The Falls of Victoria

After a three-day trip to Sossusvlei from Windhoek, following an emotional departure from Harnas -- as is generally the case at the end of one’s last week -- I flew to Johannesburg then on to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe the next day. Incidentally, I had a splendid night’s sleep at the Country Hideaway Guest House near the Joburg airport and would recommend a stay with Colin and Diane if you need a place to stay for a night or two.

My arrival in Victoria Falls was nothing like I might have expected based on media and commentary from people before I left. Maybe I was sheltered, maybe not from the moment I arrived, maybe not. Having spent two weeks in Vic Falls and the surrounding area, interacting with locals on a daily basis, I would encourage people to go to Zimbabwe, especially the Victoria Falls area. As a general rule, people were very friendly, warm, and hospitable. They are of course eager to have people visit -- in part to help their incredibly depressed economy, in part to share stories with. From a very early point during my stay there, I recognized that my time in Zimbabwe would be as much about the people I encountered as the lions, if not more so. This recognition or decision was brought to my attention a couple of times during my stay, once by new friend Adi (whom I’ll be visiting in Tel Aviv soon), once by Mike (from Afar).

Speaking of people, I should point out that the African Impact volunteer program at Vic Falls was not without it’s challenges for me. It seemed from shortly after I arrived that volunteers and what’s expected of them were so incredibly different from how things were at Harnas. Whereas we worked very hard at Harnas every day, it seemed that the situation of the Vic Falls volunteer program was more one of an eco-holiday where volunteers could take off a morning or a full day or several days to engage in some adrenaline sport or go on safari or do whatever they might like to do. The only work involved was either cutting up meat every other day or so for cub feeding, occasionally sweeping a lion enclosure area to keep it tidy and presentable, and going on walks with or without clients. I heard just before I left that this was going to change. Still waiting for reports from the trenches. The very nice aspect of the AI/ALERT (African Lion & Environmental Research Trust) project is both the conservationist focus and the ecological research that makes up a significant portion of the program. At Vic Falls, the resident ecologist is Zibusiso Ncube (yes, for the uninformed ‘c’ represents a dental click in his last name). Zie quickly became a friend of mine who I already miss and hope to see again some day. -- Anyone know of projects in the US that would sponsor a skilled wildlife ecologist to come for a while? -- Curiously, although I was learning more from him and the guides and lion handlers and scouts and coordinators and other staff there, I was called "Professor" during my stint at the Masuwe project site. Conversations I had with the staff remain the more memorable and meaningful component of my time there. Surely, had I not spent three weeks at Harnas working and playing closely with lion cubs, cheetahs, vervets, baboons, turkeys, mice, snakes, vultures, and the like, my impressions about my Zim experience would be different. As it is, I’m very glad things worked out like they did and that I did both.

Two highlights for me were

1. getting a tiny bit of exposure to Shona and Ndebele (which I did more than Shona). If I could have stayed in Zim for a couple of months, I would certainly have been able to have brief yet non-trivial conversations with people about daily goings on. Oh well.... next time (?)


2. working a bit on some of the more scientific aspects of the rehabilitation & release program: spoor measurement, behavior monitoring, etc.
   

Some notes on daily transportation:

• picking up and dropping people off on the side of the road who are presumably waiting for or coming from some other transportation rocks.


• Hopping on the back of the open air, no seatbelt truck with bench seats 5 ft in the air, rolling over gravel bumpy roads, etc. also rocks.

And some notes on food at the Zim project:

• spaghetti bolognese


• crocodile roll and "large" portion of chips (i.e., fries)


• fried bream (tilapia), fries, salad


• beef or lamb curry w/ rice, steamed cauliflower & broccoli


• chicken fricasse


• tasty tasty crisps (i.e., chips)


• pap & chundu sauce


• greens


• Gift Mathe’s most famous braai on the night game drive!

On the whole, food at the project in Zimbabwe was superb.
On the whole, my time at the AI/ALERT project was superb.

Swimming in the Zambezi river and only sort of caring about a crocodile who happened to be lying on the beach about six or seven meters away was just crazy.

I’d also write about the safari I went on with Adi in Chobe National Park, but my eyes were closed for much of the time so that I can go back to Botswana with Shawna et al. one day.

Namibian Greeting, Sossusvlei Style

... and goodbye to Namibia
... for now ...

The Lost Weeks

It all started Monday morning when the winds at Harnas were stronger and coming from a different direction. Things seemed different overall. My morning activity consisted of “farm work” (removing parts of a baboon enclosure for reuse in a new wild dog enclosure) with three other volunteers and a San Bushman named Whisky. While taking down a 55-gallon oil drum from the back of the trailer, Whisky pointed behind me to Zebe, a full-grown zebra that -- I’ve

come to find out since the incident -- has bitten a bushman or two, kicked a volunteer or two, and is generally a problematic animal. Before I could put the oil drum back on the trailer or even drop it, the zebra reached over the short wire fence and bit into my lower back.

The pain was intense. I screamed probably unlike I’ve ever screamed before since the pain was unlike any I’ve felt before. I could see my escape route, but I needed him to let go in order for me to get to it: under the trailer was where I was going. For about 30 seconds this zebra was biting and sucking. Because of his position I couldn’t hit him, but a couple of the bushmen ran over and tried to get him off of me. I had fallen to the ground, closer to my escape route but was still attached to the animal. Finally, the hold was gone, and I pulled myself through the dirt under the trailer to the other side, where Jule, Mette, and Katrin were in various stages of shock but ready to attend to me.

Marnus eventually rode up on a quad bike, but I couldn’t be taken back on the ATV. The pick-up truck was on its way to get the Brothers or the Babies and accompanying volunteers when it was diverted to come get me to go back to the farm. En route, the truck rolled with Rebecca and Megan inside. Someone else was now on his way on a tractor with a trailer to bring us back to the farm. Finally the tractor comes lumbering along. We made our way along bumpy sandy paths in the trailer, with me laying my head on Katrin’s lap trying not to think about what my back might look like and certainly trying to keep my mind off the pain. I’m fairly certain the bruises I had for a while on my left hip were a result of bumping along in the trailer. Oh well.

At this point, Marnus had already said he’d never seen anything like the wound on my back. He fortunately also added that the zebra did not puncture my skin. Nevertheless, the next several people also said they’d never seen anything like this before. Right. It’s a good thing I a) couldn’t see what my back looked like and b) was too busy not focusing on the pain to really think about what that meant: “ I’ve never seen ANYTHING like that before!” It would seem that my skin had been balled up and twisted. There was a lot of discoloration and swelling. I have yet to see pictures that were taken right after.

This is the point where my nurse shift happened. I went to lie down on a mattress and had my nurse Barbara looking after me. Cheri, I believe, went to get my backpack or just my iPod shuffle (i.e., "mix tape") that had been given to me as a gift before leaving on this adventure. That’s really all I wanted then. Barbara tried in vain to not make me laugh while pointing out wildlife in a book but kept me company. An hour or so later, Becca, Megan, and I were transported to Gobabis to see a doctor.

Without dragging this tale on any longer, I ended up getting a type of second-skin bandage called Tegaderm (by 3M) which I change every few days. Everything seems to be healing, although I have no idea what the end result of that healing process will look like.

The majority of the week following that saw me helping out with various IT issues and projects in the office rather than spending much time doing farm work or walking lions or cheetahs, etc. Although it was nice to feel like I was contributing on some level to the programs at Harnas in the first days of recuperation, it was certainly frustrating to be in a building in front of a computer rather than out in the bushveld with the animals.

... I'll close the blog chapter on Harnas by simply saying that, despite the above incident and the ramifications I'm still very aware of, I wrapped up my stay with such positive feelings about this place, in particular for a caracal named Tammy and a 1/2 African wildcat named Malcolm who curled up next to my head in my sleeping bag one night. Those two kitties were the last animals I said goodbye to the day I left Harnas. If only I could have taken both of them with me as I traveled on. I think cutting up bits of meat for them everyday could get expensive though.