Wild is Life!

Why, hello, Sweetpea the Kudu!

While visiting Wild is Life in Harare, Zimbabwe, we had afternoon tea with this lovely animal (she's partial to strawberries....)

How's this for a sign?? Probably best to keep your fingers away from lions...

Wild is Life rescues animals who have been orphaned (due to poaching), are ill, or who would otherwise have been killed.

This beauty promptly walked past..see? The sign has some good advice!

Wild is Life has several lions including one that is blind and one that is missing some teeth (making him unable to survive in the wild).

I instantly fell in love with the premises, so easy to get lost among its beauty.

So easy to forget you're in Harare.

I couldn't resist a second shot, I mean, just look at those flowers!

Mirabelle the Giraffe waiting for afternoon tea.

A boat as a swinging seat? Emphatic yes please!

Sweetpea the Kudu--aren't her stripes just lovely?

Wild is Life has also rescued Levi and Diesel, the cheetahs, from poachers who killed their parents.

For more information on the work that Wild is Life is doing, please visit them here.

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Mosi-oa-Tunya: The Smoke That Thunders

After an exhilarating helicopter flight over Victoria Falls, we visited the Falls at sunrise.

Every trip to the Falls has been so unique for how it looks, how it feels, how it awes.

But sunrise, oh sunrise, by far is my favorite time to visit.  I fell in love with it at sunrise on this trip.

In all my visits, I'm surprised I've never showed you this in its both amazes and terrifies:
the fence that keeps you from going over the edge into the Falls at certain vantage points.

These thorns won't stop anything if you're really heading over.

This trip was blessed by so many rainbows. Stunning.

Be still my heart!

The sunrise.

Oh, Victoria Falls, you never disappoint.

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Snapshots from the Air: Flying Over Victoria Falls

While visiting the wonderful Victoria Falls town in Zimbabwe, we soared over the Falls.

Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, is awesome.
Awesome as in the genuine definition: inspiring awe.

Taking a helicopter over the Falls runs away with your imagination and captures the beauty of this world.
It is easy to understand why David Livingstone wrote after seeing it that
"scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight."

I've visited the Falls many times; each time is different and leaves me so wonderfully content.
No painting, no photograph I've seen captures its majesty and its indescribable ability to make you feel both tiny and happy.

They also never capture just how ginormous Victoria Falls is. Because it is.  Even that's an understatement.
The other name for Victoria Falls, Mosi-oa-Tunya ("The Smoke That Thunders") is somehow also an understatement.

Here's a video from my flight, look how it dwarfs nearby roads, that building at the bottom corner?
That's a lodge to give you a sense of its immensity.

Oh! Be still my heart, how beautiful the world is.

This was at a drier point of the season and it can still be seen so far away!

Our sweet ride.  It went too fast.

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Leisure at the Victoria Falls Hotel

While on a visit to Victoria Falls, I enjoyed the loveliness that is the Victoria Falls Hotel.

The hotel is a remnant of colonial times, now a lovely tucked away spot overlooking Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

What a serene spot to escape the African heat!

Good friends, good tea, and the roar of the Falls = lovely.

The hotel is wonderful for its attention to detail, its historical artifacts, and its stunning view.

Isn't this Bird of Paradise just stunning?  Zimbabwe is full of such colorful, beautiful flowering trees and plants.

I may have started to dose here while listening to a pianist.  Just perfect.

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