.. a last tour in Africa......

... when Christina and I finished our jobs in Swaziland we went on a small tour of Zimbabwe. We treated ourselves a little and we had some really great and exciting experiences. Areas of Zimbabwe are how I used to imagine Africa when I was a child!!

Mana Pools Adventure

Victoria Falls

Our first main stop was at Vic falls. What a great place this is - the falls are very impressive too. It's maybe a little too touristy, catering for Bungi (bungee) jumping, white water rafting and all that kind of activity. I have done this all before - it was my third trip there - I have the videos and photos to prove it. This visit we stayed in a hostel and had a very relaxing time. The most strenuous thing we did was to go on one of the sundowner cruises - better known as booze cruises!! .... we could not understand why everyone in the bus coming back didn't want to sing?? Vic falls is a brilliant place and despite the hundreds of tourists small amounts of game (and a lot of baboons) wander through the town all the time. One trip when we took a taxi from town to out of town where our hotel was we saw lions, buffalo and elephant having a relaxing time on the side of the road. It is amazing though that there were still people around either cycling or walking to and from god knows where. The Zimbabwean people a lovely and friendly and the cost of living there is amazingly low. I can't remember how much a beer was but it was not much!!!

... by far the most adventurous and dangerous actually (when we think back we must have been crazy) was the canoe safari we did down the Zambezi for 4 nights. It was only on the second evening that we asked our guides about security and safety. They didn't have a weapon or a radio to call for help. We were out in the wilds on a river full of hippo and where there is 1 croc for every 20 metres of river...... real crocs I mean. If you fell in the water or were stupid enough to go for a swim the chances are your life would come to an abrupt and terriyfying end.

We camped out on the islands in the middle of the river where we were told it would be safe... though the guides scratched their

heads in consternation when we showed them some large and unmistakable cat prints - later over the campfire it was finally agreed that they were leopard - how reassuring!!

One of the most incredible experiences we had which is pretty rare or so we were told was the witnessing of 5 or 6 lioness killing a warthog on the Zambian river bank!! Amazing. The split second before it was a quiet afternoon out in the bush - not much game to be seen. The next moment like being in Wembley Stadium when it is full of monkeys , baboons and birds (all shouting for their football teams). It was pretty violent and sad for the warthog of course, hey but that's nature!!

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