About an hour into our afternoon game drive, I was wishing I hadn't sent it the morning activities already. We have very spotty Internet, and Google had failed to save at times! and the post was getting long so off it went.
The day got hot, as predicted. There had been little rain and what should be green and verdant, is brown and dry. Since we weren't seeing animals, the guide started stopping at trees and explaining them to us. It was interesting but really, we were here for the animals.
A few interesting things we learned:
Hwange National Park 14,600 square kilometers, nearly half of the land area of Zimbabwe. It is an area bigger than Belgium.
It is home to the largest number of elephants. There are over 45,000 elephants but the park can ideally sustain 25,000. Still, there is no hunting or culling.
The elephants have damaged many trees searching for moisture.
About 30 minutes later, the guide spotted a male lion! As we made our way over, he realized what he had seen was a mating pair of lions.
Lions mate nearly every 20 minutes for three days. We waited to watch them mate and then lie together until it was time again. Both lions vocalize during the process. It was quite amazing to witness. There were elephants and impalas all around but the lions had only one thing on their minds.
We hung out some more watching the elephants and spotting a crocodile.
Later, we saw the three cubs and two lioness from the morning. The guide placed their age at four months. He also spotted the third lioness from the morning and her three cubs, which he estimated were 7 weeks old. They looked just like fuzzy, furry stuffed animals. We watched as they wrestled and seemed to be still learning to walk in their big paws. It was hard to get photos.
Cub
