Zimbabwe pt2

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Day 46 Antelope Park - Great Zim Ruins 23.7.09

Today we left Antelope Park much to everyone’s disappointment to a chorus of “Goodbye from Antelope Park” from the kitchen staff / campsite African band, they then followed it up which an ad lib rendition of “Oasiiiiis need more fire!” which made everybody on our truck laugh. We made our way to the Great Zim ruins to check out Africa’s second largest ruins (second to some pyramids in Egypt apparently), as this involved paying an entry fee of $15 and perhaps learning a thing or two I was the first to decline going and Michelle was the first to sneak in! Apparently these ruins are very important to Zimbabwe and prove Africa’s civilised heritage long before they get credit for. In fact the name Zimbabwe apparently derives from the translation “stone house”… or something like that, like I said I didn‘t go in! Michelle did say it was very interesting and had some brilliant view’s and certainly worth sneaking in for. After this it was dinner; sausage, mash and beans (a personal favourite of Michelle) and then bed ready for another early start.

Day 47 Great Zim Ruins - Bulawayo 24.7.09
We arrived in Bulawayo at about midday and had time to check out the town before checking into the camp site, the town had a lot of shops and again a western feel to it that made us all feel at home, it also had a very cheap shop that sold everything from fake Liverpool Shirts to Blankets, we opted for the later to warm up the freezing Zimbabwe nights.
After a couple of hours here we made a move to the campsite which was basically a very large house housing the owners with a slightly smaller bungalow used as a recreation room, kitchen and dorm for the guests. The large back garden served as the camping area. We were greeted by a huge bull terrier named Pedro and shown around our home for the next three days.
Soon after arriving a chap from the Matobo National Park gave us a visit to talk to us about visiting the park the next day with the promise of seeing lots of Rhino’s and cave paintings in the bask of hot weather, all for just $70. Me and Chelle declined going although lots of others were up for it, game parks are wearing a tad thin for us now.
Later on in the night everyone was drinking and enjoying the fact that we had a warm living room to enjoy and soon the drinking games started, well one in particular called ’ring of fire’ which basically involves taking turns to pick a card and then doing what the card says to do i.e. if you picked a four then everyone drinks, if you pick a seven then a round of ’I have never…’ takes place, I’m not going to explain that drinking game!
A lot of drinking and forfeits took place and eventually ended with Me, Chelle and another girl barging into the tour leaders room in our underwear and dancing on his bed (he was entertaining at the time!). Naturally all this was caught on video for us to relive the next day.

Day 48 Buawayo 25.7.09

While a lot of our group headed to Matobo National Park with promises of hot weather and endless rhinos that they could walk with, me, Chelle and a handful of other late night revellers were enjoying a lay in and a very lazy day of watching movie’s on the laptop. Michelle took a short trip into town but came back not long after she left. At about 6ish everyone returned from the Game Park, highly disappointed by the whole day. It was overcast and cold which meant no rhinos were seen and because they spent extra time looking for them they missed out on seeing the cave paintings! Needless to say Michelle and I felt relieved by our decision to stay inside and save $70!

Day 49 Bulawayo - Victoria Falls 26.7.09

Today we left at 6.30am to get to Victoria Falls as early as possible due to the fact that tomorrow we’d be losing a couple of passengers and they wanted to see as much of the falls as possible. We got to our campsite which was pretty basic about 4 hours later and headed straight to the neighbouring campsite ‘Shoestrings’, which seemed far more suitable for an overland tour as they had a bar, swimming pool and TV showing sport. We went straight to ‘Shoestrings’ for a presentation on the available activities during our stay these included White Water Rafting, Bungee Jumping, Gorge Swinging, Micro lighting over the falls and so on. Michelle and I decided to go for the ‘adrenaline day’ a fun filled day that included Abseiling, Flying Fox (basically harnessed and attached on the back to a zip wire over the gorge so you feel like your flying when you jump), Zip Line and Gorge Swing all the activities could be done as many times as we like and lunch and beer was also thrown in. After our decision (mine somewhat rash) we got a quick shower and then headed back to Shoestrings bar for a performance from some local kids on pots and pans (think ‘Stomp‘) and another performance from some tribal dancers, both put on an excellent show. We then all got involved in a big sing song to the ‘Grease’ soundtrack and then headed to bed.

Day 50 Victoria Falls (Adrenaline Day!) 27.7.09

Today a hand full of people from our group including Michelle and I where going to throw ourselves off a gorge in the hope that the wires would hold long enough for us to throw ourselves off it again and again and again and again. This was a fact that would only sink in once I got to said gorge. We arrived at 9.30am and I instantly had a sinking feeling standing and looking over 120 meters of free fall onto jagged rocks and highly aggressive Zambezi river, Why didn’t I sign up for Micro Lighting! We had a safety talk that to summarise basically said anyone who chickens out still pays and were then invited to ask questions, mine being “where is the bathroom please“. Whist I was on the verge of breaking down and crying like a baby Michelle was her usual smiling, lets get on with it self, something that only served to make me feel even worse! Our first Extreme Adrenaline Activity was the ’Flying Fox’, as previously described. In a bizarre show of bravery I decided to go before Chelle and use the opportunity to perfect my Superman impression. As soon as I got the count down I ran to the edge of the platform and launched over an open gorge one arm out with a clenched fist and one leg slightly bent whist singing “da dada dadaa, daa daa daa”. It wasn’t as scary as I imagined it being and was over fairly quickly, then it was Michelle’s go. I don’t know what speed she ran off that platform but she seemed to reach the other side of the gorge! She was happy with the first activity but not yet getting the buzz of feeling like death was imminent. So it was to the next activity, the zip line. On the surface a zip line sounds quite soft for ‘ADRENALINE DAY!’, but of course we’re not talking about the zip line in the eliminator round of ‘Gladiators’, no. We’re talking about a zip line offering a 90 degree drop and reaching speeds of 150 kilometres ph! Michelle decided she’d go first out of me and her on this one and after watching the others hold onto the cord for support she wanted to do it without holding. She got into position, screamed very load and about 4 or 5 seconds later was being towed back up. Now it was my turn. Not wanting to be outdone by the miss weir I decided to also go no hands and also gave a thumbs up, smile and a “woo hoo” at the start, the initial feeling when they let you go is weightlessness quickly followed by speed and then an intense pain in the crotch where the harness is digging in. After the Zip Line it was on to the final activity before lunch, the gorge swing. Now don’t be fooled by the playground sounding name of this. This is no less frightening than a bungee jump or sky dive, in fact many people that have done all 3 say that this is the worst. So here’s what happened. Michelle went first. Standing on a wobbly platform 120m above the jagged rocks and highly aggressive Zambezi river as mentioned earlier only this time the harness was not attached to the wire above her head. This time she was attached to a very long and very heavy rope that is in turn attached to the wire in the middle of the gorge. The rope is slack, allowing a free fall, 75 meters of free fall in fact. Before she jumps she is asked how she would like to jump, and given 5 choices. The pin drop, where you literally take a step off the gorge and drop. The Skydive, where you pretend to be jumping out of an aeroplane, this one looks the best in a photo (think tom cruise mission impossible escaping the exploding bomb). The Starjump, similar to the skydive but less effort. The handstand, where you get into a push up position on the edge of the plank and they lift your legs before throwing you over. And finally the “Death drop, where you do it backwards and stand in a mummified position. After hearing all five choices Michelle simply asks what the scariest is (I hate that my girlfriend has bigger balls than me!). The guy smiles and says the death drop, so she turns around and falls backwards, in a similar way to people doing those trust exercise’s only this time no one was catching her. I only saw the first second as the rocks impaired the view but what I did see made me feel sick. Only after a couple more seconds did I see her swinging at the bottom and near the river whist giggling her head off. She made her way up and told me how brilliant it was and not at all scary, this was a lie. I stood on the wobbly plank and was asked by the man how I’d like to jump, replying “with a parachute”, to which he laughed, what I meant was the skydive but instead I thought about how it would be really cool to pretend I was Tarzan. So standing on the wobbly plank and holding onto the rope in front of me I put on my bravest face, and prepared to give the Tarzan call. The man counted down from 5 and then I felt the weight of the rope pull me forward, I started my Tarzan call, Arrrr, and then the realisation of freefall kicked in and I just screamed. I felt helpless and as though death was imminent but then just as the though enters my head and the rocks seem no more than meters from my flailing body the tension of the rope kicks in and I’m swinging. I felt like Louise Lane in those Superman movies when once again she falls off a building or mountain and Superman rescues her at the last minute. This is without doubt the biggest sense of relief I’ve ever experienced and there was no way on earth I wanted to do it again, partly because once again the harness was digging into by groin and I felt sure something was going to burst. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get away with 1 jump, Michelle insisted on us do a tandem jump. This was even scarier and even more painful we fell faster, screamed louder, and swung much further. This tandem jump was the end of my day and I felt ready to drink beer, pass out or gloat about how hardcore I am, sadly not as hardcore as Michelle who went on to do another 2 jumps including a handstand jump. In conclusion I have learnt not to try and beat her at doing insane things but I can at least keep up to a certain point!

Day 51 Victoria Falls 28.7.09

After the action pact and still very painful exploits of yesterday we decided on a more sedate day of checking emails, looking at the local curio market and visiting the falls. When we got to the market at about 2pm we were bombarded with sellers all asking us to look at their stalls. I decided to take an old white linen shirt and socks to trade as we heard you could do that here, I also had a Crunchy bar to sweeten a deal (sorry)! After a good 2 hours of ‘looking’ we left with a hand full of African crap that’ll be very expensive to send home including a large drum and two very large African chief and chief wife masks. Once we dropped off our souvenirs at the campsite we walked to the falls. Today was the first day we had the chance to take in the town of Victoria Falls, and it has to be said that it’s the most touristy place we’ve visited, full of hotels, curio shops, fast food and upmarket restaurants and hundreds of locals trying to sell us useless Zimbabwean currency, Michelle has a 50 trillion dollar bill! We spent about an hour and a half at the falls and were blown away by the shear power and scale of this natural wonder. At certain points it seemed to be raining from several different directions and rainbows were appearing at every possible angle. This was definitely something to check off the list to do before you die. After leaving the falls we made our war to the nearby ’Pizza Inn’ for a mega pepperoni pizza and took it back to the camp before getting to bed knackered from our supposedly sedate day and still really aching from yesterday!

Day 52 Vic Falls - Kasane; Botswana 29.7.09

Today we leave Zimbabwe and head to Botswana. Zimbabwe has been pretty much unanimously declared our favourite country of the trip so far with so many highlights we may end up coming back here. We left for the boarder at about 9am and took only an hour to get there. After a pretty easy boarder cross we headed towards Kasane and our next camp. First impressions of Botswana are positive the first thing you see at the boarder is a big anti corruption billboard and in an effort to fight the Aids epidemic they give out free condoms at every opportunity. At Kasane we were to visit Chobe National Park, famous for it’s many elephants. We were under the impression that this was included in the trip cost but it transpired that we had to pay additional to get transport into the park so we both decided against going. Instead relaxing in the park and watching videos of everyone’s gorge swing and bungee jumps.

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