28 June 2011 - In and Around Victoria Falls

No traveling today - just some local sights. We are staying at Maramba River Lodge another night.

We enjoyed breakfast next to the Maramba river (a tributary to the Zambezi), and spotted a crocodile an a hippo.

We returned to the border to pay for insurance and toll - the relevant persons were not working when we passed through the border last night... The we went to view the Falls from the Zambian side (another $20 per person - I guess the Zimbabwean and Zambian authorities are comparing notes). More awesomeness. The gorge is narrower on this side, so the view of the falls is even closer, and even wetter. Once again - the spectacle defies description. We also managed to get alongside the Zambezi river just about 30 meters up-stream of the falls and took some pictures there. It made me think of those cartoons you see where the characters are floating down a river on a log and suddenly hear a distant rumbling and wonder what it is...

After a few hours at the falls we went in search of a geochache (see http://geocaching.com if you don't know what geocaching is). Xerxes had sent us on a mission, and we could not let him down. We found the cache quite easily (Kevin was the eagle-eye) and we dropped two trackables and picked up two others. The cache was right at the end of a zip-line that runs about 150 meters over the gorge in which the Zambezi river runs after plunging down the falls. The scenery around the gorge is just breath taking.



We made a turn through Livingstone. Not much to report here though. We browsed a local market and filled up on fuel.

27 June 2011 - Bulawayo to Victoria Falls

This morning we took it easy, compared to the previous day where we were awake at 1 am. Plus, with warm-water bottles in our beds, no one was in any hurry to get out of bed. We packed the cars and enjoyed a really sumptuous breakfast in the dining hall. The drive for the day was not too long - 450km - so we cruised out all harry-casual at about 10am and headed north.

At this point we have to comment on the roads in Zimbabwe. Over the past few months we have had the fear of all things unmentionable beaten into us over how terrible the Zimbabwean roads are - full of pot-holes large enough to swallow entire cars, and such-like tales. Tommy-rot! The Roads in Zimbabwe are in very good condition as far as we are concerned. In nearly 1000km of motoring from Beit bridge to Victoria Falls I think we probably saw no more than 15 pot-holes in total, and most of these were in the back-streets of Bulawayo, not on the national routes. And the largest of these pot-holes was barely big enough to wash your feet in, never mind swallow a vehicle. There were some sections of the roads that were a bit bumpy, but bumps are not pot holes.

For the most part the drive was fairly tedious (except for random moments where cyclists with a death wish swerve across the road in front of us.) In Zimbabwe there are vast stretches of what we will call tree-veld. Like bush-veld, only it is trees more than bushes. Maybe this is what Africans call Jungle? Anyway, it is beautiful, but it blocks any view of the scenery from the road. We we stopped to buy some Baobab fruit - "cream of tartar" according to some. We tried eating the fruit - we do NOT recommend it. Its a bit like eating chalk. The Baobabs can be huge - see Damon next to the Baoab in the picture? And that was not the biggest one we saw!



We stopped apparently randomly in the middle of nowhere - it was the "1000km from home" mark. We took some pictures, stretched our legs, and watered a few plants, and then we moved on.



We arrived at Victoria Falls about 3:30pm. Access to view the falls from the Zimbabwean side was $20 per person. We all agreed that what we saw defies explanation or description - you simply have to see the falls yourself to understand the sheer majesty. It is no wonder that this is one of the 7 wonders of the natural world. We walked along the face of the falls on the opposite cliffs for about one and a half kilometers, and all the way there is water pouring down the oposite face in an unending torrent. The spray thrown up literally rained down on us on the opposite side of the gorge. Seriously, all the photos and videos you may have seen do not do the real spectacle justice.




Just before 6pm we did the customs and ended the day with a "Great Maramba Burger" before getting into bed in our "chalets" for a good night of rest.

26 June 2011 - A little family history in Bulawayo

Liesl's father, Marthin Naude, grew up in Bulawayo. (This explains a lot, now that I think about it - Patrick)

So earlier this afternoon we went in search of 12 Gredon street. And we found it. These are snap-shots of how the place looks now.


Liesl said: "Ek het die alwyne gesien, en toe wonder ek of my ouma dit self geplant het."

26 June 2011 - Nesbitt Castle in Bulawayo

We've arrived!!! (Where? Ask !Waytag) This Castle is an absolute surprise! That's all we need to say.

Patrick and Janette are in the "Crown", Clinton and Liesl in the "Turret", Damon and Shelby in "Diamond" and Kevin and Curtis are in the the "Dungeon". Robyn is in the stocks as kids under 14 are not actually allowed here, and Liesl refuses to pay for any damages.

Here are quotes from our group:

• Liesl: Amazing! It is a collection of distant memories, a practical disposition and a romantic dream. (Strong coffee they serve here!)
• Clinton: I'm just amazed that somebody can build this over 30 years working weekends!
• Janette: My "Crown" suite makes me feel like a princess. I wish the feeling would last forever.
• Patrick: What they said!

It really is something outstanding. Damon and Liesl have been snapping lots of interesting pictures, and we'll load up a few with this post. Meanwhile, Shelby and Kevin have the videos rolling, and Curtis is trying to find the blueprint on the net to see if there is hidden treasure.

Till next time...

25 June 2011 - Very last minute stuff...

Hoo boy, we are leaving in 13 hours... Have we done everything? Let's hope so!

19 June 2011 - Keeping track of us...

This post provides info about our trip, and how to follow us as we travel the route.

• Click on Google Maps to see the whole route we have planned.
• Click on http://waytag.com/!ZimZamNam to follow our progress on Waytag.

We will add more info here as it becomes available.

12 June 2011 - Last minute preparations

So we got together with the Joneses to make some final preparations for our trip through Zim Zam Nam.

The food was great (thanks Liesl), but the cake was not so hot, more like chewing mielie meel (I won't say who made the cake!), and we finally got around to setting up this blog. We will post the highlights here, for those who want to know.

As you can tell in the pictures, we are not entirely sane, but we hope to find our way home after 3 weeks in Africa.

The plan is to leave bright and early on Sunday 26th, about 2am. Janette and Liesl are happy about this arrangement as they will sleep anyway. The first day's drive should get us to Beit Bridge by about 8 am, and then after the border we have about 3 or 4 hours drive to Bulawayo. We'll be staying overnight at Nesbitt castle.

That's all for now....