I had just a few minutes to check my phone before it was time to meet our guide. I checked Instagram and found that my niece, Rebecca, is running the NY Marathon and raising money for Zara's Place in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. I showed it to our guide and found out he is from there. We are fair ways out of Victoria Falls so the staff that works here lives in-site for 28 days and then are off for seven. He gets to see his family only during that time.
This afternoon, we saw lots of different kinds of antelope, unfortunately no good photos, of the Dika (the smallest antelope), Kudu, or Roan, which are an endangered species.
Hwange has four of the big five. We've already seen lots of elephants, a number of lions, and today there was a herd of, what our guide estimated to be, 500 water buffalo. It was amazing.
While the park does have leopards, we are unlikely to see any. They are even harder to spot than cheetahs and so far, we've not lucked out on those.
There are only a few places in Africa to see rhinos. Their numbers are closely monitored since there are so few.
As we drove around, we got to see antelope gracefully leap into the air while running. It amazed me how high they can go.
The other amazing and touching thing is to see the moms and the babies. Whether it's the purring of the lioness as she licks her cub, the baboon carrying her baby on her back, the elephant who nudged the baby along, the zebras who formed a tight circle around the little ones when they thought there was danger, maternal care (and I'm going to say love) is everywhere ❤️.
We were out as the sun went down on another perfect day.
