Southern Province

OK friends, this is gonna be a longer post and I’m going to actually dictate this post versus painfully type it out. So I can cram more information in while I have time before we head out in half an hour. So expect typos and disjointed sentences and what not. That’s my disclaimer.

I’d like to tell you a little bit about what’s been happening these last couple days. Every day has been very full. We do have some free time during the early afternoon, but the free time always ends up getting filled up with taking care of living life… So it is actually challenging to fit time in to post videos and pictures and then write about our day. Because the Internet Wi-Fi is very slow, it can take half an hour sometimes to upload any changes. So this morning I skipped an activity so I can be a little more informative on today’s post.

In the pictures with the rhinos, you may have noticed heavy, scattering of what it would appear to be rhino done. Which it is. We learned that rhinos will pick a certain area in the park that they will use as their bathroom. They don’t just go anywhere as they roam throughout the park. When they need to do the big nasty, they will somehow seem to migrate back to these central areas to do their business. Where we found these rhinos in the two videos and pictures. This is a very common area that they hang out.

The four armed machine gun, armed century guards that you observed in the videos, those are locked and loaded and they’re there to take out the poachers. In the last Safari that we visited. We actually had a hour and a half lecture by a botanist/ecologist and very educated man who talked to us about poaching and trophy hunting, and the differences. He did not try to persuade us to change our thinking about trophy hunting, but it’s actually very informative and some peoples minds they were, able to see both sides of the same issue. Like one gal said, there’s two sides to thin pancake.

Personally, I went away from that lecture believing that poachers should be executed & shot on the spot. No questions asked. No court of justice. Just shot. And those armed guards by the way are permitted to do exactly that. And the second opinion that I originally had about trophy, honey, was modified to believe that it can be a good thing.

The annual revenue for trophy hunting in Zimbabwe is over $20 million. The fee to get a license to shoot one of the big five game animals is anywhere from $30-$70,000. And that is only the beginning for that big game Hunter. By the time he has completed his hunt , he will spend upwards of a couple hundred thousand dollars more easily. For one thing they are not permitted to actually pull the trigger and shoot a lion until the 21st day of the safari hunt. And then they only have another 3 to 5 days to actually execute the kill. And they only get one attempt to make the kill. If they miss that chance, all that revenue paid goes in the kitty and they go home empty-handed.

60% of that revenue goes to preserve wildlife reserves in Zimbabwe. Of course, portion of that money paid goes to all the people assisting the big game, hunter, including his hunting guide drivers entourage of other support people and vehicles. It’s actually a parade of locals and company the guide. And he has to pay every person $60 minimum per day, depending upon the ranking in the place of the safari and they pay that daily. They pay that daily up to the 21st day when they could begin they kill. So we can get very expensive very fast. Every country in Africa has their own set of rules and conditions. Needless to say every country takes poachers very seriously. But the problem is the governments are all corrupt, and it is presumed that the government leaders are often times paid off to turn a blind eye, allowing a poacher to take down a prized animal.

A couple comments about the pictures. One picture I show a cloud. Can you see the face in the cloud? I edited that picture by the way, so it original has been altered. Of course, I thought I would include a picture of the two of us. And then there’s a picture of the hippo yawning. That yawn was not eon by the way, but they a threat to us in the two boats to stand clear or he would charge. They walk under water or I should say run water faster than a swimmer could possibly swim so if someone was in the dugout, can you for example, and tipped over in Hippo they could not outswim that charging Hippo. His bite is strong enough to cut a man in half. Second to that of a crock.

Today we leave for a third safari. We will be there three nights. Then from there, we will leave for a fourth safari. Be there also three nights. And then we will circle back to Victoria Falls, and spend two days there. We will be staying there in a very luxury five-star hotel Minute walk to the falls.

I think that’s it for friends. I hope you can interpret between my broken dictation and thoughtless grammar, the messages that I tried to convey. Remind me by the way to tell you about overseas adventure travels. And how they relate to the grand Circle foundation. as well as the safari company that they have partnered with. From what we’ve learned about these organizations, we will do our future overseas travel, most likely exclusively through these organizations.Lue lisää