Blogs from Zimbabwe, Africa
May 3rd 2012
One of my day trips from Victoria Falls included a 2 hour drive east to Hwange, Zimbabwe. This was home to my sponsored child, Bravo Shoko. He lives in rural Hwange, which is about 40 minutes outside of the main Hwange township. However, try not to imagine a large, developed town as this "township," as it is quite sparse and consists of a few government buildings, shops, one large grocery store and a clothing store. There are also many developed houses as well. However, much of the population in Hwange lives in the rural areas, which are a huge contrast from even the under developed township. After arriving to town and having a slight briefing at the World Vision office, the two World Vision escorts and I did some grocery shopping to bring some food to ... read more
May 2nd 2012
After the intensity of the hunt, it was time for what I thought to be a peaceful journey to check out Victoria Falls. It was somewhat bittersweet because I was sad to be leaving my new friends in Jo-berg, but I was looking forward to the next leg of my trip. The flight was a much more pleasant one, only an hour and a half north to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and I landed in a very sparse non air conditioned airport, only to go through an arduous customs process. However, I did manage to get a cool new visa in my passport and one thing I've learned while traveling, is that you have to look at the bright side of everything. I caught a taxi to my hostel, Shoestrings Backpackers, and passed through Victoria Falls town. ... read more
April 12th 2012
I saw Victoria Falls From the ledge, from the air, from the bridge, and now it was time to see it from below... What better way to celebrate Easter 2012, than to whitewater raft down the Zambezi River? When I was doing the research for this adventure, I noticed that they offered a full day trip down the river where you go through 18 sets of rapids. They also offer a half day adventure where you start further down the river and endure 9 sets of rapids. I decided that, since I had never done this before, I should only do the half day... If I hate it,or can't physically do it, then I would only make a fool of myself for 4 hours instead of 8. The water in the river at this time of ... read more
April 11th 2012
Saturday started out with a walk to the bridge… It officially is called The Victoria Falls Bridge but everyone just calls it “the bridge”. This is the one you see in the pictures of the Zambezi River. It connects Zimbabwe to Zambia. It was approximately a 15 minute walk through the National Park behind the hotel, where an elephant and several warthogs were sighted the day before I walked through. The security guards told me to be aware of the animals but to be honest it was the local vendors that I needed to be concerned about. You can’t blame them for trying to get our money one way or another, but there were just so many of them, all wanting something. In order to get to the bridge, you have to go through the Customs ... read more
April 7th 2012
I made it here and the place is gorgeous. I don’t want to say that getting here had its challenges, but there were a few things… I was up at 3AM to be ready for the taxi at 4AM. He arrived on time and whisked me to the airport in no time at all. I went through a series of 3 security checkpoints, which is a normal thing at the Dar airport. I don’t know why, but they do it that way. I got on the flight and immediately fell asleep, missing breakfast and three quarters of the flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. When I arrived, I had to make a mad dash though the airport to make my connecting flight. I had to go through another Customs area and then race to the gate. I ... read more
April 7th 2012
There are a few things that you notice when you travel by yourself… First of all, you go to bed early because there is no one to entice you to stay up late, socialize with others and drink more in the bars than you really want to. Secondly, you find yourself having a conversation with no one. It has happened several times on this trip. I verbally tell myself what is on the agenda for the day… where I will go, what I will do, and how I will get there. When I catch myself, I immediately look around to see if anyone is looking at me crazily. Luckily, I seem to only do it when I am not near other people. Weird… I need to stop that. Also, you tend to sit back and take ... read more
April 7th 2012
Good Friday found me doing a tour of Victoria Falls. It was included in my package and it was awesome. Victoria Falls is one of the big three falls in the world. While it is the tallest, the Iguagu in South America is the widest and Niagara Falls has the most volume of water cascading over the edge. Victoria Falls is made up of 6 different water falls. They are all connected but the river breaks off at various points creating the seven different ones. They are the Devil’s Cataract, Main Falls, Horseshow Falls, Rainbow Falls, Armchair Falls, and the Eastern Cataract. The falls is a result of a volcano eruption and the lava apparently carved out the gorges. The river that flows into Victoria Falls is the Zambezi (zam-bay-zee) River. It is the 4th longest ... read more
April 7th 2012
After the excitement of Victoria Falls, I sat by the pool for a little while. The Zimbabwe sun can sneak up on you and beat you at your own game, if you aren’t careful. I decided to do the sunset cruise. Against my better judgement, I had spoken to other guests who said they really enjoyed it. I figured it would be a 2 hour funfest with families and people who were there for the “all the booze you can drink”. I wasn’t wrong. How weird did I look being a single guy on a sunset cruise, really? No one looked at me like I was creepy, but seriously? Anyway, we boarded the boat that had about 50 passengers. I counted 30 life jackets and about 20 bottles of liquor. If the boat went down and ... read more
March 29th 2012
OK the internet is having issues and i have spent all day trying to add photos to this blog but no luck, I will try and put them up in the nxt few days. Having left the farm early this morning I am now back at ‘Hogwarts’, the Harare house. Though I have heard that a lot of people don’t like the house (which used to be a school) I think it’s brilliant. It’s very higgledy piggledy with rooms and floors all over the place and a lovely garden with a swimming pool. Possibly the most prominent feature of the house is Napoleon the massive dog, he has a colossal head but it is completely empty, not an intelligent animal but he’s brilliant. Along with Napoleon is Gilly the other dog and the complete antithesis of ... read more
March 28th 2012
The Farm: Staying on the farm has been (and continues to be until 6am tomorrow) amazing. Life out here is so action packed, I am always so busy, which is why it has taken me 4 weeks to start writing a proper blog. Whether swimming in the pool, jacuzzying, reading in the sun, going to Clive’s aviary (yes aviary!), checking out the ostrich or being set on by the pack of dogs (Bella, Nushka, Delilah, Milo, Hermione and Scruffles) Just staying at the house I am overwhelmed with options! For example on our first day we had a Black Mamba on the front lawn, how much more exciting can you get!! We had to shoot it with a shotgun as it got into the ostrich/chicken pen and how many people can say they went black mamba ... read more
