Victoria Falls Ilala Lodge

 Tuesday April 7

The lodge where we are staying is great. Big rooms and walk in shower. The food so far has been great. Last night apparently around 11 pm hippos were wandering around the gardens outside the rooms. There are signs warning about venturing outside your rooms at night.

We have a lovely breakfast and then at 8.45 we head off to the elephant sanctuary. Our first stop is the rescue area where they look after injured wild animals. They are on call 7 days a week and 24 hours a day and look to rescue animals from poachers, accidents and human intervention. They have recovery rooms/cages, veterinary services and a laboratory. Their aim is to release injured animals back into the wild and to educate the residents and school children about living with wild animals. They have strategies to deter wild animals from encroaching into human settlements and attacking livestock and eating crops.

For example if a lion has killed livestock or there are reports of lions in the area they will use a vuvuzela to make so much noise that the lions will leave. With elephants they hate the smell of chilli so they encourage farmers to plant chillies around their crops to deter the elephants. If they are persistent they have a spud gun which fires a ping pong ball covered in chilli pepper at the elephants. Because elephants have photographic memories they learn to stay away from these areas.

We then move on to the elephant sanctuary where they have three families of elephants totalling 16 elephants. We are given a talk of elephant history, lifestyle, anatomy and behaviour. It is very interesting. What  is concerning is the issue with poachers which as a problem has increased. It is not only elephants and Rhinos but also lions and vultures that are vulnerable. In Hwange National park the rangers have authority to shoot on sight any poachers they come across. Why lions, they are sought for their teeth and claws for jewellery, and bones for “medicine” and also used in Chinese wine.

After the talk a family of six elephants is paraded past us where we are able to get up quite close. They are “wild” but have been trained to perform and after their performance given treats. These areas gentle giants and it is an experience but nothing compared to elephants in the wild with minimal human contact.

We have free time after the elephant experience so we have a late lunch, find a bottle shop for port talk and our next event is a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. On the sunset cruise we snacks and an open bar. As for wildlife we see a hippo and an elephant, this is getting like another bloody cathedral in Europe. The sunset is beautiful and then it’s back to Karen and Ross’s room for port talk. It has been a great day.

N