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Published: April 25th 2006
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Sunset at Lake Kariba'Lits git *ing rit arsed' shouted our new friend Tonto in a bar at Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. His sentences were were laced with nearly as many expletives as his brain was with cheap beers. In between the odd wobble and a drag on his joint, he proceeded to tell us quite where Zimbabwe was going wrong. Tonto seems to be typical of a lot of the whites who have decided to stay in Zimbabwe. Still comparatively rich and able to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, he had become hardened to the corruption and intimidation from President Mugabe and his merry band of 'yes' men. Putting his obvious racism aside, Tonto was bang on the money when he said Zimbabwe was and still could be a fantastic country, but at the moment it's heading in a downward spiral fast.
The last 7 days in Zimbabwe have been a pretty surreal time. We've done what must be some of the coolest and most exciting things to do on the planet, yet it's been in a country on it's knees, who's residents are in deep despair.
Passing the border into Zimbabwe the guy dishing out the visas had his own unique interview skills.
elephant fish eagle
Fish eagle takes aim on an elephant 'Arhh I see you are a Marketing Manager' he said. 'I hope that you will market Zimbabwe for us while you are here.' To kim he said 'Arhh I see you are a Radiographer, I hope that you will radiate all the people of Zimbabwe while you are here'. 'I'll do my best she said'. As I got on the truck to take us to Lake Kariba an armed guard jumped on and shouted at me 'hand over your pistol now'. When I explained that I didn't have a pistol he grudgingly jumped of displaying his yellowed teeth. A case of mistaken identity or a joke? I will never know.
If you ever want to be a millionaire for a day then come to Zimbabwe. The economy has collapsed to such an extent that the British Pound has gone from being worth one Zim Dollar, to now being worth 350,000 dollars. We changed 100 bucks on the black market and were given 3 bricks of notes 6 inches thick in a carrier bag. At the supermarket a lot of the shelves were empty as hardly anything is being imported anymore, and whilst you could buy a bottle of vodka
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My first Tiger Fish for about a pound, a loaf of bread was about a pound. It took 2 inches of notes just to buy some soft drinks. Outside people hung around dressed in rags and begged for money and food.
We headed to Lake Kariba and spent a few days on a houseboat and had the most fantastic time. Although not quite as luxurious as it sounds, we had our own cabin, chefs on board and a jacuzzi on the sun deck. We spent a couple of afternoons and nights moored up in the grounds of Matusadona National Park which borders the lake. On the second afternoon a herd of elephants came down to drink. It was a trip highlight to sit in the jacuzzi with kim and a beer and watch the elephants playing in the water. That evening I headed out on a small canoe and went fishing for Tiger Fish. It was pretty special sitting in the boat watching the sunset surrounded by elephants and hippos whilst the roar of the nearby lions echoed around us.
Next morning we awoke to find an elephant quite near to the boat. A guy called Mark and I thought that it
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Our first and very nearly our last encounter with an elephant on foot. would be a good idea to get a bit closer to it so that we could get a decent photo. Things were going fine until about 30 yards away when the elephant suddenly turned around, flared it's trunk and ears in rage and charged straight towards us. We did, of course, what you should never do and turned on our heels and ran like crazy twisting my ankle in the process. Thankfully the elephant seemed to think that he had made his point well and having shown us who was boss stopped chasing us, allowing me to get a great photo.(MD)
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Lynsey
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Jealousy doesn't become me!
You have some amazing photos Martin some of them have just bought tears to my eyes keep on clacking! Missing you guys heaps though xxxxxx Looking forward to the China experience now!