22 MONTHS DOWN... 3 TO GO

I just realized this is my first blog post in 2021.  Three months in.  Definitely goes to show how this strange world we’re living in these days really messes with our sense of time.  Days, weeks, months of being locked down, not seeing people, keeping to ourselves has a way of distorting how fast those days, weeks, months are passing.  Three months ago, we were getting ready for Christmas... but it feels like it was just a few days ago.  Three months from today, we’ll be touching down in Portland for first time in two years… and I know those three months will pass by just as quickly.  So – better start covering some ground and make sure we take in as much of Zim as we can while we still have time!

A flame lily - the national flower - on our New Year's Day hike at Mukuvisi Woodlands.

Inauguration Day on the veranda.

We’re still technically on “lockdown” here.  Borders are open and there are flights coming and going from the airport, but lots of businesses are closed and you need a negative COVID test to leave the country and return.  Seems like too much work.  So we’ve just been sticking close to home.  We spent New Year’s Day doing a hike in a local park about 20 minutes from the house.  To mark this historic inauguration, we busted out some of our unused 4^th of July decorations and had a few folks over to watch the event on TV.  And for our “R&R” vacation, we did a road trip around Zim.  Folks serving in “hardship posts” generally get one (or more) R&R during the course of a tour in which the U.S. government (and all you thoughtful and generous taxpayers) give us a plane ticket to get out of the country.  The idea is to give us a change of scenery where we can get a bit of respite from the hassles of living in more challenging places.  Alas, I thought the ordeal of chasing down COVID tests and braving crowded airports did not seem like my idea of an “R&R” – so we opted for a 3-week road trip instead.

We spent the weekends between our road trips back at the house.  Croquet in the side yard, anyone?

Or a dip in the pool?  Not a bad place to have to endure a year-long pandemic lockdown.

First stop… Hwange National Park in the western part of the country near the Botswana border.  We’d visited Hwange in July last year when we were still deep in the throes of a long-term drought.  In the intervening months, we’ve managed to get a lot of rain.  It started raining in November and kept raining almost daily (at least a passing shower) until just the last couple of weeks.  So on this visit to Hwange, everything was green and lush.  Whereas in July, all manner of animals crowded around the few-and-far between waterholes, this time there was water – and tall grasses – everywhere.  Made for decidedly more difficult mammal viewing… but the variety of birds put on quite a show.

Over yonder!  Elephants!

The grey crowned crane.  Part bird, part showgirl.

Carmine bee eater.  Or cotton candy on a stick.

Racket-tailed rollers.

All sorts of antelope and buffalo passed by the lodge - and these 3 elephants.

Not sure if this trunk move is the equivalent of waving hello or flipping the bird.

Kudu.  One of my favorite antelopes.

Lilac breasted roller.  

The aptly named knob billed duck.

A quick stop back home in Harare to do laundry and then back on the road to… Lake Kariba on the northern border with Zambia.  This was our first trip to Kariba, and it honestly hadn’t been something that was lighting a fire under me to visit.  It’s basically a giant reservoir on the Zambezi River and a source of hydropower for Zimbabwe (when there’s water in the lake and the power plant is working).  The drought had left water levels at their lowest point in years when we arrived in Zim in 2019, and I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about making a 5-hour trip to see a dry lake bed.  But, again, the rains have brought up the water levels, and the floodplain surrounding the lake was lush and green and teeming with elephants and antelope.  We stayed at a lodge right on the lake and had a wonderful guide who took us out for game drives and sundowners on the lake, and it was a magical trip.  The power of low expectations – you can find amazing experiences where you least expect them.

That's just me hanging out with an elephant.

Did I mention the lodge had a pool?  

This tortoise added some variety to the usual safari sightings.

This was one of several pretty spectacular sunsets in Kariba.

Just sit right back an you'll hear a tale.  A three hour tour...

Another awesome sunset... and moonrise.

Elephants... EVERYWHERE!

The elephants at Kariba are smaller than the ones in Hwange... but their tusks are enormous.

The very rare flying impala.

These were the hugest herds of impala we've seen.  Clearly, lions have not discovered this treasure trove yet. 

Oh, the elephants and impala can be friends.

Check out the little guy.

A quintessential photo of Africa.

Showing us their best side.

More littles.

These dead trees are still there from when the dam was built and the basin flooded in 1960.

And this is why there's no swimming in the lake.

These African darters use the tree snags for their nesting colonies.

"Everyone in!"

Kariba was definitely more picturesque than I thought it would be.

Back to Harare to load up the car with groceries (and do another load of laundry) for our last leg… to Vumba in the eastern highlands on the border with Mozambique.  We’d visited Vumba in July 2019 as our first trip out of Harare when we first arrived.  The eastern highlands are some of my favorite scenery in the country.  Rolling hills, pine trees, lovely vistas.  We stayed at an Airbnb and spent lazy days on the veranda, enjoying the view, reading, playing games.  We took a hike one day to a pretty waterfall along a hill crest with stunning views.  The trail went through a mango orchard, along a stream, and through woodland forest.  My happy place.

Hiking through the woodlands.

Our reading, games, crosswords, napping spot for the week.

On the road in the eastern highlands.  That over yonder is Mozambique.

Now the countdown is on.  Three months to go… and it will go fast.  We’re starting to organize the myriad logistics involved in moving us – and our stuff – back to DC (temporarily) and then on to Indonesia.  And, of course, we’re still working at our hectic, regular jobs in the midst of it all.  We have one more trip planned over the long Easter weekend to see one more part of Zim that we have yet to visit.  We’re definitely going to make the most of the little remaining time we have left.

COUNTDOWN TO 2021

And just like that, another year has come and gone. And this one couldn’t go fast enough. While the months of teleworking and social distancing continue on, we were happy to be able to take a break and head to Victoria Falls in November. This was our first trip to Victoria Falls, and since Zimbabwe’s land borders had not yet opened, we had the national park and the resort where we stayed practically to ourselves. 

Why did the elephant cross the road?  These huge animals would disappear into the bushes within 10 feet of the road.

Much easier to spot when they're out in the open.  

Or when there are 50 of them.

After years of ongoing drought, the past couple of months have brought some much-welcomed rain. We stayed at a lodge on the Zambezi River, and during our game drives and other outings, it was remarkable how the rain had turned the landscape so lush and green. It made for some beautiful scenery… and gave the wildlife lots of cover, making them less easy to spot than on our previous safaris.

Just look for the giraffe heads sticking up out of the bushes.

We watched these two playing around for like 20 minutes.

Definitely lots of good birdwatching on this trip.  Here's a ground hornbill... which we inexplicably never saw on the ground - only in the trees.

We wrapped up a couple of days with a sunset float on the Zambezi.

You can see why we liked this sunset spot.

Some local Zambian fishermen on the river.

...And an Australian fisherman too.

Goggles are a fashionable choice to spare your eyes from the flying bugs in the open-air safari trucks after night falls.

This trip also brought us to Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia, so we had a chance to finally see what is arguably Zimbabwe’s biggest tourism draw. Being from Oregon with its bevvy of waterfall offerings, before setting eyes on Victoria Falls, I was thinking waterfall schmaterfall. But Victoria Falls is definitely something to behold. It goes on and on. There was a half-mile-ish long trail that offered about 15 different viewpoints of the falls along the way. Each one was different and all were spectacular. We easily spent a couple hours or more there, and we saw only a handful of other tourists the entire time. Our guide said during The Before Times, there would be busloads of tourists walking the trails and waiting in line for photo ops at various lookouts. But on our visit, we had the park almost to ourselves. We took a little drive through Victoria Falls town on our way back to the lodge, and while it is clearly set up for – and eagerly awaiting the return of tourists – it was very sleepy and quiet. Another sad reminder of the toll this virus is taking around the world.

At the first of 15 viewpoints along Victoria Falls.

We visited right at the beginning of the rainy season, so this was pretty much low flow.  At its peak, you can't even see the falls because of all the mist.  I think we timed our visit perfectly.

You can see some of that mist that Victoria Falls is known for here.  In the bantu language the falls are called “mosi-oa-tunya” – the smoke that thunders.

A post-hike visit to the landmark Victoria Falls Hotel built in 1904.

The hotel's veranda was an excellent spot to cool off with a refreshing beverage.  Our waiter shared with us that former Zimbabwe president (slash authoritarian dictator) Robert Mugabe and David Hasselhoff had sat at our table... though not at the same time, I was disappointed to learn.

Our holidays this year similarly reminded us that these are not normal times. For the first time in probably 30 years, I did not cook or bake anything for Thanksgiving. Instead, we joined a few friends at a local restaurant where we sat outside and enjoyed Zimbabwe’s take on a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner – complete with turkey and all the fixings. We joined mostly the same group of folks for a Christmas potluck. I’m thankful for the small group of friends in our “pandemic pod” with whom we can gather to mark these occasions, and for the mild, pleasant weather that Zim has given us all year that make our outdoor gatherings possible year round. 

Our front porch where we've spent a lot of time during lockdown.

Our outdoor Thanksgiving celebration with our pandemic pod.

Of course, all that said, I will eagerly welcome the return of some kind of normalcy where we can greet each other with a hug, reduce our dependency on hand sanitizer, and have parties and gatherings where we can invite as many folks as we want. As the holidays came and went this year in a very unconventional way, our countdown to 2021 now begins in full. Here’s hoping the new year gives us all a fresh start and renewed hope for better times to come. Wishing you all a safe and healthy 2021!