So after organising a good deal of the unpacking In previous days today was the day to do lots of little DIY tasks to fix many broken things in the house. Lesley had booked Jenny a haircut appointment and planned to do all the christmas food shopping in the afternoon, leaving me at home for the day to finish my projects. We also planned to get many of the necessary items to make the new house feel like a home. Jenny and Lesley were planning on walking some dogs for a local shelter early in the morning but decided against it when they slightly overslept. Instead Jenny and I had enough time to run to the Game shopping centre for all the items on our shopping list before her haircut.
Our list of items included a loaf of bread, a plastic box to be used as a cold smoker, paraffin, citronella oil, a plastic rack for the smoker, and a soldering tip. After 30 minutes of searching the store we only managed to find the plastic box and the bread; and when we turned our back a store employee took our unattended shopping cart and put all the items back! We had to get another cart and re-acquire our items before hurrying back to the house so Jenny could go to her hair appointment.
When we arrived back at the house I was ready to finally fix the drinks cabinet. Lesley remembered that Jenny and I needed yellow fever injections 10 days before returning to South Africa and today was the last day we could get them. So instead of doing my list of jobs I had to go with Jenny to get the injection before her haircut. Lesley dropped us off at the doctors while she went to get petrol and, being an idiot, I forgot to bring the passports from the car. We needed to present the passports to get the injections and luckily Lesley realised our mistake and brought them back to us. We sat in a small office at the doctors waiting to present our ID and pay for the vaccine. We paid our K250,000 ($50) each and were told "to get your vaccine just go to the shipping container under the mango tree". TIA -- This is Africa.
We had no issues getting our vaccines and the women who were giving the injections were very friendly and funny, jokingly telling us that the injection works for 10 years so we couldn't drink or smoke for the duration haha. Lesley came back to pick us up and we dropped Jenny off at the hairdressers, once she was in her appointment Lesley drove me back to the house so I could finish my jobs. Having now acquired wood glue and a proper saw from the gardeners I was all ready to finally fix the booze cabinet. While Jenny went back to fetch Jenny and head out for the food shopping I cemented the base and trim of the cabinet back on to the best of my ability. I also fitted a plug to a juicer Lesley had found, and was in the process of extending the cable to the microwave when Jenny and Lesley returned with a mountain of shopping.
It took a while to unpack the car and put away all the shopping. When we finished I convinced Jenny that we needed a new soldering iron for the smoker because ours no longer turned on. We went to Mica to get a soldering iron and looked for the rest of the supplies to build the cold smoker. We bought a 100 watt soldering iron but couldn't find any of the other supplies, including a plastic rack for the items to sit on while being smoked. We walked a short distance to a Spar in the same shopping centre to see if they had any suitable racks. Our search came up empty handed but we eventually got the correct plastic rack when Jenny stole of of the shopping baskets from Spar so we could cut it in half and fit it in the smoking box.
Relevant supplies in hand we returned to the house where I assembled the smoker and Jenny decorated our very African Christmas tree. It turned out that after an hour working on the smoker the soldering iron wouldn't even turn on, it work initially but decided to stop working as soon as I wanted to test it with wood chips. Jenny continued decorating the tree while Joe made us a dinner of flat smoked chicken (not using my smoker sadly) and we all had a hearty meal before calling it a day.
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 112 -- 19/12/2012 -- Lusaka
So the morning we finally got our first lie-in in a while. I ended up not waking up until nearly 9:00 and was treated with the news that there was not very much urgency. Our plan for the morning was to pack up all of our things from the house we were staying in and move them to the new house in preparation to stay there tonight. We alternated packing and showers until all of our things were loaded in the car.
On the way to the new house Jenny and I had been instructed to find a suitable Christmas tree for the house. We stopped at a garden centre and had a look at some of the trees and I can reassure you they are nothing like the Christmas trees you will see in the US or the UK. They were a bit limo and scraggly, and for K300,000 we decided to pass and instead find ourselves a real African Christmas tree.
Lesley was going to be a little while longer so we were given the task of running some food errands. Jenny directed me (because I have no sense of direction) to the nearest Pick and Pay shopping centre where we spent quite a long time browsing a Chinese shop before spending an even longer time shopping for groceries in Pick and Pay. We finally realised that if we didn't get on our way soon Lesley would think we had gotten lost. Before leaving the Pick and Pay we presented our receipts to a promotional table just inside the shop where you get a sticker (that once you collect enough can be redeemed for kitchen knives) for every K35,000 you spend, we got 14!
By the time that we got to the new house Lesley had already been there for a while. Jenny got to work with Lesley doing more of the unpacking while I got to work on some of the DIY jobs I had allocated myself. The first task was to polish a set of silver cutlery that belonged to Joe's family. I had remembered to pick up some silver polish at the shops and was keen to clean the cutlery because it hadn't been done in 7 years! It was quite rewarding to finally see the cleaned set but it was a long and tiresome process. One of the things we didn't pick up at the shops was wood glue to fix some of the furniture that had been a bit battered in transit. Jenny made us some sandwiches for lunch before we set off to a different shopping centre to find wood glue, a square pin plug, some cable to extent the cord lengths and a soldering iron.
Jenny once again had to come with me or I would have gotten lost. We first stopped in a Midas where they had everything we needed except the soldering iron. Lesley had also sent us with a small shopping list of random cooking bits she needed for the new house, so when we finished at the hardware store we drove to yet another Pick and Pay to finish the shopping list. Jenny used me as a human calculator for most of the shopping, asking me to do countless conversions and asking me what products were best value per kg. Before leaving the shopping centre we spotted the Lusaka Casino, where we will probably spend an evening sometime this week. The traffic getting home was a nightmare but eventually we made it back to the house and I got started on another one of my tasks.
Since we still had no tree for the house Jenny and I set off with a saw in search of a bare branch that we could use to hang ornaments on. We found quite a nice branch on a dead tree so sawed it off and continued searching the nearby area for something to use as a base. A few minutes later we stumbled upon an empty oil can that we filled with rocks to prop up the branch, we returned to the house victorious and pleased both Joe and Lesley with our find.
Lesley and Joe have quite a large liquor cabinet that Joe's mother bought in Harare many years ago and it's not in the best condition. Every time that you move the cabinet the base, feet, top, back, moulding and trim all fall off and you have to spend the next hour putting everything back together; I was determined to fix this. Disappointingly I found out that I lacked some of the tools required and would have to wait until tomorrow to lay my hands on a saw. About this time we were getting hungry for dinner, but remembered that we hadn't picked anything up from the shops! So Jenny and I got sent on yet another run to a closer Pick and Pay about 1km down the road to fetch pasta for dinner. Upon returning we ran into Lesley and Joe's landlady just outside there house and had a wonderful chat with her. She told me it was no problem to borrow some of the tools I needed for DIY and told me to collect them from the gardeners tomorrow. once we finished our chat we relaxed over drinks and Lesley made us a wonderful bacon pasta dinner before we went to bed.
On the way to the new house Jenny and I had been instructed to find a suitable Christmas tree for the house. We stopped at a garden centre and had a look at some of the trees and I can reassure you they are nothing like the Christmas trees you will see in the US or the UK. They were a bit limo and scraggly, and for K300,000 we decided to pass and instead find ourselves a real African Christmas tree.
Lesley was going to be a little while longer so we were given the task of running some food errands. Jenny directed me (because I have no sense of direction) to the nearest Pick and Pay shopping centre where we spent quite a long time browsing a Chinese shop before spending an even longer time shopping for groceries in Pick and Pay. We finally realised that if we didn't get on our way soon Lesley would think we had gotten lost. Before leaving the Pick and Pay we presented our receipts to a promotional table just inside the shop where you get a sticker (that once you collect enough can be redeemed for kitchen knives) for every K35,000 you spend, we got 14!
By the time that we got to the new house Lesley had already been there for a while. Jenny got to work with Lesley doing more of the unpacking while I got to work on some of the DIY jobs I had allocated myself. The first task was to polish a set of silver cutlery that belonged to Joe's family. I had remembered to pick up some silver polish at the shops and was keen to clean the cutlery because it hadn't been done in 7 years! It was quite rewarding to finally see the cleaned set but it was a long and tiresome process. One of the things we didn't pick up at the shops was wood glue to fix some of the furniture that had been a bit battered in transit. Jenny made us some sandwiches for lunch before we set off to a different shopping centre to find wood glue, a square pin plug, some cable to extent the cord lengths and a soldering iron.
Jenny once again had to come with me or I would have gotten lost. We first stopped in a Midas where they had everything we needed except the soldering iron. Lesley had also sent us with a small shopping list of random cooking bits she needed for the new house, so when we finished at the hardware store we drove to yet another Pick and Pay to finish the shopping list. Jenny used me as a human calculator for most of the shopping, asking me to do countless conversions and asking me what products were best value per kg. Before leaving the shopping centre we spotted the Lusaka Casino, where we will probably spend an evening sometime this week. The traffic getting home was a nightmare but eventually we made it back to the house and I got started on another one of my tasks.
Since we still had no tree for the house Jenny and I set off with a saw in search of a bare branch that we could use to hang ornaments on. We found quite a nice branch on a dead tree so sawed it off and continued searching the nearby area for something to use as a base. A few minutes later we stumbled upon an empty oil can that we filled with rocks to prop up the branch, we returned to the house victorious and pleased both Joe and Lesley with our find.
Lesley and Joe have quite a large liquor cabinet that Joe's mother bought in Harare many years ago and it's not in the best condition. Every time that you move the cabinet the base, feet, top, back, moulding and trim all fall off and you have to spend the next hour putting everything back together; I was determined to fix this. Disappointingly I found out that I lacked some of the tools required and would have to wait until tomorrow to lay my hands on a saw. About this time we were getting hungry for dinner, but remembered that we hadn't picked anything up from the shops! So Jenny and I got sent on yet another run to a closer Pick and Pay about 1km down the road to fetch pasta for dinner. Upon returning we ran into Lesley and Joe's landlady just outside there house and had a wonderful chat with her. She told me it was no problem to borrow some of the tools I needed for DIY and told me to collect them from the gardeners tomorrow. once we finished our chat we relaxed over drinks and Lesley made us a wonderful bacon pasta dinner before we went to bed.
Epic Adventure -- Day 111 -- 18/12/2012 -- Lusaka
Since the container had arrived yesterday we planned for today to be the day we unpacked most of the house. We woke up quite early and had our tea and coffee before heading across town, following Lesley, to get to the new house. Lesley was having a meeting in the morning, and Joe had to be at work, so they left us almost immediately after arriving at the property. Justina, their maid, was at the house when we arrived and would be helping us unpack for the duration of the day. The task at hand seemed pretty large so we decided to start with the items that we knew where they lived, mainly all of the large furniture.
We unpacked the tv cabinet, dining table, sofas, side board, liquor cabinet, coffee table, chairs and book shelves. In the process we created a massive amount of paper and plastic waste which we simply threw out the back door of the house. Jenny knew where all of the furniture was supposed to go so Justina and I moved the pieces where she instructed. We hadn't really thought about what we were going to do with all the rubbish until Justina had a suggestion. She told us that she only lives a short drive away and near her house there is a large pit where the locals burn most of their rubbish and she offered to show us where we could dispose of ours. Jenny continued unwrapping some of the small items while Justina and I filled the land rover to the brim with wrappings and drove round to the burning site.
When we returned to the house we found that Jenny had moved another large pile of wrapping to the front of the house for another trip to the fire. When we returned to the pile of rubbish we left the first time we found a couple of the local men neatly folding up some of the waterproof covering to use for something, presumably in their house, and they were delighted to see us arriving with another car load. Proof that one persons trash is truly someone else's treasure. When we arrived back at the house Lesley came home shortly after and we set to work unpacking the kitchen and all it's utensils. Lesley had a much larger kitchen in Scotland and it was going to be a challenge to fit all of the goods into the smaller space. Lesley knew where she wanted everything so Justina and I unpacked box after box and Lesley found a home for all the contents.
Joe stopped by during his lunch break from work and was impressed with the amount o fun packing we had managed in a relatively short period of time. I informed him that I had fitted the stove, and despite my best efforts to cut a hole in the back panel to accommodate the electrical outlet it still sat away from the wall; once I get some small wooden blocks it will sit slightly raised but flush with the kitchen wall. Joe was only home for about half an hour and headed back to work, leaving the rest of us to continue unpacking. We took another car load of rubbish to the burnning area around 15:00 and found some kids routing through the pile just like the men before. Once we had found a place for most of the items in the kitchen (which took bloody ages) we chose to call it a day and headed back to the other house around 16:00.
When we got back to the house we had a few well deserved drinks after our day of unpacking and watched some tv while we waited for Joe to come home from work. Joe phone and told us he would pick up some chicken for dinner on his way home and so we had a few more drinks while waiting. He hit awful Lusaka traffic on the way home and didn't arrive until 19:30, but once he did we all had a hearty dinner and some more drinks before calling it a day.
We unpacked the tv cabinet, dining table, sofas, side board, liquor cabinet, coffee table, chairs and book shelves. In the process we created a massive amount of paper and plastic waste which we simply threw out the back door of the house. Jenny knew where all of the furniture was supposed to go so Justina and I moved the pieces where she instructed. We hadn't really thought about what we were going to do with all the rubbish until Justina had a suggestion. She told us that she only lives a short drive away and near her house there is a large pit where the locals burn most of their rubbish and she offered to show us where we could dispose of ours. Jenny continued unwrapping some of the small items while Justina and I filled the land rover to the brim with wrappings and drove round to the burning site.
When we returned to the house we found that Jenny had moved another large pile of wrapping to the front of the house for another trip to the fire. When we returned to the pile of rubbish we left the first time we found a couple of the local men neatly folding up some of the waterproof covering to use for something, presumably in their house, and they were delighted to see us arriving with another car load. Proof that one persons trash is truly someone else's treasure. When we arrived back at the house Lesley came home shortly after and we set to work unpacking the kitchen and all it's utensils. Lesley had a much larger kitchen in Scotland and it was going to be a challenge to fit all of the goods into the smaller space. Lesley knew where she wanted everything so Justina and I unpacked box after box and Lesley found a home for all the contents.
Joe stopped by during his lunch break from work and was impressed with the amount o fun packing we had managed in a relatively short period of time. I informed him that I had fitted the stove, and despite my best efforts to cut a hole in the back panel to accommodate the electrical outlet it still sat away from the wall; once I get some small wooden blocks it will sit slightly raised but flush with the kitchen wall. Joe was only home for about half an hour and headed back to work, leaving the rest of us to continue unpacking. We took another car load of rubbish to the burnning area around 15:00 and found some kids routing through the pile just like the men before. Once we had found a place for most of the items in the kitchen (which took bloody ages) we chose to call it a day and headed back to the other house around 16:00.
When we got back to the house we had a few well deserved drinks after our day of unpacking and watched some tv while we waited for Joe to come home from work. Joe phone and told us he would pick up some chicken for dinner on his way home and so we had a few more drinks while waiting. He hit awful Lusaka traffic on the way home and didn't arrive until 19:30, but once he did we all had a hearty dinner and some more drinks before calling it a day.
Epic Adventure -- Day 110 -- 17/12/2012 -- Lusaka
When we woke up today there were not too many plans on our plates. Lesley had a haircut appointment in the morning and we went with her when she left so we could all swing by the offices of the moving company and check on the whereabouts of the truck containing all of their furniture. The truck was supposed to be delivered to their house on the 25th of November and there was talk that the container had recently cleared the Zambian border and was about to be delivered. We were told by one of the employees, Ittish, at the moving company that the truck was busy delivering a car from one of its containers and should be with us at the new house in the next two hours! Lesley needed to make her appointment so dropped Jenny and I off at the new house to wait for the containers arrival.
Dan and joe fitted the oven to its electricity but didn't have a socket wrench to finish the job, and we have one in the container so they had to wait. I went outside and started threading the ivy along the one wall into the metal runners above. Mum had been doing that for a while, and trained a lot of the ivy through the runners, but what she hadn't realised is that long tendrils of ivy had snuck over the wall and were hanging uselessly on the other side. It took me about two hours to go along the entire wall feeling for the runaway ivy and threading it through the fence. What I didn't realise as I was doing it is that it was a lot hotter and sunnier than I felt, and I burnt myself quite badly on my back, neck and arms! None the less, I was really proud of what I had achieved when I eventually went to sit down on the porch and could barely see the next door house any longer.
I managed to burn a stupid pattern onto my back because the top I was wearing had a ribbon with a bow on the back. Oh well, at least Dan got a good laugh out of it :) Mum eventually got back from her hair with the news that the man who was driving the truck was on his lunch! When we phoned back later to find out where our stuff was, it turned out that the man had finished his lunch and driven halfway across town to another place!! Thankfully mm was able to get a man there to help direct the driver near us, and we waited at 4:15pm next to a church down the road from our house, to direct him the rest of the way. The truck was absolutely massive!!! It had two 20 foot containers on it, and we were actually not sure it would make it down the drive to the house.
He managed to get the truck in and angled such that we could get to our container as the opening was opposite the cab of the truck. Dad had asked the men building flats on the same property as out house to come and help us unpack, which I'm eternally grateful for as the container was at least 8 feet above the ground, and more than half the contents were extremely heavy. We had the house unpacked in under an hour and dad paid the guys for their help. Because of how late the container arrived at the house we decided to leave the unpacking till tomorrow morning. We had to wait a little while to be able to go back to Pierre's house where we were sleeping for the last night, because the truck could not get back up the driveway. He struggled for at least half an hour to reverse the truck back up the gravel drive and eventually managed to turn around and drive up the driveway.
When we left to go home we found out that the truck had managed to destroy half of a tree that was on the road leading to mum and dads complex. Our drive home was thankfully easy because we managed to miss the worst of the traffic. Mum and I went straight home and Dan and daddy went to go buy us some pizza for dinner, no one could be bothered to cook. They bought three pizzas, an Hawaiian, a BBQ chicken and four seasons. After some tv and tea we all went to bed pretty exhausted from the days antics, and looking forward to unpacking tomorrow.
Dan and joe fitted the oven to its electricity but didn't have a socket wrench to finish the job, and we have one in the container so they had to wait. I went outside and started threading the ivy along the one wall into the metal runners above. Mum had been doing that for a while, and trained a lot of the ivy through the runners, but what she hadn't realised is that long tendrils of ivy had snuck over the wall and were hanging uselessly on the other side. It took me about two hours to go along the entire wall feeling for the runaway ivy and threading it through the fence. What I didn't realise as I was doing it is that it was a lot hotter and sunnier than I felt, and I burnt myself quite badly on my back, neck and arms! None the less, I was really proud of what I had achieved when I eventually went to sit down on the porch and could barely see the next door house any longer.
I managed to burn a stupid pattern onto my back because the top I was wearing had a ribbon with a bow on the back. Oh well, at least Dan got a good laugh out of it :) Mum eventually got back from her hair with the news that the man who was driving the truck was on his lunch! When we phoned back later to find out where our stuff was, it turned out that the man had finished his lunch and driven halfway across town to another place!! Thankfully mm was able to get a man there to help direct the driver near us, and we waited at 4:15pm next to a church down the road from our house, to direct him the rest of the way. The truck was absolutely massive!!! It had two 20 foot containers on it, and we were actually not sure it would make it down the drive to the house.
He managed to get the truck in and angled such that we could get to our container as the opening was opposite the cab of the truck. Dad had asked the men building flats on the same property as out house to come and help us unpack, which I'm eternally grateful for as the container was at least 8 feet above the ground, and more than half the contents were extremely heavy. We had the house unpacked in under an hour and dad paid the guys for their help. Because of how late the container arrived at the house we decided to leave the unpacking till tomorrow morning. We had to wait a little while to be able to go back to Pierre's house where we were sleeping for the last night, because the truck could not get back up the driveway. He struggled for at least half an hour to reverse the truck back up the gravel drive and eventually managed to turn around and drive up the driveway.
When we left to go home we found out that the truck had managed to destroy half of a tree that was on the road leading to mum and dads complex. Our drive home was thankfully easy because we managed to miss the worst of the traffic. Mum and I went straight home and Dan and daddy went to go buy us some pizza for dinner, no one could be bothered to cook. They bought three pizzas, an Hawaiian, a BBQ chicken and four seasons. After some tv and tea we all went to bed pretty exhausted from the days antics, and looking forward to unpacking tomorrow.
Monday, 24 December 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 109 -- 16/12/2012 -- Lokuthula to Lusaka
So our day of departure from Lokuthula started much like many other departure days. All three of us had waited until this morning to do any form of packing so we quickly had our tea and coffee while frantically stuffing the car with all of our belongings. While I was loading the car Jenny walked up to e reception and got our deposit back and informed them about some of the problems with the lodge (mainly the fact that they replace towels every day even if you haven't used them). During one of my trips back into the house to get suitcases I return to the car to find a very nice security man guarding the open boot of the car "wouldn't want any monkeys to raid your things".
We departed from the lodge right on time for our scheduled checkout and headed into town to pick up a few things before we got on the road to Lusaka. Me had told us that diesel was quite expensive in Zambia so we decided to fill up the car before we embarked on our 500km drive. When we had filled the car up we headed to the Zimbabwe border post ready to end our second trip into this country that God seemed to have forsaken. The Zimbabwe side of the border post posed no problems and after a mere 5 minutes we were back in the car and driving through no-mans-land. I wish I could say the same for our experience at the Zambian side. We arrived at the second border post to find several buses of local attempting to take very large haphazardly wrapped packages through customs. Again the runners were everywhere, but this time we knew what to expect. Lesley and Jenny stood in the immigration queue while I took up a spot pre-emptively waiting in the customs queue.
Jenny and Lesley managed to get my visa before I had even moved in my queue but luckily there was a very nice man (who we thought was a runner) who actually wanted to help us for free. Once my visa was stamped he somehow convinced the people in the customs queue to let us to the front and one stamp later we were on our way! When we cleared the border post we were mindful to obey the ridiculously low speed limits because Joe warned us he had been caught doing 74 km/hr in a 65 km/hr zone, so it seemed that there was no tolerance when it comes to speed. The downside to this strategy was that there were no speed limit signs for the next 200km so we eventually sped up and carried on to Lusaka at 110km/hr.
Perhaps it was our lack of long trips in the past 2 weeks but the drive seemed to go on and on and on. The scenery remained unchanged and the entire trip only involved 2 turns. The only thing exciting on the trip was finding a recent accident (within the previous 5 minutes) along the side of the road similar to the accident we witnessed a few weeks ago. Nobody seemed to be injured and their were plenty of people stopped to help so we simply carried on. A few km down the road we all needed a toilet break so in true African style simply stopped along the side of a deserted stretch and all wandered into the bush. After many more boring km we finally started to get close to Lusaka, rather disappointingly this is where things slowed down. Zambia has a habit of thinking that any speed over 10 km/hr is too fast, so starting 20 km outside Lusaka they place massive speed bumps every 200 metres or so. We basically crawled the remaining distance to Lesley and Joe's house navigating terrible drivers, slow traffic and unmarked intersections.
When we finally made our way to the house just after 17:00 we found Joe in the swimming pool throwing a water bottle for Thebe. We were hungry for dinner so Jenny and joe ran out to get a pizza while I brought in the suitcases and moved them to the room we would be staying in. We spent the remainder of the evening watching some tv and enjoying a few beers while we unwound from a boring yet exhausting drive.
We departed from the lodge right on time for our scheduled checkout and headed into town to pick up a few things before we got on the road to Lusaka. Me had told us that diesel was quite expensive in Zambia so we decided to fill up the car before we embarked on our 500km drive. When we had filled the car up we headed to the Zimbabwe border post ready to end our second trip into this country that God seemed to have forsaken. The Zimbabwe side of the border post posed no problems and after a mere 5 minutes we were back in the car and driving through no-mans-land. I wish I could say the same for our experience at the Zambian side. We arrived at the second border post to find several buses of local attempting to take very large haphazardly wrapped packages through customs. Again the runners were everywhere, but this time we knew what to expect. Lesley and Jenny stood in the immigration queue while I took up a spot pre-emptively waiting in the customs queue.
Jenny and Lesley managed to get my visa before I had even moved in my queue but luckily there was a very nice man (who we thought was a runner) who actually wanted to help us for free. Once my visa was stamped he somehow convinced the people in the customs queue to let us to the front and one stamp later we were on our way! When we cleared the border post we were mindful to obey the ridiculously low speed limits because Joe warned us he had been caught doing 74 km/hr in a 65 km/hr zone, so it seemed that there was no tolerance when it comes to speed. The downside to this strategy was that there were no speed limit signs for the next 200km so we eventually sped up and carried on to Lusaka at 110km/hr.
Perhaps it was our lack of long trips in the past 2 weeks but the drive seemed to go on and on and on. The scenery remained unchanged and the entire trip only involved 2 turns. The only thing exciting on the trip was finding a recent accident (within the previous 5 minutes) along the side of the road similar to the accident we witnessed a few weeks ago. Nobody seemed to be injured and their were plenty of people stopped to help so we simply carried on. A few km down the road we all needed a toilet break so in true African style simply stopped along the side of a deserted stretch and all wandered into the bush. After many more boring km we finally started to get close to Lusaka, rather disappointingly this is where things slowed down. Zambia has a habit of thinking that any speed over 10 km/hr is too fast, so starting 20 km outside Lusaka they place massive speed bumps every 200 metres or so. We basically crawled the remaining distance to Lesley and Joe's house navigating terrible drivers, slow traffic and unmarked intersections.
When we finally made our way to the house just after 17:00 we found Joe in the swimming pool throwing a water bottle for Thebe. We were hungry for dinner so Jenny and joe ran out to get a pizza while I brought in the suitcases and moved them to the room we would be staying in. We spent the remainder of the evening watching some tv and enjoying a few beers while we unwound from a boring yet exhausting drive.
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 108 -- 15/12/2012 -- Lokuthula
As it was our last full day here I wanted to go back to the falls, on the free side to have another look and take pictures with the shorter lens. Dan agreed, and we convinced mum to come with us, with the promise that it was actually a lot safer than it sounded and that we would help her across the streams. We parked again at the VIP section and took the blanket out of the car to put over the branches. Someone had obviously clocked onto our last adventure to the falls and put even more branches over where we had crossed the previous time. Instead of trying to fight with the large pile of branches we went the same route dad went, around a tree to the left and through a small section of branches that had been pulled aside.
We walked over the rocks till there was just the streams to cross, and we left our shoes and the blanket on the rocks. Dan went on one side of mum and I went on the other, and we slowly made our way to the wall of the game reserve and then to the edge of the falls. Mum stayed back as we wanted to go further than she did. We went to the side of the falls, waving at the tourists on the opposite edge, and I took the traditional family photo of Dan weeing over the edge of the falls :D He had to have a photo to put next to dads one. While I was taking photos of the falls, the gorge and the mist that the falls throws up, Dan called me to come back because mum had spotted a park ranger walking out to meet us.
He had stopped at the rocks and not ventured any further, obviously not wanting to ruin his stupid shoes. We walked back and dried our feet next to him and put our shoes on, all the while saying things like "hello, how are you, lovely day isn't it?" and getting no response from him. I think he may have been trying to a) understand what we were saying and b) figure out how to make us give him money. He then said that we were not allowed to be there, which we responded that we were not in the gated section, so it must not be part of the national park and so why were we not allowed there. We walked back to the shore and made our way to the section of branches we could easily cross, giving mr retard guard man another bone to pick with us.
According to him we broke one of the branches and so "now we have a problem", to which we replied that it was like that when we got there and so there was no problem at all. He then gesticulated at the mound of branches and told us they were there to stop people from going there, and so we told him that if that was the case then they should put up a sign, or fence, not a stupid pile of bushes. The man was clearly after money and just wanted to try to scare us enough to get us to bribe him. I pretended we were very sorry, shook his hand (which he checked for money first), said thank you very much and got in our car. We left without incident and pretty pleased that we hadn't actually gotten into any real trouble because the man was an idiot.
We went back to the Elephant Walk craft shopping centre for mum to buy a couple of bits that she wanted. When we got out of the car we headed towards a craft stall section we had not yet been to or seen, but as soon as we got within 20 metres of it we were accosted by annoying people demanding that we go and look at their stall and their particular stuff! Being followed around and bothered while shopping is such an off putting thing, so we responded that we didn't want to be bothered while we shopped and so we didn't even go in. We walked around the shops we had been to before to give mum a chance to buy her things. We left as soon as we could, having had enough of being pestered and got into Snolly to head home.
Mum and I realised we should get some Hefflies pies for our lunch, do as we were driving past we got Dan to park illegally while we jumped out to get them. We got three to share, two of the diving steak pies and one chicken and mushroom, which turned out to be yummy but not as nice as the steak ones. Dan and I went to the main lodge to use the rest of our Internet quote, and this was when we found out that Mike and Judith, our former employers from the Golf Shop of St Andrews will not give me a reference for the job I want to apply for. We are both sure that this is because I fought for our legal right to holiday pay at the end of the three years we had worked for them, and were going to take them to court for it but Mikes lawyer obviously told him he was an idiot and would never win and so they paid us the £4200 that was legally ours :)
I'm so angry at them for essentially using my reference, which should have been great because I worked extremely hard for them and was always praised for my efforts. I'm sure that a new employer will find it very strange that my old boss of three years won't give me a reference. Oh well, never mind, they are wankers and will get what they deserve for it :) We went home shortly afterwards and started the braai for our last dinner at Lokuthula. Mum had some advise on the reference denial, and that I should declare the reasons for the refusal in my application. We had marinated the last steaks in mums balsamic sauce, we had more beans and also had some haloumi cheese cooked on the braai. After dinner we tidied up the lounge and packed a little before heading to bed on our last night at the lodge.
We walked over the rocks till there was just the streams to cross, and we left our shoes and the blanket on the rocks. Dan went on one side of mum and I went on the other, and we slowly made our way to the wall of the game reserve and then to the edge of the falls. Mum stayed back as we wanted to go further than she did. We went to the side of the falls, waving at the tourists on the opposite edge, and I took the traditional family photo of Dan weeing over the edge of the falls :D He had to have a photo to put next to dads one. While I was taking photos of the falls, the gorge and the mist that the falls throws up, Dan called me to come back because mum had spotted a park ranger walking out to meet us.
He had stopped at the rocks and not ventured any further, obviously not wanting to ruin his stupid shoes. We walked back and dried our feet next to him and put our shoes on, all the while saying things like "hello, how are you, lovely day isn't it?" and getting no response from him. I think he may have been trying to a) understand what we were saying and b) figure out how to make us give him money. He then said that we were not allowed to be there, which we responded that we were not in the gated section, so it must not be part of the national park and so why were we not allowed there. We walked back to the shore and made our way to the section of branches we could easily cross, giving mr retard guard man another bone to pick with us.
According to him we broke one of the branches and so "now we have a problem", to which we replied that it was like that when we got there and so there was no problem at all. He then gesticulated at the mound of branches and told us they were there to stop people from going there, and so we told him that if that was the case then they should put up a sign, or fence, not a stupid pile of bushes. The man was clearly after money and just wanted to try to scare us enough to get us to bribe him. I pretended we were very sorry, shook his hand (which he checked for money first), said thank you very much and got in our car. We left without incident and pretty pleased that we hadn't actually gotten into any real trouble because the man was an idiot.
We went back to the Elephant Walk craft shopping centre for mum to buy a couple of bits that she wanted. When we got out of the car we headed towards a craft stall section we had not yet been to or seen, but as soon as we got within 20 metres of it we were accosted by annoying people demanding that we go and look at their stall and their particular stuff! Being followed around and bothered while shopping is such an off putting thing, so we responded that we didn't want to be bothered while we shopped and so we didn't even go in. We walked around the shops we had been to before to give mum a chance to buy her things. We left as soon as we could, having had enough of being pestered and got into Snolly to head home.
Mum and I realised we should get some Hefflies pies for our lunch, do as we were driving past we got Dan to park illegally while we jumped out to get them. We got three to share, two of the diving steak pies and one chicken and mushroom, which turned out to be yummy but not as nice as the steak ones. Dan and I went to the main lodge to use the rest of our Internet quote, and this was when we found out that Mike and Judith, our former employers from the Golf Shop of St Andrews will not give me a reference for the job I want to apply for. We are both sure that this is because I fought for our legal right to holiday pay at the end of the three years we had worked for them, and were going to take them to court for it but Mikes lawyer obviously told him he was an idiot and would never win and so they paid us the £4200 that was legally ours :)
I'm so angry at them for essentially using my reference, which should have been great because I worked extremely hard for them and was always praised for my efforts. I'm sure that a new employer will find it very strange that my old boss of three years won't give me a reference. Oh well, never mind, they are wankers and will get what they deserve for it :) We went home shortly afterwards and started the braai for our last dinner at Lokuthula. Mum had some advise on the reference denial, and that I should declare the reasons for the refusal in my application. We had marinated the last steaks in mums balsamic sauce, we had more beans and also had some haloumi cheese cooked on the braai. After dinner we tidied up the lounge and packed a little before heading to bed on our last night at the lodge.
Epic Adventure -- Day 107 -- 14/12/2012 -- Lokuthula
We all woke up reasonably early this morning, and just before I was going to get into the shower mum called me up to her room. She had heard some funny little noises outside that she assumed were the monkeys again, but it turned out to be a massive family of mongooses(apparently not mongeese, which I think is weird) with lots of tiny little babies!! We watched them for ages, and when they moved round to the side of the house we opened the door and watched them some more :) Dan brought the long range lense down, so we took quite a few photos of them, especially the babies!! We had breakfast and tea and coffee after the mongooses left, and waited for our 10:30am pick up. I was getting really agitated that the bus wasn't arriving, and after waiting for 25 minutes it finally pitched up. The man wasn't even phased about being late!
He drove us the short distance down the road to the landing pads for the helicopters. We went into the main building and paid our $10 entrance fees (presumably because we were going to flying over the national park?!) then we had to go outside and get weighed so they could make sure they kept the helicopter balanced. We then took our seats and waited for our helicopter to return from its previous trip. Our ride was going to be shared by a Chinese father and son, and it turned out to be slightly unfair because the father got the front seat and the son got a window seat, while Jenny got a window seat and I got a centre seat..... o well. The ride turned out to be absolutely amazing, we did several passages around the 1.7km long falls at an altitude of around 1,000 feet and traveled at 110 km/hr. We took lots of picture and videos with two cameras and Lesley's iPhone. It was an amazing opportunity to get a feel for how big and spectacular the falls truly are.
One of the most amazing parts was to get a perspective of the gorges that have been carved downstream from the main falls, an often overlooked and under appreciated feature of the falls. It was incredible to be able to see the river, falls and gorges from horizon to horizon, and essentially watch how the landscape has been carved over thousands of years. Our 12 minute ride was over far too soon and was in our opinion one of the most wonderful experiences we have had on this entire trip. We actually cannot thank Dave and Laura Olds enough for their very generous wedding gift, it is something we will remember for the rest of our lives.
We decided we didn't want to wait to go back to the lodge in their car, so we told them we were going to walk. It was less than 1 km away anyway and not too hot. The tour operators protested a lot to us leaving on our own, telling us it was very far and unsafe, but as we knew it wasn't on either account we said thanks and left. One of the guides stopped next to us on the road to offer us a lift, but we honestly did want to walk back! We were a bit hot when we got back as the sun popped out halfway along our walk, so a large glass of ice cold water was needed :) I made myself a delicious ham, cheese and tomato roll.
After a little while I realised that I had run out of tomato in the middle of the roll, so I went into the kitchen to cut some more. As I put my plate down, my mum shouted to both Dan and I because a massive massive baboon had just walked brazenly onto the porch. He was completely unfazed by the massive stick Dan started to brandish at him, by our shouting or the flailing of our arms. It walked into the kitchen and grabbed my bloody sandwich and had started eating it when Dan threw the big wooden ashtray at him. That did nothing at all, but we obviously crowded him enough that he ran out of the kitchen, through the lounge and out the main door, still clutching my sandwich! We quickly closed the porch canvases and the door and phoned reception to send security. A man arrived a couple of minutes later and started shooting a catapult at the mass of baboons that were behind our house.
Thankfully they are obviously very scared of the catapult and all ran away straight away. We have been visited by monkeys who are a little cheeky and will try to come on the porch and who stole a packet of biscuits the other morning when dad went upstairs, but nothing like this!! It was quite a disconcerting experience because the monkeys are scared of the huge stick that we keep to shoo them away but the baboon couldn't have cared less, and he could have caused any one of us a lot of harm. I was most grumpy at the fact that I had then lost half of my really nice sandwich and we didn't have any rolls left :( after sitting and reading for a long while we left mum to snooze upstairs and we went to the main lodge to use the Internet.
We sat upstairs on the level that has the amazing view of the watering hole. There was a large bull elephant drinking on one side of the water, and a herd of impala, with lots of babies, drinking on the other side. While we were using the Internet it became obvious that the bull had an issue with one of his legs and seemed to be limping. Three park rangers armed with rifles walked out towards him and were trying to provoke him enough to move away so that they could see how hurt he may be. They did nothing but annoy the bull, and even threw a stick at its head before deciding that he must be ok and leaving him be. I'm glad they left at that stage because his angry calls were pretty scary to listen to, and he may have charged them eventually.
When we were done with the Internet we went home to start the braai for dinner. We had marinaded the steaks in mums homemade balsamic sauce, and they were delicious accompanied by the curried beans. After dinner we sat on the porch chatting about how magical the helicopter ride over the falls is and how ridiculous that baboon had been, before calling it a night and going to sleep in our comfy and mosquito netted beds. :)
He drove us the short distance down the road to the landing pads for the helicopters. We went into the main building and paid our $10 entrance fees (presumably because we were going to flying over the national park?!) then we had to go outside and get weighed so they could make sure they kept the helicopter balanced. We then took our seats and waited for our helicopter to return from its previous trip. Our ride was going to be shared by a Chinese father and son, and it turned out to be slightly unfair because the father got the front seat and the son got a window seat, while Jenny got a window seat and I got a centre seat..... o well. The ride turned out to be absolutely amazing, we did several passages around the 1.7km long falls at an altitude of around 1,000 feet and traveled at 110 km/hr. We took lots of picture and videos with two cameras and Lesley's iPhone. It was an amazing opportunity to get a feel for how big and spectacular the falls truly are.
One of the most amazing parts was to get a perspective of the gorges that have been carved downstream from the main falls, an often overlooked and under appreciated feature of the falls. It was incredible to be able to see the river, falls and gorges from horizon to horizon, and essentially watch how the landscape has been carved over thousands of years. Our 12 minute ride was over far too soon and was in our opinion one of the most wonderful experiences we have had on this entire trip. We actually cannot thank Dave and Laura Olds enough for their very generous wedding gift, it is something we will remember for the rest of our lives.
We decided we didn't want to wait to go back to the lodge in their car, so we told them we were going to walk. It was less than 1 km away anyway and not too hot. The tour operators protested a lot to us leaving on our own, telling us it was very far and unsafe, but as we knew it wasn't on either account we said thanks and left. One of the guides stopped next to us on the road to offer us a lift, but we honestly did want to walk back! We were a bit hot when we got back as the sun popped out halfway along our walk, so a large glass of ice cold water was needed :) I made myself a delicious ham, cheese and tomato roll.
After a little while I realised that I had run out of tomato in the middle of the roll, so I went into the kitchen to cut some more. As I put my plate down, my mum shouted to both Dan and I because a massive massive baboon had just walked brazenly onto the porch. He was completely unfazed by the massive stick Dan started to brandish at him, by our shouting or the flailing of our arms. It walked into the kitchen and grabbed my bloody sandwich and had started eating it when Dan threw the big wooden ashtray at him. That did nothing at all, but we obviously crowded him enough that he ran out of the kitchen, through the lounge and out the main door, still clutching my sandwich! We quickly closed the porch canvases and the door and phoned reception to send security. A man arrived a couple of minutes later and started shooting a catapult at the mass of baboons that were behind our house.
Thankfully they are obviously very scared of the catapult and all ran away straight away. We have been visited by monkeys who are a little cheeky and will try to come on the porch and who stole a packet of biscuits the other morning when dad went upstairs, but nothing like this!! It was quite a disconcerting experience because the monkeys are scared of the huge stick that we keep to shoo them away but the baboon couldn't have cared less, and he could have caused any one of us a lot of harm. I was most grumpy at the fact that I had then lost half of my really nice sandwich and we didn't have any rolls left :( after sitting and reading for a long while we left mum to snooze upstairs and we went to the main lodge to use the Internet.
We sat upstairs on the level that has the amazing view of the watering hole. There was a large bull elephant drinking on one side of the water, and a herd of impala, with lots of babies, drinking on the other side. While we were using the Internet it became obvious that the bull had an issue with one of his legs and seemed to be limping. Three park rangers armed with rifles walked out towards him and were trying to provoke him enough to move away so that they could see how hurt he may be. They did nothing but annoy the bull, and even threw a stick at its head before deciding that he must be ok and leaving him be. I'm glad they left at that stage because his angry calls were pretty scary to listen to, and he may have charged them eventually.
When we were done with the Internet we went home to start the braai for dinner. We had marinaded the steaks in mums homemade balsamic sauce, and they were delicious accompanied by the curried beans. After dinner we sat on the porch chatting about how magical the helicopter ride over the falls is and how ridiculous that baboon had been, before calling it a night and going to sleep in our comfy and mosquito netted beds. :)
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 106 -- 13/12/2012 -- Lokuthula
We still had one packet of bacon and one packet of eggs left, so I made a cooked breakfast for the three of us. We had not eaten the mushrooms yet so I cooked those too :) The scrambled eggs ended up tasting a bit like mushrooms because I cooked them in the same pan, but they were delicious. Whilst we were eating breakfast on the stoep, two bush buck came to visit us. The male and female are both Bambi lookalike's, with tiny white spots all over their bodies. After our showers we headed to Shearwater to book the helicopter ride that Dave and Laura bought us as a wedding present. On the voucher we had it said to contact Jabulani or Snow, so when we walked in and asked for either of those people, it was a lovely surprise to hear "me and me" from the two people directly in front of us.
Booking the trip was completely painless, they simply looked at the voucher we had, still on mums iPhone as we didn't haves printer, and asked us what time we wanted to be picked up. We chose half 10 tomorrow morning, gave them our house num er and said goodbye. Very quick and easy! We drove back out of town and ventured to the left hand side of Lokathula as we hasn't yet been that way. We stopped a few kilometres down the road at a crocodile farm to have a look around. The entry was $5 per person, but mum tried to pass Dan and I off as children because they didn't have the usual age restriction next to the children's ticket price of $3. Unfortunately is didn't work some paid our $15 and got our tickets.
We were really lucky on the timing because we arrived just before 11am and they do a guided tour every hour :) We waited for a few minutes for the guide, Tinashi, to come back with his previous tour. In that time I managed to find the 1 year old hatchlings cage and tried to make them move by poking them with a stick. What actually happened is that the stick I chose wasn't long enough and I ended up dropping it on one of the crocodiles backs, so Dan and mum moved away and pretended not to know me :) When Tinashi came back he turned out the box of eggs, 22 of them, onto a cordoned off concrete block. There were already two hatched baby crocs, and we watched as the rest of them chipped away at their shells, crawled out, unfurled their tailsand disconnected the umbilical cord.
The baby's make squeezing sort of noises to communicate with their mum, and are born with 66 sharp teeth. Tinashi told us all of this and ended every single sentence with "right" and a huge smile :) We then went and looked at the young crocs that I had throw a stick on, and we actually got to hold one of them! Dan and I both held the one year old crocodile, but mum wouldn't, I don't actually blame her! :) Next we went on to look at the three year olds, who are at the correct age to be turned into handbags, shoes and belts. They had white markings on them to grade their skin, and any with injuries or blemishes were given a lower rating to allow thence time to heal. A little way down the raised walkway we encountered four seven year old albino crocodiles that they keep for breeding.
We saw a few more pens of three year old crocs, one of which was being cleaned and the man was smacking them on the head with a broom to move them out of the way. The snapping noise that the crocodiles made when fighting with the cleaner was so loud, I was amazed that he didn't seem to be phased at all. We saw an ostrich, a Daika and a peacock, and walked around the back of the "donkey" that heats water for the pens. Mum bought a crocodile tooth from a stall while Tinashi went to get elephant meat to show us how they feed the big breeding crocodiles. They can breed each year after they reach the age if seven, and can continue breeding until they die, which can be as old as 70!!
Tinashi put the steaks of elephant onto a homemade fishing rod type of contraption, and whistled for the crocodiles to come and get it. He then kept the rod just a little too far away from their faces, encouraging them to push themselves out of the water to grab the steak. The unbelievably loud snapping noise that they made when they did that was petrifying, and I think everyone there was planning a getaway route should the concrete pathway suddenly decide to break and plunge us into the water. The sound was like someone closing a really big hardcover book as fast and as hard as they could, but much louder! After he had finished the feeding demonstration we went to the pen with the male and female lion, both of which were fast asleep in the sunshine :)
That ended our tour of the farm, and we went through to the shop that sold the crocodile skin goods. It was a great shame that the bags were not made with any care at all, and we're really very shoddy for the prices they wanted you to pay. One bag was over $300 but the front pocket was very clearly misaligned and stitched very poorly. We left and drove further down the road, and tried to seek down a road that borders the elephant sanctuary. We got whistled at to turn around which we sheepishly did, Dan berating me for making him drive down the road. He really doesn't like being shouted at, whilst I couldn't care less :D At the entrance to the game park we sent mum out to ask about the price, and she came back to report that it would be $15 for each of us as well as $10 for the car, and we couldn't use the $10 Dan and I had to pay for park fees for the helicopter ride against the entrance to the park because "it was a different activity". It is such bollocks how they want to rip you off at every turn here!
We decided it wasn't worth it to enter the park, so we turned back and headed for the Azambezi lodge, which mum remembers really well. They have had a makeover since she was last there but they are still really empty, much like all the lodges in the area, because of the lack of tourists to Zimbabwe now. We each had a drink, beer for Dan, a coke for mum and a mazoe orange juice for me. After our drinks next to the river we headed back to our house to read and lounge away the afternoon. Our warthog family visited us again and played in the little sand pit on the lawn that they had created. It was really interesting and very sweet to watch the babies try and copy the adults fighting against each other :) I made us a really big chicken salad with the left over chicken from the other night and we stayed up chatting till the Mosquitos got too annoying and we all headed off to bed.
Booking the trip was completely painless, they simply looked at the voucher we had, still on mums iPhone as we didn't haves printer, and asked us what time we wanted to be picked up. We chose half 10 tomorrow morning, gave them our house num er and said goodbye. Very quick and easy! We drove back out of town and ventured to the left hand side of Lokathula as we hasn't yet been that way. We stopped a few kilometres down the road at a crocodile farm to have a look around. The entry was $5 per person, but mum tried to pass Dan and I off as children because they didn't have the usual age restriction next to the children's ticket price of $3. Unfortunately is didn't work some paid our $15 and got our tickets.
We were really lucky on the timing because we arrived just before 11am and they do a guided tour every hour :) We waited for a few minutes for the guide, Tinashi, to come back with his previous tour. In that time I managed to find the 1 year old hatchlings cage and tried to make them move by poking them with a stick. What actually happened is that the stick I chose wasn't long enough and I ended up dropping it on one of the crocodiles backs, so Dan and mum moved away and pretended not to know me :) When Tinashi came back he turned out the box of eggs, 22 of them, onto a cordoned off concrete block. There were already two hatched baby crocs, and we watched as the rest of them chipped away at their shells, crawled out, unfurled their tailsand disconnected the umbilical cord.
The baby's make squeezing sort of noises to communicate with their mum, and are born with 66 sharp teeth. Tinashi told us all of this and ended every single sentence with "right" and a huge smile :) We then went and looked at the young crocs that I had throw a stick on, and we actually got to hold one of them! Dan and I both held the one year old crocodile, but mum wouldn't, I don't actually blame her! :) Next we went on to look at the three year olds, who are at the correct age to be turned into handbags, shoes and belts. They had white markings on them to grade their skin, and any with injuries or blemishes were given a lower rating to allow thence time to heal. A little way down the raised walkway we encountered four seven year old albino crocodiles that they keep for breeding.
We saw a few more pens of three year old crocs, one of which was being cleaned and the man was smacking them on the head with a broom to move them out of the way. The snapping noise that the crocodiles made when fighting with the cleaner was so loud, I was amazed that he didn't seem to be phased at all. We saw an ostrich, a Daika and a peacock, and walked around the back of the "donkey" that heats water for the pens. Mum bought a crocodile tooth from a stall while Tinashi went to get elephant meat to show us how they feed the big breeding crocodiles. They can breed each year after they reach the age if seven, and can continue breeding until they die, which can be as old as 70!!
Tinashi put the steaks of elephant onto a homemade fishing rod type of contraption, and whistled for the crocodiles to come and get it. He then kept the rod just a little too far away from their faces, encouraging them to push themselves out of the water to grab the steak. The unbelievably loud snapping noise that they made when they did that was petrifying, and I think everyone there was planning a getaway route should the concrete pathway suddenly decide to break and plunge us into the water. The sound was like someone closing a really big hardcover book as fast and as hard as they could, but much louder! After he had finished the feeding demonstration we went to the pen with the male and female lion, both of which were fast asleep in the sunshine :)
That ended our tour of the farm, and we went through to the shop that sold the crocodile skin goods. It was a great shame that the bags were not made with any care at all, and we're really very shoddy for the prices they wanted you to pay. One bag was over $300 but the front pocket was very clearly misaligned and stitched very poorly. We left and drove further down the road, and tried to seek down a road that borders the elephant sanctuary. We got whistled at to turn around which we sheepishly did, Dan berating me for making him drive down the road. He really doesn't like being shouted at, whilst I couldn't care less :D At the entrance to the game park we sent mum out to ask about the price, and she came back to report that it would be $15 for each of us as well as $10 for the car, and we couldn't use the $10 Dan and I had to pay for park fees for the helicopter ride against the entrance to the park because "it was a different activity". It is such bollocks how they want to rip you off at every turn here!
We decided it wasn't worth it to enter the park, so we turned back and headed for the Azambezi lodge, which mum remembers really well. They have had a makeover since she was last there but they are still really empty, much like all the lodges in the area, because of the lack of tourists to Zimbabwe now. We each had a drink, beer for Dan, a coke for mum and a mazoe orange juice for me. After our drinks next to the river we headed back to our house to read and lounge away the afternoon. Our warthog family visited us again and played in the little sand pit on the lawn that they had created. It was really interesting and very sweet to watch the babies try and copy the adults fighting against each other :) I made us a really big chicken salad with the left over chicken from the other night and we stayed up chatting till the Mosquitos got too annoying and we all headed off to bed.
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Epic Adventure Day 105 -- 12/12/2012 -- Lokuthula
Dad had to get going pretty early today because of a meeting at the Royal Livingston before picking up his car and driving the six hours back to Lusaka. I woke up and got dressed immediately to take him over in our car. Dan had to stay behind because we didn't want to buy him another visa into Zambia just for a few hours, and also because he was on the last of the double entry visa into Zimbabwe, so we would have had to buy him another one of those too. They really make African travel for Americans very tedious and expensive. Dad, mum and I all piled into the land rover with dads bag and our laundry. Leaving Zimbabwe was relatively painless, as they never seem to care when you leave a country, only when you enter it. No one even took the TIP(temporary import permit) off us!
On the Zambian side things took a little more time but ran smoothly too. I had to be carted off to the back to explain why I was entering the country to a lovely lady called Cynthia, and she allowed us to get a CIP(customs import permit) that we could keep past our return to Zimbabwe today as long as we told the lady on the desk about it when we came back thigh the same border post after dropping dad off. While I was getting the document printed dad had to go and shout at one of the runners to get off our car, as he was lounging against the bonnet as though it was his car! Dad went to sort out the insurance and gate clearance and jumped into our waiting car to pass through the gate when he was done.
The drive to the hotel was extremely short and we passed all the luggage to dads car before saying goodbye till Sunday and heading back to the border posts. Again leaving Zambia wasn't a hassle because no me cares when you are leaving the country. There was a man waiting at the immigration desk who told us that the lady behind the desk was very busy so we should just tell the guard that and go without a stamp. Mum and I were very happy to take his suggestion! When arriving at the gates one man came up to me and tried to sign off, i.e. invalidate, my road toll paper that cost us $48 at the horrific border on Sunday. I managed to convince him that he wasn't to sign it as we needed it in a few days and someone inside had said it was no problem to keep it.
The actual gate guard was much harder to convince that we should be let through without the second stamp, but because we literally had every piece of paper under the sun pertaining to the car and taxes and customs rubbish, he eventually relented and let us through, hurray!!! On the Zimbabwe side we had to lay another $10 road access fee, even though we had paid for one on Sunday and had only been gone for an hour, if that. The men at the gates signed off on it and my TIP and let us through after peering into the car to see if we had any luggage. Probably to look through and make our lives difficult, but thankfully we had given it all to dad! :)
The drive across the bridge in between the two borders was as spectacular as usual, and made me even more excited for the helicopter ride we are going to have in a few days! When we got back home we all had sandwiches for lunch and settled down to read and snooze for the rest of the afternoon. We were visited halfway through the day by a family of warthogs, who had four tiny babies with them!! December is the start of the rainy season and as such most of the species babies are born around this time, because it is the time of the most plentiful food for the animals. They were so adorable, and came quite close to us, the mum on,y warned us off once (we hadn't moved from the porch) so they ate obviously very used to people. Dan started the fire up for a braai around 6 and we started cooking our steaks, marinated in mums delicious home made marinade at 7pm. Tonight we cooked some potatoes on the braai to enjoy with the steaks, as well as salad :) After enjoying our dinner and chatting outside for a long while we all closed up the canvas walls, locked the door and went to bed :)
On the Zambian side things took a little more time but ran smoothly too. I had to be carted off to the back to explain why I was entering the country to a lovely lady called Cynthia, and she allowed us to get a CIP(customs import permit) that we could keep past our return to Zimbabwe today as long as we told the lady on the desk about it when we came back thigh the same border post after dropping dad off. While I was getting the document printed dad had to go and shout at one of the runners to get off our car, as he was lounging against the bonnet as though it was his car! Dad went to sort out the insurance and gate clearance and jumped into our waiting car to pass through the gate when he was done.
The drive to the hotel was extremely short and we passed all the luggage to dads car before saying goodbye till Sunday and heading back to the border posts. Again leaving Zambia wasn't a hassle because no me cares when you are leaving the country. There was a man waiting at the immigration desk who told us that the lady behind the desk was very busy so we should just tell the guard that and go without a stamp. Mum and I were very happy to take his suggestion! When arriving at the gates one man came up to me and tried to sign off, i.e. invalidate, my road toll paper that cost us $48 at the horrific border on Sunday. I managed to convince him that he wasn't to sign it as we needed it in a few days and someone inside had said it was no problem to keep it.
The actual gate guard was much harder to convince that we should be let through without the second stamp, but because we literally had every piece of paper under the sun pertaining to the car and taxes and customs rubbish, he eventually relented and let us through, hurray!!! On the Zimbabwe side we had to lay another $10 road access fee, even though we had paid for one on Sunday and had only been gone for an hour, if that. The men at the gates signed off on it and my TIP and let us through after peering into the car to see if we had any luggage. Probably to look through and make our lives difficult, but thankfully we had given it all to dad! :)
The drive across the bridge in between the two borders was as spectacular as usual, and made me even more excited for the helicopter ride we are going to have in a few days! When we got back home we all had sandwiches for lunch and settled down to read and snooze for the rest of the afternoon. We were visited halfway through the day by a family of warthogs, who had four tiny babies with them!! December is the start of the rainy season and as such most of the species babies are born around this time, because it is the time of the most plentiful food for the animals. They were so adorable, and came quite close to us, the mum on,y warned us off once (we hadn't moved from the porch) so they ate obviously very used to people. Dan started the fire up for a braai around 6 and we started cooking our steaks, marinated in mums delicious home made marinade at 7pm. Tonight we cooked some potatoes on the braai to enjoy with the steaks, as well as salad :) After enjoying our dinner and chatting outside for a long while we all closed up the canvas walls, locked the door and went to bed :)
Epic Adventure -- Day 104 -- 11/12/2012 -- Lokuthula
We figured that this morning was as good a time as any to make use of the huge amount of food we brought to Zimbabwe, so we started off our day with tea, coffee and a delicious cooked breakfast. Since it was going to be Joe's last full day with us before he returned to Zambia we decided to go and see the falls from the non-paying side. The Beale's have apparently been seeing the falls this way for quite some time because they reassured me they knew exactly how to get there by bypassing the park entrance fee. When we got in the car to head to the falls it was clear that our efforts to control the smell of the vehicle had not worked. So we set off to view the famous Victoria Falls in the meat wagon.
Joe directed me to drive towards town but to turn off onto a side road about 1km shy of our lodge. From here we trundled down a road until arriving at the VIP gate into the paying side, next to the river. A short walk from where we parked the car was a heap of branches preventing people from walking along the banks of the river, towards the drop off of the falls. Apparently these were not here before, and were some sort of African preventative measure to stop people from doing exactly what we were about to :D We fetched the blanket from the back of the car and laid it over the branches allowing us to climb onto the banks of the Zambezi river. Lesley was having some reservations about the whole endeavour so she stayed just on the bank once we had passed the branches.
The rest of us walked along some of the exposed rocks on the Zimbabwe side until we were standing on the very edge of the falls, watching the water that flowed to the left of our feet tumble into the river below. We clearly weren't supposed to be on this side but if you exercise common sense the view is well worth the risk! We stopped to wave to a couple of tourists who were viewing the falls from the correct side before pausing so Joe could have a piss over the edge of the falls for the customary Beale photo. You cannot visit this part of the falls safely if it is the rainy season, but only in the dry season. As we are just headed into the rainy season the river is not yet full and so the walk to the edge is only slightly interrupted by puddles of water and tiny streams.
When we finished with our antics we returned to Lesley who was glad to see us all back in one piece. We climbed back over our blanket without incident and we headed for town to try and find a solution to the smell in the car. Joe directed me to leave by a different route that took us past the real entrance to the falls. Jenny wanted to get out and see he much it would cost for us to legitimately enter the park. She returned from the information centre and told us it would cost $50 for the two of us, so we decided to wait until after the helicopter ride we were given by the Olds as a wedding gift, to see if we wanted to go in. From there we drove to the same shopping centre as yesterday and went back to the TM supermarket to get some newspaper. We figured that if the air freshener didn't work than maybe we would fair better by stuffing the suspected areas of the car with newspaper to soak up the smell. We did just that in the car park once we found a newspaper and Jenny and Lesley suggested that we drive to the nearby Victoria Falls Hotel for some drinks.
Lesley remembered staying at the hotel during the summer of 1976 with her family and according the her description the hotel has not changed much since. We explored the grounds for a while before deciding to get a proper look at the interior of the building. The hotel is grand in every way and truly transports any visitor from 2012 back to 1870s colonial Africa (not sure if this is a good or bad thing haha). Jenny and Lesley had a look at some of the double rooms that had been left open by the cleaning staff and we also snooped about the dining room/ ball room, the whole time imagining what it would be like to have a wedding in a venue like this. We elected not to have any drinks because the prices were quite high and we had perfectly good tea, coffee and beer back at the lodge.
We drove back to Lokathula and headed to the Buffalo Bar to use the Internet we had been told about. The bar has amazing views out over a watering hole and if you climb to the very top floor you can get a spectacular open air view of the watering hole from about 50 metres off the ground! Dan and I went downstairs to get everyone drinks, beers for Dan and dad, an appetiser and gin for me and a Malawi shandy for mum. Unfortunately when we got back up to the top deck it turned out that the bar lady had a different view of what was in a Malawi shandy, so dad took it back. She graciously changed it and we sat upstairs watching over two male elephants who had come for a drink. There was also a warthog family playing on the banks of the water, and plenty of different birds to see.
We eventually went home as the sun began to set, and started the fire for the braai. We decided to cook the flat chicken and the boerwors tonight, and eat it along with mums yummy curried beans. the fire was quite hot and the bedrooms cooked a spanned, but unfortunately cooking a flat chicken whole on a braai isn't such a fast process. The sausage was done far before the chicken ever had a hope of being done, so Dan and I took it off and separated it out into normal size pieces to finish cooking it. Our meal was very yummy! Dad didn't really like the beans as he doesn't like onions, but Dan and I thought they were delicious. After a couple more drinks we rolled down the canvas wall that separate the patio from the lounge, zipped it all up and went off to our cozy mosquito netted beds to sleep.
Joe directed me to drive towards town but to turn off onto a side road about 1km shy of our lodge. From here we trundled down a road until arriving at the VIP gate into the paying side, next to the river. A short walk from where we parked the car was a heap of branches preventing people from walking along the banks of the river, towards the drop off of the falls. Apparently these were not here before, and were some sort of African preventative measure to stop people from doing exactly what we were about to :D We fetched the blanket from the back of the car and laid it over the branches allowing us to climb onto the banks of the Zambezi river. Lesley was having some reservations about the whole endeavour so she stayed just on the bank once we had passed the branches.
The rest of us walked along some of the exposed rocks on the Zimbabwe side until we were standing on the very edge of the falls, watching the water that flowed to the left of our feet tumble into the river below. We clearly weren't supposed to be on this side but if you exercise common sense the view is well worth the risk! We stopped to wave to a couple of tourists who were viewing the falls from the correct side before pausing so Joe could have a piss over the edge of the falls for the customary Beale photo. You cannot visit this part of the falls safely if it is the rainy season, but only in the dry season. As we are just headed into the rainy season the river is not yet full and so the walk to the edge is only slightly interrupted by puddles of water and tiny streams.
When we finished with our antics we returned to Lesley who was glad to see us all back in one piece. We climbed back over our blanket without incident and we headed for town to try and find a solution to the smell in the car. Joe directed me to leave by a different route that took us past the real entrance to the falls. Jenny wanted to get out and see he much it would cost for us to legitimately enter the park. She returned from the information centre and told us it would cost $50 for the two of us, so we decided to wait until after the helicopter ride we were given by the Olds as a wedding gift, to see if we wanted to go in. From there we drove to the same shopping centre as yesterday and went back to the TM supermarket to get some newspaper. We figured that if the air freshener didn't work than maybe we would fair better by stuffing the suspected areas of the car with newspaper to soak up the smell. We did just that in the car park once we found a newspaper and Jenny and Lesley suggested that we drive to the nearby Victoria Falls Hotel for some drinks.
Lesley remembered staying at the hotel during the summer of 1976 with her family and according the her description the hotel has not changed much since. We explored the grounds for a while before deciding to get a proper look at the interior of the building. The hotel is grand in every way and truly transports any visitor from 2012 back to 1870s colonial Africa (not sure if this is a good or bad thing haha). Jenny and Lesley had a look at some of the double rooms that had been left open by the cleaning staff and we also snooped about the dining room/ ball room, the whole time imagining what it would be like to have a wedding in a venue like this. We elected not to have any drinks because the prices were quite high and we had perfectly good tea, coffee and beer back at the lodge.
We drove back to Lokathula and headed to the Buffalo Bar to use the Internet we had been told about. The bar has amazing views out over a watering hole and if you climb to the very top floor you can get a spectacular open air view of the watering hole from about 50 metres off the ground! Dan and I went downstairs to get everyone drinks, beers for Dan and dad, an appetiser and gin for me and a Malawi shandy for mum. Unfortunately when we got back up to the top deck it turned out that the bar lady had a different view of what was in a Malawi shandy, so dad took it back. She graciously changed it and we sat upstairs watching over two male elephants who had come for a drink. There was also a warthog family playing on the banks of the water, and plenty of different birds to see.
We eventually went home as the sun began to set, and started the fire for the braai. We decided to cook the flat chicken and the boerwors tonight, and eat it along with mums yummy curried beans. the fire was quite hot and the bedrooms cooked a spanned, but unfortunately cooking a flat chicken whole on a braai isn't such a fast process. The sausage was done far before the chicken ever had a hope of being done, so Dan and I took it off and separated it out into normal size pieces to finish cooking it. Our meal was very yummy! Dad didn't really like the beans as he doesn't like onions, but Dan and I thought they were delicious. After a couple more drinks we rolled down the canvas wall that separate the patio from the lounge, zipped it all up and went off to our cozy mosquito netted beds to sleep.
Friday, 14 December 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 103 -- 10/12/2012 -- Lokuthula
Our first full day at Lokuthula with Joe and Lesley started off in a very British way, with copious amounts of tea and coffee. We were slow to mobilise and spent much of the morning sitting on the veranda discussing what we might do today. Jenny thought it would be a good idea to go to the Boma restaurant, which is affiliated with the lodge, for dinner. Lesley also wanted to stop by some of the local craft shops in town so we decided to drive to town and explore what we could find there. As we got in the car to leave we discovered that the car was smelling really funky, a bit like off meat. We realised that our sneaky method of transporting the meat for our week stay into Zimbabwe was probably the cause of this off smell. A smell that was certainly not helped by the 35C temperature! Before we left the confines of Lokuthula we stopped by the Boma restaurant and Jenny booked us a table for the evening.
Once we had our reservation we set off in the newly dubbed 'meat wagon', with all 4 windows down, to find the local craft shops. When we drove into town we spotted a few abandoned rail cars that Jenny wanted to have a closer look at. Luckily the cars were just across the way from the craft centre so I agreed to pull off and park. We had a short poke around the rail cars but soon deduced that there was someone living in one of them and we left pretty swiftly to check out the crafts. The craft centre we found was called Elephant Walk, and just as I expected it was filled with local goods carrying price tags worthy of NYC's 5th Avenue. Jenny and I have certainly grown tired of this tendency; since Zimbabwe changed to the US dollar in 2009 shops here seem to think they can charge US prices for goods (very frustrating to say the least). I quite liked the look of a crocodile leather bracelet if it wasn't $45, and would have bought Jenny a stuffed animal, in this case a lion, from another shop had it not been $145! Come on Zimbabwe, $145 for a stuffed animal the size of a shoe box?!?!?
After we had our fill of looking at the overpriced goods we headed back to the car and realised the meat smell was getting worse in the heat. From there we drove to an OK bazaar (like a tesco) and picked up some small food supplies we had forgotten to bring for the week. When we were leaving the car park I was approached by a local trying to sell me 100 trillion dollar notes. We had been told during our last stay in Zimbabwe That this was a common occurrence near the falls because of the huge number of tourists. I tried to convince the man that we had hundreds of these types of notes and eventually he went away. Soon after leaving the OK we remembered that we were going to buy some air freshener for the car. We spotted a TM shop just across the way so I jumped the curb and drove straight into the car park, I was quite eager to rid the car of the smell haha.
When we had sprayed the car with enough air freshener we returned to the lodge and had a few drinks and wrote some posts while we waited until our dinner reservation. When it got to be about 19:00 we piled back into the still smelly car and drive the short distance to the Boma. As we walked through the first entrance we were greeted by two dressed up Africans who proceeded to wrap all four of us in patterned sarongs, tied above one shoulder. We then went through to the restaurant and took some naff touristy photos before being escorted to our table. Our waiter explained the buffet main course and dessert section and showed us the menus for the starters. At this point he also started to fill four tin mugs with a little chibuku, a disgusting African alcohol, that only I, Jenny, was brave enough to taste :D
We ordered four different starters, the guinea fowl, crocodile strips, impala knuckle terrine and ostrich. Before our starters came the waiter brought round a selection of appetisers, small sections of corn on the cop, some sweet potato and some nuts. After sharing our various starters we went to the bread, salad and soup section and filled up on what we wanted, I tried the bean soup which was lovely, and sat munching on those for a while. Mum and dad went up for the main courses first and got side tracked by the roast warthog, which being served the tough outside skin was needless to say, dreadful. Dan and I went up and queued in the proper main course section where they have a selection of different meats from you to chose from which they braai in front of you. We both had the warthog and the buffalo, and sides of peanut butter rice and spinach. The warthog was amazing, just as tender and juicy as I remember it from my last time here at the Boma. I was also the only person brave enough to try a mopane worm, a delecacy here, and received a certificate for my effort! :)
We all went up for seconds and thirds from the meat section, dad bringing back stuff for mum to try, before moving on the the desserts, of which I thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate mousse. During dinner we had a braider come and try to braid my hair which I refused, and a face painter who we all let paint a small item on our faces. I had a sunset painted on my cheek, mum had a warthog painted on hers and dad and Dan had a kudu and a buffalo painted on their foreheads respectively. We also had a visit from the Boma man, selling the Boma cocktail. He hilariously over acted everything and pronounced the words in the way I have spelt them. In this cockitail there was vodika, which is is alikoholock, ceennamon which good for the heart, leamon for flava, honey for the taste, ice or no ice and it is stirred with the boma stick. I was again, the only one who ordered one, with ice, for $4 and it was actually very very delicious!
During dinner we had many appearances of scantily clad African dancers with drums, giving us a great show while we ate. After dinner however was when the real show started. A very vivacious man brought out a smallish drum and a band behind him with drums in various sizes and other instruments and told us to pick up the small drums that had been placed next to our table. I went and sat in the front to join in the fun. We were all given many different beats by the main man to follow, we were split into three groups to have a competition (my group didn't win) and everyone, including mum who came to join me, had an amazing time playing the drums. Afterwards we gave our drums back and were called into a circle to all dance, again I was the only one who participated. I had an amazing time dancing next to two very skilled African ladies and when it was my time to be called into the circle to dance they all whistled and shouted till I was out. It really was really fun and unfortunately the fun had to end sometime.
We then sat back at the table and the same group on the drums came round and sang accapela XXXXX for each table, and it was so beautiful as the group was very talented. Obviously for the table full of American tourists they sang the only song they would know from Lion King, The Lion Sleeps Tonight :D They finished singing and we paid our bill, reduced because we were staying in the self catering lodges, and we all left after a wonderful evening. We climbed back into the meat wagon, rolled all the windows down and careened the short distance home all hanging our heads out the window to breath :D After that eventful night and great day we all climbed into bed and fell asleep soon after getting home.
Once we had our reservation we set off in the newly dubbed 'meat wagon', with all 4 windows down, to find the local craft shops. When we drove into town we spotted a few abandoned rail cars that Jenny wanted to have a closer look at. Luckily the cars were just across the way from the craft centre so I agreed to pull off and park. We had a short poke around the rail cars but soon deduced that there was someone living in one of them and we left pretty swiftly to check out the crafts. The craft centre we found was called Elephant Walk, and just as I expected it was filled with local goods carrying price tags worthy of NYC's 5th Avenue. Jenny and I have certainly grown tired of this tendency; since Zimbabwe changed to the US dollar in 2009 shops here seem to think they can charge US prices for goods (very frustrating to say the least). I quite liked the look of a crocodile leather bracelet if it wasn't $45, and would have bought Jenny a stuffed animal, in this case a lion, from another shop had it not been $145! Come on Zimbabwe, $145 for a stuffed animal the size of a shoe box?!?!?
After we had our fill of looking at the overpriced goods we headed back to the car and realised the meat smell was getting worse in the heat. From there we drove to an OK bazaar (like a tesco) and picked up some small food supplies we had forgotten to bring for the week. When we were leaving the car park I was approached by a local trying to sell me 100 trillion dollar notes. We had been told during our last stay in Zimbabwe That this was a common occurrence near the falls because of the huge number of tourists. I tried to convince the man that we had hundreds of these types of notes and eventually he went away. Soon after leaving the OK we remembered that we were going to buy some air freshener for the car. We spotted a TM shop just across the way so I jumped the curb and drove straight into the car park, I was quite eager to rid the car of the smell haha.
When we had sprayed the car with enough air freshener we returned to the lodge and had a few drinks and wrote some posts while we waited until our dinner reservation. When it got to be about 19:00 we piled back into the still smelly car and drive the short distance to the Boma. As we walked through the first entrance we were greeted by two dressed up Africans who proceeded to wrap all four of us in patterned sarongs, tied above one shoulder. We then went through to the restaurant and took some naff touristy photos before being escorted to our table. Our waiter explained the buffet main course and dessert section and showed us the menus for the starters. At this point he also started to fill four tin mugs with a little chibuku, a disgusting African alcohol, that only I, Jenny, was brave enough to taste :D
We ordered four different starters, the guinea fowl, crocodile strips, impala knuckle terrine and ostrich. Before our starters came the waiter brought round a selection of appetisers, small sections of corn on the cop, some sweet potato and some nuts. After sharing our various starters we went to the bread, salad and soup section and filled up on what we wanted, I tried the bean soup which was lovely, and sat munching on those for a while. Mum and dad went up for the main courses first and got side tracked by the roast warthog, which being served the tough outside skin was needless to say, dreadful. Dan and I went up and queued in the proper main course section where they have a selection of different meats from you to chose from which they braai in front of you. We both had the warthog and the buffalo, and sides of peanut butter rice and spinach. The warthog was amazing, just as tender and juicy as I remember it from my last time here at the Boma. I was also the only person brave enough to try a mopane worm, a delecacy here, and received a certificate for my effort! :)
We all went up for seconds and thirds from the meat section, dad bringing back stuff for mum to try, before moving on the the desserts, of which I thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate mousse. During dinner we had a braider come and try to braid my hair which I refused, and a face painter who we all let paint a small item on our faces. I had a sunset painted on my cheek, mum had a warthog painted on hers and dad and Dan had a kudu and a buffalo painted on their foreheads respectively. We also had a visit from the Boma man, selling the Boma cocktail. He hilariously over acted everything and pronounced the words in the way I have spelt them. In this cockitail there was vodika, which is is alikoholock, ceennamon which good for the heart, leamon for flava, honey for the taste, ice or no ice and it is stirred with the boma stick. I was again, the only one who ordered one, with ice, for $4 and it was actually very very delicious!
During dinner we had many appearances of scantily clad African dancers with drums, giving us a great show while we ate. After dinner however was when the real show started. A very vivacious man brought out a smallish drum and a band behind him with drums in various sizes and other instruments and told us to pick up the small drums that had been placed next to our table. I went and sat in the front to join in the fun. We were all given many different beats by the main man to follow, we were split into three groups to have a competition (my group didn't win) and everyone, including mum who came to join me, had an amazing time playing the drums. Afterwards we gave our drums back and were called into a circle to all dance, again I was the only one who participated. I had an amazing time dancing next to two very skilled African ladies and when it was my time to be called into the circle to dance they all whistled and shouted till I was out. It really was really fun and unfortunately the fun had to end sometime.
We then sat back at the table and the same group on the drums came round and sang accapela XXXXX for each table, and it was so beautiful as the group was very talented. Obviously for the table full of American tourists they sang the only song they would know from Lion King, The Lion Sleeps Tonight :D They finished singing and we paid our bill, reduced because we were staying in the self catering lodges, and we all left after a wonderful evening. We climbed back into the meat wagon, rolled all the windows down and careened the short distance home all hanging our heads out the window to breath :D After that eventful night and great day we all climbed into bed and fell asleep soon after getting home.
Epic Adventure -- Day 102 -- 9/12/2012 -- Kasane to Livingston to Victoria falls
So what promised to be quite a good day (the day we get to see Lesley and Joe again after several weeks) didn't start on a very good note. We woke up this morning and packed our things intending to depart from Kasane at about 10:00. In the midst of packing we realised that we still didn't know what happened to the iPhone from yesterday. We remembered having it just before we got to the car to run errands but didn't have it IN the car. I had figured that we left the phone in the house and so we didn't worry about it too much until we couldn't find it this morning. After we had showered we spent quite a long time searching the Riekert's house from top to bottom and couldn't find any trace of the phone. Karen and Tiennie helped us in our frantic search but we ended up empty-handed. Eventually we had to cut our losses and leave without the phone because we had to pick up Lesley and Joe in Zambia before proceeding onto Zimbabwe.
We thanked the Riekerts for their wonderful hospitality and departed around 11:00. We stopped at the local police station to find out if by chance someone had turned in our phone to no avail. From there we drove to the local Spar to pick up all the food supplies we would need for our week in Zimbabwe. This included buying all the meat for braais, which Jenny convinced me we needed to hide to get across the border. I had recently found that there are two compartments in the back of the car where you can gain access to the rear lights; we thought this would be a perfect hiding spot. We didn't have to pick up Jenny's parents until 16:30 but we had been warned that the border post into Zambia tends to take a long time. The drive to the border only took us a few minutes and we were clear of the Botswana side in about 15 minutes. This is where things took a turn.
After you clear the Botswana side of the border you have to cross a river (by ferry) to get to the side where you enter Zambia. We drove our car onto the ferry and were informed that the would be a charge for the ferry service. The only problem was that they only accepted Zambian Kwatcha, 134,000 of them, and we didn't have any. This tends to be a popular ploy, the authorities only accept one currency and if you don't have any there always seems to be a local (known in this case as a 'runner') who will kindly help you by paying in the correct currency and then charging you a ridiculous exchange rate for whatever money you do have. These runners will also try and charge a fee for helping you clear customs and immigration quickly and efficiently, only for you to be stopped 5km down the road and fined £100's because you didn't actually complete any of the correct forms.
Jenny and I knew about these tactics before we encountered this border so we were prepared not to put up with any shit. We had no choice however but to use the runner to pay the ferry charge. This man clearly thought he could make some money off of us so he didn't require payment for the ferry money right away. The border post was crazy even by Jenny's standards. There were trucks parked everywhere, about 15 random small dirty buildings, and runners by the dozen harassing anyone who was white trying to cross the border. Our runner showed us to the immigration office where even though we told him we could handle the work ourselves, he still waited outside. It was in this office that we realised we were in trouble, I needed a visa and we didn't have enough money on us for a double entry visa. This meant we would have to pay again for a single entry when we returned in a week!
We were escorted to the next building by the irritating runner to fill out the Customs Import Permit or CIP, where we found a very nice customs officer who explained all of the charges we would be required to pay to cross the border and where we needed to go to pay them.
According to the officer we needed to pay (and only in the listed currencies);
Single entry visa: 400 Pula
Carbon tax: 150,000 Kwatcha
Insurance cover: 116,000 Kwatcha
Police clearance: 20,000 Kwatcha
Road toll: 48 US Dollars
It was at this point that we realised we were in trouble, we didn't have anywhere near enough money to cover the huge amount of individual charges, all of which were a surprise to us. Even if we did have enough money we didn't have the correct currencies for all the charges. Jenny remembered at this time that we had some rands left over from the time in South Africa, and managed to get the kind customs official to endorse the insurance cover and the carbon tax so that we could pay them when we left Zambia with her parents in a few hours. Because of the huge amount of shady looking runners circling our car, I armed myself with a tire iron from the back of the car before searching for the money. I did manage to find R780 in the car but we still had the trouble that it wasn't in the right currencies, and much to our dismay there is no currency exchange open at the border on a Sunday!
At this point a realised I was going to have to use our runner friend. Most fortunately, a few minutes prior, I had asked the customs official for several of the current exchange rates. I went off and spoke to the runners, corrected them when they used ridiculous exchange rates, and eventually got all of the correct currency for all the fees. From there we kindly told the runners to fuck off and made our way to the buildings where we needed to pay the police charge and the road tax. The queue for the latter payment was enourmous but we passed the near hour it took us waiting chatting to a very nice couple who run a transport buisness. while we were chatting to them every one of the locals in front of us kept moving out of the queue to go and do something else or fetch something they had forgotten, and we managed to slide our way up to right next to the couple. They had done this countless times and so told us what documents we needed to give to the official.
Just before it was our turn I was standing next to the man and I asked him to wait right next to us while we passed our documents over. The reaction from the locals was as we had expected it, if not worse, they were mutinous that we had "jumped" the queue. Thankfully the couple came to our defence, knowing we desperately needed to leave as soon as possible if we ever wanted to see my parents. They shouted right back to the locals that they had all left their spots to go do other things and as such had lost their place in the queue. We eventually left with the ridiculously expensive road toll document, hugged the extremely kind couple for helping us and staying with us, and we got in our car to drive the remaining 60kms to Livingstone.
When we arrived my directions on google maps did not take us to the Royal Livingstone Hotel which is where we were to meet mum and dad, but instead to a petrol station. We asked directions of them and headed down the next road and didn't find it there either. Dan asked for more directions from a man who clearly didn't understand English and directed us to a hotel called David Livinsgton. Thankfully there we managed to find a very well spoken receptionist there who gave us perfect directions to the hotel, and we pulled into the parking lot after seeing two zebras right next to the road. I checked the two toyota's and found piglet the teddy on the dashboard of one of them, my parents ingenious signal to show us they were there. We went inside to find them, ranted and raved about the horrific day we had had before packing our car to the brim with their stuff, leaving the Toyota and heading for the next border post.
Leaving Zambia was fine thankfully, they gave us a recipt for the carbon tax that we needed to pay so that we would not need to pay for it again when coming back to the country. We managed to not have to pay for the insurance :) The bridge over the Zambezi river is amazing, and the view from up there is magnificent. It's the same bridge people stupidly fling themselves off upon and hope that the rope they are attached to doesn't break! On the Zimbabwe side of the border we breezed through the immigration section but there wasn't anyone at the customs section. Dad, in his infinite wisdom and ingenuity reached behind the counter for her stamp and pad and stamped our own gate pass!!! Hahaha! We all felt very smug and clever about this until we got to the gate and the guard wanted to see the Temporary Import Permit, or TIP, and the carbon tax. Damn.
Dad and I went back in and paid for the documents we needed and we drove away from the border post laughing at dads antics, which almost worked :D I set the sat nav to take us to Lokathula and it ended up taking us there via the service entrance. I checked us in and got the low down on the lodge and surroundings that they insist on giving you even if you have been there before. We were finally released from the check in lady's clutches drove to our cabin, number 39. We unpacked the car and all of the various foodstuffs hidden away in compartments and packed everything away into the kitchens and bedrooms. I spent a while unpacking our bags just incase the iPhone happened to be in there, but alas it was not to be :(. Joe and Dan went off to get us some firewood from the bar and we had a nice braai and some drinks to cap off an eventful day before bed.
We thanked the Riekerts for their wonderful hospitality and departed around 11:00. We stopped at the local police station to find out if by chance someone had turned in our phone to no avail. From there we drove to the local Spar to pick up all the food supplies we would need for our week in Zimbabwe. This included buying all the meat for braais, which Jenny convinced me we needed to hide to get across the border. I had recently found that there are two compartments in the back of the car where you can gain access to the rear lights; we thought this would be a perfect hiding spot. We didn't have to pick up Jenny's parents until 16:30 but we had been warned that the border post into Zambia tends to take a long time. The drive to the border only took us a few minutes and we were clear of the Botswana side in about 15 minutes. This is where things took a turn.
After you clear the Botswana side of the border you have to cross a river (by ferry) to get to the side where you enter Zambia. We drove our car onto the ferry and were informed that the would be a charge for the ferry service. The only problem was that they only accepted Zambian Kwatcha, 134,000 of them, and we didn't have any. This tends to be a popular ploy, the authorities only accept one currency and if you don't have any there always seems to be a local (known in this case as a 'runner') who will kindly help you by paying in the correct currency and then charging you a ridiculous exchange rate for whatever money you do have. These runners will also try and charge a fee for helping you clear customs and immigration quickly and efficiently, only for you to be stopped 5km down the road and fined £100's because you didn't actually complete any of the correct forms.
Jenny and I knew about these tactics before we encountered this border so we were prepared not to put up with any shit. We had no choice however but to use the runner to pay the ferry charge. This man clearly thought he could make some money off of us so he didn't require payment for the ferry money right away. The border post was crazy even by Jenny's standards. There were trucks parked everywhere, about 15 random small dirty buildings, and runners by the dozen harassing anyone who was white trying to cross the border. Our runner showed us to the immigration office where even though we told him we could handle the work ourselves, he still waited outside. It was in this office that we realised we were in trouble, I needed a visa and we didn't have enough money on us for a double entry visa. This meant we would have to pay again for a single entry when we returned in a week!
We were escorted to the next building by the irritating runner to fill out the Customs Import Permit or CIP, where we found a very nice customs officer who explained all of the charges we would be required to pay to cross the border and where we needed to go to pay them.
According to the officer we needed to pay (and only in the listed currencies);
Single entry visa: 400 Pula
Carbon tax: 150,000 Kwatcha
Insurance cover: 116,000 Kwatcha
Police clearance: 20,000 Kwatcha
Road toll: 48 US Dollars
It was at this point that we realised we were in trouble, we didn't have anywhere near enough money to cover the huge amount of individual charges, all of which were a surprise to us. Even if we did have enough money we didn't have the correct currencies for all the charges. Jenny remembered at this time that we had some rands left over from the time in South Africa, and managed to get the kind customs official to endorse the insurance cover and the carbon tax so that we could pay them when we left Zambia with her parents in a few hours. Because of the huge amount of shady looking runners circling our car, I armed myself with a tire iron from the back of the car before searching for the money. I did manage to find R780 in the car but we still had the trouble that it wasn't in the right currencies, and much to our dismay there is no currency exchange open at the border on a Sunday!
At this point a realised I was going to have to use our runner friend. Most fortunately, a few minutes prior, I had asked the customs official for several of the current exchange rates. I went off and spoke to the runners, corrected them when they used ridiculous exchange rates, and eventually got all of the correct currency for all the fees. From there we kindly told the runners to fuck off and made our way to the buildings where we needed to pay the police charge and the road tax. The queue for the latter payment was enourmous but we passed the near hour it took us waiting chatting to a very nice couple who run a transport buisness. while we were chatting to them every one of the locals in front of us kept moving out of the queue to go and do something else or fetch something they had forgotten, and we managed to slide our way up to right next to the couple. They had done this countless times and so told us what documents we needed to give to the official.
Just before it was our turn I was standing next to the man and I asked him to wait right next to us while we passed our documents over. The reaction from the locals was as we had expected it, if not worse, they were mutinous that we had "jumped" the queue. Thankfully the couple came to our defence, knowing we desperately needed to leave as soon as possible if we ever wanted to see my parents. They shouted right back to the locals that they had all left their spots to go do other things and as such had lost their place in the queue. We eventually left with the ridiculously expensive road toll document, hugged the extremely kind couple for helping us and staying with us, and we got in our car to drive the remaining 60kms to Livingstone.
When we arrived my directions on google maps did not take us to the Royal Livingstone Hotel which is where we were to meet mum and dad, but instead to a petrol station. We asked directions of them and headed down the next road and didn't find it there either. Dan asked for more directions from a man who clearly didn't understand English and directed us to a hotel called David Livinsgton. Thankfully there we managed to find a very well spoken receptionist there who gave us perfect directions to the hotel, and we pulled into the parking lot after seeing two zebras right next to the road. I checked the two toyota's and found piglet the teddy on the dashboard of one of them, my parents ingenious signal to show us they were there. We went inside to find them, ranted and raved about the horrific day we had had before packing our car to the brim with their stuff, leaving the Toyota and heading for the next border post.
Leaving Zambia was fine thankfully, they gave us a recipt for the carbon tax that we needed to pay so that we would not need to pay for it again when coming back to the country. We managed to not have to pay for the insurance :) The bridge over the Zambezi river is amazing, and the view from up there is magnificent. It's the same bridge people stupidly fling themselves off upon and hope that the rope they are attached to doesn't break! On the Zimbabwe side of the border we breezed through the immigration section but there wasn't anyone at the customs section. Dad, in his infinite wisdom and ingenuity reached behind the counter for her stamp and pad and stamped our own gate pass!!! Hahaha! We all felt very smug and clever about this until we got to the gate and the guard wanted to see the Temporary Import Permit, or TIP, and the carbon tax. Damn.
Dad and I went back in and paid for the documents we needed and we drove away from the border post laughing at dads antics, which almost worked :D I set the sat nav to take us to Lokathula and it ended up taking us there via the service entrance. I checked us in and got the low down on the lodge and surroundings that they insist on giving you even if you have been there before. We were finally released from the check in lady's clutches drove to our cabin, number 39. We unpacked the car and all of the various foodstuffs hidden away in compartments and packed everything away into the kitchens and bedrooms. I spent a while unpacking our bags just incase the iPhone happened to be in there, but alas it was not to be :(. Joe and Dan went off to get us some firewood from the bar and we had a nice braai and some drinks to cap off an eventful day before bed.
Epic Adventure -- Day 101 -- 8/12/2012 -- Kasane
We woke up this morning just as Karen and Tiennie were leaving for work. They mentioned just before they left that they only had a half day of work and suggested that we take their boat out on the river in the afternoon. Jenny and I were both keen on this idea so we spent the morning getting everything in order for our boat trip and our planned braai with the people we met yesterday. Jenny skyped her parents in the morning while I watched some tv and we compiled a list of things we needed for lunch, the boat trip, the braai and our week at Lokathula. Once we had our list together we each had a shower (outside again!) and I decided that I should cut my hair using the electric clippers that Karen had lent us. The last time I cut my hair was in early September and it was getting a bit out of control. We sat out the back of the house and Jenny clippers my hair down to a 3 all over, it's not the most sophisticated of haircuts but at least it's a good deal shorter than it was. Jenny - He also looked like uncle fester at one point because I clipped the back and top of his hair but left the ridiculously long sides for a few minutes, and pissed myself laughing the entire time :D
Because my hair was dry when we cut it we didn't do a very good job containing the mess and as such I had to take another shower to get rid of all the clippings. Shortly afterward we drove into town to pick up all the supplies we needed from the shops. We realised a few hundred metres down the road that we had left the iPhone that contained our shopping list back at the house, figuring we could do without it we carried on to the shops. There we bought lots of cool drinks for the days activities and food for lunch with Karen and Tiennie. To simplify things we chose to leave the shopping for Lokathula until tomorrow morning. The last item on our list was to pick up a bottle of gin in the nearby Spar Tops so Jenny could have more of her newly discovered drink!
Upon returning to the house we had plenty of time to kill until Karen and Tiennie came home for lunch. I used the time to watch a few episodes of Top Gear and Jenny took a nap while I watched TV. They arrived back at the house a little after two and we all had some lunch soon afterwards. Karen's mom and her moms cousin showed up to join us on the river. It took us a little longer than we thought to prepare all the supplies for the boat (mostly food and drink) and so we ended up pulling out of their drive and headed to the river at about 15:15.
Thankfully the river is very close, a few minutes drive away with a short dash across the tarred road and back onto a dirt road by the giant KFC sign. Tiennie is extremely adept at reversing the boat into the river, a task probably much easier than he made it seem. We all clambered into the boat, while keeping a keen eye out for crocodiles, and Dan pushed us away from shore before jumping in too. We motored down the beautiful river, until we got to a spot by some rocks. The river is so stunning, a perfect blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds and thunderous rain clouds, countless trees lining the banks, gorgeous little islands covered with reeds and the occasional crocodile, and so many amazing birds all around us.
Tiennie set Dan and I up with a fishing rod and showed us how to cast the line and where we should aim for. We were both having loads of fun, taking turns with the rod and telling each other to stand further away from the water for fear of crocs and then not heading our own advice! Dan brought me a gin and appetiser and I rewarded him by giving him the rod to unhook, because I had successfully caught my very first... Rock. I ended up catching another two rocks, with the new sinker dan attached, in the time we were there before Tiennie called us back to the boat to go try another location.
Dan and I continued taking turns with the rod and kept seeking in more and more casts when the other wasn't looking as we were enjoying it so much :D I managed to catch another six rocks and an entire tree during our time on the river, Dan didn't catch anything but Tiennie, who was fly fishing, managed to catch an amazing five tiger fish!! One of the last ones he caught he let Dan reel in, which he thoroughly enjoyed. During the time on the boat we also managed spill a ridiculous amount of wine all over it! Karen's mum was passing me a glass of wine when she didn't hold on to it and dropped it on the deck, I managed to drop kick the next glass I was given over while casting a line and Karen spilt some on the other side of the boat too!
The sunset over the river was magnificent, and we took plenty photos of it before heading back to shore and loading the boat back onto its trailer and driving home. When we got back I quickly made a salad and Dan loaded up the drinks and steaks for our braai with the people we had met on the cruise yesterday. Karen and Tiennie declined to come as they wanted a quiet night at home, so Dan and I headed off in search of the group with our goodies. we thought we may be a little late as we had been enjoying ourselves on the river for so long, but we were there with perfect timing, as Ralph and Ivette's chops had just gone on the fire.
They kindly lent us a blanket to sit on as we hadn't brought any chairs and we sat round the fire chatting till it was time to cook our steaks. I was extremely jealous of Ivette and Ralph, who had gotten up early enough to enter the Chobe national park and had seen a lion eat a buffalo. Dinner was divine and we thoroughly enjoyed talking with two couples who had been doing similar things to us on their trip. Unfortunately Anna became extremely drunk and at one stage was shouting about how the work that we had done in our lives so far wouldn't count towards any new job. We kept getting told by Rob and Anna that we had to put our time in doing menial jobs before we could even think about getting decent paying ones (this coming from a 39yo collecting a British army pension for life). None the less we had a great time at the braai and we all exchanged contact information just before bidding them all farewell and returning to the house for a good nights sleep.
Because my hair was dry when we cut it we didn't do a very good job containing the mess and as such I had to take another shower to get rid of all the clippings. Shortly afterward we drove into town to pick up all the supplies we needed from the shops. We realised a few hundred metres down the road that we had left the iPhone that contained our shopping list back at the house, figuring we could do without it we carried on to the shops. There we bought lots of cool drinks for the days activities and food for lunch with Karen and Tiennie. To simplify things we chose to leave the shopping for Lokathula until tomorrow morning. The last item on our list was to pick up a bottle of gin in the nearby Spar Tops so Jenny could have more of her newly discovered drink!
Upon returning to the house we had plenty of time to kill until Karen and Tiennie came home for lunch. I used the time to watch a few episodes of Top Gear and Jenny took a nap while I watched TV. They arrived back at the house a little after two and we all had some lunch soon afterwards. Karen's mom and her moms cousin showed up to join us on the river. It took us a little longer than we thought to prepare all the supplies for the boat (mostly food and drink) and so we ended up pulling out of their drive and headed to the river at about 15:15.
Thankfully the river is very close, a few minutes drive away with a short dash across the tarred road and back onto a dirt road by the giant KFC sign. Tiennie is extremely adept at reversing the boat into the river, a task probably much easier than he made it seem. We all clambered into the boat, while keeping a keen eye out for crocodiles, and Dan pushed us away from shore before jumping in too. We motored down the beautiful river, until we got to a spot by some rocks. The river is so stunning, a perfect blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds and thunderous rain clouds, countless trees lining the banks, gorgeous little islands covered with reeds and the occasional crocodile, and so many amazing birds all around us.
Tiennie set Dan and I up with a fishing rod and showed us how to cast the line and where we should aim for. We were both having loads of fun, taking turns with the rod and telling each other to stand further away from the water for fear of crocs and then not heading our own advice! Dan brought me a gin and appetiser and I rewarded him by giving him the rod to unhook, because I had successfully caught my very first... Rock. I ended up catching another two rocks, with the new sinker dan attached, in the time we were there before Tiennie called us back to the boat to go try another location.
Dan and I continued taking turns with the rod and kept seeking in more and more casts when the other wasn't looking as we were enjoying it so much :D I managed to catch another six rocks and an entire tree during our time on the river, Dan didn't catch anything but Tiennie, who was fly fishing, managed to catch an amazing five tiger fish!! One of the last ones he caught he let Dan reel in, which he thoroughly enjoyed. During the time on the boat we also managed spill a ridiculous amount of wine all over it! Karen's mum was passing me a glass of wine when she didn't hold on to it and dropped it on the deck, I managed to drop kick the next glass I was given over while casting a line and Karen spilt some on the other side of the boat too!
The sunset over the river was magnificent, and we took plenty photos of it before heading back to shore and loading the boat back onto its trailer and driving home. When we got back I quickly made a salad and Dan loaded up the drinks and steaks for our braai with the people we had met on the cruise yesterday. Karen and Tiennie declined to come as they wanted a quiet night at home, so Dan and I headed off in search of the group with our goodies. we thought we may be a little late as we had been enjoying ourselves on the river for so long, but we were there with perfect timing, as Ralph and Ivette's chops had just gone on the fire.
They kindly lent us a blanket to sit on as we hadn't brought any chairs and we sat round the fire chatting till it was time to cook our steaks. I was extremely jealous of Ivette and Ralph, who had gotten up early enough to enter the Chobe national park and had seen a lion eat a buffalo. Dinner was divine and we thoroughly enjoyed talking with two couples who had been doing similar things to us on their trip. Unfortunately Anna became extremely drunk and at one stage was shouting about how the work that we had done in our lives so far wouldn't count towards any new job. We kept getting told by Rob and Anna that we had to put our time in doing menial jobs before we could even think about getting decent paying ones (this coming from a 39yo collecting a British army pension for life). None the less we had a great time at the braai and we all exchanged contact information just before bidding them all farewell and returning to the house for a good nights sleep.
Epic Adventure -- Day 100 -- 7/12/2012 -- Kasane
We awoke this morning just as Karen was leaving us a note before they left for work. She informed us that we should make ourselves genuinely at home and they would return sometime in the early afternoon for lunch. Since we had nothing on our schedule for the day we browsed their DSTV box and found that they had recorded several movies. We decided to enjoy a breakfast of lasagne that Karen had left for us while watching The Expendables. When we finished the movie and our food we had showers in their outdoor bathroom, something Jenny and I both wish we had if we didn't live in Scotland! We spent the rest of the morning playing on the computer until Karen and Tiennie came back earlier than expected for lunch.
Once we had food with our hosts they went back to work and we decided to head back to the Chobe Lodge to enquire about self drive game watching and the river cruise, which Karen told us we had to do. Jenny spoke with the person at the activities counter at the lodge and convinced her that we were Botswana residents; this got us a discount on the river cruise and the game drive but we had to give the woman our passport numbers to prove we were residents. Jenny told the woman that our passports we back in Gaborone (where we apparently live) and we would phone someone to get us the numbers. We also decided that there was no time for the self drive so we had a drink at the lodge before driving back to the house to 'phone about our passports'. Jenny wanted the barman to make her the tanquaray mojito she had in Gaborone but he didn't have any of the ingredients, I suggested gin and appetiser, which is now her favourite drink. All we did once at home was make up passport numbers and use the Internet a bit more before returning to the lodge 15 minutes before the river cruise at 2:45pm.
When it was time to board the boat Jenny and I managed to get two seats right up front so we would have an unobscured view of anything directly in front of the boat. The cruise was scheduled to be a 3-hour tour (don't start singing) and for the first hour and a half we were amazed at the amount of game we managed to see. We saw red buck, baboons, fish eagles, king fishers, crocodiles galore, many many hippos all out of the water grazing because it was overcast, a few elephant and other buck. Once we had seen our fair share of game we decided to make use of the bar on the boat and ordered some wine and a castle before headed up to the upper deck to check out the view. The captain of the boat had reminded us that only 10 people we allowed on the upper deck at a time but this didn't seem to be an issue because we only found one couple when we ascended.
We struck up a conversation with the other couple (Rob and Anna) and found out they were doing a similar long trip to ours. They had started in Tanzania, where Rob is from, and were touring many of the same places in Southern Africa primarily to see lots of Rob's old school friends. The only difference was that they were doing a lot more camping and we found out they were camping in part of the Chobe River lodge. It was very refreshing to finally meet some new people on this trip who were keen to talk travels and have a few drinks. While we were on the upper deck we saw an elephant rolling and playing in the mud and watched a group of locals in a very small boat go far too close to a crocodile on the bank of the river. They even managed to beach their boat a mere 3 metres from the animal; asking to get eaten if you ask me!! Once the locals pushed off from the shore they sped around the wide portion of the river nearly running over hippos along the way. I sense a Darwin Award.
Once the locals had finished nearly killing themselves some kids belonging to a family that had joined us on the top deck began crying, screaming, and jumping on the roof. It is beyond me why this family brought their 4 and 2 year old children on a 3-hour boat cruise. Eventually the family decided to move their misbehaving children back to the main deck of the boat. When they did we were joined by another couple (Ralph and Ivette) who couldn't stand the noise these kids were making down below. We struck up a conversation with them and found out that they were recently married and were also traveling Southern Africa as part of their honeymoon.
The rest of the trip was brilliant, we all had many more drinks upstairs, the brave men venturing down to the screening children deck below to retrieve the booze. It turns out that the other two couples had either already seen or were about to see a lot of the things we had in the area, and we had all been to elephant sands, which is such a magical place. It is certainly somewhere I will make sure I return too, those elephants are just beautiful. We followed the river around the small island that has recently been deemed to be Botswana's, as there was a fight over it with Namibia, and headed back to land. When we disembarked the boat we said goodbye to Ralph, Ivette, Rob and Anna. Dan however said to me that he wasn't ready to go and eat, or to go home so we decided to walk past their campsites to the campers bar and see if we could convince them to come along.
They were all game and so we went to the bar for two rounds of drinks and some awesome conversation about the crazy things that have happened on all our travels. The sunset from the bar was just as beautiful as yesterday! Once it set we all went our separate ways for dinner with the offer to return tomorrow for a braai with Ivette and Ralph, which we will certainly be going to. We set off for the Old House restaurant for our meal, as we couldn't find anywhere else online that served dinner without a) being too expensive or b) provided a buffet. I really don't like the idea of a buffet for dinner, it seems like cheating unless its a special one for multiple meats or delicacies. I had a rump steal again which was just as yummy as the first, and Dan had a delicious vegetarian pizza that I really enjoyed :) We set off home and got back at about 9:30pm and fell asleep straight away without waiting up for Karen and Tiennie who were at a family braai. The many many drinks on the boat and at the bar caught up with us and we were exhausted, so fell into a fitful sleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.
Once we had food with our hosts they went back to work and we decided to head back to the Chobe Lodge to enquire about self drive game watching and the river cruise, which Karen told us we had to do. Jenny spoke with the person at the activities counter at the lodge and convinced her that we were Botswana residents; this got us a discount on the river cruise and the game drive but we had to give the woman our passport numbers to prove we were residents. Jenny told the woman that our passports we back in Gaborone (where we apparently live) and we would phone someone to get us the numbers. We also decided that there was no time for the self drive so we had a drink at the lodge before driving back to the house to 'phone about our passports'. Jenny wanted the barman to make her the tanquaray mojito she had in Gaborone but he didn't have any of the ingredients, I suggested gin and appetiser, which is now her favourite drink. All we did once at home was make up passport numbers and use the Internet a bit more before returning to the lodge 15 minutes before the river cruise at 2:45pm.
When it was time to board the boat Jenny and I managed to get two seats right up front so we would have an unobscured view of anything directly in front of the boat. The cruise was scheduled to be a 3-hour tour (don't start singing) and for the first hour and a half we were amazed at the amount of game we managed to see. We saw red buck, baboons, fish eagles, king fishers, crocodiles galore, many many hippos all out of the water grazing because it was overcast, a few elephant and other buck. Once we had seen our fair share of game we decided to make use of the bar on the boat and ordered some wine and a castle before headed up to the upper deck to check out the view. The captain of the boat had reminded us that only 10 people we allowed on the upper deck at a time but this didn't seem to be an issue because we only found one couple when we ascended.
We struck up a conversation with the other couple (Rob and Anna) and found out they were doing a similar long trip to ours. They had started in Tanzania, where Rob is from, and were touring many of the same places in Southern Africa primarily to see lots of Rob's old school friends. The only difference was that they were doing a lot more camping and we found out they were camping in part of the Chobe River lodge. It was very refreshing to finally meet some new people on this trip who were keen to talk travels and have a few drinks. While we were on the upper deck we saw an elephant rolling and playing in the mud and watched a group of locals in a very small boat go far too close to a crocodile on the bank of the river. They even managed to beach their boat a mere 3 metres from the animal; asking to get eaten if you ask me!! Once the locals pushed off from the shore they sped around the wide portion of the river nearly running over hippos along the way. I sense a Darwin Award.
Once the locals had finished nearly killing themselves some kids belonging to a family that had joined us on the top deck began crying, screaming, and jumping on the roof. It is beyond me why this family brought their 4 and 2 year old children on a 3-hour boat cruise. Eventually the family decided to move their misbehaving children back to the main deck of the boat. When they did we were joined by another couple (Ralph and Ivette) who couldn't stand the noise these kids were making down below. We struck up a conversation with them and found out that they were recently married and were also traveling Southern Africa as part of their honeymoon.
The rest of the trip was brilliant, we all had many more drinks upstairs, the brave men venturing down to the screening children deck below to retrieve the booze. It turns out that the other two couples had either already seen or were about to see a lot of the things we had in the area, and we had all been to elephant sands, which is such a magical place. It is certainly somewhere I will make sure I return too, those elephants are just beautiful. We followed the river around the small island that has recently been deemed to be Botswana's, as there was a fight over it with Namibia, and headed back to land. When we disembarked the boat we said goodbye to Ralph, Ivette, Rob and Anna. Dan however said to me that he wasn't ready to go and eat, or to go home so we decided to walk past their campsites to the campers bar and see if we could convince them to come along.
They were all game and so we went to the bar for two rounds of drinks and some awesome conversation about the crazy things that have happened on all our travels. The sunset from the bar was just as beautiful as yesterday! Once it set we all went our separate ways for dinner with the offer to return tomorrow for a braai with Ivette and Ralph, which we will certainly be going to. We set off for the Old House restaurant for our meal, as we couldn't find anywhere else online that served dinner without a) being too expensive or b) provided a buffet. I really don't like the idea of a buffet for dinner, it seems like cheating unless its a special one for multiple meats or delicacies. I had a rump steal again which was just as yummy as the first, and Dan had a delicious vegetarian pizza that I really enjoyed :) We set off home and got back at about 9:30pm and fell asleep straight away without waiting up for Karen and Tiennie who were at a family braai. The many many drinks on the boat and at the bar caught up with us and we were exhausted, so fell into a fitful sleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.
Epic Adventure -- Day 99 -- 6/12/2012 -- Sua Pan to Kasane
Our sleep was brilliant last night, despite being woken up very early in the morning by the owner of the house needing her handbag from the room that we were staying in. We had initially set an alarm on the phone but it died in the middle of the night so we simply slept until it seemed light enough to be the correct time. We both thought we had slept in too late but found out when we woke up it was only 8:30. Jenny had a shower while I packed some of the car; she found out when she got out of the shower that there was no towel, so she dried off by standing in front of the fan in our room haha. While I was doing some of the packing Jenny managed to connect to the Internet and caught wind of the Australian par call to Kate Middleton's hospital. We loaded the audio of the call and had a good laugh at the whole thing. When we finished, we packed the last of our things, thanked Tati for letting us stay and departed for Simons house.
Simon was already at work at the pans so we thanked his wife for her hospitality and set off for the pans to say goodbye to Simon ourselves. The road to the pans has been under construction for a while so the alternative route is a very portly maintained dirt track. The site was a bit further from town than we thought located 14km down the dirt road. On the way there we saw quite a few buck and buffalo. When we arrived the first thing we saw were the massive piles of salt, probably 20 metres high, sitting next to the factory. It became apparent when we got there that we stood very little chance of finding Simon in the midst of is industrial site so we waved to the factory in homes he was watching (haha) and continued back towards Sua Pan and the main road.
Once we had driven for a little while towards Kasane we realised that we need some breakfast and thought about stopping at the Wimpy in Nara. We decided against this and instead waited until we stopped a place called Elephant Sands that we remembered Simons wife mentioning. The entrance didn't look to promising; the road was blocked with rocks and the condition of the road leading to the lodge was appalling. Luckily we were in a 4x4 because the dry sand of this road would have been impassable in anything else. There were several places along the road where I thought we were going to get stuck but Jenny reassured me and we continued until we found the lodge.
When we arrived we were glad that we had continued along the entrance road because there were 20 or so elephants drinking from a watering hole 10 metres in front of the lodge. Jenny and I cautiously took a seat right near the edge of the veranda and watched as elephants seemed to arrive from all directions. By the time they stopped coming there must have been about 60 of them; big, small, young and old, drinking and bathing themselves within spitting distance. What a sight! After about half an hour we wandered up to the bar and found out that they served lunch. We ordered two ham and cheese sandwiches and continued watching the elephants while we waited. The elephant experience was so amazing that we didn't want to leave once we finished our food. But eventually we Realised we needed to get going and departed along the same bad road we arrived on.
A short while later we arrived in Kasane ( 2 km after crossing the 14,000 km point on our adventure) and headed straight for the computer shop that Karen and Tiennie Riekert own. We said our hellos and they gave us an Internet code so that we could update the many back-logged blog posts. We waited for them to finish work and they suggested that we all go for some drinks down by the river at the Chobe River Lodge. They told us where to go but we realised we needed to draw some money before we went for drinks. This confused both of them because they watched us pull out of the car park and head the wrong direction. Eventually we all ended up at the lodge and we walked along the river until we arrived at the Camper Bar which sits just on the banks of the river and has a fantastic view of the boat cruises and the sunset. We enjoyed 2/3 rounds of drinks with them before I sneakily paid and suggested that we take them out for dinner as a thank you for hosting us.
Karen suggested a restaurant called The Old House and we quickly agreed because they know much more about Kasane than we possibly could. When we arrived we quickly found ourselves seated at the Riekert's favourite table, a good thing too because Tiennie knew exactly how to turn off the very bright overhead light. We enjoyed a very nice meal (Rumo steak for Jenny and a Rump steak with a fried egg for me) while chatting about everything everyone had been up to since we last saw them at our wedding in October. When we finished we took care of the bill and proceeded back to Tiennie and Karens house, where I unpacked the car and we all went to sleep after a very nice first evening in Kasane.
Simon was already at work at the pans so we thanked his wife for her hospitality and set off for the pans to say goodbye to Simon ourselves. The road to the pans has been under construction for a while so the alternative route is a very portly maintained dirt track. The site was a bit further from town than we thought located 14km down the dirt road. On the way there we saw quite a few buck and buffalo. When we arrived the first thing we saw were the massive piles of salt, probably 20 metres high, sitting next to the factory. It became apparent when we got there that we stood very little chance of finding Simon in the midst of is industrial site so we waved to the factory in homes he was watching (haha) and continued back towards Sua Pan and the main road.
Once we had driven for a little while towards Kasane we realised that we need some breakfast and thought about stopping at the Wimpy in Nara. We decided against this and instead waited until we stopped a place called Elephant Sands that we remembered Simons wife mentioning. The entrance didn't look to promising; the road was blocked with rocks and the condition of the road leading to the lodge was appalling. Luckily we were in a 4x4 because the dry sand of this road would have been impassable in anything else. There were several places along the road where I thought we were going to get stuck but Jenny reassured me and we continued until we found the lodge.
When we arrived we were glad that we had continued along the entrance road because there were 20 or so elephants drinking from a watering hole 10 metres in front of the lodge. Jenny and I cautiously took a seat right near the edge of the veranda and watched as elephants seemed to arrive from all directions. By the time they stopped coming there must have been about 60 of them; big, small, young and old, drinking and bathing themselves within spitting distance. What a sight! After about half an hour we wandered up to the bar and found out that they served lunch. We ordered two ham and cheese sandwiches and continued watching the elephants while we waited. The elephant experience was so amazing that we didn't want to leave once we finished our food. But eventually we Realised we needed to get going and departed along the same bad road we arrived on.
A short while later we arrived in Kasane ( 2 km after crossing the 14,000 km point on our adventure) and headed straight for the computer shop that Karen and Tiennie Riekert own. We said our hellos and they gave us an Internet code so that we could update the many back-logged blog posts. We waited for them to finish work and they suggested that we all go for some drinks down by the river at the Chobe River Lodge. They told us where to go but we realised we needed to draw some money before we went for drinks. This confused both of them because they watched us pull out of the car park and head the wrong direction. Eventually we all ended up at the lodge and we walked along the river until we arrived at the Camper Bar which sits just on the banks of the river and has a fantastic view of the boat cruises and the sunset. We enjoyed 2/3 rounds of drinks with them before I sneakily paid and suggested that we take them out for dinner as a thank you for hosting us.
Karen suggested a restaurant called The Old House and we quickly agreed because they know much more about Kasane than we possibly could. When we arrived we quickly found ourselves seated at the Riekert's favourite table, a good thing too because Tiennie knew exactly how to turn off the very bright overhead light. We enjoyed a very nice meal (Rumo steak for Jenny and a Rump steak with a fried egg for me) while chatting about everything everyone had been up to since we last saw them at our wedding in October. When we finished we took care of the bill and proceeded back to Tiennie and Karens house, where I unpacked the car and we all went to sleep after a very nice first evening in Kasane.
Epic Adventure -- Day 98 -- 5/12/2012 -- Gaborone to Sua Pan
For the first day in quite a while we intended on leaving this morning and we actually did! When we woke up we determined that I was feeling well enough that we could drive today, so we packed the car and had one last email session so Jenny could look at the suggestions from friends pertaining to her job application letter. The maid very kindly wrapped up some of the chicken from the night before for us to take on the road and we grabbed a couple of drinks and fruit from the pantry. When we finished preparing ourselves for the trip we bid the staff farewell and got in the car to drive into town.
We told Karin and Kingsley that we would stop by their work before we left town to say one last goodbye, and also pay them back the P440 they had lent us. Unfortunately when we arrived we discovered that we had just missed them and they were out running errands. We did the next best thing we could and left them a letter thanking them for their hospitality and included the money that we owed them. We then set the sat nav for Sua Pan, a shocking 602 km away, and got going.
We spent the first 100 km or so of the drive occupied by the thought of the crash we witnessed last week. We figured there was a good chance that the crash hadn't been cleared away (many aren't for some days) and wanted to have another look at it. Disappointingly we couldn't remember exactly how far from Gaborone the crash had happened and so spent the first hour scanning the side of the road. It turns out the crash had been cleaned up and as such there was nothing to look at for the first 100 km, or the remaining 502 km. After many hours of boring driving we arrived in Sua Pan but didn't know how we could contact Simon (who we were staying with) or find his house. We stopped at a petrol station just into town and asked the people working there if they knew or knew where he lived. Neither of the women knew where he lived but they allowed us to use their phone to ring him and find out.
Upon speaking to Simon it became apparent that there had been a small mix up; he knew we were coming but didn't know that we needed a place to stay. None the less he reassured us that he would make a plan and told us where he lived so we could find his house. He was still at work so we drove to the house and parked outside and waited. Simon's wife came outside shortly after we arrived and invited us inside while we waited for him. We met all of the people in the house even though we didn't know who most of the were and had a chat in the lounge. Simon came home shortly after and we talked for a while about exactly what he does at the salt pans. We also found out that the pans produce about 50% of the ash used in making glass for the glass industry in South Africa.
Once we had our friendly introduction to everyone we went for a drive with Simon and his wife to the golf/squash club where we had a look at a golf course unlike any I had ever seen before. This golf course was built entirely on sand with the occasional patch of grass. The greens (or in this case the 'browns' ) were made by applying a small amount of oil to the sand and smoothing with a rake. The course was in dire enough shape that when Simon wanted to show us the course in depth we simply drove the car onto the grounds. Half way through our drive it began to piss with rain so we thought it wise to return to the clubhouse and settle in over some drinks. We had two rounds of drinks while we watched the rain and the amazing sunset just out the back windows of the clubhouse. From he we were told by our hosts that we would be having dinner at the club and so we moved into the adjacent room for our buffet dinner.
The food was very good, consisting of mince, pasta and chicken. The only thing that could have made dinner better, as it was very tasty, was if the food was warm :D. It was half way through dinner when we realised there was an alarm going off in the background. We asked Simon about the alarm and he told us that it goes off constantly; nobody at the club knows the code to turn it off. We tried a couple of obvious codes (1111, 1234, 0000) but none of them stopped the noise. We eventually got used to the racket and returned to the bar area for more drinks and good chat. Our hosts were brilliant and the drinks kept coming, so much so that I had to drink Jenny's last savanna. When our drinks were all finished we headed home and were shown the way to their friend Tati's house that we would be sleeping in. When we got there we bid everyone a good night and headed to sleep after a very very entertaining evening.
We told Karin and Kingsley that we would stop by their work before we left town to say one last goodbye, and also pay them back the P440 they had lent us. Unfortunately when we arrived we discovered that we had just missed them and they were out running errands. We did the next best thing we could and left them a letter thanking them for their hospitality and included the money that we owed them. We then set the sat nav for Sua Pan, a shocking 602 km away, and got going.
We spent the first 100 km or so of the drive occupied by the thought of the crash we witnessed last week. We figured there was a good chance that the crash hadn't been cleared away (many aren't for some days) and wanted to have another look at it. Disappointingly we couldn't remember exactly how far from Gaborone the crash had happened and so spent the first hour scanning the side of the road. It turns out the crash had been cleaned up and as such there was nothing to look at for the first 100 km, or the remaining 502 km. After many hours of boring driving we arrived in Sua Pan but didn't know how we could contact Simon (who we were staying with) or find his house. We stopped at a petrol station just into town and asked the people working there if they knew or knew where he lived. Neither of the women knew where he lived but they allowed us to use their phone to ring him and find out.
Upon speaking to Simon it became apparent that there had been a small mix up; he knew we were coming but didn't know that we needed a place to stay. None the less he reassured us that he would make a plan and told us where he lived so we could find his house. He was still at work so we drove to the house and parked outside and waited. Simon's wife came outside shortly after we arrived and invited us inside while we waited for him. We met all of the people in the house even though we didn't know who most of the were and had a chat in the lounge. Simon came home shortly after and we talked for a while about exactly what he does at the salt pans. We also found out that the pans produce about 50% of the ash used in making glass for the glass industry in South Africa.
Once we had our friendly introduction to everyone we went for a drive with Simon and his wife to the golf/squash club where we had a look at a golf course unlike any I had ever seen before. This golf course was built entirely on sand with the occasional patch of grass. The greens (or in this case the 'browns' ) were made by applying a small amount of oil to the sand and smoothing with a rake. The course was in dire enough shape that when Simon wanted to show us the course in depth we simply drove the car onto the grounds. Half way through our drive it began to piss with rain so we thought it wise to return to the clubhouse and settle in over some drinks. We had two rounds of drinks while we watched the rain and the amazing sunset just out the back windows of the clubhouse. From he we were told by our hosts that we would be having dinner at the club and so we moved into the adjacent room for our buffet dinner.
The food was very good, consisting of mince, pasta and chicken. The only thing that could have made dinner better, as it was very tasty, was if the food was warm :D. It was half way through dinner when we realised there was an alarm going off in the background. We asked Simon about the alarm and he told us that it goes off constantly; nobody at the club knows the code to turn it off. We tried a couple of obvious codes (1111, 1234, 0000) but none of them stopped the noise. We eventually got used to the racket and returned to the bar area for more drinks and good chat. Our hosts were brilliant and the drinks kept coming, so much so that I had to drink Jenny's last savanna. When our drinks were all finished we headed home and were shown the way to their friend Tati's house that we would be sleeping in. When we got there we bid everyone a good night and headed to sleep after a very very entertaining evening.
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 97 -- 4/12/2012 -- Gaborone
Thankfully Dan was feeling loads better this morning and ate some toast and milk with his malaria tablets. They need to be taken on a full stomach, and are best taken with something fatty, hence the milk. We had spoken to Kingsley and Karin about staying one more night at their house, because if Dan happened to get worse I wanted to be close to a hospital, and I also didn't think a 600km drive would be a good idea if he was still feeling bad. We sat in the newly painted lounge for the morning watching my new favourite program, say yes to the dress. At 12:30 when they finished we went into town to buy some more things for mum that she couldn't get in Lusaka, and some ibuprofen for Dan.
We headed straight for the Riverwalk shopping centre, and tried to find mum some poppy seeds, nuts and almond oil, but only managed to leave with the almond oil. They didn't have any of those things in Woolworths food either, but the pharmacy did have the same pink ibuprofen for Dan so it was a successful trip in my mind :) The packet of 10 pills only cost us P7, the equivalent of about 50p in the UK, which is extremely cheap for how well they work! We had lunch in Primi Piatti again, but unfortunately the pizza I chose for us to share, with bacon Brie and red onion marmalade, was dreadful. It tasted like plastic at the best of times!! I think the Brie may have been too ripe to be on the pizza, but never mind. I had two of my new favourite cocktails, the tanqueray mojitos, and we shared a chocolate brownie dessert to make up for the horrid pizza and the fact that they didn't have the haloumi starter we wanted either.
On the way home we stopped in at the Game City shopping centre to see if we could get anything else there that my parents wanted, but to no avail! What we did get was the DVD ForestGump that Dan had to convince me to buy, because I haven't ever seen it :) We headed home and I made Dan promise to help me finish my application questions and cover letter before we started watching the movie. It took a lot longer to finalise the two documents to send to everyone for spell and grammar checking than Dan would have liked, but we eventually sat down to watch Forest Gump just after 6pm. Karin and Kingsley were still not home by 7pm which confused us, until Karin's mum, who lives next door, came over to talk to us.
Turns out that Karin and Kingsley had been lead astray at Mokolodi on the way home, and asked us to prepare dinner of chicken, rice, veggies and a salad for their return in an hours time. We paused the movie and set about preparing the chicken, which turned out to taste very very much like KFC, but without all the disgusting oil. What I did was find a coating in their pantry and combine the two methods of cooking on the back, part boiling the chicken pieces for 10 minutes and then baking them with a little drizzle of olive oil over them in the oven. Dan peeled the potatoes and the carrots and I made the salad, before leaving it all to cook while we watched a bit more of our movie. Kingsley and Karin arrived home after 8, just as we were finishing up the mashing and taking the chicken out the oven.
While Dan and I were serving, the Debrowskys had a look outside at a lamp they had been bought as a wedding present, a d discussed where to put it as Karin didn't like where it was at the moment. It was right over the table next to the pizza oven, and was really very bright reflected off the white of the table. Eventually we decided that we couldn't decide where it should go, and we went in for dinner :) I was quite proud when I told them that the chicken had barely a hint of oil and yet was really juicy and tasty like KFC. After dinner we carried on watching the movie whilst they watched the news in the kitchen. They were ready to go to bed before the movie was done so Kingsley showed me how to put the alarm on and we wished them a good nights sleep!
Forest Gump was such a great movie, and I'm glad Dan convinced me to buy it! I really really enjoyed it, and if you haven't yet seen it, do yourself a favour and watch it! After the movie I checked my email and both Steve and Patricia had gotten back to me about the cover letter and questions, so Dan and I edited them both before setting the alarm and heading off to bed for the last time in Karin and Kingsley's house.
We headed straight for the Riverwalk shopping centre, and tried to find mum some poppy seeds, nuts and almond oil, but only managed to leave with the almond oil. They didn't have any of those things in Woolworths food either, but the pharmacy did have the same pink ibuprofen for Dan so it was a successful trip in my mind :) The packet of 10 pills only cost us P7, the equivalent of about 50p in the UK, which is extremely cheap for how well they work! We had lunch in Primi Piatti again, but unfortunately the pizza I chose for us to share, with bacon Brie and red onion marmalade, was dreadful. It tasted like plastic at the best of times!! I think the Brie may have been too ripe to be on the pizza, but never mind. I had two of my new favourite cocktails, the tanqueray mojitos, and we shared a chocolate brownie dessert to make up for the horrid pizza and the fact that they didn't have the haloumi starter we wanted either.
On the way home we stopped in at the Game City shopping centre to see if we could get anything else there that my parents wanted, but to no avail! What we did get was the DVD ForestGump that Dan had to convince me to buy, because I haven't ever seen it :) We headed home and I made Dan promise to help me finish my application questions and cover letter before we started watching the movie. It took a lot longer to finalise the two documents to send to everyone for spell and grammar checking than Dan would have liked, but we eventually sat down to watch Forest Gump just after 6pm. Karin and Kingsley were still not home by 7pm which confused us, until Karin's mum, who lives next door, came over to talk to us.
Turns out that Karin and Kingsley had been lead astray at Mokolodi on the way home, and asked us to prepare dinner of chicken, rice, veggies and a salad for their return in an hours time. We paused the movie and set about preparing the chicken, which turned out to taste very very much like KFC, but without all the disgusting oil. What I did was find a coating in their pantry and combine the two methods of cooking on the back, part boiling the chicken pieces for 10 minutes and then baking them with a little drizzle of olive oil over them in the oven. Dan peeled the potatoes and the carrots and I made the salad, before leaving it all to cook while we watched a bit more of our movie. Kingsley and Karin arrived home after 8, just as we were finishing up the mashing and taking the chicken out the oven.
While Dan and I were serving, the Debrowskys had a look outside at a lamp they had been bought as a wedding present, a d discussed where to put it as Karin didn't like where it was at the moment. It was right over the table next to the pizza oven, and was really very bright reflected off the white of the table. Eventually we decided that we couldn't decide where it should go, and we went in for dinner :) I was quite proud when I told them that the chicken had barely a hint of oil and yet was really juicy and tasty like KFC. After dinner we carried on watching the movie whilst they watched the news in the kitchen. They were ready to go to bed before the movie was done so Kingsley showed me how to put the alarm on and we wished them a good nights sleep!
Forest Gump was such a great movie, and I'm glad Dan convinced me to buy it! I really really enjoyed it, and if you haven't yet seen it, do yourself a favour and watch it! After the movie I checked my email and both Steve and Patricia had gotten back to me about the cover letter and questions, so Dan and I edited them both before setting the alarm and heading off to bed for the last time in Karin and Kingsley's house.
Epic Adventure -- Day 96 -- 3/12/2012 -- Gaborone
When we woke up this morning we realised that Dan was in no fit shape to be leaving today as planned, so he went to find Karin to ask if it was ok,if we stayed for an extra day. He told her all of the symptoms he was feeling, which I thought sounded very much like malaria, and her suggestion was that Dan should start taking the malaria medicine straight away that I had bought in Masvingo. I gave him the prescribed four tablets with some milk. We had planned to bundle him up in front of the tv to watch the next day of the cricket test, but unfortunately the painters from last week had started on the lounge and so had covered everything up and unplugged all the electronics. He stayed in bed instead, and slept for most of the day.
I woke him up with a sandwich I had made for his lunch a little later, of which he was only able to eat half of it. Thankfully he was really tired so just kept going back to sleep, and didn't have too much time to be sore or feel ill. I spent the day with the application again, and wrote and edited as much as I could while also checking up on Dan. The maid brought me a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich for my lunch which was just as yummy as the one we ate the other day! I was doing my application online in the office at Karin's desk because of the painting in the lounge, and it really helped with my productivity! At one stage in the afternoon I made Dan get out of bed to take a walk around the garden for some fresh air, but even the short walk tired him out!
When Karin came home and saw that Dan was still feeling really bad she game him two of her magic pink pills, that after about 30 minutes made him feel 100 times better! They turned out to be ibuprofen, and helped with the muscle aches he was feeling. I helped Karin prepare dinner, which was mash, pork chops, more delicious fresh salad and beans. Dan went to bed straight after supper and taking his malaria tablets, and I sat in the lounge working on the application till Kingsley told me to go to bed too so he could set the alarm. Dan was still sick throughout the night but the pink pills lasted till about 12 when I gave him another couple. He had also used up the remainder of our toilet paper in the night, so I went to the next door bathroom to get him some and managed to set off the house alarm, much to Karin and Kingsley's annoyance I assume! No one likes being woken up in the middle of the night, but we all went straight back to sleep till the next morning.
I woke him up with a sandwich I had made for his lunch a little later, of which he was only able to eat half of it. Thankfully he was really tired so just kept going back to sleep, and didn't have too much time to be sore or feel ill. I spent the day with the application again, and wrote and edited as much as I could while also checking up on Dan. The maid brought me a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich for my lunch which was just as yummy as the one we ate the other day! I was doing my application online in the office at Karin's desk because of the painting in the lounge, and it really helped with my productivity! At one stage in the afternoon I made Dan get out of bed to take a walk around the garden for some fresh air, but even the short walk tired him out!
When Karin came home and saw that Dan was still feeling really bad she game him two of her magic pink pills, that after about 30 minutes made him feel 100 times better! They turned out to be ibuprofen, and helped with the muscle aches he was feeling. I helped Karin prepare dinner, which was mash, pork chops, more delicious fresh salad and beans. Dan went to bed straight after supper and taking his malaria tablets, and I sat in the lounge working on the application till Kingsley told me to go to bed too so he could set the alarm. Dan was still sick throughout the night but the pink pills lasted till about 12 when I gave him another couple. He had also used up the remainder of our toilet paper in the night, so I went to the next door bathroom to get him some and managed to set off the house alarm, much to Karin and Kingsley's annoyance I assume! No one likes being woken up in the middle of the night, but we all went straight back to sleep till the next morning.
Epic Adventure -- Day 95 -- 2/12/2012 -- Gaborone
Because we had been smart enough to go home early and stop drinking long before we left the part, Dan and I were just fine this morning! :D We slept in a little bit in the morning, as did Kingsley and Karin. It is a Sunday after all :D The third day of the Australia vs South Africa cricket test was on tv, and Dan settled down with Kingsley to watch it, while I made us all scrambled eggs with chives and toast for breakfast. I spent most of the morning sorting out parts of my application and cover letter to the university. Dan helped Kingsley set up an electricity reader he had bought, because they were concerned that one of the three phases was overloaded. I downloaded the program onto the pc that would allow the readers data to be uploaded, and also downloaded adobe reader so that the program could function.
Dan felt quite winded and tired at noon, so he went and had a nap for the rest of the afternoon. I spent all of that time writing the cover letter, so it was tailored to the specific qualities and experience the university wants for the position. Kingsley spent the afternoon playing with the fuse board, and kept switching sections on and off to try to solve the phase issue. The particular wire that he was concerned with was extremely hot in comparison to the other two, and as they live in a thatched house which would go up in flames in a matter of minutes if one of the wires caught fire, I completely understand his concern.
Karin had taken some per cooked mince out of the freezer for dinner, and put it on to cook at around half 6. I set about cooking the pasta for spaghetti bolognaise and grated the cheese. I had to go and get Dan for dinner just after 7, as he had been reading and sleeping in our room for all of the afternoon. He really didn't feel very well, but I made him eat some dinner with all of us which was very tasty, and much ap
Recited as we had had breakfast quite late so hadn't had any lunch. At 8:00pm kinglys decided that we all had to go to bed because he was very worried about the wire, and once we were in our bedroom he shut off all the power. Dan was pretty happy to go back to sleep after taking some sudafed, but I wasn't tired at all so I read an entire book on my iPad (it's backlit) until just after 12, when I finally went to sleep too.
Dan felt quite winded and tired at noon, so he went and had a nap for the rest of the afternoon. I spent all of that time writing the cover letter, so it was tailored to the specific qualities and experience the university wants for the position. Kingsley spent the afternoon playing with the fuse board, and kept switching sections on and off to try to solve the phase issue. The particular wire that he was concerned with was extremely hot in comparison to the other two, and as they live in a thatched house which would go up in flames in a matter of minutes if one of the wires caught fire, I completely understand his concern.
Karin had taken some per cooked mince out of the freezer for dinner, and put it on to cook at around half 6. I set about cooking the pasta for spaghetti bolognaise and grated the cheese. I had to go and get Dan for dinner just after 7, as he had been reading and sleeping in our room for all of the afternoon. He really didn't feel very well, but I made him eat some dinner with all of us which was very tasty, and much ap
Recited as we had had breakfast quite late so hadn't had any lunch. At 8:00pm kinglys decided that we all had to go to bed because he was very worried about the wire, and once we were in our bedroom he shut off all the power. Dan was pretty happy to go back to sleep after taking some sudafed, but I wasn't tired at all so I read an entire book on my iPad (it's backlit) until just after 12, when I finally went to sleep too.
Epic Adventure -- Day 94 -- 1/12/2012 -- Gaborone
We slept fairly well last night with the exception of an annoying bird that perched itself outside our window at 4:00am and didn't leave. We didn't get much sleep listening to "Tswee!!!!! Tswee!!!!!!" every three seconds. Jenny finally convinced me to go outside and throw rocks at the bird until it got the message to stay away. Unfortunately when I went outside I managed to set off the house alarm, also waking Kingsley and Karin! After that we finished our nights sleep with one ear listening out for the annoying bird. Karen and Kingsley woke us up at about 8:30am and asked if we wanted to come with them to a local craft fair. We decided we would join them because we didn't really have anything else planned. We left the house in Kingsley's truck and stopped along the way to pick up Kingsley's grandson Logan, who is two and gets to spend every Saturday with his grandfather.
We arrived at the car fair and it looked promising. There was a very talented marimba band playing just inside the gates and there seemed to be endless stalls. None of us had eaten any breakfast so we stopped at one of the first food stalls and bought 6 pancakes for everyone to share. They were very good! Upon finishing our food we discovered that the craft fair wasn't all that it promised. The stalls tended to be drastically overpriced and spent most of the time meeting endless friends of Karen and Kingsley's, so many so that we couldn't remember anybody's name! Jenny and I didn't buy anything from the craft fair and we all eventually departed to head into town and drop of some water samples from their pool at a lab for testing. At this point we started throwing around ideas for lunch and eventually we decided to go and eat at Mokolodi lodge.
When we arrived for lunch we met another huge group of their friends and once again forgot everyone's name instantly :). We sat down at a table for about 15 peope and ordered drinks. Jenny had a frozen margarita, or as the waitress called it "the cold one" and I had a castle. It turned out that it wasn't frozen, instead it was just cold! Never mind :) The longer that we sat and sipped our drinks the more apparent it became that our lunch was going to turn into a full-day affair. I had another castle, and another, and another and another. By this time I decided I should stop drinking if I wanted to stay on my feet and luckily our food arrived at about the same time. I had a dish called Mokolodi pasta and Jenny had a carbonara pasta. We had been chatting for the duration of the gathering with Adam and Kate who were near our age and found out that they were going to a pirates of the Caribbean themed party at the Gaborone yacht club and there were a few extra tickets for us. We arranged with Kingsley that one of the guards from his house would drive us to town and pick us up from the party before our friends departed for the afternoon.
Once the large table of people had left we found ourselves sharing drinks with several other groups of the Dobrowsky's friends at the lodge. We had a look at the newly built coffee shop and had even more drinks. At this point Jenny and I were starting to have trouble staying awake because of how long we had been out and our early start this morning, and we glad to finally leave the lodge at 18:30! This was about the time that we had intended to arrive at the pirates party, so we stopped back at the house and had a quick shower before calling Felix to drive us to the yacht club. Along the way we stopped at Jeff Dunlop Jones' house quite close to the lodge to pick up Adam, Kate and Jeff. From there we proceeded into town to the yacht club. When we arrived it was clear that only a small portion of the guests decided to dress as pirates but even so the vibe at the club was still good. We went to the bar to order our first drink and found out that everyone at the party got a free vodka and lemonade when they arrived!
Our free drink started our night off on a good note and the drinks kept flowing; including tequila, coffee vodka, caramel vodka and more beers and ciders. The music also got progressively better as the night passed, moving from oldies to more recent songs that everyone there knew the lyrics to. Jenny ordered us a burger and chips and wound up getting an extra free plate of chips when the order came, just what we needed considering the amount of drinks. About this time Jenny also moved on to drinking vodka redbull to stay awake! We carried on dancing and acting like drunken idiots until we decided we had had enough just after 10pm. At this point we phoned Felix to come and fetch the two of us, as Jeff assured us that Felix wouldn't mind making a second trip to pick the rest of them up. Felix took a bit longer than we hoped and arrived at 11:00pm, but by that stage we had been drinking water and felt brilliant on the way home, a good thing because of how atrociously bumpy the road was to the yacht club! Once we arrived home we headed straight to bed, thankful it was still fairly early in the evening :)
We arrived at the car fair and it looked promising. There was a very talented marimba band playing just inside the gates and there seemed to be endless stalls. None of us had eaten any breakfast so we stopped at one of the first food stalls and bought 6 pancakes for everyone to share. They were very good! Upon finishing our food we discovered that the craft fair wasn't all that it promised. The stalls tended to be drastically overpriced and spent most of the time meeting endless friends of Karen and Kingsley's, so many so that we couldn't remember anybody's name! Jenny and I didn't buy anything from the craft fair and we all eventually departed to head into town and drop of some water samples from their pool at a lab for testing. At this point we started throwing around ideas for lunch and eventually we decided to go and eat at Mokolodi lodge.
When we arrived for lunch we met another huge group of their friends and once again forgot everyone's name instantly :). We sat down at a table for about 15 peope and ordered drinks. Jenny had a frozen margarita, or as the waitress called it "the cold one" and I had a castle. It turned out that it wasn't frozen, instead it was just cold! Never mind :) The longer that we sat and sipped our drinks the more apparent it became that our lunch was going to turn into a full-day affair. I had another castle, and another, and another and another. By this time I decided I should stop drinking if I wanted to stay on my feet and luckily our food arrived at about the same time. I had a dish called Mokolodi pasta and Jenny had a carbonara pasta. We had been chatting for the duration of the gathering with Adam and Kate who were near our age and found out that they were going to a pirates of the Caribbean themed party at the Gaborone yacht club and there were a few extra tickets for us. We arranged with Kingsley that one of the guards from his house would drive us to town and pick us up from the party before our friends departed for the afternoon.
Once the large table of people had left we found ourselves sharing drinks with several other groups of the Dobrowsky's friends at the lodge. We had a look at the newly built coffee shop and had even more drinks. At this point Jenny and I were starting to have trouble staying awake because of how long we had been out and our early start this morning, and we glad to finally leave the lodge at 18:30! This was about the time that we had intended to arrive at the pirates party, so we stopped back at the house and had a quick shower before calling Felix to drive us to the yacht club. Along the way we stopped at Jeff Dunlop Jones' house quite close to the lodge to pick up Adam, Kate and Jeff. From there we proceeded into town to the yacht club. When we arrived it was clear that only a small portion of the guests decided to dress as pirates but even so the vibe at the club was still good. We went to the bar to order our first drink and found out that everyone at the party got a free vodka and lemonade when they arrived!
Our free drink started our night off on a good note and the drinks kept flowing; including tequila, coffee vodka, caramel vodka and more beers and ciders. The music also got progressively better as the night passed, moving from oldies to more recent songs that everyone there knew the lyrics to. Jenny ordered us a burger and chips and wound up getting an extra free plate of chips when the order came, just what we needed considering the amount of drinks. About this time Jenny also moved on to drinking vodka redbull to stay awake! We carried on dancing and acting like drunken idiots until we decided we had had enough just after 10pm. At this point we phoned Felix to come and fetch the two of us, as Jeff assured us that Felix wouldn't mind making a second trip to pick the rest of them up. Felix took a bit longer than we hoped and arrived at 11:00pm, but by that stage we had been drinking water and felt brilliant on the way home, a good thing because of how atrociously bumpy the road was to the yacht club! Once we arrived home we headed straight to bed, thankful it was still fairly early in the evening :)
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