Farewell, Zimbabwe, farewell...

It is with sadness that I note my time in Zimbabwe has come to an end and this will be my last post on the beautiful country.  In honor of the wonderful experience I've had living in Harare, this post is a collection of my favorite photos from my time wandering Harare and beyond.

Curious what my favorite photographs from living in Senegal were? Go here!

Curious what my favorite animal photographs were? Go here!!

In no particular order, my favorite photographs of Zimbabwe, chosen from well over 10,000 photographs (wow!):

Hwange National Park in the rainy season - Adios, Hwange!

A hippopotamus yawns at sunset over the Zambezi River in Mana Pools National Park - A Mana Pools Smorgasbord

As dusk approaches over Lake Kariba, fishermen take to the water - Sunset over a drowned forest

Victoria Falls at Christmas time, the height of the rainy season - A Victoria Falls Christmas (Part Deux)

Sunset in Hwange National Park - The Return to Hwange

I originally captioned this photo: "After seeing this view in Chimanimani, I knew I had fallen in love with Zimbabwe." - Au Revoir, Chimanimani, I will return...

Harare's jacarandas in bloom at sunrise - Harare in the bloom of the jacarandas

An elephant at sunset, Lake Kariba - Take my breath away: Drowned forest sunset

Sunrise over the pan in Hwange National Park - The Hwange smorgasbord

Victoria Falls at sunrise. Beyond amazing. - Take my breath away: The Victoria Falls sunrise and lunar rainbow edition

The birds of Hwange (an ode to JRS)

While on safari in Hwange National Park, we saw many beautiful birds.

And of course impalas. Many impalas.  Seriously, impalas are everywhere.

But yet, they are still so beautiful.

Why, hello, zebra!

I've never paid so much attention to birds on a safari before.

Probably because I find them boring, I want to see an elephant...always!

But isn't he a stunner? A yellow billed hornbill.

(I blame my companion for all these bird photos, apparently we learned he loves to watch birds.)

What a beautiful animal.

One shot of this guy wasn't enough. Zimbabwe never disappoints.

Wildebeest coming to drink at the pan at The Hide.

Why, hello, wildebeest!  It's amazing how awesome and ugly they are at the same time.

Walking with Elephants

While visiting The Hide in Hwange National Park, we took a walking safari, meeting up with this guy.

He doesn't look big, but he was.  He was big and just beautiful.

I've done quite a few things in Africa now, but when you're about 5 feet from a bull elephant,
and your guide says "Stay very still, he'll think we're part of the tree" and you realize you're about,
hmm, like a millionth the size of the elephant, well, your heart just plummets through your toes.

And plummet my heart did...and it was was amazing, stunning, and terrifying at the same time.

Apparently showing visitors to Zimbabwe both the beauty and healthy fear of elephants is my new go-to tactic!

Just when my heart returned to its proper place in my chest, this guy came toward us.

He just continued to confirm why I absolutely love elephants, their beauty, their intelligence, and their
ability to remind you of what a tiny little place you occupy in this universe.

Just to add a tiny bit of variety to the elephant stream, one of Hwange's beautiful Acacia trees.

A red-billed horn bill.

And some pretty birds that my visitor would admonish me for forgetting their name since

apparently everyone (but me!) enjoys bird watching on safaris!

The Return to Hwange

I recently had the opportunity to return to the beyond wonderful Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.

(How can you not love a place whose sunsets look like this?!)

I returned to The Hide, a wonderful safari lodge, tucked away in the middle of Zimbabwe and was treated to this sunset the following night.

Oh, be still my heart, how I love sunsets.

I was traveling with someone who was experiencing his first safari.  The moment of seeing something like these giraffes never grows old,
whether it's his first safari or mine, the number of which I've lost count.

Our safaris were marked with these beautiful female kudus, so gracefully when they run.

Hwange has these stunning zebras and it's easy to be lost in the memorizing nature of their stripes.

Love this Zebra's head markings.

What is it about giraffes drinking that is always so comical?! 

An elephant's skull--this thing was huge and a little creepy.

We had a full moon, visible even before the sun set!

Which boded well since we were also visiting Victoria Falls and I hoped we'd be able to experience the rare lunar rainbow!!

Remember this sign?  I laughed seeing it again--it brought back so many good memories
of my very first safari experience in the company of a wonderful friend.

(Oh! What luck I have to have such wonderful people with whom to experience this world!)

Oops....how did I forget this?

While working on this post on the elephants of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, 

I accidentally forgot to include this video.  I thought it was too lovely not to share:

I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar.

While on safari in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe,

we came across these adorable lion cubs.

Just like [human] siblings, they were playing with each other...

although a bit more feisty than most [human] parents would like!

I am obsessed.  SO cute.

A male lion and one of the cubs.

A lioness.

The pride.

I love, love, love this cub's expression.

He was playing with the male and just looks like he's having fun.

A cub playing with a tree.

Easy to forget they will grow up to be deadly killers!

What is with the blog's title?  It's from Winston Churchill.