Zimbabwe

At last we reached the jewel of Africa - Mosi Oa Tunya - The Smoke that Thunders. We arrived a day earlier than planned as we were supposed to take the overnight train there, however due to a fatal head-on collision on the tracks only two days previously, the trains were not running. The road wasn’t entirely safe either as our trainee driver Jesse was behind the wheel for first full drive day on his own and along the way scraped past a bridge which completely shredded a tyre – right under where I was sitting and have to admit had Serengeti flashbacks for a moment!! Only held us up for half an hour or so and arrived in Vic Falls late afternoon and had a few drinks to calm nerves in anticipation of all the adrenalin fueled activities ahead.

Had booked in to do a 'flight of the angels' in a microlight the first day. This involved heading across the border into Zambia as the town of Vic Falls pretty much straddles the border with the actual bridge over the Zambezi being no-mans land in between the two countries. Even though it was in a motorized kite on a windy day, the microlight trip was less scary than I had expected and an amazing experience (sorry can't think of any good superlatives to properly describe it!). Take off and landing where a bit hairy and my fear factor buttons on high as we dipped and dived in the wind but the feeling of being in the open air 500 metres above the falls was incredible. Saw large herd of elephants swimming in the river below spraying water with their trunks and hippos, crocodiles and impala.

After a bit of a rush trip back a few of us headed out to do some interactive drumming in the middle of a national park. Formed a large circle and beat the drums, sang songs and tried to be musical magicians. Thankfully the guys leading us were - we just painfully attempted to follow their lead!! They fed us a traditional meal ugali and stew which was really tasty (with a caterpillar for dessert!) and must say that drumming certainly helps in working up an appetite.

Next day, went down to the 5 star hotel where Lauren had decided to upgrade for the night and had the most amazing buffet breakfast where I scoffed a good 5 platesful of food!! Suitably stuffed, retired beside the pool and lounged about for the day in the sun, lapping up the 5 star luxury for free!! Only mar on the day was that Lauren’s credit card was declined so there were a few frantic phone calls so that she could get her bill paid!!

In the afternoon, had booked to do a wine drift on the Zambezi (as opposed to most of the others who had bravely opted for white water rafting again!) and gently floated down the river in a canoe sipping gin and tonic. Was very pleasant in the late afternoon sun and while we had a close call with a hippo, was far safer than the grade 5 stuff! Ended up another big night, drinking in bar called Shoestrings across the road and then into a funny (dodgy!) local bar Croc Rock.

Nursed a rather large hangover the next day and was really disappointed as the jetboating that I had booked in to do was cancelled due to lack of numbers. Not too many tourists or overland trucks go into Zimbabwe anymore due to the economic problems and general safety concerns, so was a bit like a ghost town considering it is high season. In fact saw as many warthogs wandering around the place as I did tourists!! So instead went to watch a few of the braver in our group do their bungy jumps - I was scared for them just watching!! That night went out for dinner as quite a few our of our group were leaving us, Jeff and Jo, Steve and Jackie and Tom.. also we were losing our mohawked, elf-like, bow-and-arrow toting tour guide Sam... so now we have big daddy driver Jason as our tour 'leader' with Nancy from the other truck filling in the gaps where necessary!

Visited the falls on the final day - even at only 40% volume they are truly spectacular with rainbows catching in the mist. Can't imagine what it would be like with even more water as at times the spray was phenomenal and got thoroughly soaked - to the point where was glad I was not wearing white t-shirt!! My microlight pilot said that you can feel the spray 500m up in the air during the wet season. Even at this time of year you can sometimes feel mist on your face in town and always can hear that distant roar of the water... really the smoke that thunders.

Next day we were off again, heading for Antelope Park. Wow, what a great place with excellent facilities (i.e. hot, clean showers!), restaurant and real washing machines. Antelope Park is a place where you can do lion walks and all sorts of other safari type activities, so after watching a short video, we all signed up for a package deal before sitting as close as humanly possible to the fire to warm up!! The weather was windy and bitterly cold when we arrived and froze the first night, wearing as many clothes as we could (think Michellin man!)... thankfully weather was balmy during the following days though the nights were cold.

Our first adventure started off with a horse back safari which came along with a package deal.. while I’m not hugely keen on horse riding, my horse Mvuu (meaning hippo in the local lingo) was very well behaved and certainly gave a different perspective on seeing game. You can get quite close to the animals on horseback, as you they don’t register that there is a human along with the horse! Saw the usual suspects of giraffe, zebra, impala, waterbuck and wildebeest and actually really enjoyed the few hours. Had a yummy buffet lunch then a group of 7 of us went on a carriage ride in the afternoon. That was so bizarre, to be on a mule-drawn carriage trundling through a national park – the incongruity of it all was fantastic and we had a great time bouncing across the roads (except when we just about bounced right on out!) and spotting game amongst the trees. We literally fell off the wagon and stopped at the lion breeding programme, taking millions of photos of the older lions. Back on the track we trundled along, stopping along the way to climb a tree house high up in a fig tree, all 8 of us squashed in the small space enjoying our afternoon tea and cheap Zimbabwe wine.

Next day the group went for our first lion walk at 6.30am… Our group went for a walk with three ‘cubs’, Phire, Praise and Paka aged 13 months old and weighing around 90kgs each - really not much cub-like about them except for the fact that they were quite playful! You could touch them, scratch them under the chin and even hold their tails as you wandered along. They entertained us climbing up the trees and scratching their claws down the bark and running around the place. Praise (the only male lion) gave me a 'naughty' look and of course I promptly forgot about the instruction to point my stick and say NO! in a commanding manner. Instead I simply stayed leaning against a tree watching him with my stick in between us and once past me he turned around and nipped me on the butt – thankfully only getting material and no flesh!!! One of the volunteers rescued me from being eaten by doing what I had forgotten to do!!

After that awe-inspiring experience went for a cub view and these ones at only 3 months old so really did look like cubs even though they were the size of small dogs! They were so cute and playful, lucky as they usually spend a good amount of their day sleeping. Got great photos. Was a very busy morning with the cub viewing then straight onto the back of an elephant – quite different from Thailand as actually get to sit on their backs behind the guide. Didn’t see any game but enjoyed lumbering through the park and camp site chatting to the guide.

In the late afternoon we had our second lion walk, this time with the older lions, nearly 2 years old – they were huge and a scary experience watching three lions approach you then rub against your legs!! The lions named Kwali, Kwezi and Kenge spotted some impala nearby and set off on a stalking mission which was unsuccessful – apparently they make a lot of hunting blunders until they are a bit older. The lions came back with us for a bit but were being pretty lazy and lolled about a good portion of the time which was great for photos! Toward the end of our few hours we managed to lose one (common apparently) which was quite unnerving and stayed close to the group while the volunteers ran around trying to get them back. The only good thing was that we got to spend a bit more time with two remaining lions! These lions will eventually be released into national parks in a few years time, though in parks where there are no other lions. Hard to believe but lions in Africa are diminishing at a really high rate and though not on the endangered list they are definitely heading in that direction.

We headed away from Antelope park towards Bulawayo to a place called Burke’s Paradise, a private residence turned backpackers/campsite. It was really nice and for only US$1 upgraded to a dorm room with a bed (yeah!!) and enjoyed having cold beers from the fridge and watching old scratchy videos. Had to do cook group shopping which was hard since not a lot available and no bread (flour shortage)… then back to Burke’s where we joined most of our group helping to fight a bushfire that was closing in on the house. It was bucket and jerry can effort but eventually got it under control and the owners rewarded the mostly bikini-clad fire fighting volunteers with free beer which was well appreciated.

Spent a few days in Blantyre (Malawi) which was basically another dusty African city - missed being by the lake after only a few minutes! The highlights of being in a city here are things like nice cafes, real coffee and doing internet (actually that is more of a frustration since it so ponderously, patience-testing slow!!). Also treated myself to another pedicure as Africa has not been kind to my feet at all. Other than cook group shopping and cooking that was about the sum total of our city experience in Malawi!

Next day we headed over the border into Mozambique and really enjoyed the countryside, think it would a very interesting place to go back and explore. We were literally just passing through on our way to Zimbabwe and bush camping so really didn’t see much other than the passing scenery. Got a pretty visa in our passports though!

Before we crossed the border into Zimbabwe we hid all our valuables and extra money so that any official that searched the truck wouldn’t take anything for a bribe or make us change all our money into Zim dollars which are completely worthless outside Zimbabwe. The other interesting thing that happened was the currency changed two days before we arrived so all the notes are new and now you spend only thousands of dollars instead of bags full of millions... even though no-one has the correct change and prices are still inflated for certain things. For the money situation there is a very strong black market here which is more than twice that of the official bank rate, of course you just have to be very careful where and how you change it as it is illegal and you need to have a small amount of official money so that you can show receipt at government sites… it really is a completely crazy system. No wonder people are leaving this country in droves - nearly all people that have talked to are planning to leave if they can ever afford it.

We finally made our way to Harare staying at a great campsite called the Rocks, aptly named for the large rocks that look precariously balanced atop one another.. again we partook in city things of coffee, internet and movies… though this time the coffee was disappointing and the movie called Freedomland was absolutely atrocious – even though it only cost us less that 50 cents it was so bad that would still have liked a refund!!! Harare looked like an interesting place actually and would have been good to explore some more.

We said a sad farewell to Maria and Rafa and had a very big party at the camp which was well timed as also same day that we welcomed our two newbies Patrick and Caroline. It was a great night that included lots of dancing (including on the bar!!), singing, drinking and general hilarity. It is really sad to have members of our group leave us when we have been living in each others pockets for over 7 weeks.

From Harare we went to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins which are the oldest remaining stone structure after the pyramids. We had a tour around the ruins and through the museum though must say my enjoyment was dampened by a splinter in my foot which refused to come out, however stoically limped my way around but was glad to sit down afterward. Said splinter did not come out for 3 days but eventually got it. The other thing that you have to be weary of here is the many acacia thorns which are so long that they go right through your shoes! That night was Phillipa’s birthday so we had a few drinks for that and a funny brownie mixture in place of a cake – basically there was nothing available at the shops due to the flour shortage here (along with petrol and many other useful items).