The Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is an up market game lodge just a short way away from our previous stay. The views from the rooms and restaurants are simply spectacular ( we were booked into the Kudu Suite ).
The hotel overlooks a large water hole that attracts dozens of animals of all types but the highlight of my stay was an early morning walk with resident guide, John. We were 20 minutes into the walk and he was explaining the cultural medicinal uses of the various plants to me when we came across a rather mean looking lone buffalo about 20m away. We froze in our tracks, John unslung his rifle -just in case - and we stood there staring at each other with only a few bushes separating us. After a while John said I could take a picture or two of the buffalo, but my movement seemed to generate more interest from the beast and we decided it was time to retreat. At this point I was shown a tree to head for and John made a loud noise to give the buffalo a fright. The buffalo turned and ran away a few metres before turning around again to face us - needless to say, by this time we had retreated a considerable distance and were hiding behind more trees. To my relief, the buffalo lost interest and moved off in the opposite direction and left us to continue our walk. A short while later we came across a small herd of buffalo but they were more interested in their mud bath and didn't even notice us.
The rest of the walk was relatively uneventful yet very interesting and John shared a wealth of information with me and all too soon we were back at the hotel in time for a late breakfast
