Feet-sucking elephants
The bus ride to Harare was fairly uneventful, except for the one time we got stopped by police, searching for money. Everyone in the bus filed off, then filed on as everyone opened their bags and the police officer peeked inside. Very unthorough; mostly a waste of time. When I arrived in Harare, I was given a ride by a pick-up taxi. I threw my things in the back and sat in the front. Mistake #1. As we drove along, the driver asking me how the police were on the road in to Harare, I looked back to check on my things. Lo and behold did I notice the guy in the back going through my bag. We were at a stoplight, so I jumped out in the back with him.
I looked at him, as he fumbled around, patting my bag as if it was ok. I searched my bag and realized he had stolen my rain pants. My rain pants are the most useless things I have with me. I got them for free before I left and I’ve never used them once during the whole trip. But principle reigns here…
“You stole my rainpants! Give me back my rainpants!” He took them out from under his shirt and handed them back. I looked around my bag to see what else was missing. He patted the bag some more to ensure me that nothing else was missing, which seemed to be true. “Come on, man,” I said. “I’m just here trying to enjoy Zimbabwe, Harare. Why do you gotta steal my stuff?” He gave me the look of death, and I was suddenly aware of my precarious position on the back of a pickup cruising through downtown Harare with a caught theif in front of me. Luckily the driver stopped to ask me where to go.
“This is fine,” I said, getting myself and my belongings out of the car. I gave the driver less money than we had agreed on(though I shouldn’t have given him anything), while the guy who tried to steal my stuff asked: “What about me?” “Dude. You just tried to steal my rain pants. Are you crazy? You get nothing.” They pulled away and I found my hotel.
I was a little unnerved by my welcome to Harare, so I decided to call Will that first night. Sure enough, he picked me up a little while later and we went out to the Microlight Club. The Microlight Club is where a bunch of locals fly and store their microlights, which are small planes. We had a few drinks out there, mostly by candlelight since the power was out.
Will invited me to stay at his house, so the next day Will picked me up and we dropped my things off at his house, where I met his maid, Jane, and some of his other workers, including a gardener, and two drivers. One of the drivers names was Rambo, which I though was an excellent name. After we dropped my stuff off, we went back out to the microlight club to go flying a bit and to have a braai (uh, this is local slang for barbecue).
I was a bit nervous to go up in the plane, but it was really great. Will took me up for a quick spin before he sailed solo, showing off his trademark landing on one wheel. It was Saturday, and the place was all abuzz with planes coming and going on the grass runway. There was also a second runway for model planes, but it clearly wasn’t as exciting.
I learned a little bit about microlights that day. There are fixed wing (like a little plane), and then there are, well, I forget what they’re called exactly, but maybe something like flexible wing. They pretty much look like little hanggliders with engines. They look pretty wobbly during take off and landing, so I was a little more apprehensive to try, but, well, of course I went for it.
It was pretty awesome. The best part was that the guy let me fly it for a little while. The steering is controlled by a cross bar that’s pushed forward to go up, pulled back to go down, and moved left and right to go right and left. On the way in for the landing, the guy pulled the bar hard, and we dropped fast…even the people back down on the ground said we went down fast. Whew! Good stuff.
The next day, one of Will’s friends picked me up in the morning and took me to the farm where he worked. The farm is owned by John Bredenkamp, who is apparently one of the richest men in England. (However, I later did research on him and found out he’s been selling illegal arms to the Congo….seriously – just Google him and check it out.) The man is so rich that he bought large wild animals for him farm; then he yelled at all of his workers to mow the bush because the grass was too high and he couldn’t see his animals.
So, we went for a drive around the farm. It was a free game drive, which is awesome because people pay over $100/day to do this stuff in places like Tanzania. He first took me to see some nice bushman paintings, which were in pretty good condition. For most of the day, we drove around, finding all sorts of antelope-types, zebras, giraffes, etc.
One highlight was seeing the ostriches. That may be the first time I’ve ever seen ostriches, and, well, damn that’s a big bird. We also sat for a good hour or so watching a small family of rhinos during their feeding time, which caused all sorts of antics, including a small fight over a pile of hay and the two cute baby rhinos getting acquainted with each other.
The grand finale of the day was getting to pet the elephants. They were in their cages (they go in for the night), as it was the end of the day. I fed them hay and this gunk that’s supposedly molasses – they love it! They just sucked the stuff right out of my hand. Pretty weird. But the weirdest of all was when one kept sucking my foot. I’m not sure what he was so interested in, but it’s really strange to have an elephant’s tusk sucking on (and consequently slobbering on) your foot.
There were three elephants; one male and two females. The females were nice (they were the ones sucking my feet), but the male was a bit of a jerk. At one point, when I was feeding him hay, he wrapped his trunk around my arm and started pulling me in…ahh! Not funny…I got my arm out and all, but did not enjoy that. Here I go feeding the little bugger hay and I get my arm pulled. Not cool elephant, not cool.
Tags: Zimbabwe, Tag Index
Tania
November 9th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Stupid elephants. nrnrI’m still stunned about the arms dealer. nrnrWoah.
December 18th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
The elephant skull is amazing. Did someone stick that feather there, or was it left by some gianormous vulture!?