Day 40-53

Zimbabwe had been a significant talking point on the trip since Zanzibar when news flashes and updates started pulling through on the patchy wifi. We talked at length with our guide who is from Zimbabwe before things started changing too. We talked about the nearly 90% unemployment rate, the collapse of the currency and the bribery that overlanding trucks had to pay on the roads just to proceed through.

What we hadn't discussed was how beautiful and varied the country is, both steeped in history and some truely special places we had completely underestimated how much of a treat we were in for.

Fortunately the political situation moved in the right direction for us and we were able to continue on our journey. Our first stop across lake Kariba dam, to drop off the majority of the group to board a houseboat for a few nights; A popular activity for young Zimbabweans finishing school or looking for a good time. Deciding to opt out of the activity, we were left to our own devices with a smaller group we headed for a lake side resort. Details were scetchy at best on what we would be able to do whilst we were there. Fortunately the site had a huge pool but seemed a little set back from anything major to explore.

After navigating putting up tents in a huge swarm on Mosquitos, we were then hit with a massive downpour as we started to cook outside on the fire. With few of us around things we're a little bit more challenging to sort out! But we sat in the us drinking wine until the storm passed. Olly rustled up some truely delicious steaks for us all that night ! Brownie points for olly!

In the morning we negotiated ( I think) a taxi to town to explore. With 8 of us in a 4 seater we set off for a bumpy ride down the road. The driver released us from his car and we were left in a small town to wonder with no direction for a few hours. Never had a I felt so out of place! We walked around the market seeing women selling tomatoes, onions and other vegetables whilst nursing their babies, washing more vegetables or talking amongst each other. I got the feeling this place was run by the tomato women.

After ambling around we found a few more of the group and I managed to persuade (or maybe not) our American brewer friend reed to the locals bar. This place was truely local.beer for a dollar, pool

Games and lots of smoking and drunk fellows. It was only 11.30am. We garnered much attention as the group grew and more of the locals came to say hello, wellcome, and some were still partying about the recent political changes. It was a strange experience that brought us all out of our comfort zones; especially when a very drunk man started engaging in conversation about god we thought we were going to have to make awkward excuses and leg it. But out of nowhere came another equally drunk man pushing him away and in clear as day English shouted , leave these guys alone, they want to drink in peace. Not what we came for really, but I appreciate the support. As we left we were approached by a policeman asking politely whether we had been bothered by the man; the locals had called the police out! We explained the situation and hopefully got the guy off the hook.

Back at the campsite the boys found a local pro fisher to take a small boat out for the afternoon to fish. From the the pictures and stories it seems like they had an amazing haul and boys day out with this chap, an ex pro fisher and now a duck farmer nearby. Dinner had been prepared but we were treated with two gutted tiger fish freshly caught by the guys that day. The gentlemen was so kind he even gave the guys the spices to cook the fish in too.

From lake Kariba we reconvened to travel south west to the antelope park in Gweru. To cut the drive up we had one night in a very basic roadside camp. An early rise allowed us to explore some caves and deep natural pools. In summary these pools are so deep that they are believed to connect us to the South Indian Ocean, but so far divers have only dived 113m down and have still not reached a bottom. Before we were allowed in we had to listen to a briefing on navigating the small site which was something out of faulty towers.

' remain on the path to the first pool, come back the way you came and then turn right when you see a bench. Walk for a short while until you reach steps. Go down steps and you are faced with steps going down to the left, do not go this way, this was is unexplored. Instead turn right and duck under the safety rail, turning your body to the right shimmy through the rock side until you can stand facing forwards. Stay where the lights are turned on. Take a right then a sharp left...'

By this point we were confused and amused to say the least.

From this place we headed to the antelop park south in a town called gweruz Again our guide was sketchy about details on the place, but we arrived to a wellcome dance, drinks and popcorn. Not the normal arrival we get from the places we stay. The park is a semi resort semi conversation centre for lions; the antelop comes from the fact the site was bought originally as a land investment until the owner realised how much wildlife was around and then realised that he had some lions in his ownership, amongst many antelope. Over the years the place has become a conservation park for lions that have been abandoned, or driven out of them natural habitat. They are intending to release some baby lions that have been born in semi captivity but have had no interaction with humans. However this is a very slow process, and even though they had selected a new national park to release them in, they are now struggling to get approval from the locals in the surrounding area who think these lions are not only a danger but also a pest. So to date nothing has been released, but the park functions as a resort to fund the operation of conservation.

We decided to use our days to walk with elephants and lions; a unique experience that we couldn't pass up on. We walked with four elephants stopping to feed them pellets and grass and even a short game of football before they stood on the ball and popped it reminding us who was boss. These gentle giants were awesome to be so close to but I was pretty nervous being near them!

In the morning we prepared ourselves for the lion walk making sure not to wear anything bright and removed loose hanging jewellery. We approached the enclosure where they stayed and then they opened the door and whistled for them to join us. A surreal experience having a lion walk up to you and you only baring a stick as protection! They seemed perfectly happy to walk by our side as we meandered through fields, although they regularly took naps on the floor; one deciding to sleep as it approached me from behind knocking me out the way with its heavy body. These ones were two years old and could weighed around 100kg. When they say we were able to get close and pat them and you could really sense how big and strong they were when you did so. It's funny but after ten minutes I was comfortable having my back to them as they walked around! We had an amazing morning with them and came back with huge smile on our faces.

The camp we were staying at was beautiful so we had a great few days camping by the lake and making friends with the resident donkey who walked around the camp eating our food, match boxes, anything we had really. She was a real character and would also just come up and stick her face in between us whilst we were eating dinner at the table. A cute addition to the group!

From Gweru we headed west to Bulawayo, the second biggest city in Zimbabwe. This was certainly a wealthy place, with huge mansions lining the streets, and a bit of a western feel to it. But still the standard lines of people queuing for cash. Here we stayed amongst the mansions in essentially a back garden, converted into a campsite. On day 47 we rose early to take a game drive into Matopus National Park to see some white and black rhinos. The park and surrounding area is the oldest place in Africa that has been constantly inhabited by humans, for an estimated 200,000 years. On arrival we were given a talk at the beginning about how endangered rhinos were and the extent to which people will go to poach the rhino for it horns, thought to have medicinal benefits, or also now taken as a high end night club drug, sniffed like cocaine in Asia. To protect the rhinos in this park they choose to remove their horns; the debate they have now is what they should do with them. Given how much money they are worth (£100k per kilo) there is an argument to selling them legally, which would enable funds to be generated and ploughed back into Rhino protection. They do believe that in 5 years time Rhinos will be extinct.

With those sober thoughts in mind we headed into the park with our guide to find some Rhinos. Olly and I unintentionally got split up on the walk so had different experiences, olly saw a small family of white Rhinos and I saw the parks biggest lad, at around 2 tonnes we didn't get too close! Rhinos have very bad eye site but can hear amazingly so we had to be very quiet!

In the afternoon with our fabulous guide we headed back into the park to see some bushman cave paintings, and some local villages. What made this tour so great was the enthusiasm from our guide, who regularly stopped the jeep, jumped out and grabbed a lead or fruit from a tree to tell us about its medicinal values. Olly chewed on a leaf that made his mouth numb, whilst some of the others tried the leaf that is called kat, a popular hallucinogenic chewing Tabacco. We also stopped to point out the site where the Boy Scouts was founded. The cave paintings were so interesting and there is still speculation about the age of the paintings and also speculation about who drew them as similar paintings have been founded around the world. I need to read more about the bushmen, it's so interesting. For instance To bag a women, the man would make a bow and arrow, then at night whilst everyone was sitting around a campfire they would shoot the bush lady he fancied in the bottom! If she liked him then she would walk off into the bush and he would follow. If not, then she broke the arrow in half. Who needs tinder?!

We loved this park and could of spent a week exploring, one to defiantly recommend to others.

From Bulawayo we took a short (6hours!) drive to Victoria falls. A very modern but small town entirely built for toursim. Apart from Zanzibar this was the most touristy place we had been to. Before we had arrived we'd agreed on our plan of action.

Day one we headed to the devils pool in Zambia. This a pool at the top of the falls that you can swim to, and poke your head over the side essentially! To get there we had to cross the border and walk to a fancy hotel where we waited for a speedboat to take us out to Livingstone island; the place where Dr Livingstone first saw the falls. It was a surreal experience jumping into a fast flowing river so close to the edge . The safety briefing was pretty straight forwards. This is where you can swim. If you drift to this side, you will fall down the waterfall and die. Simple! We jumped in and I felt immediately nervous as the current is so strong but there's a rock face that catches you on the edge. We sat on the that, rather the boys sat, I cowered on the side not able to jump up. We also had the opportunity to have our legs held whilst we lay flat with our head over the side. I declined. By screaming very loudly as the guide attempted to hold me legs. Turns out I am afraid of heights!

Day two we decided to take on the Zambezi white water rafting. We'd been talked into it by a guy that is a professional rafter back home. This is one of the best places in the world to do it. After a much more detailed safety briefing, we headed down the gorge to start the first of 19 Rapids. At number 4 we were told that this was one of the hardest runs on the rapid gradin system. I was completely overwhelmed as we went in, the force of the water was extreme and I was ejected from the boat, as was Olly. I can only describe the next few minutes as like being in a washing machine, coming up for air to be hit with another wave and spun down the river again. Weirdly I didn't panic, I was in awe of how fast I had moved down the river! The majority of the Rapids followed a similar pattern until we hit number 12. A series of 3 rapids graded 2,4 and then 5. We cruised through the grade 2, but the boat capsized in the 4, with one of the girls underneath. I was so focused on pulling her out that I hadn't realised Olly had been thrown far away and was heading towards a safety canoe. Fine I thought. But then the guide was pretty panicking and shouting as I realised we were heading into a very viscous grade 5 without our paddles and with some of us in the water still. Beth was back on the boat but started having a panic attack. I tried to help her breath before we then hit the next wave. She was ejected from the boat and started floating down in front of us. I then realised Olly had done the whole thing on his own as the canoe had tipped leaving him floating down the rapid. Myself and the other girl on the boat were determined to not fall out, and we didn't! When we found Olly he was distinctly unimpressed, perhaps more vocal than him was Beth who begged to be allowed out of the boat. Perhaps in all of the pep talking and trying calm Beth and keep Olly cheery I didn't have enough time to be scared or get anxious! Looking back it was bloody terrifying. Something I won't ever do again but I am chuffed we took it on and conquered it relatively unscathed (aside from Olly breaking off a toe nail!)

We arrived back at the campsite to a massive down pour so dived into the tent to cover from the rain. I tried to sleep but I was just buzzing from the last 5 hours. A heavy night of drinking ensued for us all,with some very sore heads the next day.

Onto Botswana !