Into Zimbabwe

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Up early for departure soon reaching the border crossing from Botswana into Zimbabwe. A stinging visa fee of $50US (interestingly the Aussies and most of the other nationalities had only to pay $20US). On arriving we booked our forthcoming activities. Amazingly, with the encouragement of Shannon, Jen has booked to do the whitewater rafting on the Zambezi which is incredible as se normally doesn’t even like getting out of her depth in water. She’s also doing a walk with lions whilst I do the adrenalin day at the Zambezi Gorge. The poverty in Zimbabwe is immediately apparent in the vehicles on the streets. As soon as you leave the campsite and go into the street who want to barter handicrafts such as carved wooden giraffes and hippos in return for your clothes, shoes, torches, batteries - almost anything. Most in demand seem to be shoes. As I took my broken (and by this time disgusting) sandals into town to find a repair shop I was approached several times by people offering to mend them or swap them for carved animals or lucky charms. Eventually Esther in the AFC office arranged for a friends sister to fix them overnight for 2 US$. Items are amazingly cheap if you have the currency. In the evening Jen went for the ‘Lion Walk’ trip on which you get close to some year old lion cubs. She took some excellent photos, including one of Brett and Potsy walking along holding the tail of two large cubs. We all dined together at the campsite restaurant before heading to a very noisy busy bar. The walk home was very dark as absolutely no street lighting. (Later I learnt that Brett and Potsy chased by a bull elephant when they let the bar).

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