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First the good news.... I'm an effing Trillionaire! I am now holding a stack of 50 Billion dollar notes and am a certified trillionaire. I also am planning on tripling my fortune tomorrow. The bad news... 1 trillion zimbabwe dollars doesn't go too far these days. It is worth about 50 cents and that is all that I have in my wallet today. Doh.
Wow, so it has been a bit of a whirlwind tour since I last jumped off a bridge and wrote last. Livingstone and Zambia was amazing but we had to move on. There is soo much to see and so little time. We made tracks to Kasane, Botswana where we hoped to finally make it out on safari though we have already seen elephants, kobs, warthogs and giraffes from the side of the road.
My troop of 3 arrived in Kasane, Botswana without much clue about where we were going, what language is spoken, what currency is used or where to stay but this has certainly become the rule rather than the exception and definitely adds to the adventure. We originally had hoped on visiting the Okavango Delta, however it proved to be a bit
of a headache and in the dry season it is not nearly as impressive as it otherwise might have been so instead we decided to stay closer to the Namibian border and visited Chobe National Park, home of the "Big 5" animals and one of the best game reserves on the continent. Good consolation prize. Our first problem came about as it seemed that any reasonably priced lodge was booked as was all of th available campsites however after some persistence we managed to get a campsite in one of the swankiest lodges I have seen yet. The lodge is situated on the Chobe River and the border of Namibia where elephants and other animals come to drink.
abbreviated version... Sorry.... internet cutting short.... Long story short, spent a kick ass day hanging out in Botswana with a village tour of Namibia. We had the most amazing buffet dinner featuring kudu, impala and about every other luxurious meat this side of the equator. The next night the 3 of us decided to go on a river dinner buffet to find out it was only the 3 of us that had signed up despite the crew of 4 that was
there to serve us another extremely decadent meal. We're roughing it... big time.
After leaving Botswana we headed into Zimbabwe and rendez voused with our friend Sam who decided to forego Botswana in favour of an extra day in Zambia. We took a night train to Bulowayo in a train that smelled of urine and didn't have any electricity. It was an amazing ride that was surprisingly quite comfortable and aided by copious amounts of "Double Punch" Pineapple drink which is sold in plastic bags. I'm amazed we didn't go blind drinking it.
Zimbabwe is a fascinating country. It was once a prosperous country that not long ago went completely into ruin. The cities are like walking into the 1950s as there are buildings that dot the city that appear to have been fine, dignified structures but have been left to rot. ATMs and modern banks are all but useless and it is impossible to get any cash so running out of money is not an option.
Overall Zim is pretty safe. We went to a Lion and Cheetah park where we toured for a while and for an extra $3 we were able to play with
lion cubs for an hour or so. Not a bad way to spend the day. There was an incident involving robbers, cops, gunshots... but that story is best left for another time. A very good idea we didn't leave 5 minutes earlier! Also an unscheduled walking night tour of Harare was not a good idea but lived to tell about it. I did trade $1 for a trillion Zimbabwean dollars, though I'm not convinced I got the better of the deal.
Since Harare, I spent an arduous day of travel through Zimbabwe and Mozambique where we finally made it to Monkey Bay in Malawi. We were to catch a 3 day ferry to the top of the Lake near the Tanzanian border but we had a nasty windstorm on the second day which resulted in some vomiting and a lot of really grumpy and sick people on the boat. Seriously, quite a dodgy vessel. Monkey Bay was amazing... the most beautiful beaches. I can't believe that there can be such places without a million tourists, bars and hotels. We cut our trip a bit short and got off at Nakata Bay, about 3/4 up Lake Malawi where we are
chilling out, loving life, drinking beer and enjoying the lake before making the long journey to Tanzania tomorrow where I'll rendez vous with some great friends in Mbeya. The ferry was amazing experience. I was pretty sure at times that the boat was close to capsizing after it would regularly tilt to a 45 degree angle after getting pounded relentlessly by massive wakes. Getting off of the boat was perhaps the most physically impressive feat I've accomplished. Hundreds of people packed the 3rd class deck with virtually no space to breathe, the smell of engine fumes, vomit and urine throughout and streams of people and cargo going in all directions and funnelling to a small door. It was complete insanity and resembled a stampede with people pushing through, climbing over and crawling under in a mad dash to either get on or off the boat, while the ferry struggled to refrain from listing and taking on water. Good times.
I'll likely hang out to Mbeya for a while before moving with them to Moshi, TZ in the North and prep for Kilimanjaro.
I'm thinking this will be the end of the real "traveling" as the rest is going
to be more structured and chilled out.
Talk to you all soon and glad to hear the sun is shining in Vancity! The weather has been fanstastic for the most part but seriously... sunsets at 4????
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