In March of 2014, I took a trip to Africa with a group of about 35 Grand Rapids area United Methodists. I learned about the trip from sister Cindy, who is active in the church, and they let me join them even though I am not a believer. (Some of the photos below are mine, others are Cindy's. Click on a photo to see a larger version. You can also go from photo to photo and skip the narrative.) The purpose of the trip was to dedicate a new "retreat center" at Africa University, established in 1990 in Zimbabwe by the United Methodist Church. Members of the West Michigan Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church got the idea for the center on a previous visit. A place to stay was needed by visitors to AU, which is several miles outside of Mutare, the nearest city. The West Michigan Conference raised half of the $1 million cost of the center. We were to be the first visitors to stay at the newly-completed facility. Since Carol and I were at our Clearwater, FL condo, I flew from Tampa and met the rest of the group at Dulles Airport. Then we flew South African Airways to Johannesburg, with a stop in Dakar, Senegal. The flight duration was 16 hours, and it was torturous. My tailbone is not sufficiently padded for long flights on hard seats. It was painful and I got little sleep sitting up. The food wasn't bad, however, and the liquor was free. We stayed at a hotel near the airport and the next morning took a flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The airport there is tiny, and it took us an hour or so to get through Immigration. We each paid $45 for a double-entry visa (since we would later leave the county and re-enter).
Then on to Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. Our stay here was a highlight of the trip. We were greeted with warm, wet towels and cool drinks. The place was beautiful, consisting of several thatched-roof buildings on the northern edge of a high plateau that, from the deck off the dining area and the balconies of our rooms, afforded a wide view of the countryside. In the distance in one direction could be seen the Zambezi River, which flows over Victoria Falls. In another direction was the city of Livingstone, across the border (the river) in Zambia. But most of the view was forest. A quarter of a mile below the lodge was a watering hole where kudu, impala, wart hog and guinea fowl hung out. (We never saw any of them touch the water; maybe it was because it had been rainy and there was no water shortage.) At dusk one evening, we saw the shadowy figures of elephants passing by the watering hole.
The staff were all black except for one young white woman, Claire, who told me her ancestors were among the original white settlers in Zimbabwe. Her father is a field agent for Shell Oil in Zimbabwe. On the whole trip, we saw few whites who were not tourists.
Each day at 1:00 was vulture feeding time. Lodge staff tossed out whole hams and other large hunks of meat and the vultures, who'd been waiting in a nearby tree, scrambled after the meat and devoured it all within 15 minutes. Video here. The rooms were bright and clean and nicely furnished. Each afternoon, a staff person came in and let down the mosquito netting that enclosed each bed. When I mentioned that we'd seen no mosquitoes, he said they nevertheless wanted us to have the full safari experience. The shower, separate from the stand-alone tub, was large and had a glass wall enclosing only one end. The shower head was on the ceiling and about 8 inches in diameter, and felt like standing in a heavy rain. The refrigerator was stocked with wine, beer and water (2 each), and was re-stocked daily, no charge.
Victoria Falls is one of the biggest falls in the world, the widest continuous sheet of falling water. And it doesn't fall and continue forward downstream. It falls into a deep canyon, and the flow at the bottom is perpendicular to the falls, so you can get a good view of the falls from the opposite side of the canyon. And the spray from the crashing water is trapped in the canyon, with no where to go but up, and an ever-present cloud of spray rises above the falls. The natives call the falls "the smoke that thunders". You can see that "smoke" in the first photo below, taken from our river cruise boat on the Zambezi. The others were taken on our walking tour of the falls, during which the unprepared got thoroughly soaked by the falling spray. At one end of the falls is a bridge connecting Zimbabwe with Zambia. The adventurous are allowed to bungee jump off the bridge.
Our last night at the lodge, we attended a Boma dinner for all the guests. It was in a big building designed for eating and partying and I assume it was part of the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge complex. We had a buffet dinner with a whole lamb roasted on a spit and other meat selections, including warthog steak and eland meatballs, plus salads, sides and desserts. Also offered were mopani worms, which I tried and found to be tough and not particularly tasty. After dinner, there was entertainment with crowd participation. Drums were passed out to everyone, and we got a lesson in drumming. Then we crowded around the dance floor and several of us were encouraged to dance solo.
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