Harare has had it's own problems during the last month at white-owned farms outside of the city. At the airport we ended up finding a cheap backpacker hostel with free airport pick-ups. Upon arrival at the hostel, we quickly realized that it was a white-owned farm outside of the city. There ended up being no real problems except for the rampant bug infestation. There were spiders on the wall the size of a baseball and moths the size of small birds flying around the light over the dining table. The receptionist said that "they're not really spiders, they're actually scorpions...they'll make you really sick but they can't kill you". Great! We all fortified our beds with Mosquito nets that night.
We flew to Victoria Falls the next day and spent a day there. It's the end of the dry season right now, so there isn't too much water running over the falls. It was still very impressive. It was the widest waterfall any of us had ever seen. Tons of water flowing into the Zambeze Gorge below.
Chris got a better view of the gorge as he jumped off the side of the Victorial Fall bridge and dropped over 350 feet before getting ripped back up by a bungee cord. Bill and Rob didn't feel like testing the strength of bungee cords in East Africa. We tipped our hats off to Chris for having the guts to go through with it.....and it only took two Zambeze's Lagers (5.0% alc).
We are now in Cape Town, South Africa. So far we have found that we fit in well with the locals (except to a Belgium couple we met that told us we were the first French travelers they had met - they saw our Notre Dame t-shirts). It's nice to be back in a first world country with McDonalds, shopping malls, and clean accomidations. The first night in Cape Town, Chris and Rob decided to venture out and enjoy the night life. After a long night of dollar beers at a local hot spot, we decided to catch a cab home. After the Jordanian cab fiasco, you think we would have learned our lesson.....
The ride seemed normal at first, but about half way back to our hostel, a car went racing by our cab and cut us off. Being in the inebriated state that we were in, we said to our driver, "are you going to take that". At that point, the driver droped it down a gear, caught up to the car, and cut him off. It didn't end here. This really pissed the other driver off. He tried to pass us on the left and cut in sharp to avoid some parked cars. He cut it too close and the cars grazed each other. Both cars stopped. Two guys got out of the other car. Our cab driver got out......and the brawl began. Chris looked over to Rob and said, "the rides over for me...I'm out". Rob agreed and we casually strolled as our driver took a beating. Free cab ride for us!
One of the unique things about Cape Town is that it has a large table-topped mountain very close to the city. It is possible to climb this mountain by foot or in a cable car. We opted for the latter. The view from the top is spectacular! If you look down below you can see the city of Cape Town and the beautiful coast. You can also see Robyn Island where Nelson Mandella spent 27 years as a political prisioner. If you look to the south you can see the Cape of Good Hope, to the west you the Atlantic Ocean and to the east the Indian Ocean. It was really amazing.
Tomorrow we'll be heading up the East Coast to a surf spot called Jeffery's Bay (made famous by "The Endless Summer" movie). Hopefully Bill and Rob will be able to rent some long boards and try the surf out in South Africa. We will be traveling via "The Baz Bus" (www.bazbus.com) which is a South African back packer's bus. It is a cool system because you decide how far you want to travel and then you can get on and off the bus as many times as you like. You can also take as much time as you like to get to your destination. We decided to travel between Cape Town and Jeffery's Bay which is about 300 miles along the east coast and it was about $80 round trip. The dollar is very strong here and we are reaping the benefits. We plan to take a similar bus around Australia (The Oz Express).
Stay tuned....
-The Crew
