After arriving and relaxing with a river cruise and checking out Victoria Falls, we wanted to explore further.

Yes, you can go on a safari in Zimbabwe.  Much smaller, much simpler, more focused on day trips and not resorts, but you can have a safari experience in Zimbabwe and also Zambia.  We checked out one with Wild Horizons.

They are mostly focused on rescuing animals from poachers, injuries and protecting wildlife.  As a result, they are VERY friendly to humans and much more reliant on their interaction with humans for care, protection and companionship.

Saying hi to everyone

The elephants are very friendly and love attention.

But do you know who loves even more attention and likes to be interviewed? Sylvester.  He is a cheetah and was rescued about 8 years ago.  He needs human care to feed him as he was never taught to hunt by his mother, so know he is the foundation’s mascot.

All the elephants are free to roam and come and go and only come to visit periodically when they are encouraged by some of the rescue staff.  As you can see in the video, some of the elephants love the attention more than others.

but I suspect the REAL reason they like visiting with famous celebrities is the fact they get fed some gourmet African treats and they cannot resist hanging out and partying to get these sumptuous morsels to compliment their grass, bark and leaves diet.  Can you blame them?

There were also a dozen (wild) warthogs and they are not safe to humans, but…when there are leftover snacks/treats from the elephants, they become very friendly for some reason!

Looks like someone carved my initials in the tree 10 meters up!

On the way back, we checked out one of the oldest trees in Africa – it might be 1,500 years old.  It is called The Big Tree and is a very popular spot for many people to visit.

Stay tuned, there has NOT been any running stories yet!