Marina and Marijke were only in town for 10 days, which were completely filled with work at the Bible Society of Zimbabwe, where they were helping the local team with some translation work into various local Zimbabwean languages. The two could only get away for one day, and like many responsible travellers, they believe in sustainable tourism, wherein you contribute both to the tourism as well as build capacity in local institutions and organisations.
I enjoy early starts, and so I picked them up at 6:30am from their hotel. Harare was pretty hot, and so I was in shorts and none of us had jackets. What a mistake that turned out to be! Marondera, a town where Imire Game Park Zimbabwe is located, was under a heavy dark cloud, and as cold as winter. Kate was kind enough to offer us blankets to take with us on the safari truck, and boy were we grateful. The morning tea and cookies were a delight, and made us forget about the cold, temporarily!
I picked out a few photos that represent the great time we had out at Imire, and have put them in this blog post, so enjoy:
Rescued from the abuse he was facing being kept as a pet. Imire is now a retirement home, where he will spend the rest of his life being well taken care of…
These two boys are probably the smartest I have seen in a long time. They knew so much about flora, fauna and avifauna. They just knew it all and were schooling us adults in the safari truck!
The Eland is a sacred antelope in Zimbabwe, it is believed that if you upset it in the wild, your chances of returning unharmed are very little, so be sure to stay on the good side of the Eland.
Lunch is definitely a highlight on the Imire Game Park Zimbabwe day trip. The food is good and well prepared, and of course the wine to top it all off.
You can’t help but shout PUMBA each time you see these guys!
The lone crocodile, survivor of the heavy rains from last year that swept away the other crocs when the pond got too full…
Turns out the elephant was rescued as a baby, and since it could not join the bigger elephants, the buffalos adopted him, and now he is suffering from an identity crisis because he is convinced he is a buffalo. He has killed several male buffalos in order to maintain his alpha male status!
I wish I could remember what we were talking about here, but alas! We do look like we were deep in conversation though!