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OUR SIX-YEAR WORLD ADVENTURE
Where we've been so far...
How We Got Started | How We Do It | Countries and Territories Visited | USA Adventure | Iceland The UK Adventure | Our Travel Club Arrives in Paris | Capitols of N. Europe and Scandinavia | Russia and the Trans-Siberian Railway | South Korea | Japan | Australia | Bali & Indonesia | Malaysia | Singapore | Macau-Hong Kong | Southern China | Zhangjiaije National Park | Central China | Terracotta Warriors | Pandas | Tibet | Nepal | India | Uzbekistan | Kazakhstan | Georgia | The Balkans | Eastern Europe | Italy | Ireland | Scottish Highlands-Outer Islands | England | Norway | The Baltics | Poland
OUR SIX-YEAR WORLD ADVENTURE
Where we've been so far...
Czech Republic | Kenya | Tanzania and Malawi | Zambia | Zimbabwe
We had planned to take the train from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo. It is a night train departing at 7PM and arriving at 9AM the following morning. A first-class cabin was to cost $9 per person. Yes, $9. The challenge is that one can only purchase their tickets the day before. Our dear Fungai Mateka had made the provisional arrangements well in advance and on the day we were supposed to depart he went to the station to pick up the tickets. Lo and behold, a German tour group somehow was able to jump the line and suck up all of the cabins. What was left was one bunk in a shared cabin in First Class, one bunk in Second Class, and two seats in the economy car. Nope, not gonna sit up all night...and worse yet have to do another "draw staws" event and suffer for days afterward. He arrived to share the news. We literally had a few minutes to decide what to do. 1. Book a room somewhere in town for one night and then the train the next day. That would mean losing a day in Bulawayo and also eating a prepaid night in our next accommodation. 2. Taking the bus the next morning. That would mean a very long ride getting in well after dark, and we would still have to stay an extra night in Vic Falls. 3. Hire a private car for the 400 KM trip and book a hotel somewhere in town because we would arrive a day earlier. I quickly weighed the options. Then I attempted to contact our host for tomorrow and discovered that the place was available a day earlier. I requested the booking but got no response. Throwing caution to the wind, we hired Fungai Mateka to drive us. Our $9 train ride now became a $75 per person ride.
The drive was amazing. We got to see six hours of Zimbabwe sail by as we rode in a REALLY nice, fresh and clean SUV with air-conditioning. We passed quaint, well-organized and meticulously neat family compounds. We waived at countless kids along the road. We stopped at the Painted Dog Conservation Center for a quick visit with the bow-wows.
We arrived in "lightless" Bulawayo right after dark and wound through an eerie, unlit city of one million people...the power goes out in Zimbabwe almost every day for long, long periods. And at this point, we had no idea if our request for an earlier check-in had been accepted. However, effortlessly we found our new home and were greeted by the welcoming hostess. Within an hour we were settled, making dinner, and getting ready to watch another episode of Money Heist. Oh, and here is what our little shack on the outskirts of town looks like...hands down the absolute finest one in over three years. Airbnb No. 101. Amazing...and all for $19 a night, per person. I still can't figure out how they are making a profit.
We settled in quickly, enjoying the lap of luxury, and the next day ventured out into the neighborhood in search or a market. 2.2 KM and 30 minutes later we found a local food store and did some shopping, bought veggies from the ladies on the street and had lots of chats with the locals. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. Amazing. When we asked the store manager if he could help us get a taxi, he offered to take us home in his car. Unpacking the groceries I realized that the store had run my card as USD, not Zimbabwe, and a charge for $462 instead of $65 appeared. So I took off back on another walk in the heat of the day. I met Bobbie halfway and together we returned to the store where the manager was apologetic and offered some resolve. It would take a few days to get it handled. We walked back, got a bit turned around and our day total ended up being a bit over four miles...LOL.
We booked a full day tour with the charming Sheppard. What a great guide. We visited the Kami Ruins and had an informative unexpected guided tour by a scientist from the National Trust who was visiting the site. Ah, Karma. The Sheppard made us a lovely picnic lunch that we enjoyed under the Acacia trees. Next, we drove to Matapos National Park where we viewed many balancing rocks before meeting up with Mr. Dube at the Silunguzi Village. He took us on a walking tour of some cave painting (2,800 years old) and then into a real village where we chatted with the lady in charge and toured her kitchen. On the walk, Mr. Dube talked about the flower, shrubs, and trees and told us of their uses, both domestically and medicinally. It was a really charming day spent meeting some really, really sweet people.
The dam at the site, although reworked hundreds of times, has been around since the 14th century.
What the site might have looked like.
Our museum guide teaching an ancient game to Kat.
The site as depicted in the picture above.
The Elephant Cave.
Mr. Dube. Quite a character. The chief, head medicine man, and local guide.
Gorilla rock.
The family compound.
The kitchen hut.
It was a long day followed by a rest day. I made bread to pass the time. The girls read and took a short walk in the neighborhood. I worked on my latest portrait of the Malawi Twins. It's coming along...slowly.
For our rhino safari, we were met early in the morning by our driver and guide, Graham. He was born in Zambia and his family later moved to Bulawayo. He has been here since he was a young boy. He is a hinting guide usually and lately has been doing tourist safaris. We spent the entire day in an open safari truck. We drove out of the city to Matapos National Park.
We stopped at a protection unit just outside the park boundary and found a couple of rangers who indicated there was a rhino and baby nearby that they were watching. They offered to trek us to them for some photos. Little did we know that we would get so close. We put Andi and her cane upfront just in case we needed bait.
The mama and her baby were upwind so they were not startled by our silent approach. We jot within ten yards of them and took plenty of photos.
After entering the park, we were immediately surrounded by magnificent lava domes and wind-carved balancing rocks. It was a full day of winding through the landscape. It was hot. The wildlife was sparse, and we enjoyed viewing several sights of ancient and colonial period rock art.
Graham was a nice guy and spent a lot of time showing us the most prominent formations. He served a really nice picnic lunch and it was a lovely day.
Bobbie road in the spotting chair for a while.
There was a species of antelope that we had not seen before...they reminded us of our whitetail deer.
We hiked up quite a steep hill to this cave to view some really nice rock art dating back to about 200 AD.
Then it was more touring of the rocks and searching for critters. On the ledge just below the large pointed rock, I saw something move. Later upon our return, I enlarged the photo.
Look what I found...
At the end of the day we climbed to the top of the "World View." and site of Cecil Rhodes' grave. There we had magnificnet views of the landscape.
We were met at the top by the resident Rainbow Lizards. The females are striped and the males display the colorful array.
At the end of the day, we found this beautiful Elan.
We still had three days left in Bulawayo and opted to relax a bit on the next day, take a short walk in the neighborhood, and I spent time working on getting over the long-drawn-out cold I had encountered. It has been almost two weeks at this point and getting old.
The following day we hired a local taxi driver to take us into the city center for a few hours. We visited the Railway Museum, the National Art Gallery, and the National Museum. Joe met us at the house and the first stop was the Natural History Museum. The power was out, as is often the case in Zimbabwe, but they let us tour the facility. The grounds were lovely and the museum was very well done. They even had a large, live snake exhibit.
Next Joe drove us to the city center where we visited the National Gallery. The lights had come back on and there was a nice collection by contemporary artists. The building itself was also a gem.
We had lunch at a local restaurant and then headed out to the train museum. WHAT A TREAT. We spent two hours climbing in and around some of the collection from the Rhodesian Railway days. It was like visiting a ghost town. Even Andi got up into some of them
At the end of the day we enjoyed a group photo with a group of local kids.
Our visit had some to an end. We returned to our home, did laundry and started packing. Tomrorrow we head over to Harare.
The drive was amazing. We got to see six hours of Zimbabwe sail by as we rode in a REALLY nice, fresh and clean SUV with air-conditioning. We passed quaint, well-organized and meticulously neat family compounds. We waived at countless kids along the road. We stopped at the Painted Dog Conservation Center for a quick visit with the bow-wows.
We arrived in "lightless" Bulawayo right after dark and wound through an eerie, unlit city of one million people...the power goes out in Zimbabwe almost every day for long, long periods. And at this point, we had no idea if our request for an earlier check-in had been accepted. However, effortlessly we found our new home and were greeted by the welcoming hostess. Within an hour we were settled, making dinner, and getting ready to watch another episode of Money Heist. Oh, and here is what our little shack on the outskirts of town looks like...hands down the absolute finest one in over three years. Airbnb No. 101. Amazing...and all for $19 a night, per person. I still can't figure out how they are making a profit.
We settled in quickly, enjoying the lap of luxury, and the next day ventured out into the neighborhood in search or a market. 2.2 KM and 30 minutes later we found a local food store and did some shopping, bought veggies from the ladies on the street and had lots of chats with the locals. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. Amazing. When we asked the store manager if he could help us get a taxi, he offered to take us home in his car. Unpacking the groceries I realized that the store had run my card as USD, not Zimbabwe, and a charge for $462 instead of $65 appeared. So I took off back on another walk in the heat of the day. I met Bobbie halfway and together we returned to the store where the manager was apologetic and offered some resolve. It would take a few days to get it handled. We walked back, got a bit turned around and our day total ended up being a bit over four miles...LOL.
We booked a full day tour with the charming Sheppard. What a great guide. We visited the Kami Ruins and had an informative unexpected guided tour by a scientist from the National Trust who was visiting the site. Ah, Karma. The Sheppard made us a lovely picnic lunch that we enjoyed under the Acacia trees. Next, we drove to Matapos National Park where we viewed many balancing rocks before meeting up with Mr. Dube at the Silunguzi Village. He took us on a walking tour of some cave painting (2,800 years old) and then into a real village where we chatted with the lady in charge and toured her kitchen. On the walk, Mr. Dube talked about the flower, shrubs, and trees and told us of their uses, both domestically and medicinally. It was a really charming day spent meeting some really, really sweet people.
The dam at the site, although reworked hundreds of times, has been around since the 14th century.
It was a long day followed by a rest day. I made bread to pass the time. The girls read and took a short walk in the neighborhood. I worked on my latest portrait of the Malawi Twins. It's coming along...slowly.
For our rhino safari, we were met early in the morning by our driver and guide, Graham. He was born in Zambia and his family later moved to Bulawayo. He has been here since he was a young boy. He is a hinting guide usually and lately has been doing tourist safaris. We spent the entire day in an open safari truck. We drove out of the city to Matapos National Park.
The following day we hired a local taxi driver to take us into the city center for a few hours. We visited the Railway Museum, the National Art Gallery, and the National Museum. Joe met us at the house and the first stop was the Natural History Museum. The power was out, as is often the case in Zimbabwe, but they let us tour the facility. The grounds were lovely and the museum was very well done. They even had a large, live snake exhibit.
Our visit had some to an end. We returned to our home, did laundry and started packing. Tomrorrow we head over to Harare.
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