The Tourists Must Be Crazy

Now another movie to watch – ‘The Gods must be crazy’. Can’t imagine what the locals think of us as tourists coming in and gawking at everything…

Rundu/Angola Border

Leaving our campsite at our regular hour of 7am (at least when I start working I might get a bit of a sleep-in) we headed deeper into Namibia. We changed our itinerary to combine 2 travel days into 1 longer one so we didn’t have to rush our visit to the bushmen. Unfortunately that meant we didn’t spend the night at a camp that was on the river which bordered Angola. Had been hoping to visit (even illegally) and say I’d been to another country.

We did stop at that border town for lunch and a few of us went walking towards the river. Again thought it was a lot closer from the directions we got but after 30 minutes walking (when we only had a 1.5 hour stop) arrived at the river but no luck in finding a boat. There have been some problems around this area with fighting or something so no legitimate place to cross the border. Contemplated swimming across but since I was the only one truly interested and was running out of time I joined the group in heading back. Frustrating to be as close as this photo demonstrates.

(photo of Angola – missed it by that much)

San Bushmen Living Museum

Struggled to write this section about the San Bushmen – there’s only about 20,000 left and supposedly only 2000 that still live off the land. Reminded me a lot of the Aboriginals in Australia and the struggle a nomadic tribe of people who live off the land can face when ‘others’ come to the same land.

It was a packed morning with our young local guide translating what the San Bushmen were doing – we got to see them pretending to hunt, collecting water from roots and then starting fires so they could smoke a leaf and rabbit droppings cigar. Don’t know if I would take a school group here – especially high school boys who would struggle with seeing the lack of clothing. I also felt a bit uncomfortable taking photos – for the clothing reason as well as the feeling I got that we were intruding. It also felt a bit artificial – like actors putting on a show for the tourists. I’m sure there are positives of us visiting and giving money to the community but it just wasn’t a highlight for me.

However, it was cool listening to them talk with the clicks and different sounds involved in communicating. Can’t imagine how tricky it is to learn that language. They also weren’t pushy at all when selling their souvenirs at the end of the trip which was an extremely nice change. People seemed happier to buy from them when there wasn’t a huge amount of pressure.

Etosha National Park Day 1

Our last place to go game driving was Etosha National Park. Namibia is extremely well developed compared to some of the places we’ve visited and the 2 campgrounds we stayed at were fantastic. Looked at upgrades but they were as expensive as hotels back home. You could certainly travel around Namibia by yourself by hiring a car. We drove around the park in our truck – nice and high so we easily saw over the cars and 4WD’s. Didn’t see too many exciting animals on the first day except for an Oryx. Pretty cool animal and particularly rare to see!

(oryx)

Also spent some time at a white salt pan – lots of people taking crazy photos. Tried to get a group jumping shot but was a bit too tricky for the photographers and our timings were a bit out.

Etosha National Park Day 2

After spending the night at a great campsite and having late night drinks in what looked like an old German fort headed off at 7am for another game drive. Let’s just say I added to my elephant photo collection and spent a lot of the time doing Sudoku (best 20 Namibian Dollars spent) and playing cards. Getting very good at ‘annoying’ the neighbour. Our viewing luck had obviously ran out for this day as we even had a bit of rain around which sent the animals scurrying for shelter.

Luckily the rain disappeared and our 2nd campsite was even nicer then the first. There was also a manmade waterhole with a huge number of seats. But again the crazy tourists ruined it by continually talking (think they were German) and ignoring the ‘silence’ signs. And if you’ve got money to burn you could pay for a chalet which was right on the edge of the water hole and look out your balcony at the animals drinking. Not too much exciting until the sun started to set and took lots of photos again. Thought I’d combine my two most photographed things:

(elephant and setting sun)

And just to emphasise how many sunset photos I took – here’s another one…

(sunset over waterhole)

After dinner and doing the washing up headed back to the waterhole. Saw a youngish rhino but in the dark my camera just failed. Ended up playing the features I could find but no luck. Saw more elephants but eventually had to head to bed.

Leaving Etosha

Headed off at [guess what time] and was drifting off to sleep when a very observant person on the truck saw this:

(black rhino photo – best of trip)

Can’t believe how lucky we were to see a rhino and especially a black rhino reasonably close. Supposedly a black rhino had charged one of our tour leader trucks on a previous trip but this rhino liked hiding behind the trees. Certainly made a traffic jam when everyone else started stopping and annoyingly blocking our view.

Spitzkoppe

Our target for the night was a huge rock formation called the Spitzkoppe (must be said with a German accent). This whole area reminded me of Australian outback. I haven’t been to Uluru but I imagine it’s similar to this.

Went on a walk with the aim of getting to the other side. Big mistake. It was a lot bigger the closer you got to it… Eventually gave up trying to cross what we thought was an easy part and tried to get through a bit of a ravine. No luck there either getting trapped in a maze of undergrowth and rock walls. It was good actually getting out and walking around but didn’t feel like a successful explorer.

After being defeated by the rocks we gave up and took some random photos. Supposedly there’s a Michael Jackson photo shoot or something where he did something leaning forward like this. Still looks cool regardless…

(won’t show you the photo 5 seconds later)

Now heading to Swakopmund – the adventure capital of this area. Don’t know what I’ll do – thinking about skydiving but will definitely go sand boarding.

Week Ahead

Mon, 31st of Oct Swakopmund

Tues, 1st of Nov Swakopmund

Wed, 2nd of Nov Swakopmund

Thurs, 3rd of Nov Sesriem

Fri, 4th of Nov Bethanie (Giants Playground)

Sat, 5th of Nov Fish River Canyon

Sun, 6th of Nov Orange River, Noordoewer

And That Makes 50,000

See if you can guess what the 50,000 stands for. Left Zimbabwe and had one of the easiest border crossings into Botswana. Had to walk across some disinfecting carpet to try and clean our shoes, but only the shoes we were wearing. Think I’m going to throw out all of my footwear before I return to Australia.

Chobe National Park

After a pretty short drive (compared to some of the previous days) we arrived at another very nice resort. Again we were in tents but at least we could use the swimming pool looking over the river. However our tents were set up quite near the river which had a lot of warnings about not swimming due to hippos and crocodiles. Stupidly I had my tent on the edge closest to the water – tried not to think about it too much but certainly shined my torch around a lot when I was heading to bed.

(tent by water’s edge)

Another early start for another sunrise game drive. Getting a little jaded about seeing the same old animals (which is sad) but was shocked out of my stupor when we saw a leopard pretty much as we entered the park.

(leopard – still exciting)

Think most of my photos have been the big or exciting animals – thought I’d add one of the numerous antelopes we see on these game drives. Unfortunately most times they run off but this one was too interested in the shade to rush away from the 4WD. Couldn’t imagine being out here in the middle of the day – even at 8am it’s so hot.

(impala in the shade)

Headed back to our resort which we discovered didn’t have a TV in. Had to walk down to another hotel to be able to watch the World Cup Bronze Medal Game involving Australia and Wales. Nice to get a win and so glad there are no New Zealanders on this trip. Don’t know if I could handle their gloating… After the game we all retreated to the shade by the pool and drank copious amounts of liquids.

After unsuccessfully trying to get rid of my t-shirt tan, we got on a small boat and did a river cruise. Still very warm in the late afternoon and the water looked so tempting. The river was so flat it would have been perfect for water-skiing or wakeboarding (as long as you forget about the crocodiles and hippos). These tour operators were a lot more sensitive to the hippos and we didn’t go close enough to annoy them and get the ‘yawning hippo’ photo. However our driver had no qualms about going as close as possible to some crocodiles – even right up to the bank where some were.

(crocodiles)

Rainbow Camp

Next morning we headed off to Namibia for the night – staying at a pretty good camp site which was run by an ex-tour leader. Very interesting talking to him – he used to take older German tourists which he said acted like school children over the 14 days he took them around. Also, in the men’s toilets, the urinals were actually hippo mouths – bit disconcerting late at night.

Okavango Delta

Learning a lot about African geography – beyond the fact there’s so much of it – but one interesting part of Namibia is that it has a pan-handle of land between two rivers. So we left Namibia and went back into Botswana for a couple of days. Still got enough spare pages in my passport – the Namibian and Batswana immigration stampers did a fantastic job not wasting space.

We were spending our first night in the delta in complete bush camping – no facilities at all. To get to the deserted part in the delta we all paired up and got in a mokoro (small canoe). Weren’t very stable – think small gondolas with the guy at the back poling us along. I didn’t get a great photo – didn’t feel very stable and wanted to avoid rocking the boat.

After getting all our tents, cooking utensils and food to our camping location we had a relaxing afternoon before a sunset mokoro cruise. Went extremely close to some hippos who can make an incredible amount of noise. We were close enough for the jaws music to play through my head and some of the more personally protective people were asking for our guides to move us away. Headed back to some open waters and watched the sunset over the papyrus reeds. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve taken so many sunset photos but thought I should attach at least one.

(sunset over the Delta)

After some dinner and entertainment from the locals (when they asked us to entertain them afterwards we failed miserably…) we had a relatively early night. The stars were incredible but I still haven’t seen the Southern Cross. Woke up early (but not nearly early enough) to go on a game walk which was so boiling hot I detoured into the shade whenever it was possible. Didn’t see too many animals but saw some lions tracks maybe 200 metres from our campsite. Makes you wonder how close animals have come during this whole adventure when we’re not AWARE. (And that makes 50,000 words on this blog! Kind-of scary). And having to drink lukewarm water is not fun – what I would have given for some ice at that moment…

When we stumbled back to our campsite our tents had been thankfully taken down and we got back into the canoes. Middle of the day mokoro ride is not my definition of fun. My canoe partner grabbed the milk carton box and fashioned herself a hat which was very trendy while our guide had a whole massive cardboard box he hid beneath. Dipping my hat into the water and then wearing it was a temporary cooling measure and by this time my water bottle could have been used for a cup of tea. Was an insidious type of torture since coolish water was so close but we couldn’t go for a swim.

Umvuvu Camp

We returned to our truck, swapped our dirty clothes for a cleaner version and then got in the canoes again for a thankfully short trip to a permanent campsite on an island in the delta. We were even spoiled with permanent tents and beds. There was a possibility of even playing paintball on the island (and really cheap at only $20USD) but the temperature was so high that getting into the safety overalls was too intense – let alone running around. Was a great campsite with some fantastic open roof showers but the only blemish was the number of mosquitoes in the area. Obviously being in the stagnant waters of the delta didn’t help but my trusty Bushman’s Repellent did extremely well – just my failure to adequately cover my feet when I took off my sandals and being attacked while showering resulted in a few bites.

After a fantastic sleep only interrupted by one of the best thunderstorms I’ve heard in a long time we awoke and headed back to our truck by canoe to leave the delta. Some of the canoes had portable chairs while in the others you had to prop yourself up. Finally worked out this system and stole some of the chairs for our mokoro much to the displeasure of the previous owners. Was one advantage of being first down to the boats.

Back to Namibia

We again did the Botswana-Namibia crossing and realised it’s my penultimate border crossing for this African trip. Returned to the Rainbow Camp – where we had left a few of our group who wanted to watch the World Cup Final (and maybe spend 4 nights in the same location). We’ve got about 2 weeks in Namibia then head straight to Cape Town. Can’t believe how quickly the time has gone.

Week Ahead

Wed, 26th of Oct Grootfontein

Thurs, 27th of Oct San Bushmen

Fri, 28th of Oct Etosha National Park

Sat, 29th of Oct Etosha National Park

Sun, 30th of Oct Spitzkoppe

Mon, 31st of Oct Swakopmund

Tues, 1st of Nov Swakopmund

Mosi-Oa-Tunya or the ‘Smoke that Thunders’

Another one of the holiday within the holiday times – setting up for 3 nights at the same place and getting a chance to experience the excitement of the place. There were lots of adventure options such as white-water rafting, bungy-jumping and gorge swinging but just couldn’t get excited about paying for them. If they were free would have done everything but thought I’d save for money for other adventures/comforts.

Victoria Falls – the Town

We stayed at a fairly big campsite with a nice pool and bar. Lots of overland trucks. After getting through Zimbabwe without too many pushy salesman I’ve realised they’ve all moved to Victoria Falls. Don’t know how many carved animals, wooden salad spoons and bowls, billion dollar notes and even illegal drugs I had to say no to. Did buy some old Zimbabwean dollar notes (ranging from $1 up to $100 trillion. So many zeros…)

First day just spent relaxing by the pool – enjoyed buying my own food since our cook had the 3 days off. And having a different breakfast was an exciting development. In the afternoon ventured out and went to the very British/Colonial ‘Victoria Falls Hotel’. Felt a bit of a fraud walking in my sandals and shorts with the workers dressed very nicely and some in military outfits with medals.

Joined a group for high tea – had some fantastic mocktails and since we had an odd number of people (and high tea was to share; and I’m not much of a tea-man) I decided to have another British dessert – an Eton Mess. So much strawberries, cream and meringue. Just a taste of how you can visit Africa with all the creature comforts of home – and then some! Tried not to think of the days left to go in my tent.

Wandered around the grounds – the Hotel was a stop on Cecil Rhode’s hopeful railway that was to connect Cape Town to Cairo (and be British controlled the whole way). We have 1647 miles to go till Cape Town (if direct) and if we headed in the other direction it would be a massive 5165 miles to travel to get to Egypt’s capital. So yes, Africa is a big place.

Another interesting piece of history is the bridge crossing the gorge connecting Zimbabwe to Zambia (or Southern Rhodesia to Northern Rhodesia back in the day). Visited this engineering feat later in the trip.

(Looking from Hotel towards Bridge connecting countries)

The Falls

The undisputed highlight of this area – the very impressive Victoria Falls. They claim it as one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World (including Great Barrier Reef so I’ll agree with them…) and it’s an amazing sight to see. It was at low-water level and there still was a massive amount of water flowing over. Would be interested to see what it was like at high-water – but think you would get very wet! At least most of the time we were reasonably dry.

(in front of the Main Falls)

We’ve been joking about the amount of photos we take of the same thing – I could have a massive folder of photos of elephants, rocks, sunsets and now waterfalls… Would like to go visit Niagara Falls and the major one in South America (major mind blank atm) and see how they compare. Reading the information around Vic Falls they each have their own claim to fame to be the ‘Biggest’ in the world in that category.

Most of the viewing platforms (see previous photos) have a bit of a fence to try and keep the tourists from joining the Darwin Awards – but luckily (and dangerously if you bought a school group here) there is a section where you can go right to the edge. Since there weren’t many people there we had a lot of time to try and get the most dangerous position possible. There were some interesting ‘planking’ photos but since I have to uphold the ‘responsible teacher’ ethos I avoided joining in the excitement. Instead got this photo with the main falls behind me and Zambia over my left shoulder.

(posing on the Edge)

One adventure activity I would have tried if I realised it was offered was swimming at the top of the falls. There’s a naturally created pool with a rock wall right on the edge of the falls – safe to swim there and tour groups visit there but looks very impressive. One of our group did go and they hold your ankles while you look over the edge. Somewhat exciting…

(Devil’s Pool swimming (aptly named) – 100 metres above the bottom of the falls)

Zambia

With Zambia being so close a group of us headed over to another country. Crossed the bridge (avoiding/ignoring the people trying to get us to bungy jump), caught a taxi into the town of Livingstone. Town wasn’t that exciting – we were the only white people we saw, the others might all be hiding in the nice resorts we passed on the way in. Don’t know whether this is due to tourism reverting back to Zimbabwe now that’s settled down a bit. Since Victoria Falls (the town) was a no-go zone for a few years anyone wanting to visit the falls would have had to stay at Livingstone and it’s showing the lack of those tourists now. Had to get another currency out just to pay for lunch (didn’t accept USD) but was a bit of an adventure.

(entering Zambia on Bridge)

Leaving Victoria Falls

A part of our group left us at Victoria Falls and a few new people joined us. Finally got a double seat to myself which is very nice. Left Zimbabwe and headed into Botswana for the final 2 countries before South Africa.

Week Ahead

Thurs, 20th of Oct Chobe National Park, Botswana

Fri, 21st of Oct Chobe National Park

Sat, 22nd of Oct Bagani Community Camp, Namibia

Sun, 23rd of Oct Okavango Delta, Botswana

Mon, 24th of Oct Okavango Delta

Tues, 25th of Oct Bagani Community Camp, Namibia

Wed, 26th of Oct Grootfontein

African Old Wives Tales?

Struggled with a title for this blog – but have had quite the learning experience and realised a lot of what I’ve learnt about things in Africa has been wrong. It’s been a bit like reading Freakonimics and finding your understanding being turned upside down. (or at least your eyes opened to new possibilities)

Bulawayo

The ‘City of Kings’ continued to build my appreciation of Zimbabwe. The cities are well-planned and the locals are less pushy then some other countries we’ve been in. Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to get friendly enough with a local to fully understand how all the issues Zimbabwe has but if you had no geopolitical understanding you would think Zimbabwe is a fantastic country since it just has a positive feeling – very difficult to describe but it’s one of my favourite countries so far this trip.

Big Cave Hotel

After leaving the city centre we headed to our campsite. Took advantage of the upgrade and stayed in an amazingly unique hotel – it’s situated on the top of a massive kopje (huge rocks on the African plains) and they’ve made great use of the area. The bar has one of its walls as a massive rock and the swimming pool was a natural depression which has been sealed. The view from the room was superb – looking over the African wilderness and got to see a full moon rise. Was a great way to end the day.

Matobo National Park

The hotel was situated right next to the National Park and we all piled into open safari trucks and headed off Rhino trekking. We had a fantastic guide who reminded me a bit of Steve Irwin – just the amount of passion he had when talking about his job and the dangers of poaching to the existence of these animals. (more on poaching later)

He was able to lead us on a walk to try and find some rhinos which was so much more exhilarating then sitting in a truck and hoping for them to come by. After following some tracks on the road for a bit we all got out – had a safety lecture (ie. You’ve got no chance of outrunning a rhino – try not to piss them off) and headed into the bush. After getting information about all the dangerous plants I can now use to poison people we stumbled upon a rhino called Gumboots about 20 minutes from the car (which was incredibly quick – could have been 3 to 4 hours). Gumboots is an old rhino and we got so close to him. Obviously (if you know your animal behaviours) he is a white rhino – black rhinos are a lot more aggressive and will run away or attack if people get this close.

(Rhino and I - finally first photo in Africa uploaded...)

After a quick drinks break (it’s very hot now – absolutely roasting in the open-truck and getting a massive t-shirt tan) our guide led us to some rhino bones. The first and more complete set we saw was a natural death due to old age. Even rhino bones are worth a lot of money but they’re not worth the hassle compared to tusks for poachers. The head alone as seen in this photo is worth about $1 million.

(expensive rhino bones)

The 2nd skeleton we were taken to was a young male rhino who had been shot by poachers. You could see the single bullet hole into its brain and it was done with military precision. Scary how quickly they can remove the tusk before the armed rangers can arrive.

Myths and Scary-but-True Stories

Our guide was incredibly informative and was able to tell his stories in such an imaginative and passionate way. He would be a great teacher! One of the myths he debunked (or at least put a big query on) was the question of the most dangerous animal to humans in Africa. I thought I was well-informed and ready for that trivia question with the answer of hippos. However, while that may be the correct government recorded answer the truth is a bit more confusing. Obviously a lot of deaths occur due to hippos being separated from the water but the reason why a man-killing hippo is reported so often is that ranger/hunters are required to put them down. (same as any animal – the other main contender is an elephant.) Obviously getting a hunter to a village takes time (T.I.A.) so elephants have usually left the area while hippos are content to stay close by.

But the big factor that our guide bought to our attention is the fact the local village gets to keep the meat of a hippo or elephant if it’s killed nearby. Obviously a hippo who doesn’t move far is more likely to be reported compared to an elephant – and our guide couldn’t count the number of times he’s been called to a village due to a ‘rampaging hippo’ and asked to see the body of the person killed and been met with silence. So challenge that question at a trivia night!

Most of his other stories were concerned with rhinos and poaching and I can’t remember them all. An incredible 20-25 poachers are caught per month with the rangers having a shoot first and ask questions later policy. There were quite a few guards around but even they can’t patrol everywhere and rhinos are unfortunately fairly predictable in their movements.

The other interesting point he raised was that rhinos could possibly be farmed. All the rhinos at this national park are de-horned – much like chopping off a nail without taking the stump. Unfortunately this stump is still worth a lot of money (approx. $100,000 – massive fortune for an African) and it keeps growing back. The rangers are not allowed to sell the horns – maybe depreciating the price – and South African authorities even tried to sell off some rhinos to private owners to hopefully protect them but no luck. It’s so sad to hear how outraged but accepting the guide was in what he believed to be the Rhino’s imminent demise from living free in the wild.

Bushmen Art

This blog is getting long already and still lots to cover so going to get quick – bushmen were a race who lived in this area and painted nice artwork in their caves. Some of it actually looked a bit Aboriginal. Also some great stories regarding them like how to get a wife (shoot with a small bow and arrow) and how they stored fat on their backside.

Hwange National Park

We left Matobo and headed to another park with some more game drives. I’ve never seen so many elephants. Because we’re in the dry season, this park has manmade watering holes which the animals have to come to. And the elephants come in droves. Nice photo of a baby one.

(baby elephant)

Also were lucky to see another lion – heard it call for the rest of its pride but the animals aligned and managed to catch this lucky photo.

(3 of Big 5 in one photo – buffalo on right, elephants in middle and lion above far left elephant)

 

Night and Sunrise Safari

Had a final 2 safaris here – with a night safari driving around and using a huge spotlight from the truck. Saw some different animals but camera had no hope. Best part was seeing a pack of hyenas walking directly towards us along the road and getting within 5 metres.

The sunrise safari meant little sleep (but at least avoided the heat of the day somewhat) and saw even more elephants (so many photos of them now…) and quite a few other animals. I think I’m getting harder to impress after so many days in Africa but was fun seeing a giraffe drinking from a waterhole. What a mission…

(giraffe drinking)

Now heading to Victoria Falls which should be fun! And 3 nights at the same place – luxury.

Week Ahead

Tues, 18th of Oct Victoria Falls

Wed, 19th of Oct Victoria Falls

Thurs, 20th of Oct Chobe National Park, Botswana

Fri, 21st of Oct Chobe National Park

Sat, 22nd of Oct Bagani Community Camp, Namibia

Sun, 23rd of Oct Okavango Delta, Botswana

Mon, 24th of Oct Okavango Delta

Managing African Expectations – T.I.A.

T.I.A. (or This Is Africa) is the phrase you hear when the showers are cold (or no water); when the toilets are a biohazard or when your truck gets stuck in the mud. All part of the adventure that is an African trip. However I’ve come to realise that if I’m prepared for something or it’s something completely out of our control that impacts us, I can deal with it. 14 hours plus on the truck is fine if I’ve been forewarned. The problem arises when I have an expectation that is not met. One quick way to get a grumpy Gareth is to say we’re travelling for 2 and a half hours and 4 hours later we are still driving without any interruptions with the end not in sight. Just as I prefer a pessimistic weather forecaster – I would prefer some more realistic predictions and being pleasantly surprised when we’re early. [End rant – resuming normal broadcast…]

 

Lilongwe

Our final day in Malawi was spent in the capital of Lilongwe. We’d arrived in time for a late lunch and were given money and free rein to find our own food. A majority of us headed straight to a western fast food chain of the Inns – Chicken Inn, Pizza Inn and Creamy Inn. We were spoilt with air-conditioning and fatty fast food before wandering the town getting rid of our last Malawian money. One thing we quickly realised about Malawi was the trouble getting American money out of the money changers. They’re extremely happy to take the dollars but no luck changing Malawian kwacha back to USD. I was also talking to a guy driving from Cape Town to Nairobi and he had been stuck in Malawi for a couple of days because they didn’t have any diesel available to be purchased – even in the capital. Glad our truck has massive tanks so we drove the whole way through the country without having to fill up.

Mozambique

Leaving Malawi we entered the Portuguese-colonised country of Mozambique. It had a weird shape and to get to Zimbabwe we had to pass through the Tete corridor. Not the easiest country to transit through and our itinerary had us getting through to Zimbabwe all in the same day. Our leader decided it would be best to cut the journey in half which was a fantastic decision. We had no problems checking out of Malawi but entering Mozambique we ran into the grumpiest border control man I have ever seen. For the whole 3 + hours we were waiting there I didn’t see him smile once. Must be tough working in a job that fills you with so much unhappiness.

After paying the $75 visa fee to just transit the country (seems a completely random amount they charge you – our guide had his clients charged from $30 to $80) we camped on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River.

Into Zimbabwe

Rising early again we continued crossing through Mozambique and reached the border with Zimbabwe. No problems leaving the country and were prepared for another nightmare visa process. Luckily the lady in charge at the Zimbabwean side was a cheerfully bossy character who was a lot more fun than the Mozambique guy. We were actually done before the truck had been cleared through customs for a change.

 

Harare

Our first stop in Zimbabwe was the capital Harare. Very colonial buildings with very wide streets. Wandered around town and enjoyed the fact that Zimbabwe just use American dollars as their currency (since their local currency is somewhat worthless). The nicest and biggest building we passed was the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Don’t know what they do in there since they have no currency themselves – an opinion from the group was that massive building is where they store all their worthless notes…

Stayed in a somewhat dodgy campsite just outside Harare – only one shower for our whole group.

Great Zimbabwe Ruins

Another early start and we headed towards the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. This place actually gave the name to the country when it changed its name from Rhodesia. There were 3 main parts – the kings palace on the high hill where he could look over his 200 wives; the valley ruins which housed 199 wives; and the Great Enclosure which housed his favourite wife.

(walking up to King’s Palace)

Was great getting the chance to hike around the ruins and took a lot of photos of rocks – will need to go through and delete quite a few. Had an amazing view from the top of the King’s Palace. The Great Enclosure is the large circular area enclosed by a rock wall.

(view from top over Great Enclosure)

Another fairly significant part of the ruins was this tower which is used in quite a few official documents including the Zimbabwe passports. Bit of confusion over exactly what the tower was for since it can’t store anything and is just probably demonstrating how rich the King was.

(tower in Great Enclosure)

Finally the view from the Great Enclosure looking back up to where the King has his very defendable home.

(view from Great Enclosure to King’s Palace)

Masvingo Campground

After the ruins we headed to an amazing campsite looking over a lake where a few of us upgraded into this massive lodge with a huge living room. Was very civilized and continued to demonstrate how much wealth there was in Zimbabwe. Got a few game drives soon as we head towards Victoria Falls.

Week Ahead

Fri, 14th of Oct Bulawayo

Sat, 15th of Oct Bulawayo

Sun, 16th of Oct Hwange National Park

Mon, 17th of Oct Victoria Falls

Tues, 18th of Oct Victoria Falls

Wed, 19th of Oct Victoria Falls

Thurs, 20th of Oct Chobe National Park, Botswana

Zanzibar + Tanganyika = Tanzania

It feels slightly selfish when you think you need a holiday to recover after a holiday. With some big driving days in the truck over Africa, it was fantastic to be able to have a resort-style relaxing couple of days planned for the island of Zanzibar. Didn’t take many photos – either too relaxed or just sitting on the truck.

 

Into Dar es Salaam

Unfortunately to get to the island, we had a mammoth driving day. We spent the night near the base of Mt Kilimanjaro and it was a long drive (14 hours on the truck) to the ex-capital of Tanzania – Dar es Salaam.

(best photo I got – cloud cover didn’t help)

After some seemingly endless and torturous hours sitting on the truck and cycling through Ipod, books, playing cards and sleeping we arrived to the traffic of a big city during peak hour. Our campsite was situated across a short bay which required a short (but time consuming) ferry crossing. Quite an experience with us leaving the truck and walking over with a crowd of locals in the dark. Didn’t lose anyone thank goodness.

Ferry to Zanzibar

Next morning had another early start, back on the short ferry and then over to Zanzibar ferry (also called Kilimanjaro – seems there’s a Kili anything over here – water, beer…) Trip took a lot longer than I was expecting but fell asleep watching a Mr. Bean movie.

Stone Town

Our first night in Zanzibar we spent in the historic centre and World Heritage Site called Stone Town. Was super warm and I retreated to my surprisingly air-conditioned room during the hottest hours. Joined the group to watch the sunset and have a nice restaurant meal. Walking back to our hotel (not a tent which was a nice change) that night reminded a bit of Venice and its snake-like pathways. Was one of the first places in Africa I’m glad I was walking with a group of people.

Spice Tour

Had a bit of a sleep-in in an actual bed before being herded into a mini-bus. Unfortunately had a bit of good news/bad news – good news was that we had air-conditioning in the bus; bad news was the air-conditioning somehow broke the bus and we were stranded waiting for another bus just outside a Navy training facility which we weren’t allowed to look into. Some grumpy guys came out and told us to stand on the other side of the road which was a bit weird. Rather than having our backs to the super-secret location we were herded to the other side where we could safely stare back over the road at what looked like a run-down college. At least the Navy security guys would have slept soundly that night…

Our 2nd bus arrived and we were driven to a spice farm where we were given a tour of the different spices that grow on the island. Lots of different smells and the obligatory tea tasting afterwards with the sales pitch. Didn’t drag on too long and we headed further north to our hotel for two nights.

Beach living

So began the holiday within a holiday. Mix together great weather; room with bed, hot showers and air-conditioning; hammocks on the beach and some great snorkelling and you have a very relaxing two days. Only downsides were the sunburn and the dodgy power outages resulting in lukewarm drinks. Also had time for a sunset cruise in a dhow – seeing the sun set over the water was a magic way to end the day.

Ferry Trip Back

It was tempting to spend the next few weeks here in Zanzibar just relaxing but we had more countries to visit so back on the ferry to the mainland. It was a crowded ferry with some super noisy kids. I put on some loud music and just tuned out and it wasn’t until we got to the other side I found out that most people had been sick due to the rough conditions. Even the person sitting next to me had thrown up while I was cocooned in my Ipod sound shield.

Torturous Travel Days

Spent another night in Dar es Salaam – same campsite we had been in before. I upgraded for $10 into a beach hut since there was going to be a ridiculously early morning start.

So began some longs days leaving Tanzania (14+ hours on the truck). We arrived in a campsite at Iringa after driving through a National Park – campsite had no power and we got there when it was dark. Left early the next morning and crossed into Malawi. Spent a night at Chitimba which was on Lake Malawi. Crazy distances we’d covered…

Malawi

Another somewhat early start (especially with the sun rising at 5:30am due to a time change so Malawi can be similar to South Africa) we headed further south down the lake to Kande beach. This is a popular stopping point for overland tourist trucks and there were 4 different trucks there including ours. We got to spend a full day just by the beach – and it was weird being on the shores of a lake which looked like a beach at the sea with waves and everything. Bit of a shock with the fresh water however…

Another weird occurrence were the insects, it looked like a dust storm coming over the lake towards us but turned out to be millions of bugs. Everyone retreated inside and waited it out but at least there weren’t too many mosquitoes. Overall a very nice day watching the Australians scrapes past South Africa in the rugby and having a few games of beach volleyball.

We’re now heading to the capital of Malawi before heading towards Zimbabwe with a couple of border crossings to look forward to.

Week Ahead

Tues, 11th of Oct Nyamapanda ?, Zimbabwe

Wed, 12th of Oct Harare

Thurs, 13th of Oct Masvingo

Fri, 14th of Oct Bulawayo

Sat, 15th of Oct Bulawayo

Sun, 16th of Oct Hwange National Park

Mon, 17th of Oct Victoria Falls