Great Zimbabwe

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Great Zimbabwe was the largest sub-Saharan establishment from the 11^th century to the 15^th century. The factors suggest a population between 11,000 up to 20,000. This giant stone city was constructed without any mortar reminiscent of places like Machu Picchu. Eventually depleting resources and growing numbers saw the city’s inhabitants move on to another location. Also, one theory suggests that the king decided to move everyone to attack some Swahili traders on the coast. Either way, it got abandoned and forgotten through time. Pretty cool stuff. I like seeing the really old things humans did around the world and I am happy to say I have seen quite a few ancient places. Camping by myself again seems to be a constant theme, but at least one thing is for sure. I am getting lucky on finding transportation. Reminds me a lot of South America. We always seemed to show up just as a bus was about to leave and that’s the same for me with the combis (shared taxi vans) and large buses. So I found what I needed and went off to the second largest city in Zim; Bulawayo. I was going to go look at some balancing rocks and other granite outcrops called Matopos, but there was no public transport and tours were ridiculously expensive. So after camping by myself again I decided to catch the night train to Victoria Falls (the name of the city actually, but vic falls on the zim side anyways). While I was waiting for my taxi to bring me to the station, out of nowhere 4 people showed up. Surprisingly they said they saw me at Great Zimbabwe and were part of an overlanding tour headed to vic falls. I asked what day they left vic falls and they said Sunday. Whaaaaaaat?!??! After checking my details we found out that this was the same tour I would be joining. Woa! What a small world!!!!! The worker sent a message to his boss seeing if I could just grab a ride with them the rest of the way also stopping at the Matopos too! No response by the time my taxi got there so fate be told I went with my original plan of the night train. Oh well! This train was straight out of the 50s! But I mean literally! Some of the cars used have gone unchanged since 1952…woa. A fun ride which was supposed to last 12 hours ended up taking only 15 hours. I finally arrived in Vic Falls to rest a few days before meeting my fellow tour mates again for our 35 day overland tour. EEE!!!

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Comments

[Denise Martin]

Hello
I am happy to see you are doing well and your travels are so interesting. I am traveling vicariously through you. Stay safe Mike. Merry Christmas!