Our first full day at Lokuthula with Joe and Lesley started off in a very British way, with copious amounts of tea and coffee. We were slow to mobilise and spent much of the morning sitting on the veranda discussing what we might do today. Jenny thought it would be a good idea to go to the Boma restaurant, which is affiliated with the lodge, for dinner. Lesley also wanted to stop by some of the local craft shops in town so we decided to drive to town and explore what we could find there. As we got in the car to leave we discovered that the car was smelling really funky, a bit like off meat. We realised that our sneaky method of transporting the meat for our week stay into Zimbabwe was probably the cause of this off smell. A smell that was certainly not helped by the 35C temperature! Before we left the confines of Lokuthula we stopped by the Boma restaurant and Jenny booked us a table for the evening.
Once we had our reservation we set off in the newly dubbed 'meat wagon', with all 4 windows down, to find the local craft shops. When we drove into town we spotted a few abandoned rail cars that Jenny wanted to have a closer look at. Luckily the cars were just across the way from the craft centre so I agreed to pull off and park. We had a short poke around the rail cars but soon deduced that there was someone living in one of them and we left pretty swiftly to check out the crafts. The craft centre we found was called Elephant Walk, and just as I expected it was filled with local goods carrying price tags worthy of NYC's 5th Avenue. Jenny and I have certainly grown tired of this tendency; since Zimbabwe changed to the US dollar in 2009 shops here seem to think they can charge US prices for goods (very frustrating to say the least). I quite liked the look of a crocodile leather bracelet if it wasn't $45, and would have bought Jenny a stuffed animal, in this case a lion, from another shop had it not been $145! Come on Zimbabwe, $145 for a stuffed animal the size of a shoe box?!?!?
After we had our fill of looking at the overpriced goods we headed back to the car and realised the meat smell was getting worse in the heat. From there we drove to an OK bazaar (like a tesco) and picked up some small food supplies we had forgotten to bring for the week. When we were leaving the car park I was approached by a local trying to sell me 100 trillion dollar notes. We had been told during our last stay in Zimbabwe That this was a common occurrence near the falls because of the huge number of tourists. I tried to convince the man that we had hundreds of these types of notes and eventually he went away. Soon after leaving the OK we remembered that we were going to buy some air freshener for the car. We spotted a TM shop just across the way so I jumped the curb and drove straight into the car park, I was quite eager to rid the car of the smell haha.
When we had sprayed the car with enough air freshener we returned to the lodge and had a few drinks and wrote some posts while we waited until our dinner reservation. When it got to be about 19:00 we piled back into the still smelly car and drive the short distance to the Boma. As we walked through the first entrance we were greeted by two dressed up Africans who proceeded to wrap all four of us in patterned sarongs, tied above one shoulder. We then went through to the restaurant and took some naff touristy photos before being escorted to our table. Our waiter explained the buffet main course and dessert section and showed us the menus for the starters. At this point he also started to fill four tin mugs with a little chibuku, a disgusting African alcohol, that only I, Jenny, was brave enough to taste :D
We ordered four different starters, the guinea fowl, crocodile strips, impala knuckle terrine and ostrich. Before our starters came the waiter brought round a selection of appetisers, small sections of corn on the cop, some sweet potato and some nuts. After sharing our various starters we went to the bread, salad and soup section and filled up on what we wanted, I tried the bean soup which was lovely, and sat munching on those for a while. Mum and dad went up for the main courses first and got side tracked by the roast warthog, which being served the tough outside skin was needless to say, dreadful. Dan and I went up and queued in the proper main course section where they have a selection of different meats from you to chose from which they braai in front of you. We both had the warthog and the buffalo, and sides of peanut butter rice and spinach. The warthog was amazing, just as tender and juicy as I remember it from my last time here at the Boma. I was also the only person brave enough to try a mopane worm, a delecacy here, and received a certificate for my effort! :)
We all went up for seconds and thirds from the meat section, dad bringing back stuff for mum to try, before moving on the the desserts, of which I thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate mousse. During dinner we had a braider come and try to braid my hair which I refused, and a face painter who we all let paint a small item on our faces. I had a sunset painted on my cheek, mum had a warthog painted on hers and dad and Dan had a kudu and a buffalo painted on their foreheads respectively. We also had a visit from the Boma man, selling the Boma cocktail. He hilariously over acted everything and pronounced the words in the way I have spelt them. In this cockitail there was vodika, which is is alikoholock, ceennamon which good for the heart, leamon for flava, honey for the taste, ice or no ice and it is stirred with the boma stick. I was again, the only one who ordered one, with ice, for $4 and it was actually very very delicious!
During dinner we had many appearances of scantily clad African dancers with drums, giving us a great show while we ate. After dinner however was when the real show started. A very vivacious man brought out a smallish drum and a band behind him with drums in various sizes and other instruments and told us to pick up the small drums that had been placed next to our table. I went and sat in the front to join in the fun. We were all given many different beats by the main man to follow, we were split into three groups to have a competition (my group didn't win) and everyone, including mum who came to join me, had an amazing time playing the drums. Afterwards we gave our drums back and were called into a circle to all dance, again I was the only one who participated. I had an amazing time dancing next to two very skilled African ladies and when it was my time to be called into the circle to dance they all whistled and shouted till I was out. It really was really fun and unfortunately the fun had to end sometime.
We then sat back at the table and the same group on the drums came round and sang accapela XXXXX for each table, and it was so beautiful as the group was very talented. Obviously for the table full of American tourists they sang the only song they would know from Lion King, The Lion Sleeps Tonight :D They finished singing and we paid our bill, reduced because we were staying in the self catering lodges, and we all left after a wonderful evening. We climbed back into the meat wagon, rolled all the windows down and careened the short distance home all hanging our heads out the window to breath :D After that eventful night and great day we all climbed into bed and fell asleep soon after getting home.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight is not from the Lion King. :)
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