A fabulous Safari Lodge in Zimbabwe….how exciting!!
After our overnight stay at the Intercontinental Hotel at Johannesburg Airport, my friend Jenny and I caught a South African Airways flight to Zimbabwe where we were collected by our guide and taken to our resort Victoria Falls Safari Lodge – lovely I must say.
My room was very nice with a huge bathroom and balcony running the length of the room, overlooking one of the smaller waterholes…
On our second night we were honoured to have a large herd of elephants join us whilst we enjoyed a mock-tail and a glass of wine on the terrace. And the cuteness award goes to the baby elephants playing around when walking along side their mum.
Local residents at the lodge include a mum and baby Impala (some photos taken with my phone so rather grainy), some skittish blue birds (I think my blogging friend Mavis might know their name)…
And a lovely family of warthogs…now some people say these animals are not very pretty and that just might be the case but I think they are sweet and their babies are particularly cute…
The food was very good and there were lots of places to sit and read a book or just enjoy the scenery.
And every day at 1pm the lodge has a feeding program for the Vultures and a couple of rather large cranes. There are tens and tens of these rather unusual looking birds and they are fed large hunks of raw meat; some still on the bone and at night the Hyenas come out to finish off the bones – nothing left!
So my impression so far of Zimbabwe is pretty good and I still have a river cruise and animal safari to write about.
Sharon [girl after my own heart] ordered the shoestring fries with house seasoning and ranch dressing – very good fries and I can say that being a total ‘French fry connoisseur’.
The bar theme also centres around floral displays of stunning orchids and other greenery which makes the bar very feminine…I loved it! The visual centrepiece of this bar is a large LED flatscreen attached to the roof, showing a live feed of the movie Alice in Wonderland [minus the sound] – what a fabulous idea!
Velour couches frame all areas of the interior, with a lower area complete with an antique sideboard as a DJ table. The decorations are lovely and the checkered wallpaper just adds to that classiness.
A great place for a cocktail before dinner or a longer evening with drinks and snacks.
Warwick is significant in the establishment of the Australian Federal Police as its the location of an assault of the then Prime Minister who was in Warwick giving a speech at the local railway station when an egg was thrown in his direction, knocking off his hat. The Prime Minister asked the local police sergeant to arrest the offender but interestingly, the sergeant refused, saying it was not in his jurisdiction to take action.
We walked in through huge wooden doors with stained glass windows and were taken to our rooms – there are thirteen in total; all very lovely and some with beautiful stained windows similar to those above the front entry doors. 
The manor also has a guest lounge room with open fire for the cold winter evenings and a dining room with gorgeous velvet covered chairs.
Our first official event was to view the re-enactment of the famous egg throwing incident at the train station. Really well put together by the Warwick community. 
As we were representing the AFP, we all wore our uniforms and three of us had a quick photo opportunity outside the main doors of the manor and a larger group photo outside the train station after the re-inactment.
A commemorative plaque was unveiled by our Commissioner and the local Member of Parliament followed by our Commissioner doing some quick media interviews.
Our next official function was a dinner so we went back to the manor and changed into our Mess uniforms and again had some photos taken, but this time on the stairs in the manor. My friend Jane and I had a couple more photos taken along with a few of me and the Commissioner as this was the last time I was to wear my Mess uniform as a member of the AFP; I have since retired – 30 November after thirty-four and a half years!
And finally a photograph of all of us at our dinner function; a great weekend representing the AFP.
In October this year, I met my friend Sandy in Melbourne. I travelled with my Canberra based friend Jane and prior to our travel I contacted two friends I used to work with (and had visited them both in NY and London when they lived there), so it was obvious that we would also visit them whilst so much closer in Melbourne.
Platform 4b is next to platform 4a and as we walked past we saw a train there, but as Jane had the lead we waited to hear from her….[silly us] so this was not good when we missed another train as it departed from 4a not 4b. Imagine how we mocked Jane!
Our dear friends, chef Annie and wait staff were all waiting for us and had pre-arranged a lovely meal taking into consideration my dietary needs. The menu at this fabulous restaurant is created from fresh food from the garden and meats and poultry from the surrounding region – exceptional food I must say!
Chef Annie creates a seasonal menu and sometimes the dishes are plated, sometimes shared, but always they revolve around what is being harvested from the garden or taken from the store cupboard.
The others were served dishes of duck which came out beautifully presented and I am told delicious.
My friend Sandy, who doesn’t eat duck [amongst many other things], had a pear, rocket and parmesan cheese salad.
At the same time as our main course arrived, we were also served a dish of scolloped potatoes to share which were oven baked in a cream sauce.
Our main courses consisted of a potato rosti with salad and dressing for me and a fresh fish dish for others.
It really is amazing how different fresh food from the paddock tastes – love it.
Annie also sells beautiful seasonal jams and preserves. I bought a jar of raspberry jam and marmalade [which I gave to a friend who said it was delicious). And I love the raspberry jam.
I look back now and realise I do miss New York; the hustle and bustle, those wonderful yellow taxi cabs with constant horn blowing and the sights that are famous and known throughout the world. My two friends Tracey and Sandy and I went there in 2015 and I can’t believe its been two years; where does the time go. This post will cover a few of the places we visited whilst in NYC.
One of the main reasons my friend booked this tour was to visit a wonderful pizza restaurant called Grimaldi’s whose history of coal-fired brick oven pizza cooking can be traced to the first pizzeria in America back in 1905. It was a fabulous little restaurant and just before lunch there was already a lengthy line up waiting to get in but as we were on a bus tour, we went straight in.
We also took a cruise of NY Harbour one afternoon which was a great way to see the city buildings and the Statue of Liberty although I hear the Staten Island ferry is a better way to get close to the statue and its free.
We also went to the National September 11 Memorial but didn’t go into the Museum as the line was very long. Tracey had visited the museum before and said it was worth the visit but as we were time poor we decided not to line up. We were so glad we paid our respects at the Memorial though; it’s a beautiful site for such a tragic event.
It was our friend Sandy’s first visit to New York so we wanted to make sure she went to the tope of the Empire State Building. We hopped off the hop on hop off bus tour at this stop and went to the viewing platform for some beautiful sights of NYC.
Coney Island was another place we went to on the bus tour to Brooklyn. This was a nice place to see and just take a stroll along the beachfront. The huge roller coaster was not working but I wasn’t sure if that was a long term thing or it was just closed for the day.
We also had drinks at a rooftop bar in NYC with fabulous views and excellent cocktails!!
Sue's Fabulous Travels 
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