Grant Craig
It was surprisingly hard to say goodbye to Grant this morning. In a very short time, he has gone from being “Grant the safari operator” to “Grant, our friend.” We knew we were going off to do other things, more “citified” things, things where we wouldn’t NEED Grant to hold our hands — but both Fred and I felt bereft. Who would we turn to now with our questions? Who would point out the things we might otherwise miss? And we had just gotten to know him, and wanted to know more, and have time to talk about things we hadn’t had time for yet.
It was hard.
I will say this: there may be fancier safari operators in Africa. But there are none who know more and who care more and who share more than Grant Craig of Papadi Safaris. He cares, deeply, for the country, and the bush, and the animals, and he wants, deeply, for those he guides to come away with something of the same appreciation he has for the country, and the bush, and the animals. He became truly upset one night at the Moremi campsite when some campers started dragging a big log — far far bigger than they could possibly need as firewood — into their camp. He sent Likan to tell them it was against camp rules. But as he sat and explained to us, it wasn’t because it was against the rules. It was because it was against nature. If the logs don’t stay in place and rot, then there won’t be food for the termites, and if there aren’t any termites, then there won’t be honey badgers. (Grant loves honey badgers. Or, more accurately, he admires them for the bombastic, aggressive, don’t-mess-with-me critters that they are.) And if there aren’t honey badgers… and so on. To him, it’s a system, and a system that needs minimal impact from humans to survive. And he very much wants it to survive.
I do too. Now that I’ve been there, and seen it, and smelled it, and watched it… I do too.
But the sudden shift from being with Grant to being in a vehicle with strangers headed into a country renowned for its political turmoil was very disconcerting this morning. (It was especially disconcerting when, not 10 minutes inside the Zimbabwean border, we saw a police car pulling over vehicles with plates from other countries… A couple of young Swiss women who were stopped at the roadblock told us the police officer tried to shake them down and they simply played the “we don’t speak the language” card and were finally let go.)
Welcome sign
At any rate, we understood why Grant kept emphasizing that we needed US dollars and exact change for the visa fees for Zimbabwe when we were at the border station. First off, the whole transaction was a lot faster with US dollars than for folks with other currencies. Secondly, even though we could see plenty of bills in various currencies, nobody but nobody was being given change if they didn’t have the exact amount. Sort of a revenue-enhancement device, as far as we could see.
Amadeus Guesthouse
We arrived at the Amadeus Guest House without incident and found it to be everything Grant had described. It is very nicely appointed with beautiful grounds and nice folks at all levels from the room cleaners right up to the owners. We got everything set up for our extra activities — walking the Falls in the afternoon, dinner at The Boma tonight, lion walk in the morning, helicopter ride in the afternoon and sunset cruise later — and then headed off to an internet cafe to let folks know we were alive and well. (On our way back we ended up sharing the road with a troop of baboons. It surely reinforces that we’re not in Kansas any more, Toto!)
250 million dollars
Although we’re both very comfortable at the guest house, frankly Victoria Falls is not a comfortable place a week before the elections. There is a feeling of impending disaster that is almost tangible everywhere and the few people we encountered anywhere in Zimbabwe who would say anything (and then only in whispers) were not at all confident that political change could occur without violence. The economy is in ruins — at one point, a Zimbabwean gave us a $250 million Zimbabwean note — and it’s worth maybe a nickel, maybe less, in US dollars. The disconnect between the real value of the Zimbabwean currency and the government-sanctioned exchange rate is so great that nobody, but nobody, takes credit cards here. So… everywhere we went, we went with the vehicle from the guest house. It just felt better that way. All in all, I’d say that Victoria Falls is safe for tourists … in the day time, in groups, with escorts from travel companies or hotels-guest houses etc., and with US dollars in your wallet.
Victoria Falls
The Falls themselves are simply amazing from ground level. You can walk the entire Zimbabwean side of the Falls in about an hour (getting thoroughly soaked in the process) and unlike a lot of waterfalls that you see in pictures, the Victoria Falls tumble into a narrow gorge so that from where you stand to where the water is can be a very short distance. (Compare this to Niagara Falls where there’s a wide open area at the base of the falls.) We did our very best to protect things from the water and still didn’t manage. Some things in Fred’s backpack got wet, and I ended up not getting nearly as many photos as I might otherwise have gotten. But Fred personally made up for that!
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This evening, we went over to the Safari Lodge for drinks and for The Boma (a very touristy and great fun set-up for a dinner of traditional African foods). It was thoroughly enjoyable — and we FINALLY got to taste warthog! And, by gorry, it is wonderful stuff. A slightly gamey and flavorful meat that is clearly recognizable as a kissin’ cousin to pork. My only regret is that I didn’t have more! Also had a fruit salad that practically burned my mouth with whatever spice it had! Listened to a story teller and let the traditional medicine man throw bones and tell our fortunes. It was truly striking that there were mostly older people and Japanese tourists at the place and it was still not even half full.
Only took one photo at the Boma — my camera battery finally gave out. I’m in the process of charging a full set for both cameras because of the lion walk, helicopter flight and sunset cruise all scheduled for tomorrow.