BootsnAll Travel Blogs

My Visited Countries

So, back in the Tuli Block of Botswana!
I flew from Newcastle to Dubai, then after a short layover, I flew down to Joburg where I was met by Martin of ACE. Unfortunately I then had to fly to Polokwane, which meant I was back down to a 20kg weight limit…..not good news as I was carrying the full 30kg that Emirates airlines allow!
I quickly dragged a carrier bag of gear out of my main bag and checked in….only to be stopped at the X-ray for having sharp items in my hand luggage! – the carrier had contained clothes AND some of the tools I was taking to Stuart at Tuli – dammit! ..I had to leave quite a lot of tools with security which was a little disappointing.
anyhoo I stayed over at the ‘Golden Pillow’ lodge in Polokwane and then drove up to Pont Drift border crossing the next morning. I crossed over the mighty Limpopo river using the cable car as he river was running too deep to cross by car. At the other side I was met by Riek (Rick) and some of the current students at the Tuli Conservation Project
An hour’s drive later and we arrived at Tuli Wilderness Trails – the new home of the Tuli Project – 4114 Hectares of wilderness ‘governed’ by Stuart and Annelien, with help from Chris, Kate and Umpaleng( all from Kwa Tuli) as well as Gaby and Gilbert, Johaness, Actor and Lorato

Within a couple of days, Riek was on a fortnight’s leave which meant I took over his job as student coordinator at Mohave camp (about a 40 minute drive from Stuarts house) ” alt=”mohave camp” border=”” hspace=”” vspace=”” width=”300″ height=”300″ align=”top” /> ” mce_src=”

Daily drives and walks around the property – including spotting a pair of lionesses a few leopards and cheetah too!
This new place ROCKS!…..lots of cats to be seen and heard” alt=”cheetah” border=”” hspace=”” vspace=”” width=”” height=”” align=”top” />
We were sitting around the camp fire one Saturday night in Mohave – full of beer and good steak, when the semi silence (we had a radio playing in the Boma, 10m away from us) was shattered by one of the lionesses roaring RIGHT at the entrance to the camp! ….there are no fences or gates, just a signed access to the camp, which meant the lions were about 20m from us! …FABULOUS feeling, but kinda dangerous too I guess

2 weeks later and we started the Tracker course with Nat (staff at Moholoholo) Irish Pete, Matt, Adam and his travelling buddy Nick. We set up camp at an area soon be named ‘Bedrock’ and then set off for a quick walk up the ridge behind camp to watch sunset. Within 5 minutes of setting off, we had stopped to check out some brown Hyaena tracks when we actually spotted the hyaena itself only 10m away – it quickly skedaddled but what a great way to start the course! …that was only my 2nd Brownie spot! I also managed to sink myself into an elephant pan much to everyone’s hilarity. I had to get pulled out by Stuart as the thick mud had me stuck fast!
I also celebrated my 28th birthday at Tuli again …tho this time I wasn’t QUITE as drunk as previously and managed to walk to bed unaided

The course went well with a lot of laughs – mainly with/at/from Pete who was a proper character with a pretty good folk singing voice. He also had us in stitches at Lekkerpoet when he decided to jump one of the streams emanating from the natural springs there: he took a long run and was at a fair old lick when…….he lost his footing in the dusty ground and staggered off balance straight into the knee deep stream! …which has a thick layer of thick black mud at the bottom. Pete was absolutely COVERED in mud and as the sun was setting and it being winter it got pretty damn cold too – SO funny – hopefully there’s a link on YOUTUBE as the whole episode was recorded for posterity by everyone present I think!
Great results in the Tracker assessment left Becky (the assessor’s wife) Nat and myself with Track and Sign level 3 qualifications, whilst Adam got a level 2, Pete, Matt and Nick got level 1’s …..2 of our staff (JOhannes and Gilbert also did amazingly to get level 3 trackers too ” mce_src=”” alt=”gilbert & johannes” border=”” hspace=”” vspace=”” width=”” height=”” align=”top” />” alt=”trackers” border=”” hspace=”” vspace=”” width=”” height=”” align=”top” />

Back at the ranch and Stuart and I had to get down to some serious car maintenance: the cars Stuart inherited with the business are all in a pretty crappy state -the old Landcruiser was only running on 3 of its 6 cylinders, overheated all the time, had a blown zorst, damaged front spring, poor brakes and had seriously beaten bodywork, whilst the Nissan Hardbody had a missing shocker, no engine mount bolts, blown exhaust, no dash displays or clocks working a trashed front slam panel, damaged radiator and again, dented bodywork.
We managed to get the Cruiser working on 5 cylinders, but no.5 is kernackered. A replacement radiator, and front spring and a patched zorst helped it run well enough to be able to take guests out
The Nissan needed major surgery to the front with new panel and some work to the suspension, it soon worked fair enough

BUSHFIRE!!!!!!!!!

The next excitement was a BUSHFIRE! ….Stuart and Annalein had left for SA for the weekend – all was well until Chris spotted smoke and a glow in the evening sky, then I got a call from Dan (a local guy who helps out at the house occasionally) to say the Police were wanting the ‘Backline Fence’ opened so the could get in and fight the fire! I raced over with Chris, Kate and Johannes only to find just a lorry with one guy (Adolf) in it….after a few minutes the cavalry appeared..only the cavalry turned out to be a dozen completely drunk locals COMPLETE with police!!! I refused to go into the property with them as they were still carrying beers…eventually we got going (sans beer) and drove into the fire. IT was pitch black now and with the fire burning wildly and being blown by a strong breeze. We had no firefighting equipment, but had to snatch branches off bushes and ‘swat’ the fire with them! …amazingly it worked and despite everyone talking and shouting incoherently and walking around in what seemed an aimless fashion, we actually won! ….the fire was out!

Next day I took the students up the fire area, to help douse the small areas burning in the middle of the burnt section. After a few hours the Wildlife Dept. turned up and asked if we needed help….we asked them to help as the wind was staring to build again, they left promising to return with BDF (Botswana Defence Force, or Army) another couple of hours later and the fire was building again, so I left the scene to take the students back to the camp and safety. I returned with only Johannes, Chris and Actor. However this time, things weren’t so good: we found some snares so Johannes got out of the car to remove them, then Actor walked off, leaving me and Chris, however Chris walked ahead and forgot to wait for me – the terrain was thickly wooded and with broken trees and logs littered around, almost impossible to drive, I battled backwards and forwards until the clutch which was already struggling, packed in – with the car RIGHT up against the fire!!! …nobody around, I had to fire the fire by myself and keep it away from the Cruiser until eventually Johaness appeared and helped me push the car over the burn line into the fire-blackened bush, where it should be safer. Some time later Chris and Actor appeared as well as the BDF and some more locals. The fire was put out again and we were given a push start in 2nd gear and limped back to camp

Next up was a school visit: Stuart’s bro.: Pete, is a teacher at a posh school in SA and between them they had organised for 52, 12yr old children to spend a week here with 6 or so teachers as support.
We split the kids into groups of 11 (ish) and with Stuarts friends Steve, Rob, Mike we each managed a group for a 24 hour period, with the groups rotating around each of the camps learning different things as they went – in my case, I had the Musth Fly Camp and took the kids on a night drive followed by a morning drive the next day – teaching them about the night sky, nocturnal animals and elephants by day. All good stuff and a lot of fun – we had a group of 3 cheetah (mum and 2 large cubs) walk right around the vehicle and then start stalking a group of nearby Impala! the kids apparently had a great time: so much so that the school has already booked up again for NEXT year!!!<p>

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Next fun and games was my ‘leave’: I hadn’t had a day off in 3 months, and as my Bots visa was almost expired, I left to visit Aitjie in SA…..or that was the plan…….Aitjie was held up with a Game capture in Zambia so wouldn’t be around, then SA wouldn’t extend my visa so my 2 week leave was reduced to 5 days!..Martin (ACE) suggested I stay at his place in the Magaliesburg Mountain Reserve so I did. Spending a day in the mountain reserve and then a day in Pilansberg reserve, before flying from Jo’burg back in to Botswana via Gabarone…..where neither my phone nor my ATM car would work!!! I had to buy a new phone and then luckily I had some SA Rand to exchange and the bank agreed to use my ATM card as a credit card and give me some money that way!
I made friends with a local taxi driver who could NOT have passed his driving test, judging by his performance – I even told him on the 2nd day that I had never been as close to death as when I was in his car! After 2 days in Gabs I took a bus to Selebi Phickwe and then another to Bobonong then a taxi to Immigration who advised that my visa extension wasn’t decided yet and that I should stay in Bots illegally ‘for a few days’! Then I hitched a ride in a veg van which fortunately was going right past our farm – nice guy and girl who hadn’t got a clue where they were going or how far it was (they were buying veg at the farm next to us)
4 days later and into the next tracker course and Immigration decide I need to get out of the country as I’m illegal!!! I drove thru the border where the nice lady gave me a new 90 day visa for SA, then drove to Alldays and happily bought cappuccinos at the new coffee shop there. SWEET!
I stayed at a nice lodge run by a raging gay guy!!!!……door locked that night
next day and Immigration say my visa extension is now OK so I can come back, though she wasnt sure how I should do it as I cant go THRU the border till I GET the extension in my hand!!
Fortunately, I blagged it and all was well 😉

The tracker course again went well – we were joined by Rex from the Northern Tuli Game Reserve Anti Poaching unit…nice guy. Again all of the students did well with only one not managing to get a level 1..one guy (Ralph) got a high level 2 as well!

One of the highlights was as we were walking back to the camp one afternoon when we bumped ellies and had to hide behind a termite mound! …the ellies got our smell and made a beeline for us…Stuart did the whistle thing and the ellies LEGGED IT!!! …quite funny tho it was a bit hairy as well ….the looks on the tracker students faces was peachy!
We heard lions most nights and also went out to see them one night – coming across a brown hyaena on the way there too. Kewl!

A week to myself followed – well, as close as it gets to being by myself: car maintenance was the order of the day – The Cruiser blew its engine, so we had to take it to Phickwe for rework…the only way to get it there was to tow it, so Stuart drove that while I dragged them both along…..starting at 60kph as we had previously agrees – it wasn’t long before we were at 80kph 😉
…Stuart decided all was going well so we didn’t swap places at Bobonong as arranged -just carried right on thru. No mishaps or problems so all was good
I also took the students thru to Phickwe, so that I could apply for ANOTHER 30 day extension on my visa and so they could buy alcohol and generally see what happens in a ‘typical’ Botswanan town…not much actually! ….though I did pay the VAT for the business and drop the year end accounts off at the solicitors

Guess what? ……yep, Riek is on leave again, so I ran Mohave camp again for 9 days. Lots of fun actually with our 2 Germans, one swede (hi Eva!), one Ozzie (hello, trouble) and a Canadian (hey Jess, eh?)! We managed to see ellies (they’re in short supply at the mo) Spotted Hyaena and a Honey Badger too!……and cheetah of course …superb sighting of the mum and cubs again -we also went chasing after lions at night but missed them …..twice (embarrassingly) We had a couple of great Saturday parties (one of which led to the guys having BAD babbelass (hangovers) which were only sorted by taking a dip in one of the few remaining pools in the Limpopo) and a nice bush brekkie on Ralph’s leaving day.
Its almost summer now and that means TROUBLE!! …firstly the number of Solifuges is on the increase – those things freak me so much so that I end up doing the ‘Solifuge Dance’ trying to squash them – to the great hilarity of the students -Secondly, snakes……….Jessy (the canuck) was in his hut looking for something at his bag when he leaned over to check out what was lying NEXT to the bag ……..bad move: it was a Mozambique Spitting Cobra!!!! …luckily for Jessy, it gaped its mouth but didn’t spit! (see previous story about Charlie’s incident with a cobra) he calmly came outside and asked for some help! I called Chris, who chased it out of the hut, unfortunately it then disappeared thru a small hole into the concrete floor/base of the hut, leaving us with no option but to cement it into place ….we cant mess around with cobras and they always return if you catch and relocate them)
On Riek’s return to the camp, I left and returned to the house to carry on with car maintenance and generally have a couple of rest days
Stuart and Co. left for SA for Annelien’s brother’s (Henk) 40th birthday. I stayed at the house and generally did…not a lot really!…..though I DID ring Immigration and find out that they aren’t at ALL happy and want me to go in for an interview …OH OH!!!!…that CANT be good!
Oh and Annelien made 6 small Lemon meringue pies to keep me going in their absence!! …SWEET!!!

Good news! I had the meeting with Immigration and Tourism: The Immigration guy just wanted to tell me his life story I think, and the Tourism guy just had a query about the company name, so once I’d assured them that I wasn’t working and that it WAS a tourism operation they gave me another 30 day visa! …WOOHOO!!!! …that takes me to December 2nd which is only 2 weeks short of when my Residency Permit should be through (though in reality its prolly gonna take another 3 months on top of that, even if it IS successful) While in Phickwe we saw our new Cruiser Game Viewer: I’m buying the company a VX Landcruiser which was crash-damaged and has been rebuilt…its gonna be LUSH with its 4.2l straight six engine and coil sprung sussies …a proper bush ‘limo’!
Back to the REAL world and its car maintenance time again: Nissan starter motor and ‘rig’ to be fettled…that car REALLY annoys me now: EVERYTHING is a nightmare to get to and its just too complicated for a ‘bush’ vehicle. We;re also having baboon issues at the mo: they’re coming into the house even when we are around – today one was in the pantry and when it ran out, it ran RIGHT past poor Ruby who at 18 months old is a PRIME target for the baboons!!!! ..luckily nothing happened. The rifle is now at hand…..

Summer is here …and that means rain……28mm in about 2 hours for Mohave camp – we got off a lot lighter, but our roof leaked too……..so next day was spent on the roof carrying out emergency (read ‘permanent’) repairs. Summer also means a whole lot more nasties: the solifugids are huge now! …and sooo quick! And there’s a lot of scorpions dodging around too …and of course snakes: I found one outside my bedroom door – not sure who go the bigger surprise, me or the Cobra! ..anyhoo, it was despatched by Stuart with the shambock.
Stuarts friend Mike arrived for a few days ‘off’ which started with us dragging a dead (shot) baboon around to create a scent trail and then hanging in it a tree to try and entice a leopard to the party (which it didn’t, sadly)
A few mornings later, we had a major storm with hurricane-like winds for 5 minutes: when Stuart checked Musth camp after the rain had stopped he found a tree had been blown down and INTO tent 2 – the bathroom wall was demolished and that had torn the canvas of the tent. AS we dragged the tree off the tent, more damage was caused to the tent and the concrete base. Luckily we have Albert to hand (our local Zim builder) he had the wall rebuilt pronto and then after a few false starts, the rest of the staff repaired the Mopane tent poles and Annelien and I restitched the damaged canvases.
Fortunately there were no guests and we had a 5 day window to effect repairs. All repairs were complete 2 hours before the guests arrived!

Our first student from Afreco Tours arrived in Bobonong and was settled into Musth camp later that day – he was hoping to do a full Tracker course, however there weren’t enough students so we agreed to give him some tracking tuition for a week or so and for him to stay with the normal students for the remainder of his 2 week stay. Ken turned out to be a nice guy from Belgium and I took him and Sam (Dutch girl student) out to learn tracks with Stuart adding in too.
Both passed their test with flying colours, despite the course being interrupted by pesky lions and ellies!
After some more heavy rain (82mm in 24 hours) the students had to abandon Mohave camp and managed to struggle their way across the bush to Musth camp (I had driven the roads the previous evening and had struggled to get thru too) All was good in Musth camp until:
Saturday 21st Nov when at 11pm as we sat drinking beer and enjoying the evening, the sky and everything underneath it was suddenly lit by a brilliant white light immediately followed by a shooting star (meteor) appearing above the tree canopy and disappearing of over the horizon!
We all sat amazed by the spectacle and jabbered madly about how bright it was and what it was and where it might have landed, when we were hit by the Sonic Boom about 2 or maybe even 3 minutes later! ……..we later found out that the local farmer and many of the local land owners – and even the President! hired helicopters and search teams to discover where the meteor(ite) landed – we assume that these people thought the sonic boom was actually noise from the impact of the meteor(ite) hitting the ground….VERY funny!
Back in the land of semi-normality: I decided to go barefoot whilst washing the Cruiser…bad move: I got a cut under my toes which was really painful when walking …still, hey-ho I continued barefoot the next day……and stood on a wasp OUCH! ..that’ll be the end of my barefoot days, then
NOT the end of creepy crawlies though: I was sitting in the house reading an atlas deciding where to go in Zambia when I visit Ikey..I closed the atlas to find a scorpion sitting on my knee!!! thankfully it wasn’t a Parabutha so wasn’t dangerous …….quite a shocker tho!
We’ve also got a lot of dead animals at the mo: we counted 9 dead impala and that was only the ones we could see near the riverine roads! ….biggest suspect is tannin poisoning from the new leaves on the trees, as there are no visible injuries to any of the animals. Leaves (sic) a terrible smell of death around the place though.

December 2nd and I’m leaving Botswana again! …this time I must leave until my residency permit comes thru …..possibly 2 months of waiting,so lots to plan (or not as the case may be)
first stop is Jo’burg on an ACE transfer (driven by Anton for the 3rd time I think) an overnight stop at the fairly average Dove’s Nest and then its off to Lusaka on Zambezi Airlines to meet up with Ikey
The flight was fine, but same old story when I got off: my Visa card wouldn’t work in the ATM so I didn’t have any Kwacha and of course my phone doesn’t work in Zambia. To add to the story, Ikey was asleep and forgot to come and collect me so there I was in the airport with just about nothing! …thankfully the Zambians are nice people and a couple of taxi drivers rang Ikey till he woke up and came to collect me ….2 ½ hours later! ….I didnt even recognise him with his new beard and shaven head!
We went straight to his bomas in the ‘yet to be opened’ Lusaka park, where I met Des and little Andre and then fed baby Sable with milk from bottles!!!
later at the house he rents, I met Jene with Anka (now almost 2 years old) and baby Dirk (10 months old)
After feeding the animals and checking on the older ones every morning, we would most likely do off to the Kilimanjaro coffee shop in the Manda Hills mall (Lusaka) and drink mugs of cappuccino and eat poached eggs on toast and lemon meringue pie …I like that coffee shop!

Then it was time to meet up with Ken (from the Tracker course at Tuli) at the Chachacha hostel
We had a night out on the tiles starting with lots of beer at the hostel bar and then offed to to Rhapsody’s cocktail bar with Des and Janne where we had rounds of all manner of cocktails …nice!
And then to the CASINO! …I’ve never been to one before so it was kinda odd, but we had a laugh playing Blackjack…badly
Many free drinks alter and we headed home to the hostel
a couple of days later and we hired a bakkie (Mitsubishi colt) to take Ken (Belgian) Jeff and Kristi (Canadians) off on a tour of Zambia
a 7 hour drive north got us to the Kasanka national park where we headed off to see the annual fruit bat migration – the largest migration in the world with approx 8 million bats filling the skies! …it was pretty awesome too! …we had sundowners with the park owner ad were amazed as the bats filled the sky from horizon to horizon!….there were Kupu and even ellies in the background as we watched which was fab to ..then we walked back to the car under the not too careful scrutiny of our ‘guide’ toting his AK47 where he left us to find our way back to the ‘conservation camp’ …of course we got lost ….twice ..and got led back to the road by a guy on his bicycle!!! over nighted at the camp which was insanely overpriced with a small dirty room for $30 then in the morning we headed back into the ark proper for a walk past hippo trails and watched a flock (yes) of eagles (crowned?) and a couple of Fish Eagles and got a glimpse of a Sitatunga. Then we drove the car over a pontoon and off for a quick jaunt where we saw nothing due to Ken driving far too fast.
Then off for another 6 hour drive to the Shoebill camp in the Bangweulu Wetlands.
A long drive broken only by a stop to stock up on food and buy the worst cappuccino ever (what did I expect??) then thru endless villages apparently filled with kids shouting “bonalekker” ?? and then onto the plains where we saw our first Black Lechwe. Again a badly overpriced tent for $60 – where do they get their pricing?????? we met an English couple who were travelling for 4 months in their fully kitted hi-lux…I managed to freak the woman out by looking identical to a friend of theirs who had recently died and who was ALSO called Ian!
That night we went for a beer at the bar and Jeff told us he had just walked into a bear …..a few noises later and we realised he had actually walked into a hippo!!! …equally dangerous I would think!
We woke early to watch the sun rise over the wetlands which was pretty fabulous – geese flying overhead and Lechwe jumping thru the water. Then we were off again for another fairly long drive north to the Kapishya Hot Springs. The area was lovely – very green with almost an English feel to it (strange really as a famous Englishman settled here and built a manor house not far from the Springs) We met Mel at the ‘lodge’ who was quick to do us a deal of 1/2price lodging and free breakfast thrown n! ….the chalets are FABULOUS!…..quirky woodwork, electricity and very comfortable and right against the river from the local lake
The hot springs themselves are bath warm and a metre deep (the area has been dammed to create the pool) to Mel’s amazement we spent 3 ½ hours thru sunset and into the night in the pools drinking beers and Amarula on ice supplied by Lawrence (of Zambia …not the other one) then we had more drinks in the bar with Mel, who also showed us her puppies – Jack Russels only a week old.
Next morning we had our light breakfast of cereal, lots of toast and coffee and then tea and then Mel supplied us with waffles baked to Kens dads recipe (he’s a Belgian baker)
Then we packed and headed off to the Mutinondo Wilderness. We met the owners, found we were the only ones staying (again) then we headed off for a walk along the river where we found the first falls and nice pool….stripped to undies and swam around, then after being challenged by baboons, we walked to the next falls, then the next and then to the pool where we swam again and played pooh sticks.
On the way back we found a diurnal solifugid – which I DIDNT kill!!, then a flap necked chameleon which we photographed and Jeff dropped. Lots of antelope tracks too (Duiker, Reedbuck, Sable and Roan)
back at the camp we had beers and played Scrabble (oddly enough) then bedded down …me and Ken stayed in the nice dry and big tent left for previous campers where we had proper beds and duvets …the canucks stayed in their little tent and didn’t sleep and got wet …RESULT!
Next morning on the road again, back down to Lusaka, stopping only for fuel …and cappuccino, chocolate cake and burgers a the Fig Tree coffee shop.
Picked up at the Chachacha by Ikey and Tokman (Des has gone home) we went back to the house and just as I thought we were going to bed, Ikey jumped up and decided it was time to go dart some Impala! ..we drove off with Doc (a local vet Ikey is now in business with) to a place out of town and proceeded to drive around and around looking for Impala – which were in shot supply and unavailable anyhoo as we didn’t have the cages to put them in, if and when we darted them! ..very odd. We gave up at midnight and headed back to the house

Danny, Tucker and me decided to go over to Northern Ireland to watch the NW200 – sounded like a great idea, though with Gillys birthday, we’d actually have to come back BEFORE the racing!!!

anyhoo, we rode over to Stranraer on the Saturday morning – and -after coffee and brekkie sarnies for me and Danny whilst gay Tucker had a Latte and pancake – got ABSOLUTELY drenched in wild rain and winds. Luckily though, we got to the ferry port early and found ourselves on the EARLY ferry rather than the one we expected (our intended ferry ran almost 3 hours late we found out later!!)

we dried off and had coffee on the ferry and by the time we disembarked at Larne (Belfast) the rain was almost stopped. We navigated thru to Hannahstown to stay overnight at Col and Maureens house, where Maureen had cooked a fab beef dinner for us.  A shower each (with Danny using his Lacy Louffa and me finding out that Col has one too!!!)Then it was off to Belfast for a night on the lash!

all well in the morning, Maureen produced the most gorgeous brekkie for us all including poached eggs!!! …what a darling! then after taking an AGE to get ready, we set off to the Dundrod (UlsterGP) circuit for photos and a racing start, then back to Larne and a trip up the famous Coastal road to Bushmills where we had booked a room in the hostel.

as we arrived I asked a guy stood outside a pub, where the hostel was, to which he opened a set of double doors and we rode THRU the beer garden, thru more doors into the hostel courtyard!!!!! PERFECT!!!

we got sorted in our ensuite room

“and then headed out for a beer

and then a walk to the Giants Causeway…..which turned out to be further than we thought so we got as far as the Visitor centre, then stopped, had a beer and got the steam train back!

more beers that night and an expensive – but VERYgood meal at a local restaurant

next morning ans we were up and out for 10am after a brekkie at the copper kettle next door. We rode along the coast to Coleraine then hit the twisties all the way down to Omagh where we had a nice sarnie and more coffee. Then back up to Portrush for a looksee (and to collect the brake fluid we were using to keep Tuckers Aprilia clutch going!) Back on the road we stopped short of Bushmills to checkout the great looking Dunluce castle overlooking the sea (though it should be noted that Danny missed the first turning and Tucker missed BOTH! .,….despite me waving like a loon at the junction!!!

Back at Bushmills we had supper and ……yep, MORE beer. We also met a group from Yorkshire…or was it Lancashire 😉 and had a laugh with them (we’d seen them in another pub we’d gone to to watch the football …which wasnt actually ON the TV :$ )

another late night for me and an early night for the two ‘ladies’ then we were up and out to go to the Causeway proper (very nice) and then the rope bridge (which Danny bottled) and then lunch at BallyCastle. A quick ride to Ballymoney (losing Danny on the way and meeting EVERY tractor in the northern hemisphere on the way) we visited Joey’s (Dunlop
) garden memorial then returned to Portrush to the race paddock. We had a walk around the garages and met Les Shand who Danny used to sponsor via his ‘bike bits company Faster By Design, then we headed back to Bushmills to drop off the bikes, get the bus back and watch the racing practice. burgers, doughnuts and coffee later and the practice ended under a red flag (we later learned a rider had crashed heavily. We walked into the town looking for food and beer, but found neither, so got a taxi back to Bushmills and after the LONGEST wait for chips takeaway, ate them in the local pub <thanks> and had a few more beers

Next morning we packed and left the SMELLIEST room in the world (courtesy of Tucker) and headed back down the coast to Larne.

A great trip …but maybe we should stay for the actual racing next year???

so, once Charlie had left – in good health!- I was left in command (!) of Koro camp – fools!

beginningwith 10 students, the numbers dropped as the ‘season’ drew to a close, though there was still ots of time for a lot of funa dn some close encounters with ellies!:

one day whilst walking around Stickinyau (sp?) we wandered down towards a spring and found a leopard which had just come up FROM the spring! ..the leopard ran from us so we followed as quick as we could, sadly although we KNOW we were close, we never saw it again

We also found a Kudu Bull carcass, which we tied to the back of teh Landie and drageed up to the Rockies, hoping to lure a predator onto it…sadly there wasno sign over the next few days as the carcass got flattened by maggots.

We also tried to have a sleepout on Halloween: the idea was o stay near the Baobabs nr. Boundary koppie. W set camp and built a fire, started cooking and were generally in great spirits as we watched an electric storm in the distance. Then a Parabutha scorpion appeared and then just as I was about to sit on my rol mat and eat, another 2 appeared! … after all thehubbub and a nice meal we realised that the storm was almost on us! …we packed camp quick as a flash and started to rive off as the first pitterpatter of rain hit us. I volunteered to sit on the tracker seat and as we returned to camp the rain hit us BIG style!!!….. we got lashed by wind and rain as the trees lost branches and leaves and dust and debris flew EVERYWHERE!!!… it was mayhem, but a lorra fun!!

over the next few days we had regular bouts of storms, which drencehed some of the tents and drenched us! ……quite a change and the first time Ive seen the rains here!

Eventually, Toby, Frenchie and Maria left and the camp was quiet.

Stuart and I set to the maintenance of the Landie (new driveshafts, oil,  etc.) and the Hilux (new driveshafts and seals) then we did some general maintenance -pretty busy time for us, whilst Christoph and Katy were busy sorting the camp too.

Annelein left for the familys farm in the middle of the works and eventually me and Stuart followed her down

a couple of days later and I was back at the airport saying goodbyes again 8(

…hopefuly it wont be long till I see them all again  8)

We were sitting around the boma at Koro camp one afternoon, the day before Charlie and the Trackers were leaving, when Kate (the camp ‘maid’, I guess) ran i, saying there was a snake outside. we ran out to see a Mozambique Spitting Cobra lying inthe grass, with most of a frog sticking out of its mouth.

We watched for a few moments – while I made sure everyone knew about its ability to spit venom, but knowing that with the frog blocking its mouth we were safe…for the moment. charlie then appeared and decided that we should catch/kill it as it was in the camp area. She donned a pair of sunglasses to protect her eyes from any spitting and then using a long stick started to try and catch the snake. At this point I got on the radio to let stuart know we had a snake (he was in the bush on his way back to the house) whilst on the radio, Charlie shouted for me, so I ran back over to her, by which time christoph (Kates hubby) had joinedher and the two of them were in the process of killing the snake. HOWEVER, the snake had spit at Charlie at the same time that she had shoutedfor me – resulting in Charlie getting some of the venom in her mouth!!!! A quick radio to Stuart and Charlie started washing her mouth out whilst climbing in to the Landie the snake carcass was put in and I drove ‘patient’ and the snake up to the house, where Staurt met us, we swapped into the Cruiser and raced for the border. At the border (we always use medical facilities in south Africa) we shot thru the Botswana side without passports – explaing it was a medical emergency and then again thru the RSA side – this time showing them the snake carcass to get them to open the gate quickly.

We managed to get a puncture on the dirt road to Alldays and almost had the car slide off the hi-lift jack!, but eventually reached Alldays where we found we had another puncture! all the time we keeping charlie talking to make sure she was OK – she looked worried and pale, but otherwise seemed not to bad (I think she was complaining her lips were numb not otherwise, OK) we swapped into another car and drove another 50km before meeting up with the ambulance that had been called for us about an hour before!. charlie was loaded onto a stretcher and she and Stuart sped off to hospital, leaving me to get back to Alldays in another vehicle.

that night I had a restless evening in a lodge at Alldays – where the barmaid watched me walking around my cabin nekkid whilst looking for summat to wear before I opened the door (I hadnt realised the door had a big glass panel in it!!!) …she had a message from annelien for me and a bag of clothes and toiletries from the lady who had dropped me off at the lodge (her family own the local store)

anyhoo, next morning I got the punctures fixed and then drove all the way back to Koro to pick up the students leaving and then drove all the way back to the border, where I met up with Stuart and Charlie!!!! she was fine!..the venom had no effect on her and they just kept her in overnight for observation PHEW!!!

Back at Joburg, I met up with Martin and Mark (ACE) and got transferred back to the Botswana border at Platjan. Here I met up with Charlie again who drove me and Frazer (new student) into Tuli letting me sit on the Tracker down to the camp.

I only stayed at the camp for the first night (in the love shack) and then moved up to the house, so Stuart and I could concentrate on prepping for the Tracker course

We set up camp in Lost hills with a tent for each of the participants and then set off to Alldays to pick up Rob, Adam, Lee, Yutte(sp?) Geoff and Guido

they all turned out to be nice guys and we had a lot of fun sorting out haw to organise camp and then starting the tracking.

We did one humongous walk the one day: starting around Lost Hills after some ellies we had heard (but never caught up with) then along to the Rockies and then down to Mamatumi!!! a canny old walk THAT one!…with 42 degrees showing on my watch – in mostly shade! thankfully there was water at Mamatumi, otherwise I think Stuart may have had rebellion on his hands..and a couple of dehydrated corpses!….easy to laugh about it now tho.

Still no ellies, so we moved camp to Lekkerpoet anyhoo. This time we had some success, in finding leopard, hyena and eventually LION track, which we followed for most of the day without actually catching up with the lions…until we got back inthe hilux to leave and instantly the liones was spooted inthe spotlight beam!!!…a nice sighting as she wandered along even sitting and posing for us in the grass!

Back at the camp we were warned by Adam about the ‘flat stone‘ …….we had brought a ‘bucket’ shower which we hung from a tree in the rocks at the bottom of Lekkerpoet hill – 50m from the camp. however, Lee had gone to ‘see a man about a dog’ and had walked off into the rocks to find a suitable place – he had just crouched down to …well, you know…when he looked up and realised the shower outlet was dangling right above his head!!!! he’d only managed to find a toilet spot right underneath our shower!!!! too late to move, he did the business and then placed a flat rock over the ‘evidence’  so the rest of us had to actually stand on that rock to have ourshowers that night. YUK!!

Half way thru the course Geoff had to leave us, due to his pacemaker (that we didnt know about!) playing up!!!…bit of a shocker to me and Stuart, but  at least it happened back in Koro camp and not out in the bush

The rest ofthe course went along well with the smaller group getting on well and improving in tracking skills dramatically

Eventually we came to the assessments which took place over 3 days – amazingly both Rob and Lee got Tracker 2 level! (along with Charlie who had joined us for the assessments and also got a level 1 Trail certificate too) I managed a Level 1 Tracker, which I guess is OK, though really I had hoped for better

Well, its been 7 months since I was in Africa – I was missing it

OK, I was missing it AND Stuart at Tuli had emailed me to ask if I would go over and help him run the Tracking course now offered by ACE and then help to run Koro camp after Charlie sadlyleaves it.

16th Sept and I’m off with Virgin to Joburg then by hire car to Kuruman where I met Ikey (in his by now very battered Cruiser) and then to Clive’s farm again ( I was there twice last year with Ikeys ‘lot’) to catch Sable, wildebeeste, kudu and others. Twas nice to see the gang again (Tokman, Des, Hannas) but now with Hannas brother and a new guy Michael. Was also good to see some of the ‘boys’ again – including Rasta, Gunman and Samuel(s). Catching went well with no major mishaps, tho I did get kicked by a darted Sable as we picked it up in a sheet of tarpaulin, which tore freeing a rear leg (the Sable’s not mine)

me and Ikey also skived off and drank lots of coffee in the town whilst the guys were busy building/dismantling the boma …ah well – he IS the boss!

next we were off into the Kalihari – me driving the 4.5l Cruiser with a rhino trailer in tow (another phrase I never thought Id be writing. We stopped at a nice farm with the farm manger (Gideon) and his wife joining us for a braai that night. Next day we were up early (as usual) and catching Kudu, Zebra and Wildebeest..today I was doing 3 jobs: the first red door, the 2nd red door and also the truck door too!

End of the day’s catching but still the middle of the day so we went off to deliver some kudu at a guys farm. Sadly as we released them, one fell from the back of the truck and broke its neck. as everyone got down from the truck, i stayed sitting on top (no-one had said we HAD to get down) at this point the truck started moving…faster and faster till I realised they were actually leaving the farm, not just moving ON the farm!…no bother, I thought, I’ll just stay here and enjoy the rid – which is what I did….until we drive thru the thorn trees. man THAT HURT!! my arm and side got shredded as I was whipped and dragged along the top of the truck….luckily chicks dig scars, eh?

When we left the farm that evening – after a number of beers…we all jumped into a Cruiser pick up (backie) and speeded along the dirt roads back to our lodging – en-route, our driver decided to try and catch a Springbok which was running along the road in front of us…he managed to hit the poor thing (though it was unharmed) but also managed to spin us off the road in the process – another life experience!

Next day we moved to another farm for more catching, however it being my last day with the team, Ikey drove me back to Clives farm to pick up the car and return to Joburg.

just completed my first biking trip on the continent: I had just packed in a job and was looking for somewhere to take my mind of it – a guy I know was already booked for a trip over to the Italian alps (Dolomites) with people he knew, so I tagged along.

We (Tuckerhauser<John>,Colin and me) sailed on the overnight ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, arriving at 9am (ish) disembarked and headed for the closest garage for fuel…………….after being breathalysed within the port! (seems to be standard now for vehicles leaving the overnighter) After getting lost in the ‘Dam (even tho 2 of the 3 bikes were fitted with GPS!!!) we headed south thru Germany on the autobahns. Wasnt too bad a trip DESPITE a humongous thunderstorm on the way – oh and we lost Colin at one point and only caught up with him again – after a few texts – to stay overnight in Karlsbad near Karls Ruhe.

We stayed in the “Gruner Baum” hotel, which wasnt a bad place …it sold cold beer (tho I did get stung on the neck by a pretty unfriendly wasp) and had a nice coffe shop nearby where we got cappuccino’s and banana splits (hey, we’re on holiday…and Colin started it!)

next morning we set off again and headed down into Switzerland where after some heavy traffic we stopped in a coffee shop….for Cappuccino…served by a nice friendly fraulien…which was nice. A fairly tedious section of motorway later and we were in Italy !! …where we met the other 5 guys (Brian, Paul, John, Willy and Dave) in a nice hotel in Brunico. We stayed here for 2 nights so that we could explore the local roads and not have to carry our bags with us (not as easy on a sports bike as it is on a BMW GS)

a few lush roads around Cortina (no the place, not the car) and my first real ‘passes’ later and we were thru Bolzano into Bormio where we overnighted at a home for the elderly (hotel Internatiozionale) We had a wander around the town that night and ate free snacks served on an oversize cricket bat(!) and drank cheap beers as the barmaid forgot how many we all had!!! We also tried a route upto the Witches cafe (or summat) on the Austrian border – great single track road controlled by traffic lights.
Next morning was the STELVIO pass – perhaps the best biking or driving road in the world?……..well, it was FAB….we headed up the ‘easy’ way which meant tight hairpins at first gradually opening in to lightly wider and faster corners – REAL good stuff and then reached the top of the pass where you get the photos seen in all the motoring press. it really is a fab ride. the view is incredible. the ride down is pretty hairy with VERY tight hairpins and BIG drop-offs if you get it wrong!!!…be careful of the buses: they do 3 point turns to get around some of the corners! (if you go there, check out the house halfway up the mountain on the right – just above the tree line as you go down….who the hell lives there!!!???) Eventually, we stopped at the town at the bottom for ….cappuccino …and then rode on aiming for Andermatt

at this point it kinda went all wrong, as Tucker ran out of fuel on a german autobahn. 3 of us stopped and I headed off to fill up with fuel and find a siphon tube to fill Tuckers bike with….that was the easy part! Willy (1 of the 3 who stopped) told me to head off along a road to get back along the autobahn – sadly for me, that road went over the mountains and was nowhere NEAR an autobahn, so after riding 55km and getting directions 3 times AND getting caught in a thunderstorm, I returned to where I started and took the autobahn back past Tucker then did a ‘U’ turn on the autobahn to meet up with him. After filling up with petrol (again) We then had to head over the mountains to Andermatt to meet the other guys…..however we got hit with the thunderstorm again – it was TORRENTIAL over the pass, but althought we got soaked and rode DEAD slow, it wasnt as bad as it could have been…I guess…it wa almost (ALMOST) funny!

The hotel we stopped at in Andermatt, was a bit odd – nice from outside, but looked like it last got decorated just before the war….the Crimean was, that is!….it also had two doors to the rooms – a normal door, which opened straight onto another door!?…no idea what that is all about!

In the morning we filled up with petrol and I borrowed a spanner from a guy in a garage to adjust the bike chain (poorly adjusted by me before we left ) Then we headed down a cobble road pass before climbing another pass to some amazing views. the roads here are a proper ‘fest, with the Furka, Sustens, Grimsell and San Gottardo passes all linking up around Andermatt – you could play here for days……which is what John and I did as the other guys headed back for England and left us in Interlaken

We stayed in two separate hotels between the 8 of us as I couldnt afford the expensive one the older guys stayed at, so John and I stayed at the Minerva which was pretty cheap – but wasnt en-suite – HEY! we’re bikers and not supposed to shower anyhoo!!!!! the next day was the departure day for the others, so John and I rode over to Lauterbrunnen (valley of the waterfalls) which was LUSH! incredibly beautiful place – then we retruned to the hotel, changed into something more comfortable and took a train thru the valley and then thru the Eiger mountain (literally) to Jungfraujoch – ‘top of Europe’ at 3571m (11760ft) where we walked out onto the glacier -and got caught in a snowstorm!!! kewl! a pot noodle (odd) and coffee later and we headed back down to town…….course this being August 1st, it was Swiss national day so we were treated to street entertainers and a mahoosive fireworks display on the ‘park’ in the centre of Interlaken! …a great day all around.

Sadly, the trip took a turn for the worst the next day: we were riding aorund the Furka /Sustens passes again having a great time, when I decided to have a bit of a traffic light grand prix from a railway crossing – in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain just before the Furka pass……..I got pretty fast – I know this cos the nice policeman at the end of the road took me to one side to let me know just how fast I was going!!! ……he seemd a nice chap, so I donated a MAHOOSIVE amount into the Swiss Police Ball fund…………..

Anyways, next day and we decided to head back towards home – after riding to the valley of waterfalls again and Grindelwald for photos of the eiger (beautiful day) then we headed north on little scenic roads into Germany. we chose well (thank you Obi Wan) and included roads thru Todtmoos up to Schuslsee (sp?) where I had a mahoosive coffee and then followed signs up thru the Black Forest looking for a hotel…….however we saw Hansel and Grettels B&B in the woods so stopped there – lovely old lady (bent double so it would be easier to milk the coos) gave us room in her place and we got on smashing despite her not speaking any english and my german being learnt a couple of years ago (what?) at school. That night we headed off for a walk thru the trees into the middle of nowhere- we thought – until we happened upon some tennis courts and then a hotel – OK so it wasnt RIGHT in the wilds. A fillet steak later and we headed back to the B&B to sleep. Next morning we breakfasted on teh standard cheese, bread, ham and jam with lashings of coffee, then said auf Wiedersehen and headed north again, via Baden Baden (so good they named it twice) and into more lush roads to Luxembourg……

I dont like Luxembourg police.

We got lost looking for a perticklier road, then happened upon it – tho it was partly barriered off…we couldnt understand the signs and there were other cars in front so we slowly rode up the road…to be met by 4 cops, 2 of whom had credit card machines and dutifully took €75 of us for the pleasure of being lost (not just us, there were germans, belgians, dutch and french caught too!) departing a little lighter in the wallet, we stayed at the beautiful little town of Vianden, staying in a smashing hotel in a steep cobbled street right below the chateau. We had a couple of beers here, a meal, a fab shower and booked cheap ferry tickets for Dover from Calais for the Wednesday (today was Monday)

In the morning, we took a real nice ride up the side of the river and then across into Belgium to Champion and Dinante (stopping at Bastogne to take photos of a Sherman tank) after cappuccino (it would be rude not to) we headed onto motorways to get to Ypres where we planned to stay our last night on the continent.

Arriving at Ypres in double quick time, we took some photos of a WW1 memorial march and the Mennim gate then booked ourselves into a B&B for the night. Returning to the town, we attended the 8pm Last Post and then had beers and a meal in the town square – Ypres was a pretty happening place that night – we thought it would be quite morose with all its history, but it seems to have the blend of not forgetting but not dwelling, just about right, I reckon.

Next morning we headed North to the coast and then West to Calais. letting a couple of old guys sit on our bikes for photos at the ferry queue. Sadly that was the end of the nice bit of the trip – the ride back thru England was CRAP!!! diabolical driving (watching a Volvo driver actually try to ram another car off the road on the A14. Still we got home safely…which was nice

In summary: there are some AMAZING roads in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy and Austria….Hartside doesnt even come close

so after a night in Zambia, I decided that as I had to get out (visa ending) I might as well get the bus to Windhoek, with Rags……so a quick booking for Intercape buses on the ‘net and 2 hours later we’re sittingon a Mainliner bus…..on a 20 hour bus trip!

We managed to see 2 ellies on the way thru the Caprivi Strip (corridor belonging to Namibia between Angola and Botswana) …these proved to be the only ellies I saw in Nam :^( Me and Rags also had a bit of a moment at an Animal Disease checkpoint: basically you have to get out of the buis and walk across a pad impregnated with some kind of chemical – however no-one had explained that you needed your passport too, so we jumped back on the bus to get them….JUST as the bus drove across its chemical pad and thru the checkpoint…bit of a dilemma now: do we get out, explain to the man with the gun what happened, or just sit tight on the bus?……..we stayed where we were <no problems, phew!>

anyhoo, 20 hours later and we arrived in Windhoek (capital of Namibia) jumped in a taxi with an Irish couple (John and Orla) and proceeded to the Cardboard Box hostel, …where the taxi driver proceeded to drive off with our money before giving us our change!…welcome to Windhoek, eh? anyhoo, the ‘Box’ is a REALLY nice place run by some really nice people too (yes, including Desree <sigh>) I stayed for 3 nights  – only one of which included Rags as she met up with her Norwegian friends (as planend) and did off on a trip and then back to her studies in RSA…WITHOUT ME!!!, anyhoo, I met up with some more Norwegians (what is it with Africa and Norwegians????) and went out for a meal and drinks with my 6 new wives: 3 norwegian nurses, a german kind of teachery thingee, an ozzie and a girl from Salford. We had a great meal at a curry hoos, and then went for drinks at Joes (seems to be the best place to drink in town)…we then gatecrashed a 21st fancy dress birthday party at a nice hotel somewhereorother…which was strange (very strange, actually) anyhoo, I eventually got to bed at about 4am, to we woken by John (Irish fella) at 7 to be told we were off on a 5 day tour in about an hour!

well, man!…what a joke our new ‘guide’ turned out to be: we never actually caught his name, so we renamed him Bob (well actually Orla did) he also had a sidekick called Stephan, who was a nice fella. we off’d in quite a nice smart Toyota minibus to a place where they rehabilitate cheetahs (www.africat.org) and also have areas with a leopard and WILD DOGS!!!! got a fabulous view of the leopard and great photos too! Then we off’d to Etosha Park ..where we didnt see a whole lot and nowt really happened….apart I guess from almost driving over a lioness then scaring off the Wildebeest she was hunting, then driving off-road and getting bogged down…in front of the lioness (who wasnt exactly happy with us by now) we refused to help to dig us out (there was just me, John and Orla on the trip) as the guide had been stoopid enuff to get us in the mess, HE could get us out…2 hours or so later, a bakkie turned up and towed us out. we had a nice trip for the remainder, seeing Twyffelfontain, the Petrified forest, the Organ Pipes, Burnt mountain and a trip around a himba (or Ovahimba) village, where the women are topless!!!!EEEK!!!! this village was an orphanage set up by a Namibian fella we met, who also has the most beautiful lodge for visitors to stay at: it was part of a film set a few years ago and is built in a a marijuana influenced stylee into the huge boulder/rocks of a koppie (he also has an African wild Cat as a pet!)

Back to Cardboard Box and I manged to hire a Bakkie with long range fuel tanks, roof tent, camping gear and spare wheels for £30 per day (normally £60 per day just for a basic bakkie so I was well pleased with that!) and toddled off for a trip around namibia: 1st stop was Swakopmund (so german its unbelievable!) then back to the desert for a night under Bloedkoppie (blood mountain) then off to Walvis Bay & Dune 7, followed by a trip up the Skeleton Coast, thru the SC park, to Palmwag for the night, then to Warmquelle (crossing a raging river with a truck stuck in it enroute) and to Opuwo (watching completely wild giraffe, zebra, Wildebeeste, Sprinbok and Gemsbok on the way) stayed at a lovely lodge there (Opuwo country hotel) then as the roads were washed away I changed plans and drove to the Angolan border to see the Raucana Falls (crap) then to the Kunene river lodge for the night followed by Opupa falls (nice) and then back to Opuwo (getting extra fuel en-route from a traditionally dressed Herero woman in a township along the way) then down to Etosha, where the guy on the gate walked around the bakkie and asked what had happened to me car (it was in a bit of a state by then)

Again, not muxh to see in Etosha (too much rain just lately) then off to the worlds biggest meteorite and then to Tsumkwe to have a day with a San bushman -which was REALLY nice (I’d been looking foward to seeing the San people for months) you know, even in the 21st Century, they still hunt food with a bow and arrow (poison tipped) and eat what they find in the bush (literally). Next was down to the Erongo mountains to see some dinosaur footprints and more bushman paintings and engravings (stayed in the beautiful AiAiba painted rock lodge) then off to town to borrow a nice ladies husbands pc to burn some DVD’s. Next it was off to Philips Cave to see MORE bushman paintings and the Bulls Party rock formations . That night I stayed at Spitzkoppe mountain rest camp – RIGHT underneath the mountain which was VERY chillin and atmospheric. up early and a trip to Sesriem canyon (in the rain) ready for a trip to Sosussvlei and Deadvlei in the morn. 5am start and out of the camp as the gate opened at 5:30. an hours drive later and I was in Sosussvlei to watch the sun rise over the dunes (after climbing the wrong <read STEEP> side of a dune only to realise the error of my ways as I got to the top!) then after sitting there for an hour or so, I moved over to Deadvlei to see the calcified trees in the valley (FABULOUS PLACE) . straight after that I drove down to Ludicrous (I mean Luderitz) and had a Luderitz salad and cappucino at Ritzis cafe, then styaed for 2 nights at Shark Island campsite…with the craziest security man in the world (pished with a sawn off Russian shotgun) . didnt do much here, but need to rest after all teh driving (I did go to Kolmanskop ‘ghost town tho) Next was down to Rosh Pinah to get into the Fish River Canyon…cept the road had been washed away so I had to drive the 250km BACK along the road and then drive another 300km to go ALL the way around and into the park from the other side!..I wass so knackered when I got there that I stayed at the Canyon Mountain Camp (lodge) overnight (which was nice) then did the Canyon proper the next day …fabulous place and the 2nd biggest canyon in the world (to the grand Canyon, naturally). stayed at the Canyon Road House the next night and then off to the Quiver Tree Forest and giants Playground the next day, stayng at Gotchas that night. Next day was the end of my 20 day tour of Namibia…but I think I did pretty well: saw most of the sights and travelled for almost 6000km!

so, we crossed the border and stayed at Shoestrings hostel in Victoria Falls …nice place though pretty empty (we’re in the rainy season remember so not a top tourist time)

First things first: Money changing!….there are 2 options: No.1 the official way ~ change 1 US dollar for 30,000 Zim dollars. or no.2 blackmarket ~ change 1 US dollar for 2,000,000 (yes, MILLION) Zim dollars! …we opted for no.2 ;^) So with money changed, its time for some sightseeing:

The view of the Falls from the Zim side is fabulous! you get a ‘frontal’ view of the Falls and can walk along the length of them (tho from the other side of the gorge)..incredible sight right the way along..and we got to see a rainbow from Danger Point too…which was nice. Downside is you get absolutely sodden! Again though: a sight not to be missed if you ever get here (the choice is yours as to whether you wanna see the falls in full flow or fairly quiet )

We also had a walk to the train station to try and get the train down to Bulawayo – sadly the train was full so we must stay another night in the hostel and try again tomorrow (another couple of guys we met have been trying for 5 (I think) days to get on the train!!!)

so, next day and back to the station to catch the ticket office early….cept it didnt really matter cos it didnt open on time (Africa time, remember) Eventually we got to the front of the queue to be told by the fella behind the window that we had to go to the OTHER window!…we got to that window and booked our seats, but couldnt pay cos they wouldnt acceptUS dollars. We returned later with the Zim dollars and assured the woman that we had paid the official rate (oh yeah!) so she let us on.

We waited early for the train that evening (all trains in Zim are night trains for some reason) wondering what the compartment would be like (its a sleeper) expecting the worst, we got a reet shock when we got on board to find a 1920’s compartment with polished wood and green vinyl and even a fold down sink!!! LUSH!!!!! unfortunately there was no lights working so we had to get moved to another compartment which was simliar, but in laminate instead of polished wood…still nice tho….apart from the smell (we were next to the toilets……..which consisted of a fold-down loo seat above a hole in the carriage floor!…..nice!) our 14 hr trip also turned into 19 hours too, due to a long overnight stop in the middle of nowhere

As soon as we got off the train we headed for the ticket office to book the train back the next Monday…they wouldnt sell us a ticket till the next day tho :^(

We also got a bit of a shock trying to get into a hostel: the ‘Lying Planet’ advised that prices were $3-4US pppn….however this turned into $70US pppn!!!! eventually we stopped in the Berkely Place for $25 per room phew! we had a walk around the city, which is kinda nice with a fairly modern feel and very safe feel too – sadly the shops have VERY little products in them…th food shops are virtually empty, however we found a nice coffee shop that sold good cappucino and DOUGHNUTS!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Back at the ranch we changed some more money: $60US (in 2 notes: a $50 & $10) and got Z$120,000,000 in exchange…unfortunately the highest denomination note you can/could get was a $750,000 and I didnt get many of them, so I ended up with a whole block of notes to carry around!…it was the equivalent size of carrying 4 bags of sugar around!!!

..I mean where are you supposed to put it?…you cant get it in yer wallet and pockets aint gonna help!…and at the end of the day it was only $60US

Next morning we were at the train station for 7am to join the mahoosive queue for tickets…after 2 hours of not moving (mainly cos they decided in their infinite wisdom to let the Botswana queue move first and that was the whole length of the station!) so we gave up and got a taxi to the bus station for the bus to Masvingho (sp?) The taxi was probably the worst taxi in the world: no dashboard, doors that wouldnt open or close from inside and the worst sounding engine too, however the driver was canny and one he dropped us off he walked with us to find the right bus queue (another queue) an hour or so later and the bus arrived and we ended up right at the back!….amazingly we all got on (even though we were kinda pushed to the middle due to being ‘foreigners’ I think…..or maybe its cos Rags is blonde…who knows

The bus ride was another epic taking for ever to get there (the driver got out at one point and had his tea in a roadside cafe style thingee!) oh, and Jospeh that I was sitting next to spilled some of the diesel he was carrying home for his dads car and it covered the bottom of my bag and also my cap…which was nice :^( It was kinda funny too watching the locals go mad to buy tomatoes from the roadside sellers at the bus stops as we went along (they had underpriced the toms badly so everyone was trying to buy by leaning out of the windows with plastic bags, whilst the seller girls were running around like mad eejjits trying to cope with the demand!

Anyhoo, we got to Masvingho(sp? again) and jumped on a minibus to Great Zimbabwe (with Josephs help to organise) the ride was OK except it was getting late and we were concerned that we wouldnt get into the site as it was supposed to close at 7pm. Anyhoo, another story showing how incredible the Zim people can be:

as we got off the bus nr. Great Zim., I was trying to get off the bus with 2 bags and my hoodie and Rags fleecy jacket…as the bus drove off leaving us at the roadside I realised that I’d dropped her fleecy on the bus!…dammit! I apologies and we kinda tried to lok on the +ve side in that the guy who gets it could sell  it, keep it or give it to his girlfriend. So, 2 days later we were back at Masvhingo (sp for the last time) sititng on our bags in the bus station waiting for or bus when this guy appears and hand us the fleecy, saying how we had left it on the bus!!!!!!!  AMAZING!!!!!! I cant inmagine that happening ANYWHERE else on the planet, but for it to happen in Zim with the poverty and struggle those guys are having was just….AMAZING!!!

Anyhoo, back to Great Zimbabwe: we walked along the road and passed a craft market where the ladies shouted over the direction we needed to walk (we hadnt asked, I guess we just looked lost!) and from there we walked thru the main lodge to the campsite, where we found the guy that ran the place…he asked us how much we wanted to pay, so we agreed on $25US…for a lovely thatched lodge with 2 twin rooms and 2 more beds, plus TV!!!! and a shower AND a bathroom!!! Fabulous!

WE retired for the night and then got up early to get brekkie at the main lodge which was nice, but expensive. Then we headed down to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe – the place that gave the country its name on independence . The ruins were abandoned about 500yrs ago, leaving stone walls and towers on and around a hill very atmospheric place. This is also the place where the stone birds were found which are now the Zim emblem (the birds are actually in the museum on site too) We sat on the Kings balcony and watched over the masses below us (OK, there was 4 other tourists sitting down there, but I was KING FOR A DAY!!!!)

theres also a seperate ‘area’ which was built for the kings many wives: and for no.1 wife in particular – she got a stone tower to watch the king from (so the story goes)

we went back to the main lodge afterwards and paid a kings ransom to get ourt laundry done (that’ll teach me….pride before a fall and all that) then we had a quick beer and had a chat with a local chief who introduced himself as chief ‘Bonnyface’! nice guy who was very keen to make sure we were happy in his country

Another nice story from Zim: we we sitting in the bar that night having literally a couple of beers cos we had just about run out of dosh, anyhoo, the bar staff knew this as I had checked the prices with them and then paid partly in Zim dollars and partly in SA Rand that I had kicking about in me wallet…so a little later the barmaid comes over with a tray with some strips of fried beef and chillis for us to snack on!..they’d obviously taken pity on us!  how nice????

Anyhoo, enough of the stories from Zim, we got back to Bulawayo without too much grief and spent the night in Berkely again. Next morning we queued for 6 hours!! to get a ticket for the sleeper train, only to be told as we got to the till that there were no tickets left!!! I still think we were shat on there (the ‘fat controller’ had a word with the ‘teller’ just before we got there) so ANOTHER night at Berkely followed by a 5am start to get a taxi to the bus station out of town to get the bus up to Vic Falls. another (!) epic bus ride got us there without too much grief and then a taxi to the border and another to Fawlty Towers and we were back in Zambia