Holiday Inn Harare

... no problems with motivation. It was great. By the time we reach the other Zimbabwe border at daybreak, my mood is much improved. I can handle anything that comes. It won’t last. I get the Zambian visa for the cost of a U$ Grant, but the wait is interminable. Most of the other passengers are Zambian, so I’ve got to wait on them this time, while they pay duties on all the **** they’re bringing back with them. Then some bozo ...

... I cut it short and hung up. Damn banks. As it was Oliver emailed his folks to see if they could book the flights for us so fingers crossed. Thank you Brian & Sue!!! Sorting that took us up to 1pm at which time we headed back to the food court to meet back up with Sarah, Martin, Suze and Linds who had wisely left us when I'm sure they felt the stress radiate from my body. Pizza for lunch then back to the net. Annoyance no. 3 came when we heard the flat we were ...

... and station is crowded. Call Hope's aunt for ride, an hour later, he arrives. "How are things?" Hope asks. "We stopped talking abou it." A truck full of locals drive by, chanting and signing, with a Zimbabwean flag with Mugabe's face on it. "These are those Zanu-PF thugs," he says. "They will beat, kindnap, and murder. They are going to a rally. Ahh, probably only because there will be free bread! There will be a coup any day now. And then the ...

... over major issues and more futile ones like why isn't there any bread in Zimbabwe etc, with them. Unfortunately, this was all done in English as I do not speak any Shona or Ndebele, the two main tribe languages, out of more than 40...so I still cound not go to the heart of the people. Being white does not help because people tend to see the TOURIST in you, which I am really not at all! But people are very frank and direct, moreover I would never have expected such an ...

... to grow some balls and take on the adrenalin half day. She did a flying fox which was ok, a foofty slide which looked good fun and then rose to the challenge on the bungie swing (70 meter free fall!) by doing a f!cking hand stand off the platform! it was well good to watch and she loved it which I was glad about because she was feeling like wimp from the previous days rafting. We then went for a walk round the falls and ...

... camped about half an hour short of the Namibian bord** ov**. Once ov** the bord** we drove to the old G**man colonial town of Windhoek for a couple of days. Cathy and I had great intentions to do the Lonely Planet walking tour, but accidentally fell upon the Bushman's Art Shop so we w**e a little distracted, for a long time! I bought an empty Ostrich egg decorated with a bushman scene with a cork stopp** in a hole at the top. This was a copy of the eggs used ...

... it was also wildly kicking its legs looking like it might actually make a break. It evenutally died after 25 minutes, by which time we'd seen pretty much all our stomachs could take. I know it sounds incredibly gory to watch something like that, but if you think of it in terms of survival and seeing some of the most incredible animals on the planet in action, then it's pretty special. The next day we all went horse riding to see game - apparently you can get much ...

... ones we see are Amanzi, Nduna and Nandi these are the youngest of the 7 lions here well apart from Amanzi who is 15months old but small for his age as he had a stoke/hormone issue. The other 2 are brother and sister Nandi being the girl. We were allowed into see them straight away. Pretty awesome experience at 6am! As it is our first day we get to go on a client walk (usually $100 a go) here we meet the ...

... descriptions of this wonderful country had planted images in my mind that I wanted to become real before my eyes. Zimbabwe has been in the international news quite a bit over the past few months, largely because Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition leader was arrested and brutally beaten up by police on March 11th. The world saw pictures of him leaving hospital in a wheelchair, with a badly swollen black eye. Doctors say his skull was cracked ...