Lake Kariba- Spurwing Island

We have LOTS of pictures to share with you about our trip to Spurwing Island, so let's get started. These are the pictures that we thought would show you the whole trip and how it was. Which was fantastic (besides the part where Spencer got REALLY sick on the way home and our car was not smelling so pleasant for 3 hours)!!

This is one of the many scenes we saw of this, people selling worms on the side of the road leading out of Harare, because there are LOTS of fishing outside of Harare. They had NICE worms, ANACONDA worms, and just worms, worms, worms! 

Spencer smiling away in the back seat on the way to Kariba. He had everything he needed, and he was happy. I love this picture.
Yep, that is a Shell station on the road we were taking!!!
Had to take this picture for my dad. "Watch out there's a choo-choo train ahead."
Once there it was nice of them to inform you that the "Flash Lights not working". We did see one train, and it wasn't too big.
Interesting tree along the way...look at that trunk!!
Once we were an hour out of Kariba we come across this lovely sign.
And we did hear a story about a guy getting out to pee on the side of the road, and he was eaten by a lion. We didn't get out of the car. No worries!

Once we got there, we started right off with a Game drive. Saw this while driving around, umm...a hippo skull, yep.
There are these red berries on this tree, which Spencer got one off, and they make you high. Yep, they are like cocaine and make the animals a little loopy...heehee, would have been funny to see an animal after they ate a bunch of those. Spencer didn't eat one.
Baboons running away from us.

Water bucks.

Hippo out of the water. They only get out of the water during dawn and dusk. Whenever we got too close they would waddle their way back into the water.
Elephants hugging each other's trunks...is that like kissing? :) They were playing and it was fun to watch.
Getting close to this herd of elephants, I was a bit nervous, but Tyler and Spencer were loving it. Spencer kept talking loudly around them, and waving at them.

Waving good-bye.
Family of three. That baby was only 2 months old, and the cutest thing ever!
Yep, that is a crocodile with an impala in his jaws. If we had come there just 5 minutes before we'd probably seen him get it.
This was Spencer by the end of the game drive, tired boy.
There were beautiful sunsets there on the island and I loved them!
Waiting for our boat the next morning. Cute boys I have!

Croc we saw on the Game Cruise we took Saturday morning. He wasn't too big.
Hippo peeking up at us. It was funny because whenever we came across a pod of them, they would all duck down under the water. Since they can only be under water at most for 5 minutes, they kept popping back up. Once we scared one of them because we were still there and they weren't expecting us to be, so they came up and then jumped right back under. It was funny.
Elephant posing. His back leg is crossed with his other back leg.
And this was Spencer by mid-morning, not caring what we saw. He was done with seeing the animals. Tyler and I couldn't get enough.
So Saturday afternoon we take a trip into gorge that is close by. We asked our guide if there was a chance of seeing any animals. He said yeah, you'll see crocs, baboons, maybe some hippos and elephants. Wait...what?? Elephants?!?! But there are cliffs on both sides of this gorge, and pretty steep cliffs. 

We ride two minutes into the gorge and  Tyler spots an elephant!! Yep, up on the cliff. It was amazing to see how they climbed around and not fall. I asked the guide if they had lots of elephants that would fall, he said he's only heard of one in 5 years. Amazing! Oh and one more thing, they are hard to spot...can you see it?

Baboons in the gorge.
A monster of a croc we saw! He got into the water by the time we got close, but that didn't make me feel any better, since now I couldn't see him. The boat we were in wasn't very big, or high above the water. To say the least I was a little nervous when we saw the crocs.
Our guide thought it would be great to get really, REALLY close to this 6 foot crocodile. I was in the front of the boat, while Tyler and Spencer were in the back. I was really nervous as we just sat there, and didn't know if the crocodile was going to turn on us, because if he did he could easily get into our boat and I'd be the first one to munch on. Spencer kept also being loud and trying to get the crocodile to move, and I kept completely still and tried to keep telling Spencer to be quiet. Luckily we were fine, and the croc just sat there, thankfully!
Elephant we saw on the way out. Notice his trunk and how it is shorter. There are poachers on this side of the gorge and he had gotten his trunk caught in one of their snares. Poor thing.
We came back across this elephant going out and he was not happy at all that we were there. He kept trumpeting and trying to find his mom, who was just up on the cliff. But he would show those ears off and trumpet so loud. I have some video that I'll try to put up soon.
Tyler and Spencer when we were coming out of the gorge.
The sunset that night. BEAUTIFUL!!
Like fire.
The water reflected it so clearly.
Okay so this is a hard picture to see, but it's right outside of our cabin we had. In the background to the right of the white wall is an adult elephant! Like the sign? It says: "DANGER! WILD ANIMALS Do not leave fenced or terraced area of camp after dark." Huh, wonder why? :)