Elephants, Helicopters and Fuzzy Ducks
Day Nine
The morning started early for me. A 5:00am wake up call to go visit some Elephants on the Jafuta Private Game Reserve. There was about a five minute stretch where I thought about turning off the alarm and going back to sleep in this big, beautiful comfortable bed. The last bed I would sleep in that wasn’t moving, shaking and swaying for the next five days. Tempting. But - when you have an opportunity like this, you take it. You can’t go home and tell your two animal loving boys…or really anyone else…that you had the opportunity to spend a morning with a herd of Elephants and you decided to go back to sleep instead. Unacceptable.
So - off I went. Surprisingly, I was the only one from our group to take advantage of the opportunity, but there were several others staying at the Victoria Falls Hotel with us that joined in. Three retired schoolteachers from the States who took a big trip together once a year. Best friends since high school. A German couple who did not speak English, but seemed pleasant. A recent college graduate from England who was “backpacking" through Africa. She told me her overnight stay at the Vic Falls Hotel was her “gift” to herself for making it to the half way point still alive. 22 years old...by herself...for three weeks. Badass.
I was going into this experience at Jafuta hoping that it was “the real deal” and I was not disappointed. The Jafuta Private Game Reserve has actually rescued the Elephants who live here and saved them from certain death. About 10 years ago, there was a terrible drought in Zimbabwe and everything at Jafuta was completely dried out. Animals were not able to survive, including the Mother of the largest herd in the area. She died in the drought, leaving 8 small calves behind, as well as a number of other larger male and female Elephants, all just trying to survive. With the help of a very wealthy local family, the Jafuta Reserve was created. They dug out large watering holes and created a water pumping system that fed into these holes providing a very important source of water for them. They made sure the Elephants were fed daily, in addition to letting them freely roam in protected areas to nourish themselves so they began to learn how to survive on their own. Present day, they do these “visits” with tourists like me as a way of continuing to financially support their Reserve. By law of the Reserve, these Elephants cannot “work” longer than two hours daily. Once the visit has concluded, they spend the remainder of the day on their own out in the Reserve. They are treated exceptionally well by their Rangers and you can tell the love they have for these animals when you sit and talk with them and see how proud they are of the work they are doing on the Reserve.
My Elephants name was “Taska” and was the largest male Elephant on the Reserve. I stood on the Platform and he walked over to greet me and take me for a walk around the Reserve. The saddles are not the least bit elaborate. Not what you see on TV. They really just amount to a large piece of burlap and some stirrups, less for human comfort and more to make sure the Elephants don’t feel my feet knocking against their chest during the walk. It’s really an indescribable feeling being on the back of this massive and beautiful animal. They have a side to side gait, versus a front to back gate like a horse, and it almost becomes hypnotic after a while. Every five minutes or so, Taska would flip his trunk back towards us and my Rover Indira would give it a pat and dump some “chocolates” in. Indira told me it was the Elephants way of saying, “Hey you back there…aren’t I doing a good job?”…and the pat and the “chocolates” were Indira’s way of saying “Yes”. Positive reinforcement is their only method of training here, and it seems to be working. After our 45 minute walk through the Reserve, Taska dropped me back off the the platform. Indira walked him over by a large tree and Taska sat down to wait for me. I spent the next 10 minutes sitting on his knee and feeding him. Those big eyes staring right into mine. An incredible experience from start to finish. Before the walk, they painted the bottom of Taskas foot and pressed it on this large piece of parchment paper. His footprint. No two Elephants the same. When I left, I was told I could bring the print home in exchange for a small donation to the Reserve. I made a not-so-small donation to the Reserve and now take Taska’s print home with me as a lasting memory of this experience.
Our next adventure of the day was to take what is called the “Flight of Angels”, which is a helicopter ride over the Victoria Falls. I met my Dad back at the Hotel and we jumped right into another jeep to take us out to the Helipad. Our ride would be taking us over the Falls and around an adjacent Game Reserve. Waterfalls and animals. No better way to spend a day. We boarded the Helicopter and headed off towards the Falls. The water that comes over Victoria Falls is the largest falling body of water on the planet, though they are neither the highest nor the widest waterfalls in the world. The Zambezi River, which is the fourth longest river in Africa, is the body of water that feeds into the Falls. Normally the water flows over the entire Falls, a massive stretch of land. But because we are here during low season (October-November), the flow to the falls is reduced anywhere from 10 to 20 percent. It is still a magnificent sight to see.
After safely landing, we headed back to the Hotel for lunch and some down time before getting back on the train for our last - and longest - stretch of track before reaching our final destination. As can now be expected, we managed to group up with Richard and Jan, Mark and Monique and Matt and Shelley for lunch…and then decided to have a drink and soak up the final hour at the Victoria Falls Hotel. We all said we could have used just one more night here. It is such a relaxing and beautiful Hotel. Beautifully landscaped with incredible views. It was nice to just sit, have a drink and enjoy each others company here.
We said goodbye to Vic Falls and got back on the train and headed back to the Lounge for another drink and some more quality time on the OC. After a few more drinks, we all headed to dinner. Dinner on the train is a long and relatively formal process. All meals are four courses, but are small and manageable and almost always very healthy. Since we’ve arrived, we have either done the lunch and not the formal dinner, or vice versa. Its all about pacing. I wish I would have remembered the pacing part on this particular night.
After dinner wrapped up, our little crew moved in closer and shared an after dinner drink. Audrey joined in, as did Ann Marie. Matt had proposed we play a game called “Fuzzy Duck”, which is a drinking game they play in New Zealand. Everyone was game. The game is too hard to describe here but involves a “Whizz”, “Boing” and “Bounce” and if you can’t keep track of what each off them means you either have to drink a sip of Tequila….or do what Richard did and make a farting noise with your mouth and point at Matt (which isn’t really part of the rules but made for a lot of good laughs). The game lasted probably longer than it should have. Another first for at least me: drunk on a train in the middle of Zimbabwe. My Dad was far better behaved and went to bed when I should have. I’ll tell you, being drunk on a train and getting back to your room is a great way to test your balance and dexterity. The good news is that because the hallways are so ridiculously narrow, the margin for error is really quite low.
