Zooming in Zimbabwe

               Over the next couple of weeks, Nancy and I will be posting reports on our 3-week adventure circumnavigating Zimbabwe, exploring four World Heritage sites and one of the Seven Wonders of the World, going on over a dozen game drives, seeing "the big five" and other African wildlife, and spotting over 100 species of birds new to us.
               We had hoped to post reports on the road, but the internet connection in both South Africa and Zimbabwe were very poor...and many nights we were just too tired to write.
               On Oct. 18 we began our adventure in Johannesburg, South Africa, where we stayed four days to recuperate from the 15-hour flight from Atlanta, GA. We joined the rest of our group:

Canadians John & Louise (front row), Nancy & Becky (middle), and Canadians Eleanor and Dick (top row),

               The next day we all flew to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to join our guide, Gary Clegg (a native Zimbabwean, the owner of Shumba Tracks African Safari, and our neighbor in Costa Rica), and his British assistant, Kelly Geoghegan, head of a literacy program in Zambia.
              The eight of us traveled in a van, with our luggage stowed in a trailer. Gary drove and Kelly navigated on suprisingly good highways. The dirt roads into the national parts were another story!

Our Mercedes van and trailer at an overlook in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe

               We'll start with our brief stay in Johannesburg and then go to Zimbabwe. For a taste of the wildlife to come....

Mother elephant warning us away from the babies, Gonarezhou National Park