 90 minutes. Less than 10 minutes later we spot a group of three, two adult females and one baby, resting in the shade of a tree. We keep our distance and crouch down in the bush to watch them for a while, and on a couple of occasions one of the rhinos stands up to change position, giving a better photographic opportunity. It’s once again an incredible experience to share pretty intimate space with wild rhino with no fences to protect us should one take against us. Both Sara and I will be writing to CITES to petition for better protection for rhino and an end to the trade in rhino horn.

We found some rhinos! Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Relaxin’ rhino, Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Proof we hung out with rhinos. Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

After around an hour with them, we return to the 4x4s for some refreshments and then onwards. As we found the rhinos so quickly, there’s time before the rest of our group has to return home, and Jordan and Ty (the two guides) stop multiple times as we drive to show us local plants and explain their properties:

Devil’s thorn, or bushman’s soap, is a hypoallergenic plant rich in vitamin E which lathers when wet and functions as both a soap / hand sanitiser and a skin moisturiser;
Marula trees, where the fruit is used to make Amarula (a delicious African liquor - try it if you can!) and has more vitamin C than oranges (which makes Amarula basically a health drink as far as I’m concerned);
Catha Edulis, or bushman’s tea, a sensory enhancing drug which is physically impossible to overdose on and used locally as female viagra;
Another plant we didn’t catch the name of where the leaves are chewed as a local anaesthetic for toothaches and mouth pain.

Refreshment time! Sara is the only one of the Stoney crew who knows how to properly display a product. Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Jordan teaching us about “bushman’s soap,” Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Sampling the local plant life in Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

We stop at a curio market and, of course, buy more souvenirs, including a beaded guinea fowl, a wood carving featuring the Big 5, a small carved Zazu, a cool African mask where the meaning of the carvings is conservation and protection of animals and the environment for Zimbabwe’s future, a blue soapstone giraffe, and a carved elephant, hippo and rhino.

Masks with a message; third one from the left is coming home with us.

The car containing the half-day crew leaves and we continue on, now with Ty, in the park to a rest stop for lunch which Ty provides. After lunch, we’re heading to another part of the park to see the bushmen’s cave paintings. Fans of The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan will be familiar with the episode in Zimbabwe where he visited Matopos and took a ride on the seat welded to the bonnet of the 4x4. We’re with the same company (African Wanderer) and have the same 4x4s, so I hop onto the bonnet seat death ride and away we go across compressed dirt roads through the park. It’s a bit like being on Nemesis at Alton Towers, racing and bumping through the park, feet dangling, no sight of the car around you (unless you look down or behind). I get about a 20 minute ride and spend the entire time beaming with delight! I highly recommend this to anyone visiting the park.

Out of the car / off the bonnet, we have a bit of a climb up the rocks to get to the cave, and when we arrive we’re awed by the paintings which vary in age between 200 years and tens of thousands of years old. There are images of zebras, giraffes, buffalo, lions and leopards, rhinos, and other animals. The bushmen who made the paintings were nomadic and didn’t stay in one place for longer than a couple of weeks, so are thought to have created them to let other bushmen using the cave in future know what animals were in the surrounding areas, although significant mystery surrounds the paintings given their age and absence of any written record. Like at Great Zimbabwe, there are no barriers, ropes or glass protecting the paintings from visitors which seems crazy to us given their cultural and historical significance. Also like at Great Zimbabwe, we’re the only people here and feel enormously privileged to experience the incredible paintings, a key piece of Africa’s history.

A trip highlight - Nswatugi Cave, Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Running giraffe and other stunning cave paintings. Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Accidental outfit coordination in Nswatugi Cave, Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Ty gives us a 20 minute talk through what’s known and believed about the paintings, the life of the bushmen, and how the bushmen were effectively banished to the Kalihari, where only few now remain, by local tribes. He also shows us two particularly interesting things: one is a shadow painting, an image that can’t be seen in normal light but can once the light is blocked (no one knows how they made this); and the other is a painting of a constellation and Sirius, the dog star, from where the bushmen believed they originated (particularly interesting because other completely unrelated ancient peoples and tribes around the world such as the ancient Egyptians apparently believed exactly the same thing and left images of the same constellation and Sirius behind).

Ty telling tales about Nswatugi Cave, Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Shadow painting in Nswatugi Cave, Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe - remove the hat and it disappears!

The incredible Nswatugi Cave, Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe. Photo credit: @meli444violet

We head back down to the 4x4 and it’s Sara’s turn on the bonnet seat death ride. We head off across the park to a local village where we’re invited into a mud hut with a grass roof and meet Pundo, the 89 year old tribal chief. Pundo explains that his name means One Pound and he was named this because he was born in 1931 when the one pound coin was introduced. He tells us stories from his youth in his native language which Ty translates for us into English. Two stories are particularly memorable:

He was part of the team to reintroduce rhinos to Matopos, going to Kruger in South Africa to catch eight young rhino to bring back. They’d known rhino had been indigenous to the Matopos area because of the bushmen paintings.
He survived a fight with a leopard after a passer-by saw the leopard on top of a human and shot it to save Pundo’s life. Pundo woke in hospital and never met the person who saved him so tells the story to everyone he meets in case they’ve heard the story and can help him identify, and then thank, his saviour.

Pundo is a real character and his stories make us laugh as well as being fascinating.

Sara’s turn on the bonnet seat death ride, Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Weeeeeeeeeeee! Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

Pundo then takes us outside and brings out a leopard skin and a hat. In turn, we’re invited to wear the skin and hat and to be our best warrior selves, first shouting our country of origin a few times with Pundo and then posing as fearsomely as we can.

The fearsome BritMerican and Chief Pundo, ready for battle

We wave goodbye to Pundo, having acquired a few new passengers in the form of some local children we drop off at another village along the way, and stop quickly at the park entrance where Sara buys a carved buffalo she hadn’t bought this morning and regretted all day. Then it’s back in the car to drive back to the campsite.

It’s been an incredible day, definitely one of our trip highlights, and we eat a quiet dinner before an early night back in our upgrade room.

24 January 2020 (day 52)

This morning brings a breakfast of Nashcakes (thanks again Nash!) before we hit the road for Victoria Falls. It’s a pretty uneventful drive and we arrive there mid afternoon.

We decide to upgrade into a private room as we’ll be staying here for three nights and it’s known that the hostel has a pretty rowdy bar that stays open late situated very near the camping ground.

We get a beer from the bar and watch a presentation about the activities available over the next few days. There’s too much to do and too little time! We decide to do white water rafting on the Zambezi tomorrow morning before heading into the park to see the falls, then a helicopter ride over the falls on Sunday morning followed by a day trip back to Zambia for a dip in the Angel’s Pool, a natural pool at the top of the falls a safe distance from the edge so you can’t be swept over by the current. We’d wanted to do the Devil’s Pool, a more dramatic pool much closer to the edge of the falls, but it’s only open during low water and we, regrettably, are here in high water. Guess we’ll just have to come back.

We also order our trip t-shirts and those will arrive at the campsite on Sunday evening.

All set with activities booked and paid for (other than Angel’s Pool, which we pay for locally in Zambia), we head out for dinner with Ryan, Taylor, Emily and Melissa to Pariah State, and Sara and I both have pork ribs. Mmm piggy bones. Back at camp, some of the others are in the bar but we’re being collected at 7am for rafting so head to bed instead for an early night.

25 January 2020 (day 53)

It’s rafting day! We head to the bar for collection at 7am and find Ryan and Taylor (who’re doing the rafting with us) plus Emily and Melissa (who’re both up early). We’re passing the time when Sara says, “Oh Jen, your coat” and I see my red waterproof on the back of a chair where I must have left it after the presentation yesterday. “So it is,” I say, “but where’s yours then?” We look around the bar and chairs but can’t find it anywhere. I go back to the room quickly to see if it’s perhaps there but no joy. Emily says she’ll ask the reception team for us when they arrive later in case it’s been handed in.

Our guide arrives and we head to the offices of Shearwater, an adventure company specialising in lots of different adrenaline activities around Victoria Falls. After a quick briefing, it’s into the transport and off down the river to the rafting site. When we arrive, we get our helmets, life vests and paddles and make our way down into a steep gorge to the river. It takes around 20-25 minutes to get down the slippy track, sometimes scrambling and sometimes climbing down ladders fashioned from tree branches. We’re both relieved to have made it down without falling (unlike numerous others in the group)!

We get into our boat with Ryan and Taylor plus two others travelling alone, Brooke and Caroline, and set off with our guide, JB. We do some practice paddling and climbing back into the boat and then we’re off down the Zambezi.

JB’s motley crew - only one person doesn’t know which way to look

Yay, we all managed to look in the same direction!

Because we’re there in high water, we can only do rapids 10-24, but that feels like plenty when the rapids are in pretty quick succession. We get to the rapids called the Ugly Sisters and are on one which is a pretty tame grade 1 when the boat tips and Sara is bounced overboard, paddle in hand. I panic, obviously, but she’s managed to keep hold of the OS rope (or the “oh shit” rope, for long) and I manage to pull her back in again a few moments later.

We do a few more rapids and are on rapid 15, a grade 5 called “washing machine”, when it’s my turn to be tipped into the water in the middle of the turbulence. “We’ve lost Jen”, Taylor apparently cries from the boat, and it’s now Sara’s turn to panic as she looks back at the twisting rapids believing I’m now in there alone without a boat. In reality, I fall into the water and try to surface but feel the boat above me in the water. “It’s okay,” I reason, “the boat has flipped so there will be voids around the seats with air pockets. I’ll get some air then push myself out”, only when I feel for the voids I can’t find any and it dawns on me that I’m stuck underneath the boat. I panic momentarily before logic kicks in that if I move in any one direction, I’ll have to come out the other side at some point. I do exactly that and a moment later I can breath again. Relief floods over me as Ryan hauls me from the water and back into the boat.

We continue on down the river and hit rapids 16a and 16b, Terminator I and II. On 16a, we again hit a wave and the boat tips at such an angle that everyone except Taylor and Sara are plunged into the water. Taylor goes to work and pulls me back in again and I see Sara sitting on the floor of the raft clutching her leg. “You good?,” I ask and cold fear takes over as she says “I’m not okay”.

“SHE’S NOT OKAY! SHE’S NOT OKAY!” I yell at JB, failing entirely to come up with any words other than the ones Sara used. He comes over to check on her, but we still have 16b to go and he has to return to the back of the boat to steer us through.

Safely on the other side, he comes back and quickly agrees with Sara’s assessment that her leg isn’t ok. She can’t now paddle but there’s no way out of the gorge except onwards. Sara is moved to the back of the boat with JB, has a temporary bandage wound around her leg, and sits on the floor for stability as we finish off the remaining eight rapids. Fortunately none are so turbulent that we flip the boat and Sara stays safely, if not painlessly, inside.

Sitting at the back with a bandage on but still smiling and waving

We land the raft and there’s another 20-30 minute steep climb to get out of the gorge and back to the transportation. Sara can’t put any weight on her leg which leaves a pretty massive question mark over how she gets safely out. The option offered to us is a team of eight local porters who can carry her up the gorge and out tied to a spinal board. Leaving her in the gorge would probably be frowned upon, and in any event I quite like her, so we decide to go with the porters at a cost of $120.

I’m told to leave the porters to it and reluctantly start making my way up the gorge. It is Hard Work, with some sheer rock faces to scale, many many steps constructed from tree roots and branches, and more ladders made from tree branches to climb. It’s the heat of the day and I take my pulse about 75% of the way up the gorge: it’s 170 bpm. How the porters are going to carry a human up this without their hands to help them, I have no idea.

At the top, a lunch is served and I eat while watching for Sara and her band of porters. Around half an hour after I arrive, Sara and crew are finally here. She’s unstrapped from the spinal board and set to rest on the ground where she tells me of the super human efforts of the team who carried her above their heads up the side of the gorge while wearing worn out shoes from which their toes protrude. She has no idea how they managed, and we’re both completely in awe of the eight men who somehow did the seemingly impossible.

Sara is helped onto the transportation and we head back to Victoria Falls (the town). On arrival we’re taken to a private hospital by the Shearwater team (five in total, two of whom stay with us until Sara is discharged later) where a woman from our hostel called Joy is already waiting for us to make sure we’re taken care of. Sara’s whisked into an X-ray room where Joy and I are allowed to stay (behind a screen) while the X-ray is taken.

“It’s a fracture of the proximal fibula,” the doctor declares on examining the X-ray. “A few weeks and it should be fine, but she’ll need crutches and she needs a full leg cast from mid-thigh to foot, or alternatively we could try to find an immobilising brace?” Given it’s 30 degrees or more and we’re overlanding and camping, Sara predictably opts for the knee brace if one can be found.

It turns out, however, that it’s not quick or easy to get a suitable knee brace and crutches in Zimbabwe. The first set of crutches brought to us are for children. The second set work. The first knee brace brought has no support and doesn’t in any way immobilise the leg or knee. The second set is slightly better but still pretty useless. By this point, Nash has arrived and he offers to go to Zambia tomorrow to see if he can find a proper knee brace for Sara, definitely a better option still than the full leg cast!

Now discharged, JB and the other Shearwater guy drive Sara, Nash and me back to the hostel and say they’ll come to check on Sara tomorrow morning. It doesn’t feel like there’s any sense of obligation to come; it feels like they genuinely care that Sara is well taken care of and comfortable. As with Joy (someone we hadn’t met before) coming to the hospital and staying with us for hours, it’s above and beyond what we would have expected here or at home and we both feel a bit overwhelmed by the kindness of the people we’ve encountered today.

Helpful hospital visitors (Joy from Shoestring Backpackers is second from the left)

The first ever person to injure themselves rafting during high water season with JB (red hat) and the rest of the Shearwater gang

Sara rests in the room until it’s time for our dinner reservation, which Sara still feels up for doing. Our taxi arrives and takes us to The Boma, an African dinner and drum show, which we’ve heard good things about from our tour leader. On arrival we’re each dressed in a sort of sari-esque outfit and let into a dining area decorated in African art and fabrics with performers in traditional outfits.

Entering The Boma for an evening of awesomeness

The starter is a taster platter of impala carpaccio, warthog biltong, round nuts, corn fritters, and crocodile. Meal off to an excellent start. As we’re eating our starters, a cocktail maker comes over and asks if we’d like a Boma cocktail. Would we ever! The cocktail is a vodka, lemon and honey based wonder which drinks very, very easily. Luckily he moves on to another table before we have the chance to over-order them.

There’s also a face painter doing the rounds. Would we like an animal painted on our faces? Uh, have we never met?! Oh that’s right, no we haven’t. Yes please to an animal! He paints a guinea fowl feather on Sara’s face and a porcupine on mine. I love my porcupine and resolve never to wash it off my face (although spoiler alert: I wash it off later the same day for bed to avoid getting my pillow dirty).

The main is a buffet with plenty of options available: eland meatballs, sirloin steak, kudu steak, guinea fowl stew, buffalo stew, boerwurst, sides, soups and salads, and a whole lamb roasting on a spit. We try just about everything and, with the exception of the eland meatballs (which we think are seasoned in a way we don’t like), it’s all utterly delicious.

As we’re making our way around the buffet selecting one of everything, we spot a stand-alone counter serving mopani worms. We're both adventurous eaters and happy to try anything once and so straight down the hatch one goes. It is, shall we say, different. Not unpleasant but not something I expect dinner parties up and down the UK to start serving. For our extreme bravery in trying the worm, we’re each given a certificate we intend to frame and hang proudly when we return home.

Onto desserts. Similarly we try one of everything between us and there’s plenty to enjoy. The food, simply put, is fantastic. Conclusion: would eat here again.

As we finish our mains, the show starts. Drummers assemble on the floor near the buffet and play presumably traditional African beats while other performers sing and dance along. The place is filled, and not just with tourists but also locals, some of whom get up to dance and sing along at times.

The music is infectious and we’re having a fantastic time when staff bring out an African drum for every diner and we’re each handed one. Well my night just got even better! A caller comes out and he leads the diners, now motley crew of drummers of mixed rhythmic ability, in some simple beats. The performers join in and suddenly our collectively average drumming sounds impressive and in time (because we’re drowned out by the professionals). We power through a couple of numbers before it’s back to the professionals only to close the show with some dancing with audience participation.

If only we’d brought handbags big enough to smuggle these drums home in!

The drumming finishes and is replaced by a male a cappella group who go from table to table singing African songs we don’t know. At one table, they’re singing something gently and we’re delighted to hear one of the singers turn it into The Lion Sleeps Tonight, the only western song we hear.

After we’ve been serenaded at our table, it’s time to get our taxi back to the hostel. It’s been a really enjoyable experience with excellent food and entertainment and we would unequivocally go back again on a future visit to Victoria Falls.

26 January 2020 (day 54)

We wake up and Sara has slept surprisingly well for her leg being fractured and insufficiently supported. Although we won’t now be able to go into the national park to see Victoria Falls from the ground, fortunately we did book a helicopter flight over the falls for this morning so we will still get to see them.

We and Melissa are collected from the hotel and taken to the launch site just inside the park. We’re the first flight of the day and, after a short safety briefing, we make our way out to the helipad where our chopper waits for us.

After a bit of kerfuffity about where is best for Sara to sit, we end up with Melissa up front with the pilot, two Chinese tourists on the right of the plane, and me and Sara sitting face to face on the left with her leg elevated on the middle seat beside me and the Chinese man.

We confirm into our headsets that we’re good to go and the pilot smoothly takes off into the sky above the park. Within a matter of minutes we can see the Zambezi river (the very same one that injured Sara yesterday!) and the falls themselves.

Although neither the highest nor widest falls in the world, Victoria Falls is considered the largest due to its combined width and height. Standing over 100m tall at the middle and extending for 1.7km, it’s an impressive sight. From above, we can see the bridge between the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides used for bungee jumping as well as the adrenaline-inducing zip lines between the two countries.

As we circle over the falls, we spot a rainbow beneath us, and it moves along the length of the falls as we fly which is very cool! From above, we can also see how the river splits into multiple tributaries to the falls, almost like a delta, and then zig zags away through the gorges we climbed into / were carried out of yesterday.

Victoria Falls: front view (see, told you it looks like a delta)

Victoria Falls: side view (Zimbabwe side towards the top, Zambia side towards the bottom of the photo)

Victoria Falls: view from the back of the falls (rainbow, bridge, Zambezi - oh my!)

Before long it’s back to the helipad, and although it was a pretty quick ride we’re glad to have been able to see and experience the falls and to enjoy a completely different perspective over them than if we’d just gone to see them from land (or indeed if we’d done that at all!).

Safely back on terra firma after our brief but wonderful flight over Victoria Falls

Back at the hostel, we head slowly over to an indoor area by the bar which has some sofa type seating so that Sara can sit as comfortably as possible, and Nash soon joins us. He’s spoken to some paramedic friends who’ve advised him that Sunday isn’t a good day to go looking for knee braces as many places will be closed so to wait until tomorrow. The three of us spend some time looking at different types of braces online for Sara so that Nash has a frame of reference when he goes to Zambia tomorrow.

After breakfast, Nash heads off to do some stuff and I go back to reception to see if Sara’s waterproof has turned up. It hasn’t, and one of the staff, Faye, tells me I’m welcome to watch the CCTV as they couldn’t see it on there. I mention to Sara that it’s not on the CCTV and she recalls her last memory of the jacket: she had it on her lap on Friday afternoon while we were hearing the presentation on potential activities, and she remembers it because the beer she had was making condensation rings on the waterproof fabric on her lap.

Now I’ve read enough detective novels to know that this constitutes a trail to follow, so I find Faye and tell her yes I would like to watch the CCTV please. Start time: 17:00 on Friday evening.

Faye, her twenty-something year old son Andrew, and I proceed to watch the CCTV on fast forward. There we are arriving and there’s Sara’s jacket, exactly where she remembers, beer and all. We continue on the same camera until, disaster, there was a power cut on Friday evening and the CCTV footage is missing! Undeterred, I ask if we can find the next available footage from the same camera and there’s the jacket, sitting on a chair beside a lot of our group. My jacket meanwhile is hanging over the back of the same chair.

Onwards through the footage and at around 20:00 we see Trina move Sara’s jacket onto a different chair so she can sit where the jacket was. Further through the footage, Freya moves the jacket to a table separate from the group so she can sit on the second chair. And there, in the bottom left corner of the screen, Sara’s jacket stays.

We scroll onwards through the footage and CCTV hours pass. Locals and hostel guests dance and drink in the bar but the jacket remains untouched, helpfully just within sight of the camera. And then at around 2am, we see someone looking at the jacket. He picks it up, tries it on for size, takes it off and wraps it around his arm and walks out of frame. We switch cameras to the one covering the exit and see him walking out, now wearing Sara’s jacket.

“Got him!” I cry. “That’s disappointing,” groan both Faye and Andrew. “Do you know him?” I ask. They do - he’s head chef of a local restaurant and Andrew is good friends with the guy’s cousin. While fortunate for us that it’s a local we can tell to return the jacket rather than an anonymous backpacker we’ll never get it back from, it’s a source of embarrassment and shame for the staff of the hotel to have a local patron stealing from the premises. They apologise many times and I assure them that I don’t hold them accountable at all; the guy chose to steal the jacket and as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t reflect on anyone but him. They say they’ll contact him to give the jacket back and I tell them as long as he does that there’s no need to involve the police. Case solved and my next career move is decided.

Sara’s leg is pretty painful and we’re unsure exactly what kind of brace would be best for her, so we decide to contact our London physio, Ash. Ash is top of her game and has treated me for knee and foot injuries as well as Sara for back problems, so she knows we’re both liabilities and I imagine was unsurprised to hear from us. Ash asks for a copy of the X-ray and I send a photo I took yesterday. She then gets in touch with an orthopaedic consultant and calls us confirming the fracture and the need to immobilise the leg. Instead of a knee brace however Sara actually needs an aircast boot (aka a moon boot) to stop her ankle from flexing, as that’s the motion that will stress the fracture and potentially cause it to become unstable then leading to poor healing and further damage. Ash also suggests we go to see her friend who’s the physio for the Springboks when we get to South Africa, then letting the physio there know to expect us and providing us with contact details.

We’re so grateful to Ash (www.ultrasportsclinic.com if you need an excellent physio) for helping us and setting us in the right direction re the boot rather than a knee brace. I make sure Nash has the latest information for his trip to Livingstone tomorrow morning and thank Ash profusely for helping us so quickly, and on a Sunday!

JB and another guy from Shearwater also come by as promised and they bring with them the head of the porters, the men responsible for carrying Sara up and out of the gorge yesterday. Sara’s really glad to be able to thank him and praise the superhuman skills of the team of porters she had helping her. We both thank the Shearwater team, and JB especially, for their support yesterday and the lengths they went to to help. Sara also gets a huge hug from JB as he eventually leaves which means a lot to her.

That evening there’s a group leaving dinner as seven of the group end their adventure at Victoria Falls. Here we lose Trina, George, Freya, Emily, Jamila, Stefan, and Stephanos, and we’re sad to see Emily and Trina in particular go. We do, however, gain two new people to the truck here: Hamish and Gen who’re Australian and Zimbabwean but who live in London one neighbourhood away from us. They booked onto the trip to Swapokmind a couple of days ago so are unexpected but welcome additions to the group.

Dinner is back at Pariah State and Andrew, my CCTV watching buddy from earlier, drives me and Sara around the corner so Sara can go (it’s too far for her to walk). No word yet on the jacket as the guy has apparently been in the bush all day without reception, so we understand from the guy’s cousin via Andrew. Andrew then returns to collect us after dinner and when he jumps out of the car he teases, “Do you like my new jacket?” as he wears Sara’s blue coat. The guy apparently hadn’t tried to deny it and had willingly given it back to avoid police action against him. From what Faye said, Victoria Falls is the sort of place where everyone knows everything about everyone else so it sounds as though his reputation is very much at risk from this. We’re just glad to have it back and in the same condition as it was taken.

Cheers! Leaving /welcome dinner at Pariah State restaurant, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Back at the hostel, we stop to have a quick drink with Melissa, Emily, Nihiko, Hamish and Gen before heading to bed.

27 January 2020 (day 55)

It’s a gentle morning of resting in the room for Sara today. Nash meanwhile goes to Zambia and manages to find exactly the kind of boot Sara needs, and after much consultation and measuring of legs (his and hers) we settle on the size we think best suits her needs and he buys it and brings it back across the border for her.

I pack up our stuff and start loading it back onto the truck when I spot Steve getting some things ready for today’s drive to Botswana. I ask him about where Sara can sit given her leg and moon boot and if it’s possible maybe to take a table top off at the back of the truck so that she can sit with her leg up. He tells me wherever she is most comfortable she can sit, including in the cab with him, and he’ll take a look at the table top. By the time I’ve gone back to the room and returned to the truck, the table top is gone and Sara has a viable seat solution. I thank Steve, total hero, profusely and tell Sara the good news.

After lunch, we load everything, and Sara, onto the truck and say goodbye to Victoria Falls, our former truck mates, and the wonderful staff who’ve been so kind and helpful since Sara’s injury. Botswana here we come!

Sara’s new seating situation - thank you Steve for sorting!

It’s a short drive to the border and an easy border crossing, and we continue on to Kasane to do some shopping before arriving late afternoon at Thebe River Safaris, our campsite for the next couple of nights. I go to see if there’s the possibility of an upgrade into a room but Botswana isn’t backpacker friendly and the cost of an upgrade is prohibitively expensive. I explain about Sara’s leg and ask if there’s anything they can do on the price to make it more affordable, and the very kind people on reception make an exception and give us a much more achievable price for the room. Again we’re extremely grateful for the kindness of strangers and I thank them repeatedly.

The room is really lovely and I set Sara up in there for the rest of the day. She’s been rota’d out of chores because of her injury but I’m still part of the rota (boo!) so after dinner it’s washing up crew for me and then an early end before tomorrow’s game drive.

28 January 2020 (day 56)

This morning we have a game drive in Chobe National Park leaving at 5:45am and we’re very excited! I’m surprised by how much I still love game drives. When I saw the itinerary for this trip way back, I thought I’d probably get all safari’d out within a few parks, but I’m still just as excited to see the wildlife as I’ve ever been, and Sara too.

With us for the drive are Melissa, Jim, Ted, Jan, Gen, Hamish, Nihiko and Oli, and with Sara tucked safely in the passenger seat we’re off with our guide Shimi (spelling may not be accurate).

On the way to the park, we see elephants near the side of the road as well as a hyena. When we arrive at Chobe, we learn that the park is 11,700sq km and that the Chobe river is the border between Botswana and Namibia.

We set off on our drive and see some southern giraffes, Egyptian geese and guinea fowl. We’re gently pootling along when the radio in the car goes and Shimi turns the car around and takes off at pace. Sara overhears that a leopard has been spotted (pun not intended, but Sara enjoyed finding this while editing the blog), and it’s a source of great excitement for Jan as he’s still waiting on leopard to complete the Big 5.

Southern giraffe, Chobe National Park, Botswana

We turn around, passing other vehicles, and in the process see some impala play fighting down by the water, baboons (which are the enemy of the leopard during the day, so we know we won’t find one here), and banded mongooses. We spend at least half an hour searching for the leopard when at last we spot him strolling through the bushes beside us a very short distance away. The only other time we’ve really seen a leopard was one asleep in a tree way back in the Maasai Mara, and it’s really special to see one walking on the ground, probably preparing to hunt.

Play fighting impala, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Baboon business, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Banded mongoose, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Spotted!! Leopard in Chobe National Park, Botswana. Note: the noises in the above video are male impalas attempting to protect their herd and scare off the leopard — Spotted!! Leopard in Chobe National Park, Botswana.
**Note:** the noises in the above video are male impalas attempting to protect their herd and scare off the leopard

We keep pace with the leopard for a short while as it makes its way through the bush. There are no further signs of it making any moves to hunt and we move away to leave it to its day, elated at the sight and pleased for Jan that he now has the Big 5 complete!

Down by the river, we see marabou storks (the big ugly birds are back!), hippos in and out of the water (both Botswana and Namibia sides), Cape buffalo, a group of crocodiles eating a dead baby elephant, lilac-breasted roller, fish eagles, a black-backed jackal, more baboons, more impalas, puku, another hornbill, and a slender mongoose (a solitary animal with different markings than the banded mongoose).

A hippo and his egret entourage, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Crocodile picnic 🙁, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Lilac breasted roller, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Baboon family, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Our guide then gets a call over the radio and tells us there’s a mother lioness in the area; she’s been heard but not seen and we’re going to see if we can find her and her cubs. We drive around for some time but unfortunately without success other than to hear some quiet chuffing in the bushes. Wherever they are, they’re well hidden!

Next we see a family of warthogs with a number of adorable hoglets running around, and then in some trees we see both leopard faced and white backed vultures followed by a red billed francolin.

Oh how we do love pumbas! Chobe National Park, Botswana

Leopard faced vulture, Chobe National Park, Botswana

A red billed francolin doing the sultry look-over-the-shoulder pose, Chobe National Park, Botswana

The scenery is beautiful and the quiet of the morning is only broken by the occasional birds singing in the trees and bushes until suddenly we spot a female elephant right beside another safari vehicle on the road ahead of us. We’ve never seen elephants so close to a car and it’s pretty vicariously scary. We drive past that car and park up, and a few moments later the elephant makes its way over towards us. We stay quiet as he walks right up to the bonnet and moves the car’s aerial with his trunk before moving into the bushes.

He’s coming for us now! Chobe National Park, Botswana

Here he is! Chobe National Park, Botswana

Our car turns in the road and we then see that there are another four adult elephants with our one plus a very young baby; our guide tells us it’s a mother, baby, older sister and some other adult females.

Baby and big sis elephants, Chobe National Park, Botswana

We drive down the road in the same direction as the elephants are walking and stop at the end of a path our guide thinks they’re following. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later the elephants burst out of the trees and immediately come right up to the front of the car.

Momma, baby, and big sis coming to say hello: exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. Chobe National Park, Botswana

Sara is in the front passenger seat and I’m directly behind her on the left of the first row of the passenger section. We’ve been told many times of the danger presented by a mother with her baby, and here we are, faced with a huge mother elephant and her very small baby a few feet from us. None of the elephants seem to be displaying any signs of distress or giving warning signals or trumpets, and our driver seems pretty relaxed. We meanwhile are a mix of terrified and exhilerated at the proximity of the animals.

The mother passes a few metres from the car on the same side as Sara and I are sitting. She’s followed a few metres further away by the baby and the older sister. And then one of the other adults walks right up to the left side of the car beside me and Sara, so close we could easily have touched it if we’d reached an arm out of the car, and stops beside us, her head right beside me, to eat some foliage.

Elephants getting up close and personal in Chobe National Park, Botswana

We sit with breath held as she eats, completely in awe to be so close to a wild elephant but also still terrified at how much closer we now are to it than before (which was still really close!). She then moves on past the car and down the road, and Sara and I are both left with a strong sense of having experienced something very rare and special. This encounter with the elephants is easily one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life so far and is an immediate trip highlight.

A short while later we leave the park and head back to camp for breakfast. Some of the others go off on a game cruise along the Chobe River but because of her injured leg, Sara and I opt out and spend the remainder of the day resting in our room before I have to go off for cooking chores. Rich, Sam and I make a sweet and sour which is well received by the group (thank you, packet sauce!) and when they return from the cruise Melissa, Jan and Olly confirm our suspicions about the cruise, namely that Sara wouldn’t have been able to get onto the boat because of a narrow metal gangway. Correct decision made not to go. It’s then an early night for us as we’re leaving early in the morning for the drive to Maun and the Okavango Delta.