donderdag 1 november 2012

Zimbabwe

As I was just transiting Botswana, it was crossed without much thrills and just a few days later I arrived in Zimbabwe, the country of the infamous President Mugabe. In Zimbabwe you can use American dollars, Botwana Pula or SA rand, they don't have their own currency anymore since 2009. This makes for the American dollar to be misused and prices are high everywhere, especially for accommodation and food. Spare change is given in rand coins, but there are not enough coins, so a lot of things cost exactly 1 dollar, or 2 for a dollar, 3 for a dollar and so on.
At Bulawayo I found a nice overland place 6 km out of town, called Burkes Backpackers where I met a Brit/South African couple, Rachel & Richard and later a Brazilian couple, Flora & Nathan.
Nathan, Richard, Rachel & Flora

 From there, it was on to the 'Great Zimbabwe national monument' which gave Zimbabwe it's name in 1980, before that time it was called Rhodesia. It is an impressive site that has the oldest ruins in Sub-Saharan Africa dating from the 13th century. The 3 hour tour took us to the King's Hill complex and the great enclosure with it's high drystone walls.

Kings Hill complex



That night, the 5 of us had a fancy dinner because it was Richard's 40th birthday (mine is coming up soon too) and the following morning I set course for the Chimanimani NP in the Eastern mountains. The road out of 'great Zimbabwe' was one of the most scenic and authentic I have seen in the whole of southern Africa, cutting through the rocky landscape, going round the lake via the dam and all the time passing tiny hut villages. At Chimanimani we visited the bridal veil falls, enjoyed the beautifull natural surroundings and did some shopping in the small but charming village.

The next days I continued North up to Mutare and into the vumba mountains where I ran into Ana & Evaristo in their Spanisch truck. We met already in Cameroun and DRC and it was a nice reuion. The bunga forest national park proved to be an incredible video opportunity with some nice video of me on the bike and of a pack of babboons.The video is posted below.
Slow internet

1,60 dollar for a methanol blend fuel
The last days in Zimbabwe will be spent in the mountains North of Mutare, past the Nyagara NP up to the border post with Mozambique.
Hilarious advert pushing fastfood into villages



 After a short crossing of Mozambique, I will arrive into Malawi in about a week, which I'm realy looking forward to. I've also started taking anti-malaria medicin again, as in november, the short rainy season is starting here in east africa.
It' can be hard roughing it in the bush


Some positive feedback, always nice

2 opmerkingen:

  1. Hé Tony
    Heb de draad weer wat opgepikt met je blog. Super foto's, neig filmpje! Je slaagt erin om wat mooi en belangrijk is op een originele manier vast te leggen. Ik vind alleen wel dat er terug wat meer begeleidende commentaar mag zijn in de filmfragmenten :)
    En, ik heb waarschijnlijk iets gemist, maar was dat nu een nieuwe helm?
    Enfin... keep up the good work!
    x

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  2. hoi Tony,

    schoon filmke!! en prachtige foto's.
    Wij zijn hier weeral aan nieuwe banden voor de GS toe! Da's een echte rubbervreter :-)
    Veel groeten uit de USA!
    Johan & Ils

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