Blogs from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Africa - page 7

Today my cousin Ashley came out and picked me and a few other people up and we went up to a tourist spot known as 'Matopis'. This place is on the world heritage list so a spectacle viewing was in order. Lucky for us the Zim rain was pouring down as heavy as Elephents gushing urine in which I witnessed the other weekend; heavy, wet and at great speeds. The place itself is very nice. The main thing about it is that everything is rock. Huge rock figures are planted all over the park; many you can climb; but being with females who where scared of getting a bit wet from the rain sadly we stuck to the car route. We got to a place called Worlds View which we DID climb up. It's called Worlds ... read more

At around midday we had finished packing everything in the back of the car. Tents, foods and drinks, fishing rods and anything else David and Michelle deemed important enough to bring with. We set off on a 2 hour trip down to a place called Antelope Park; a place famous for its elephant and lion programs. Upon arrival as we started setting up camp upon this beautiful lake. Soon later we where greeted by 3 Elephants who decided it would be nice if they paid us a welcome visit. They came right up to where we were pitching tents. I was quite anxious thinking about sleeping here tonight but I was assured they wouldn’t interrupt us at night as they have a small black dood keeping them away. Upon setting up camp other people arrived and ... read more

The trip to Zimbabwe began today! With the few delays experienced I may have been leaving a few days later than expected but the main thing is that I’m going to get there. I booked a Greyhound bus leaving at 8:45am and arriving in Bulawayo at 8:45pm. Driving through the main city of Jo’Burg on the way to the bus station you cannot help but notice the severe poverty around you. There are homeless people digging through rubbish, beggars at every set of traffic lights, coming up to your window selling anything and everything. A funny moment happened when I spotted a group of people climbing some ones fence; the police who surely also saw what was happened seemed more concerned at my Aunty getting of the mobile phone; in which she was ringing police anyways. ... read more

Harare was a great city, suddenly really civilised! We went to the movies a couple of times as they were only 35c US. At that price it doesnt matter if the movies are rubbish! We both saw 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', Colin went to see 'XXX' while I saw 'Below'. We went round the National Art Gallery, some good works, most of them up for sale, and a room full of old tribal works from drums and baskets to axes and masks. None of this stuff was for sale, although you could buy replicas in the shop. That was about all we had time for, shame really, but we had better things to move on to. Next stop was Antelope Park, a private game reserve with a lion breeding program. We got to play with ... read more

We got to the Translux bus station in Pretoria in plenty of time, but they didn't announce the bus over the tannoy, so we were left in the waiting room with a large Indian family from Durban who were heading to Harere for a brother's funeral. Their bus was very late and they were very worried about missing the event. We found out we had missed our bus about an hour after it had left and were told to get on the Harare bus and switch to our bus at the border. The Harare bus driver told us that the other bus would not wait at the border, but after talking to the guy behind the counter agreed to take us. If our bus wasn't at the border then we may be going to Harare. At ... read more