22 Hours of flight time and still kickin'

Okay! So. A minor update as I only ten minutes of internet time left.

My trip down to Zim. went off with relatively few hitches. I managed to get on the correct flight and thus did not end up in Siberia. I was lucky enough to have a pretty cool fellow sitting next to me for the whopping 18 and a 1/2 hours of flight time. The food was of a surprising quality for airplane fare. A large dinner and a buffet in the back of sandwiches, drinks, and snacks throughout the entire flight. Upon touching down I contacted Gertie who was the propriater of the inn I was staying at. She proceeded to give me horrid directions as to where I was to be picked up. "Go left. Look for a giant yellow container thing." What she failed to mention was how long left or that the container was actually in a parking lot wwwwaaaaaaay down and around a corner on the left hand side. The bed was decent, but being hassled about paying them was a bit of an annoyance. They seemed to think I was going to stiff them. No clue why.

The flight to Zim. also went well and I managed to get to the park without any troubles. Its an interesting country. Much much different from the US in terms of culture. That aside, its BEAUTIFUL. I saw quite a bit of scenery on the two hour drive from Bulawayu to Antelope park. Upon arriving I was given a nice room to myself, a tour, and was greeted by pretty much the entire staff. This tour took around fifteen minutes and I was then given the option to do a lion walk. I, of course, took it.

It too was amazing.

The two lions (Sahara and Siva), despite being only a year old, are massive. They could easily do quite a bit of damage. We walked and played with the "Cubs" for around an hour and a half. At one point they climbed up a rather large tree with the ease of giant meat eating squirrels. Apparently lions can be quite the climbers. Once this one done, myself and the two other volunteers and two staff members went back for a bite to eat. The food was great, although I feel very guilty eating it. The staff are only allowed minimal amounts of food whilst we get our pick of some very high quality chow.

As for my fellow volunteers, six are at victoria falls until Friday and two have remained here. The two here are very nice and friendly, although apparently the younger group at Vic Falls are a very rowdy/hilarious bunch. I've already been entered into a drinking contest with the current absentee champion Elaine. Should prove to be an interesting two months.

I also lied about the minor part of this update. Go go amazing typing skills.

I'll have pictures the next post.