Home Hosted Dinner

Last night - the 4th of June - I had the pleasure of experiencing the Home Hosted Dinners that are available in Victoria Falls for tourists and locals alike. There is a small handful of families and hosts/hostesses that open their homes up to visitors who are looking for an authentic and personal traditional dining experience in one of the two high-density suburbs in Victoria Falls - Chinotimba or Mkhosana.

These families then prepare a traditional spread and treat their visitors to a warm welcoming home cooked meal of sadza (a traditional maize meal similar to polenta), chicken or beef stew, kail (a variety of spinach), carrots, green beans, kapenta (whitebait fish), and last but not least, a traditional favourite dried mopani worms - known as macimbi in the local Ndebele language. 

There are a handful of these dinners that occur every Wednesday evening across the two townships, and what I found most interesting is the conversation that was shared between the visitors (who are just absolutely fascinated by the traditional cuisine) and the hosts/hostesses - who gladly share, teach and explain the traditional township customs to the visitors - who on this occasion all happened to be from the USA. 

One of the comments which I could not help but to giggle at was one that went along the lines of "Goodness! - I can't beleive how well behaved your kids are!" 

Some of the families hosting the dinners have up to around 8 children and grandchildren living with them and indeed their behavior was something to behold when compared to Western-world standards! It was an evening full of questions, answers, laughter and chit-chat, all of the guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy their traditional meals, and some of them were even brave enough to try out a dried mopani worm or two!

Some may express concern about the safety aspect of having Westerners wonder through these parts of town - to them I simply say "try it and see!". All of the visitors who I spoke to were taken hugely by surprise at how relaxed, welcoming and happy the vibe is, unlike other parts of the world. Crime is very minimal in Victoria Falls, probably because of the nature of the people, who seem to have a really laid-back, loving, humorous and friendly approach to life.

A Home Hosted Dinner (or lunch, they also do lunches) is truly a must-do activity if you are keen to really immerse yourself into local customs, cuisine and culture. The vibe of these suburbs in the early evening really is a unique experience - the sights, sounds and smells of fires, evening church bands, urban chatter and of course the beautiful night-views over Livingstone which can be glimpsed at certain high points in the townships really do make for a fulfilling cultural experience. A huge thanks go out to the welcoming host families for opening up their homes in the name of cross-cultural education, experience, fun and food!

Taking in the Batoka Gorge whilst enjoying the Vic Falls Canopy Tour!

The concept of the ‘canopy tour’ is a relatively new product in the tourism industry, with the first canopy tour operation opening around 5 years ago in South America. Since then there have been several other operations launched in various parts of the world, including quite a number across South Africa. Wikipedia describes a canopy tour as “an established route through a wooded and often mountainous landscape making primary use of zip-lines and aerial bridges between platforms built in trees”. 

In our case, the Vic Falls Canopy Tour is a series of 9 zip-lines, or ‘slides’, which zigzags across the Batoka Gorge in amongst the thick vegetation which grows on the edges of this spectacular natural canyon. The tour is operated from the Wild Horizons Lookout, and takes place within the cove that is formed by the first bend in the river below the Falls – directly beneath the Victoria Falls Hotel. Apart from the 9 cable slides, (or ‘foofy’ slides), the route also comprises a series of boarded walkways and rope bridges, all of which have safety lines to which guests are fastened at all times. The course from start to finish will take around 60 – 90 minutes, depending on the size of the group.

Of-course one of the factors that makes this activity so popular is the breathtaking views of the Batoka Gorge, the Zambezi River and it’s turbulent rapids, and the Victoria Falls Bridge! This is not to mention the awe-inspiring flora and fauna which thrives in the canopy of the Batoka Gorge! It is also a treat for bird watchers, as they are likely to spot Trumpeter Hornbill, Schalow'sTuraco and Peregrine Falcon - and if you are extremely lucky, the rare Taita Falcon.

The slides vary in speed and length, but are all relatively low-speed and are more than suitable for those who don’t consider themselves as adrenalin junkies. The activity is perfect for families with young kids who are looking for that little bit of excitement, but might be too young to take part in the more adrenalin-demanding activities such as the gorge swing or bungeejump. (The same goes for the parents, who on the contrary might be “a little too old” for the bigger adrenalin-demanders!). It is the perfect ‘in-between’ activity, which there is not much choice for when it comes to the plethora of Victoria Falls activities on offer by the many various tour operators. The tour is also suitable for those who don’t like heights as for the most part the slides traverse through trees and thick vegetation.

The canopy tour is growing in popularity when it comes to adventure tourism around the world because of its mild, safe and family-friendly nature. The Vic Falls Canopy Tour is undoubtedly one of the world’s most spectacular courses and is an industry leader when it comes to safety and equipment, as well the training of their staff and guides. The Vic Falls Canopy Tour is a highly recommended activity, which has repeatedly been described as excellent value for money.

The Vic Falls Canopy Tour sells for USD$50 per person, and can be booked by contacting the Wild Horizons reservations team through their website, www.wildhorizons.co.za - or through the main booking office located at 310 Parkway Drive, Victoria Falls. 

Zenzo & His Elephants

Zenzo & His Elephants

Zenzo is the manager of the Wild Horizons elephants, of which there are now 2 separate herds which live on the Wild Horizons Wildlife Sanctuary, which is part of the Victoria Falls National Park. He grew up with the four original WH elephants – Miss Ellie, Jumbo, Jock & Jack. The original 4 were part of a large group of surviving orphans that were left after a culling operation in the mid 1980’s. (The Zimbabwean Department of National Parks had a policy of culling what they deemed excess animals within the National Parks. These animals were generally elephant and part of the policy was to destroy the entire herd, apart from juveniles, who were no longer dependent on mother’s milk, yet small enough to translocate. These elephant orphans were sold to various local farmers and to zoos and circuses around the world. Most farmers bought the elephant to restock their farms, however, being hand reared they very quickly became habituated to people and often became a "handful" to have around. Being totally habituated, it was felt at the time that it would be difficult to  safely release them to the wild as it would only be a matter of time before they wondered into a village or town. Zenzo’s father happened to work for a farmer who snapped up four of these orphans – Miss Ellie, Jock, Jack & Jumbo and hand reared them on a farm in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. Zenzo grew up on this farm as a young boy whilst his father worked as a tractor driver, and from a young age became very close to the elephants, and has been involved in the handling and training of them ever since. 

By the time Zenzo was 17, and the elephants were approaching adolescence at around the age of 10 – the current owner started to see that his elephants were becoming increasingly demanding of attention, discipline and activity – things that he did not anticipate he was going to need to provide, let-alone have the time or resources to provide for his elephants. 

By that stage, the use of elephants in the tourism industry in India was rising in popularity – and so eventually the owner approached a then fairly new tourism company in Victoria Falls – Wild Horizons. Initially skeptical of the idea, Wild Horizons took on the project knowing that in order for it to be a success the welfare of the elephant was paramount. With this in mind Wild Horizons sent two of it’s guides to Riddles Elephant training school, in Little Rock Arkansas. Here they were taught not only how to humanly train the elephant but equally important how to look after elephant in captivity. Zenzo recalls as a teenager seeing Craig White, one of the directors, come to the farm in Chinhoyi to see the elephants with a view to relieving the current owner of his responsibilites.

It was then decided, in 1997, to relocate the elephants to Victoria Falls onto a property where Wild Horizons operated a camp called Jijima, as a trial run to see weather elephant backsafaris would be a feasible product in the Zimbabwean tourism industry. Turns out, it was exactly what the tourists wanted – and the original Elephant Camp was then constructed with the intention of providing luxurious accommodation combined with intimate elephant rides and interactions. Zenzo, at a mere 17 years old, had accompanied the elephants as part of a team of 7 handlers, and has remained with them ever since.

Zenzo quickly rose through the ranks of elephant handling and progressed from being a handler, to a trainer, to eventually the elephant manager in 2003. Zenzo now oversees the entire elephant back safari operation from behind the scenes, from elephant care and training to the logistical and operational aspects involved in keeping these two herds of elephants happy, healthy and safe when taking paying clients out for safaris up to twice a day!

When we asked Zenzo if he thinks he would ever move on from Wild Horizons and the elephants, after a brief pause, he posed the question: “how could someone ever leave their family?”. When asked the tricky question of “elephants or people?” – the answer was out before the question had even been completed!

Zenzo’s wife runs the kitchen and catering at The Wallow (where the elephant back safaris are operated from) and is very good at providing delicious snacks to the guests (as well as Zenzo, it appears! :). 

Another interesting fact about Zenzo is that he used to be quite the soccer player in his youth, playing in the 1^st division for Chinhoyi United, (now the Makonde Stars).

Zenzo is one of the company's most efficient employees, one of the most light-hearted and funny, and one of the most approachable. He truly is an asset to Wild Horizons and we thank him whole-heartedly for his lifetime of dedication to the Wild Horizons elephants!

The Reservations Department meets Sylvester & the Elephants.

Last week, after work one evening, the entire Wild Horizons reservations department was transported to The Wallow at The Elephant Camp where the Wild Horizons elephant-back safaris and interactions are operated out of. Some of the newer reservations staff had never visited the camp or any of the elephants before, and as such were quite excited at the prospect.

First we checked out the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust's laboratory, which is also on the property, and we were impressed to see and learn how much actually goes on there. Jessica Dawson gave the group a brief but interesting talk on the functions of some of the sophisticated veterinary equipment in the lab, which is essential for quick detection of diseases in sick and/or dead animals that are found by the VFWT's rangers. With all of this state-of-the-art equipment, the Trust recovers the running costs of the lab through providing veterinary and pathology services to local livestock farmers, such as cattle and crocodile farmers in the Victoria Falls region. The Vic Falls Wildlife Trust also works hand in hand with the Zimbabwean National Parks, and the community funded VFAPU - the Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit.

Routinely, the Trust along with National Parks and VFAPU respond to reports of distressed/injured wildlife in the local area - which consists mostly of snared animals (laid by poachers) such as warthog and small antelope. The Trust also specializes in identifying outbreaks of disease, which could potentially affect local livestock populations, and even jump across to the human population. Aside from the medical / research side of things, the Trust also provides invaluable education to surrounding local schools, and has a different school attending fun educational afternoons every Friday.

From the lab, we then carried on a short distance down the road to The Wallow, where the Wild Horizons herd of elephants were waiting for us to interact, feed and socialize with them. All of the Wild Horizons elephants are hand reared rescue-elephants, and have been put into the WH elephant-back safari program in order to prevent them from being shipped out to zoo's or circuses, which would otherwise undoubtedly become their fate. The elephants are allowed to live as natural a life as possible within the reserve, and will all eventually be allowed to retire and roam freely once again within the reserve.

One thing which I found most fascinating was the fact that as we were feeding the ele's thier pellets (much like horse cubes), inevitably some pellets would fall to the floor. The elephants would then use their massive trunks to pick them up again, one by one, with the precision of a human hand using a finger and opposable thumb to achieve the same! After the interaction and the feeding, all the ele's stood back, and put thier trunks in the air to salute us goodbye. The elephants know how to respond to around 29 separate commands when instructed to do so by their relevant masters.

An added highlight to the evening was the fact that Sylvester - the Cheetah Ambassador, was also out at The Wallow interacting with some clients, who donate money to the Trust in order to meet and walk with him. He is a beautiful specimen with a very interesting story to tell aswell! He was found in the Bube Valley in the South-Eastern region of Zimbabwe by a National Parks ranger who happened to be called Sylvester. The rangers had spotted a female cheetah getting chased by a male lion, and when she failed to appear again after the chase, was assumed to have been killed by the lion. (Predators regularly attempt to eliminate any possible competition). So the rangers then tracked her spoor back to her den where they found a brand new litter of cubs, only a few days old (their eyes had not even opened yet). Unfortunately, out of 5 cubs, only 2 were still alive - the lion had killed the other 3. Of those two, they sadly could not save the one - and the last surviving cub is now the beautiful 4 year-old boy that we know today as Sylvester.

After Sylvester's rescue, he was hand reared by the rangers as a family pet - but soon outgrew his welcome when he started to bully the other pets and the smaller children. National Parks then put out a tender to private organizations country-wide to see who could viably take over the care of this fast-growing animal. He will unfortunately never be able to be released back into the wild - as he was rescued before his eyes even opened and as such humans are the only thing he knows.

After receiving several proposals from organizations which planned to use Sylvester for commercial gain, The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust decided to put in a bid to take care of him and use him purely for educational purposes - as an ambassador for all Cheetah's and to use him as a tangible, living, breathing specimen with which to educate young children on the plight of big cats in the area. (Culturally, big cats have always been killed by locals if sighted in a populated area as they have been known to kill livestock. This has led to their critical endangerment and now the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust is attempting to educate the younger generations in order to try and stamp out such unnecessary actions).

After the staff had had an opportunity to stroke and get some photos with Sylvester - we were treated to sun-downers and snacks from the kitchen at The Wallow, whilst Zenzo - the elephant-back safaris manager, delivered an interesting and interactive talk to the group about various points in the history of the Wild Horizons elephants, to ironing out some of the operational issues which are sometimes experienced when the reservations staff are sending clients for rides and interactions.

It was a super evening all in all and the staff seemed to really enjoy themselves, and even push a few personal boundaries - as I doubt that any of them would have guessed that they would one day take a photo next to a large male cheetah!

An Introduction to Wild Horizons

Wild Horizons is a multi-faceted tour company that provides a large array of activities, operates out of multiple locations, has a huge fleet of vehicles, 2 luxury bush camps, employs over 400 people and operates at full tilt, 24/7. So you can imagine, that as a new employee arriving on day-one of the job, the introduction is both hugely exciting and somewhat overwhelming. For my first blog post, I thought I would re-count what my first couple of weeks in the Wild Horizons marketing department has been like!

One of the things that struck me first and foremost was the friendliness of absolutely everyone. From the gate-guards, to the mechanics, to the camp managers and the directors – I was instantly made to feel welcome. I started off with a tour of the main HQ in the industrial sites of Victoria Falls, the size of which blew me away. Four large wings of offices surrounding a big courtyard with lush green buffalo lawn and teeming flower beds around the sides. A large workshop at the back and ample room to park the large fleet of vehicles and luxury transfer busses. My tour of the HQ was accompanied by mass introductions to all the staff in every department – around 100 people in total would be my guess. I admitted to myself that it would be pointless to stress too much about everyone’s names as I would never remember them first time round. No doubt I would pick them up one by one as I deal with each department in due course. 

One of my first tasks is to join the marketing team in coming up with a marketing campaign for one of Wild Horizons’ many products - the Vic Falls CanopyTour – the newest of 4 products which Wild Horizons offers from it’s jump site – “The Lookout”.

The Lookout (#wildhorizonslookout) is a thatched deck structure, which is perched right on the lip of the Batoka Gorge, just downstream of the Vic Falls Bridge on the Zimbabwean side. It has a spectacular view of the bridge, and sits overlooking the first ‘bend’ in the zig-zagging gorge which occurs below the Victoria Falls. There is even a tame wild goat called Dixon who hangs out there like all the time! 

The other 3 products which operate from The Lookout are the ‘Flying Fox’ – a foofie slide which extends across the width of the entire gorge; the ‘Gorge Swing’, which is a death defying free-fall off a platform into the gorge attached to a rope, which then ‘swings’ you as you reach the bottom; and the ‘zip-line’ – which is a dual-cabled foofie slide that makes a rather steep downward parabola, but without quite putting you into freefall. Finally, the Vic Falls Canopy Tour is a series of 9 shorter, low speed cable-slides that criss-cross the inside of the first bend of the gorge (below the Victoria Falls Hotel) where the vegetation is thick and very jungle like – with vines and steep drops galore. It offers a very mild adrenaline rush and is the perfect ‘in-between’ activity for those who can’t quite bring themselves to do the more intense adrenalin activities such as the gorge swing, whitewater rafting or the bungee jump.

So off I go with a group of paying clients on the Vic Falls Canopy Tour. We harness up and set off on a path down the side of the gorge, and it’s not far before we get to slide no.1. The guide hooks our safety lines up to a safety rope that runs along the entirety of the course - all the walkways, bridges and even on the actual foofie slides where is a second steel safety cable which we are attached to whilst sliding. My first impression is that the safety is being taken very seriously. 

We step up onto a box/platform that overlooks a cliff and the guide hooks our main & safety lines to the respective cables, and upon hearing a whistle through the trees from another guide  indicating that he is ready to receive us - we step off the platform and start whizzing down the slide. Now we have been given thick leather gloves for our hands, and we have been instructed to hold our harness line which connects us to the cable with our left hand, and then loosely hold the cable with our other hand, BEHIND the pulley. This allows for us to squeeze the cable with our hand to slow ourselves down when we start reaching the end of the slide. It took a few go’s to get the timing right, but before long I was timing my hand-braking perfectly and was landing gracefully on the box as is required for the guide to dismount you from the pulley and hook you back up to the ground safety line. 

This carried on for 8 more slides of varying lengths and speeds, and I looked forward to each slide more than the last – the views were just spectacular and the ambience of being in the Batoka Gorge canopy, with the view of the bridge right in front of you, and the Zambezi roaring beneath you – was just incredible. A really great product indeed, and it even had really nice boarded walkways and rope bridges for the more difficult parts. So far, I’m thinking I love my job!