Most of you know that I'm no animal lover. Fair enough, when I say that I became a vegetarian precisely because I dislike animals, it's an exaggeration - but I'm certainly not one of those people who stopped eating meat out of some profound bonding feeling for the furry/feathery living creatures. I simply believe that animals should stay in their animal world and we in our human world - and those two worlds are not to be mixed excessively.
The only animals which get an exception from this golden rule are horses – and perhaps by extension, as their exotic painted version, zebras. And so when I came to Africa, I was quite excited by the perspective of seeing zebras at some point during my travels.
Wishful thinking. I don't know if it was just bad luck or a punishment for my animal-indifference, but after travelling to nearly all national parks in Uganda, all I got on the zebra-side was this:
A group of zebra backsides in high grass. (In addition to hearing from all my friends who had travelled in Uganda that they had literally walked in huge herds of zebras. Painfully enough, most of these stories are from the Lake Mburo National Park – where we hadn’t seen a single zebra stripe).
And so I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears when my cousin Krista had written from Zambia that they had come across zebras in the “wild” just on the outskirts of Lusaka: roaming around a campground half an hour walking from City of Hope.
The only animals which get an exception from this golden rule are horses – and perhaps by extension, as their exotic painted version, zebras. And so when I came to Africa, I was quite excited by the perspective of seeing zebras at some point during my travels.
Wishful thinking. I don't know if it was just bad luck or a punishment for my animal-indifference, but after travelling to nearly all national parks in Uganda, all I got on the zebra-side was this:
A group of zebra backsides in high grass. (In addition to hearing from all my friends who had travelled in Uganda that they had literally walked in huge herds of zebras. Painfully enough, most of these stories are from the Lake Mburo National Park – where we hadn’t seen a single zebra stripe).
And so I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears when my cousin Krista had written from Zambia that they had come across zebras in the “wild” just on the outskirts of Lusaka: roaming around a campground half an hour walking from City of Hope.
Naturally, when my participation in the Zambian expedition became reality, the Lusaka zebras were firmly on my list of must-sees. And as we all shared very similar must-see lists, a day after arriving to Zambia we were already walking towards Eureka campsite, a large camp/game area close to City of Hope, for our glimpse of “wildlife”. And indeed, at least in my case the Lusaka outskirts turned out to be a more zebra-conducive environment than the whole of Uganda: this time I finally managed to really see the whole of them.
Heureka! I find them pretty cool. And there weren't only zebras: the grounds are home also to a whole lot of (shy) antelopes...
All in all, it was proving to be a very satisfactory introduction to Zambia – first a historical football victory, then zebras, plus hot shower and no power cut as yet... Zambia was definitely scoring points.
And after a successful zebra-spotting, as true Czechs we rewarded ourselves with a cold beer before heading back to City of Hope. Against all expectations, Africa might turn me into (at least a partial) beer-drinker after all :-)
Heureka! I find them pretty cool. And there weren't only zebras: the grounds are home also to a whole lot of (shy) antelopes...
... and even some giraffes!
All in all, it was proving to be a very satisfactory introduction to Zambia – first a historical football victory, then zebras, plus hot shower and no power cut as yet... Zambia was definitely scoring points.
And after a successful zebra-spotting, as true Czechs we rewarded ourselves with a cold beer before heading back to City of Hope. Against all expectations, Africa might turn me into (at least a partial) beer-drinker after all :-)
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