On to Zimbabwe-Linkwasha Camp #2

This morning when we woke up early and looked out, there was a large herd of impala grazing very close to our deck. I also heard a lion snort about this time and that was later confirmed by the guide. Today we had two flights, one on the bigger 12 seater plane and one on the small 5 passenger plane. We got in the game vehicles and drove to the airfield which was about a 30 minutes drive, looking for animals along the way. Right beside the airstrip, we spotted two big ostrich! They posed for us beautifully and we sat and enjoyed watching them for several minutes before driving on around to the "airport" which consisted of a canvas roof over poles. The plane landed and we all got on and off we went. We arrived at the Kasane airport, which is a regular airport, though very tiny. They do have security though and an xray machine for you to go through when you fly out. In Kasane, we got on our small bus and drove into the town of Kasane. We only had about 20 minutes here, so we ran into the grocery store and got some crackers to eat. Our guide picked up sandwiches, fruit and drink, for us to eat on the bus on the way to Victoria Falls. We had to stop at the Botswana border and go through customs and getting stamped out of Botswana. Then we stopped and were stamped into Zimbabwe just down the road. At the Victoria Falls airport, we got on two 5 seater planes and our trip leader, Ntando, came 2 hours later on a similar flight. So our two groups of 5 left at the same time and we could look out and see each other's plane part of the way. We had to fly around two thunder storms which was a big unsettling, but I just shut my eyes and prayed and made it just fine. To get in these small planes, the pilot has to raise his seat like you would in a two door car, to let those of us in the backseat. It is VERY small. When we landed, we were met by the camp's vehicles and it was about an hour drive to our camp, Linkwasha, which was a private concession in the Hwange National Park. On the way, we saw a big herd of wildebeastand many zebras. We saw another cori bustard too, the biggest flying bird. When we arrived, we were served lunch again even though we had had the sandwich on the bus. They definitely feed you well on these trips!
The tents here are basic looking on the outside but on the inside they were about the nicest ones we'd had. We looked out on another watering hole in the distance and the tents were really comfortable. We had a lounger couch in this one in addition to the beds. All the camps did your laundry for free, but if it was rainy, it took awhile for them to dry as they did not have dryers. When it was sunny, things dried fast fast fast. When it was rainy, they didn't. But we were lucky enough to have sunny days that would dry the wet things at just the right time so we never ran out.

That afternoon, we went on our evening game drive and it was a fabulous one. We saw our first rhino-a big white rhino which is the kind of rhino that are at Hwange. Ntando said he saw one on the way in from his flight not long before so the guides took us to that area and were able to locate him. We just sat and watched this massive creature. Awesome. We had our sundowner by a waterhole that had a huge herd of elephants, including lots of babies. One very small baby fell in the water and the mother had to use her trunk to upright him. That elephant had a bigger sister that was there too and you could almost see the sibling rivalry-She was a bit jealous of the new arrival. It was great fun to watch. By the time we got back in the vehicles, it was dark and the guides used their infrared lights to spot the eyes of animals in the bush. That was so much fun. We saw several nocturnal birds, a bushbaby, and quite a few spring hares, which are like tiny kangaroos. We saw a black backed jackel and several other things.