So needless to say both of us woke up this morning with sore heads and a fuzzy recollection of the past evenings proceedings. We had a slight lie in before rousing ourselves for some showers, tea and coffee. We spent a good deal of the morning sitting on the front porch looking through photos that Nigel had from when the Beales lived in town. Nigel even brought out the old school register for one of the first years that Jenny's primary school was in operation. We were all in a pretty sad state so after we finished looking at photos and drinking copious amounts of coffee we decided it would be smart to go out for some breakfast.
We drove into town and headed for a small restaurant called Barcelos, which appeared to be a Botswanan rip off of the South African Nando's, with the same items on the menu, and even the same "peri-peri" sauces. On the drive into town we stopped along the road and chatted with some members of the rotary club who were preparing Santa's donkey-pulled vegetable wagon for his visit to local children (this is Africa, and I was too hungover at the time to realise how funny this actually was). Once we placed our orders at Barcelos the true extent of our hungover state became apparent. All we could do was lounge back in the comfy chairs and move as little as possible, we found if we didn't move the impulse to be sick was reduced by at least 2%.
My breakfast was a preto roll with chips and Dan had a chicken shwarma, basically a chicken pita. After just the first bite of carbs I felt sooooo much better, as I know Dan did, and we devoured the remainder of the meal. We drove over to the Lesters house for tea afterwards, and to find out how Alex was feeling. She was actually ok as she had stopped drinking much earlier than we has because she was driving. The house that they live in actually used to be one of the three houses I lived in when we lived in Phikwe, and I remember having my first day at school photos on that porch! One of Alex's friends arrived to join us for tea, along with her cute one year old son, who kept doing 'big ups" to everyone, this being the baby version of a fist pump.
After sitting and chatting for a while we drove the 50 metres back to Nigel's house to be generally lazy at home and relax on the porch with the internet and have a nap until the rugby. Alex arrived at 4:00pm with a cooler box of food in tow, and we again preparing the rolls and salad before th rugby started at 4:30pm. Low and Johan(or Hi as we liked to call him, not because he was but because he was the opposite of Low) arrived just before kick off and we settled down to watch the match. Nigel got the braai going and while the match was going on we had some sausages cooking for our lunch/ early dinner. Nigel had insisted on boiling the onions and not frying them, and because they the tasted like nothing at all Di, Alex and I decided to put them into the salsa and dressed it up with sauce to give it more flavour.
The rolls were delicious and it was at about the same time that we were all eating that the stupid tv reception kept cutting out. We tried turning the whole system on and off but that only worked once, and we ended up not being able to watch the end of the match. The only signal that was interrupted was the rugby signal, all the other channels worked! I kept track of the score on'ine and South Africa ended up beating England 16 - 15, obviously as we are totally awesome. Di, Nigel and I watched a cool scifi movie called Alien vs Predator, which Di knew far too much about as she had seen it three times in the last few weeks :D
Dan, Alex, Hi and Low were all sat at the bar half watching the movie but also drinking and playing shit head (it's a card game for all who don't know). I refused to drink any form of alcohol dispite countless offers and encouragement from the rest of them as I have decided to never drink again. Obviously this will not last, but it's worth a try!! Di left just after the movie and Nigel and I watched tv while everyone else played card games and drank. Hi left a bit later and Alex and Low stayed till about 9:00pm. When they left Nigel and I retired for the night and Dan stayed and watched X-men before heading to bed.
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 86 -- 23/11/2012 -- Modumela Lodge to Selebi Phikwe
This morning we woke up early in an attempt to go on another run but soon discovered that our aching legs were not up to the task. We decided that rather than admit defeat we would at least go on a brisk walk around the grounds and sprint the last leg back to the cabin. It's a good thing we decided on this method of exercise because despite rigorous stretching my legs felt like they we going to fall off. Once we finished our morning walk we set to work packing the bags on the morning of our departure once again. Jenny packed while I showered and I packed while she showered, and in no time the car was loaded and ready to go. When we had finished our final check of the cabin we locked up and took the keys up to the main lodge to have breakfast.
We had a very large breakfast of scrambled, boiled and poached eggs with bacon, toast and mushrooms. Clive joined us at the table briefly to say his farewell and set off to finish building the foundation of the next lodge. I settled our weekly account with June and she was nice enough to leave the Internet on for a while longer so we could phone Lesley and buy a Groupon deal for one wonderful four star night accommodation in Simons Town, that was more than half the price off! Once we finished with all of our Internet related inquiries we said a final farewell to our hosts and hit the road for Selebi Phikwe.
The drive turned out to be shorter than we anticipated and it only took us about 2 and a half hours before we were in the centre of town. Jenny was constantly pointing out buildings and landmarks she remembered from her childhood here. Hunger had started to set in by the time we arrived so we pulled off the main street into a long shopping mall where we walked the length looking for a place to eat. Once we had done a once up and once down of the shopping centre we decided to eat at a pizza place called Giovannis where Jenny had her 7th birthday party. The pizza was amazing and we could tell we were in desperate need of food. After having lunch we picked up some drinks and we drove to Jenny's old school and had a look from the street before driving off to find Nigel Bellamy's house.
We were armed with no phone number and no street address, it was also early in the day and we were unlikely to find Nigel at home. Jenny had me driving all around Phikwe claiming that she would recognise the house when we saw it. Eventually I convinced her to phone Lesley and find out where we were going. It turned out that we had passed the Bellamy's house a few minutes earlier but they had redone their driveway and Jenny didn't recognise it. We pulled up out front and spoke to one of the maids who told us that Nigel was at work and his wife was in the UK. So we headed off to kill some time until he returned.
Jenny took me on a tour of the town, stopping by the house that she remembered living in. We climbed to the top of a coppie (large rock outcrop) next to the house and had a birds eye view of Phikwe through the dense smog from the sulphur mine. We spent a few minutes trying to find some rock paintings before departing for the riding club. We had a short drive around the grounds of the riding club before running out of things to do. At this point I searched the sat nav for nearby casinos to waste a little bit of time and found one only 500 metres down the road. We decided to head there and put 100 Pula on a card to play slots. It took us nearly 2 hours to lose the money playing a slot machine we didn't really understand for 1t a pull. Once we had our fill of the casino we headed next door to a spur where we had some frankly awful malted milkshakes (all I could think of was malt extract from brewing) and then drive back to the Bellamy house to wait for Nigel.
When we arrived back at the house there was still no sign of Nigel so we parked the car and had a beer each while we waited. At about the time we were discussing where we would be sleeping tonight Nigel pulled into the driveway and Jenny ran after to greet him. Nigel didn't see her coming and got a bit of a fright! His day at work had been riddled with problems and he desperately wanted some drinks, we agreed. So we sat down at the Bellamy's bar and had some more beer while we chatted about our travels. Alex Lester phoned from just down the road a few minutes after we arrived and Nigel invited her over to join us for drinks. Once Alex had joined us we soon decided to move the drinking session to a local pub; interestingly the pub attached to the casino we had visited.
Alex offered to drive and as such wasn't drinking. Unfortunately it took several rounds of tequilas before we seemed to remember this and I kept having to do the extra shot. Jenny even got involved in the drinking which she doesn't do very often. Drinks began to blur together and we found ourselves leaving the pub, quite pissed, at 22:53!! (every pub in Botswana closes at 22:00 on a weekday and 23:00 on a weekend) neither Jenny or I remember much of the ride home or what we did when we got there, all we know is we fell asleep.
We had a very large breakfast of scrambled, boiled and poached eggs with bacon, toast and mushrooms. Clive joined us at the table briefly to say his farewell and set off to finish building the foundation of the next lodge. I settled our weekly account with June and she was nice enough to leave the Internet on for a while longer so we could phone Lesley and buy a Groupon deal for one wonderful four star night accommodation in Simons Town, that was more than half the price off! Once we finished with all of our Internet related inquiries we said a final farewell to our hosts and hit the road for Selebi Phikwe.
The drive turned out to be shorter than we anticipated and it only took us about 2 and a half hours before we were in the centre of town. Jenny was constantly pointing out buildings and landmarks she remembered from her childhood here. Hunger had started to set in by the time we arrived so we pulled off the main street into a long shopping mall where we walked the length looking for a place to eat. Once we had done a once up and once down of the shopping centre we decided to eat at a pizza place called Giovannis where Jenny had her 7th birthday party. The pizza was amazing and we could tell we were in desperate need of food. After having lunch we picked up some drinks and we drove to Jenny's old school and had a look from the street before driving off to find Nigel Bellamy's house.
We were armed with no phone number and no street address, it was also early in the day and we were unlikely to find Nigel at home. Jenny had me driving all around Phikwe claiming that she would recognise the house when we saw it. Eventually I convinced her to phone Lesley and find out where we were going. It turned out that we had passed the Bellamy's house a few minutes earlier but they had redone their driveway and Jenny didn't recognise it. We pulled up out front and spoke to one of the maids who told us that Nigel was at work and his wife was in the UK. So we headed off to kill some time until he returned.
Jenny took me on a tour of the town, stopping by the house that she remembered living in. We climbed to the top of a coppie (large rock outcrop) next to the house and had a birds eye view of Phikwe through the dense smog from the sulphur mine. We spent a few minutes trying to find some rock paintings before departing for the riding club. We had a short drive around the grounds of the riding club before running out of things to do. At this point I searched the sat nav for nearby casinos to waste a little bit of time and found one only 500 metres down the road. We decided to head there and put 100 Pula on a card to play slots. It took us nearly 2 hours to lose the money playing a slot machine we didn't really understand for 1t a pull. Once we had our fill of the casino we headed next door to a spur where we had some frankly awful malted milkshakes (all I could think of was malt extract from brewing) and then drive back to the Bellamy house to wait for Nigel.
When we arrived back at the house there was still no sign of Nigel so we parked the car and had a beer each while we waited. At about the time we were discussing where we would be sleeping tonight Nigel pulled into the driveway and Jenny ran after to greet him. Nigel didn't see her coming and got a bit of a fright! His day at work had been riddled with problems and he desperately wanted some drinks, we agreed. So we sat down at the Bellamy's bar and had some more beer while we chatted about our travels. Alex Lester phoned from just down the road a few minutes after we arrived and Nigel invited her over to join us for drinks. Once Alex had joined us we soon decided to move the drinking session to a local pub; interestingly the pub attached to the casino we had visited.
Alex offered to drive and as such wasn't drinking. Unfortunately it took several rounds of tequilas before we seemed to remember this and I kept having to do the extra shot. Jenny even got involved in the drinking which she doesn't do very often. Drinks began to blur together and we found ourselves leaving the pub, quite pissed, at 22:53!! (every pub in Botswana closes at 22:00 on a weekday and 23:00 on a weekend) neither Jenny or I remember much of the ride home or what we did when we got there, all we know is we fell asleep.
Monday, 26 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 85 -- 22/11/2012 -- Modumela Lodge
Our sleep last night was less than ideal due to the very strong winds in the middle of the night. In an attempt to avoid the intense heat we had left the bedroom windows open and the wind swept through the house and rattled everything that wasn't nailed down. We had intended on waking up early this morning to go on another run but when the alarm went off at 6:30 both of had barely gotten any sleep and so decided to turn the alarm off and skip the early run. We slept for another 2 hours and then headed up to breakfast. Clive joined us at the breakfast table for a few minutes and asked what our plans were for the day.
Breakfast was yet again delicious, eggs mushrooms and sausages and the customary cup of tea and coffee. Because it was our last full day here we decided to drive to the Dombashaba ruins about 40kms away, a smaller version of the great Zimbabwe ruins. It was overcast and a little rainy as we set off, but as water is a scarce resource in Africa it was nothing to grumble about. The road to the next town along was tarred, but as soon as we turned off to head the remaining 30kms to the ruins, we were rattled along to within an inch of our lives! The road was atrocious, not flat at all but instead was the consistency of corrugated iron sheets, and so juddered us along no matter if we were driving at 10kms or 50kms per hour. We actually found this really hysterical and laughed about how terrible the road was for almost the whole trip there.
We eventually found our way with the map and say nav to where we thought the ruins were, which is when we encountered a closed, locked and barbed wired gate. Dan was ready to turn around and go home, but I pulled the gate towards us and climbed over the lock in the middle and made Dan come with. The ruins were a few hundred metres from the gate and clearly they used to have guards there and a ticket office, but it seems abandoned now. We read the blurb on the site, which is related to the great Zimbabwe ruins, just a smaller posting than that, and climbed the small hill to get to the chief of the tribes old dwelling. After investigating to our hearts content we scrambled back over the gate and headed back down the spine shattering road.
When we got back to the main tarred road we crossed straight over in search of the giant fig tree June had told us about. We had some trouble finding it but thankfully eventually did. It's massive! The trunk is 4 metres round and the branches spread an amazing 45 metres in diameter! I think it must be really old! On the way back we stopped in a little corner shop that turned out didn't sell anything at all according to the man there, even though we could see his stock, so instead we went to the supermarket on the main road and bought pasta and soup for Dan's lunch. I got a chocolate bar :D
We arrived back at about half two and Dan had his pasta. We went up to the main lodge to use the internet again and watch some tv, and I also cut up our large yummy watermelon for snacks. The sunset that evening was really beautiful because of all the clouds, and we were graced with the presence of a large male Kudu and three small impala. Clive had started the day really early to lay the foundations on the new cabin and went to sleep early, so we ate our dinner with June. Starters were basted mushrooms and a little sauce, the main course were delicious chicken wings and drumsticks with potatoes and cheesy broccoli, and dessert was the same amazing pineapple cheesecake. After talking all about our wonderful day of adventuring, we went to enjoy our last night of sleep in our cabin at Modumela lodge.
Breakfast was yet again delicious, eggs mushrooms and sausages and the customary cup of tea and coffee. Because it was our last full day here we decided to drive to the Dombashaba ruins about 40kms away, a smaller version of the great Zimbabwe ruins. It was overcast and a little rainy as we set off, but as water is a scarce resource in Africa it was nothing to grumble about. The road to the next town along was tarred, but as soon as we turned off to head the remaining 30kms to the ruins, we were rattled along to within an inch of our lives! The road was atrocious, not flat at all but instead was the consistency of corrugated iron sheets, and so juddered us along no matter if we were driving at 10kms or 50kms per hour. We actually found this really hysterical and laughed about how terrible the road was for almost the whole trip there.
We eventually found our way with the map and say nav to where we thought the ruins were, which is when we encountered a closed, locked and barbed wired gate. Dan was ready to turn around and go home, but I pulled the gate towards us and climbed over the lock in the middle and made Dan come with. The ruins were a few hundred metres from the gate and clearly they used to have guards there and a ticket office, but it seems abandoned now. We read the blurb on the site, which is related to the great Zimbabwe ruins, just a smaller posting than that, and climbed the small hill to get to the chief of the tribes old dwelling. After investigating to our hearts content we scrambled back over the gate and headed back down the spine shattering road.
When we got back to the main tarred road we crossed straight over in search of the giant fig tree June had told us about. We had some trouble finding it but thankfully eventually did. It's massive! The trunk is 4 metres round and the branches spread an amazing 45 metres in diameter! I think it must be really old! On the way back we stopped in a little corner shop that turned out didn't sell anything at all according to the man there, even though we could see his stock, so instead we went to the supermarket on the main road and bought pasta and soup for Dan's lunch. I got a chocolate bar :D
We arrived back at about half two and Dan had his pasta. We went up to the main lodge to use the internet again and watch some tv, and I also cut up our large yummy watermelon for snacks. The sunset that evening was really beautiful because of all the clouds, and we were graced with the presence of a large male Kudu and three small impala. Clive had started the day really early to lay the foundations on the new cabin and went to sleep early, so we ate our dinner with June. Starters were basted mushrooms and a little sauce, the main course were delicious chicken wings and drumsticks with potatoes and cheesy broccoli, and dessert was the same amazing pineapple cheesecake. After talking all about our wonderful day of adventuring, we went to enjoy our last night of sleep in our cabin at Modumela lodge.
Epic Adventure -- Day 84 -- 21/11/2012 -- Modumela Lodge
Our decision to use the wet towels last night for some respite from the heat did just the trick and we slept fine. We had been getting so far behind on these posts that we took the iPad with us to breakfast in an attempt to get some writing done. Breakfast was again scrambled and poached eggs with bacon and Jenny took some of the leftover toast and jam for a snack towards lunch. Our plan to get some writing done quickly backfired when June let us know that she would leave the wireless router on so we could use the Internet; well that was the end of the productivity. We finished up our breakfast and Jenny wanted to use the iPad to Skype her mom and her sister.
Unfortunately the Internet signal wasn't quite strong enough for a clear Skype conversation. Jenny spent about an hour talking to each of them but never more than 45 consecutive seconds connected before Skype would drop the call. They kept reminding themselves that it was free but even I was getting frustrated listening to the whole ordeal haha. Eventually when Jenny finished her phone calls I decided I should try to phone my dad. The call that I made was riddled with just as many interruptions and we decided we would try and talk more in depth when we found access to better Internet. I walked back to the house to get the computer while Jenny took the iPad back to do some browsing on Pintrest.
Dan spent a good deal of time in the afternoon researching mortgage loans and building a loan calculator on Microsoft Excel. He also used his time researching properties for sale in St. Andrews that could be in our possible budget on our return to the UK. We had been deprived of any prolonged exposure to the Internet since staying in Harare and ended up not leaving the lodge all afternoon. It rained for about five minutes half way through the afternoon, bringing with it the gorgeous fresh just rained smell I remember so well from when we used to live here.
We spent the hour before dinner sitting out on the deck enjoying a couple of drinks and watching the sun set. The view is really beautiful from up here, especially as the sun sets and a few animals pop by for a drink. Dinner with our amazing hosts started at 7pm as usual, and we sat down to enjoy the braai the cooks had prepared for us. We ate boerwors, steak and potatoes for our main, and for dessert they served a delicious pineapple cheesecake!! It was divine, and I may have had an extra slice :D
We sat and chatted to Clive and June after dinner about the lodge. A little while ago they had installed mains electricity to the lodge whereas before they ran on generator power. Unfortunately, soon after the electricity wires were put up, they had a massive thunder storm, and a bolt of lightning truck the tower and ran the last length of wire till it hit the last thatched chalet on the property, and it promptly burst into flame! They couldn't save it, and when we went walking down there earlier to have a look, the devastation is incredible! There's literally nothing at all left of the chalet, bar ashes, twisted up melted glass and a burnt fire extinguisher. Lightning can be such a beautiful and yet devastating force! The rest of the chalets are thankfully just fine, and Clive is in the process of building a new brick cabin to replace the one they lost. We retired to bed after our fascinating conversation at about 10pm.
Unfortunately the Internet signal wasn't quite strong enough for a clear Skype conversation. Jenny spent about an hour talking to each of them but never more than 45 consecutive seconds connected before Skype would drop the call. They kept reminding themselves that it was free but even I was getting frustrated listening to the whole ordeal haha. Eventually when Jenny finished her phone calls I decided I should try to phone my dad. The call that I made was riddled with just as many interruptions and we decided we would try and talk more in depth when we found access to better Internet. I walked back to the house to get the computer while Jenny took the iPad back to do some browsing on Pintrest.
Dan spent a good deal of time in the afternoon researching mortgage loans and building a loan calculator on Microsoft Excel. He also used his time researching properties for sale in St. Andrews that could be in our possible budget on our return to the UK. We had been deprived of any prolonged exposure to the Internet since staying in Harare and ended up not leaving the lodge all afternoon. It rained for about five minutes half way through the afternoon, bringing with it the gorgeous fresh just rained smell I remember so well from when we used to live here.
We spent the hour before dinner sitting out on the deck enjoying a couple of drinks and watching the sun set. The view is really beautiful from up here, especially as the sun sets and a few animals pop by for a drink. Dinner with our amazing hosts started at 7pm as usual, and we sat down to enjoy the braai the cooks had prepared for us. We ate boerwors, steak and potatoes for our main, and for dessert they served a delicious pineapple cheesecake!! It was divine, and I may have had an extra slice :D
We sat and chatted to Clive and June after dinner about the lodge. A little while ago they had installed mains electricity to the lodge whereas before they ran on generator power. Unfortunately, soon after the electricity wires were put up, they had a massive thunder storm, and a bolt of lightning truck the tower and ran the last length of wire till it hit the last thatched chalet on the property, and it promptly burst into flame! They couldn't save it, and when we went walking down there earlier to have a look, the devastation is incredible! There's literally nothing at all left of the chalet, bar ashes, twisted up melted glass and a burnt fire extinguisher. Lightning can be such a beautiful and yet devastating force! The rest of the chalets are thankfully just fine, and Clive is in the process of building a new brick cabin to replace the one they lost. We retired to bed after our fascinating conversation at about 10pm.
Sunday, 25 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 83 -- 20/11/2012 -- Modumela Lodge
Last night Jenny and I had decided that we needed to be a bit better about exercising while on this trip and so we agreed to wake up early and go on a short run this morning. We set the alarm for 6:30 and I woke up and made some coffee and tea for us before we set off. Wile I was standing outside the house there were a ton of animals from the surrounding veld at the damn including warthog; guess you have to be awake early to see them. We stretched for a few minutes and finished our drinks before setting off on our run down the same path that we drove down a few days ago.
I cannot say that we were brilliant but our run didn't go too bad for people who haven't run in a very long time. We returned to the house and stretched to cool down before each having a shower. We were still very early to go to breakfast so we wasted time by watching some tv and having another tea and coffee. Once it was an acceptable time we walked to the main lodge for our breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs, tea and coffee. By this time in the week we were really running out of things to do, so we simply headed back to our lodge where we turned on the tv and relaxed for the duration of the afternoon.
Jenny stayed in the lounge and watched a few episodes of top gear with me while we played a few games of Jenga. Shortly after noon she retired to the bedroom to read some of her book on the iPad and I continued watching tv. At about 15:00 I was startled out of my seat by a horrific gust of wind from outside that blew open the door to the lodge, sent paperwork flying and was accompanied my a series of almighty crashes. I ran outside to see what was happening and was confronted by a dust devil about 20 meters from the front door. The almighty crash that I heard was the sound of the sun umbrellas being picked up and thrown on top of the lodge, gauging the thatched roof. Jenny continued reading through all of this while I tried to put the place back together. A little while latter, at about the same time that Jenny finished her entire book, Clive stopped by to let us know that they would not be joining us for dinner.
Our dinner was a brilliant starter of spinach pastry, followed by a type of chicken strip main and finished off with cheesecake. I have to say that the food so far this week has been nothing short of amazing. We had a couple of drinks while we watched the animals around the damn before heading home and attempting to go to sleep. I say attempting because the night was blisteringly hot and we had to resort to laying wet towels over ourselves so we stood a chance of being comfortable.
I cannot say that we were brilliant but our run didn't go too bad for people who haven't run in a very long time. We returned to the house and stretched to cool down before each having a shower. We were still very early to go to breakfast so we wasted time by watching some tv and having another tea and coffee. Once it was an acceptable time we walked to the main lodge for our breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs, tea and coffee. By this time in the week we were really running out of things to do, so we simply headed back to our lodge where we turned on the tv and relaxed for the duration of the afternoon.
Jenny stayed in the lounge and watched a few episodes of top gear with me while we played a few games of Jenga. Shortly after noon she retired to the bedroom to read some of her book on the iPad and I continued watching tv. At about 15:00 I was startled out of my seat by a horrific gust of wind from outside that blew open the door to the lodge, sent paperwork flying and was accompanied my a series of almighty crashes. I ran outside to see what was happening and was confronted by a dust devil about 20 meters from the front door. The almighty crash that I heard was the sound of the sun umbrellas being picked up and thrown on top of the lodge, gauging the thatched roof. Jenny continued reading through all of this while I tried to put the place back together. A little while latter, at about the same time that Jenny finished her entire book, Clive stopped by to let us know that they would not be joining us for dinner.
Our dinner was a brilliant starter of spinach pastry, followed by a type of chicken strip main and finished off with cheesecake. I have to say that the food so far this week has been nothing short of amazing. We had a couple of drinks while we watched the animals around the damn before heading home and attempting to go to sleep. I say attempting because the night was blisteringly hot and we had to resort to laying wet towels over ourselves so we stood a chance of being comfortable.
Epic Adventure -- Day 82 -- 19/11/2012 -- Modumela Lodge
After waking up and slowly gettig ready we meandered our way over to the main lodge for breakfast. Today we got some of the mince that went into the shepards pie last night for breakfast, along with scrambled eggs for me and poached and boiled eggs for Dan. I also got his tomato :D The mince was delicious with the eggs on toast! We played around on the Internet for a little while before getting ready to go to Francistown. We set the sat nav straight for June's suggestion of the Galo shopping centre.
When we arrived the first thing we needed was more cash, and enough to pay our food and drinks tab at Modumela Lodge. The first cash machine we went to really scared us, as non of our cards worked from any of the banks, it just kept telling us that we were over our daily limit, which we weren't! Thankfully we went upstairs to a Barclays machine and it gave us what we asked for from the Clydesdale account straight away. We then went to browse the shops, stopping to look at all the monopoly sets and some books in CNA before moving on to Wolworths. For some reason Wolworths in Southern Africa is paired with Marks and Spencer's in the UK, so you can buy Percy pigs sweeties there, which of course I did :)
We walked around to more of the shops for a little while, waiting for Dan to finish his red bull before going into Pick and Pay. We bought a watermelon, some delicious biltong, smoked pork ribs for a lunch, some small Ceres drinks for me to freeze (they make great sorbets!) and a bottle of J C Le Roix champagne that we had not yet seen or tasted. We drove home straight after buying all our things in Pick and Pay, and spent the last little bit of the afternoon watching tv and also doing sit ups and push ups!
Dinner up at the lodge was at 7:00pm as usual, and we went up a little earlier to watch the sun set over the dam. We were graced with the presence of three little impala before June and Clive arrived. We opened the bottle of pinot noir rose 2007 champagne, which was slightly sweet, crisp and very dry. Dinner that evening started off with snails with a butter sauce and bread, roasted chicken for the main, with delicious veggies and roast potatos, and a cheesecake for dessert. We sat for a while after dinner chatting with June and Clive and listening to the call of the wildebeests who had come to have a drink of water. We went back to our house at about 10 and went straight to sleep in our comfy bed, safely tucked into the mosquito net.
When we arrived the first thing we needed was more cash, and enough to pay our food and drinks tab at Modumela Lodge. The first cash machine we went to really scared us, as non of our cards worked from any of the banks, it just kept telling us that we were over our daily limit, which we weren't! Thankfully we went upstairs to a Barclays machine and it gave us what we asked for from the Clydesdale account straight away. We then went to browse the shops, stopping to look at all the monopoly sets and some books in CNA before moving on to Wolworths. For some reason Wolworths in Southern Africa is paired with Marks and Spencer's in the UK, so you can buy Percy pigs sweeties there, which of course I did :)
We walked around to more of the shops for a little while, waiting for Dan to finish his red bull before going into Pick and Pay. We bought a watermelon, some delicious biltong, smoked pork ribs for a lunch, some small Ceres drinks for me to freeze (they make great sorbets!) and a bottle of J C Le Roix champagne that we had not yet seen or tasted. We drove home straight after buying all our things in Pick and Pay, and spent the last little bit of the afternoon watching tv and also doing sit ups and push ups!
Dinner up at the lodge was at 7:00pm as usual, and we went up a little earlier to watch the sun set over the dam. We were graced with the presence of three little impala before June and Clive arrived. We opened the bottle of pinot noir rose 2007 champagne, which was slightly sweet, crisp and very dry. Dinner that evening started off with snails with a butter sauce and bread, roasted chicken for the main, with delicious veggies and roast potatos, and a cheesecake for dessert. We sat for a while after dinner chatting with June and Clive and listening to the call of the wildebeests who had come to have a drink of water. We went back to our house at about 10 and went straight to sleep in our comfy bed, safely tucked into the mosquito net.
Friday, 23 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 81 -- 18/11/2012 -- Modumela Lodge
So, after waking up without an alarm we dressed and showered leisurely before heading up the path to breakfast. We get to chose breakfast each day, and today I chose bacon and poached eggs, as did Dan, and fresh fruit if available. The cooked breakfast was divine, and we had made a cup of tea and coffee to go with it, and we're given a small glass of juice. I took one of the extra pieces of toast and the banana I was given, to have for lunch later on.
Today was our designated day where we were honestly not going to do a single thing, and we did just that!!! It was beautifully hot outside so it felt really luxurious to sit on the couches under the fan inside and watch tv. I had found a whole marathon of the program Say Yes to the Dress, a wedding dress program where people find their dream dresses, followed on the bridesmaid version, which I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Dan even enjoyed the bridesmaid version because of all of the ridiculous angst and tension it causes between all the women, it's great to watch.
After my marathon we put come dine with me on, and I read a book on the kindle. At one point when Dan and I went to sit outside we were really surprised and pleased to see a tiny baby mongoose run out in front of us, as well at two warthog drinking at the dam and a heard of eland walking away from the dam. The farm is quite large, 20 000 acres, and they have a fair number of animals on the farm but they are not yet very used to humans. It is unusual to spot game during the day as they tend to come out to the dam at sunset and through the night.
June and Clive had had their dinner earlier than us, and so did not join us for dinner tonight. We sat outside on the verandah and enjoyed the cool night air whilst eating our three course dinner. Dinner was a deliciois devilled egg for starters, an amazing beef cottage pie that I could have kept eating till I popped, and a jelly and custard dessert. The view from the verandah is amazing, it is high up and has a gorgeous view of the dam. The sunsets are just gorgeous and set just opposite where we sit. That evening we were graced with the presence of a heard of zebra who are notoriously shy and don't come out very often. We also saw a heard of wildebeest, who make a low mooing sort of sound and are very very loud! :) After dinner we finished our drinks whilst game watching and then walked back along the path to the house to sleep.
Today was our designated day where we were honestly not going to do a single thing, and we did just that!!! It was beautifully hot outside so it felt really luxurious to sit on the couches under the fan inside and watch tv. I had found a whole marathon of the program Say Yes to the Dress, a wedding dress program where people find their dream dresses, followed on the bridesmaid version, which I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Dan even enjoyed the bridesmaid version because of all of the ridiculous angst and tension it causes between all the women, it's great to watch.
After my marathon we put come dine with me on, and I read a book on the kindle. At one point when Dan and I went to sit outside we were really surprised and pleased to see a tiny baby mongoose run out in front of us, as well at two warthog drinking at the dam and a heard of eland walking away from the dam. The farm is quite large, 20 000 acres, and they have a fair number of animals on the farm but they are not yet very used to humans. It is unusual to spot game during the day as they tend to come out to the dam at sunset and through the night.
June and Clive had had their dinner earlier than us, and so did not join us for dinner tonight. We sat outside on the verandah and enjoyed the cool night air whilst eating our three course dinner. Dinner was a deliciois devilled egg for starters, an amazing beef cottage pie that I could have kept eating till I popped, and a jelly and custard dessert. The view from the verandah is amazing, it is high up and has a gorgeous view of the dam. The sunsets are just gorgeous and set just opposite where we sit. That evening we were graced with the presence of a heard of zebra who are notoriously shy and don't come out very often. We also saw a heard of wildebeest, who make a low mooing sort of sound and are very very loud! :) After dinner we finished our drinks whilst game watching and then walked back along the path to the house to sleep.
Epic Adventure -- Day 80 -- 17/11/2012 -- Modumela Lodge
After an amazing nights sleep we woke up to the sound of birds in the trees outside our two windows. The bed is super comfortable, and I really didn't want to get up :D what tempted me however was the promise of a delicious breakfast, so we roused ourselves and got dressed. We get a large breakfast included in the food price, and if we ate it all we could have a cup of tea or coffee, juice, a bowl of cereal, yogurt, fruit and a cooked breakfast! After we had made a cup of tea and coffee, we were given a little slip to tick off what it was that we wanted to eat. We both chose bacon, French toast and poached egg. Because there are just the two of us, they had taken sausages out of the freezer the night before and not bacon, but they were still delicious :D The French toast was huge, and we were also given two pieces of toast each, so needless to say we ate more than enough to last us till dinner!
Last night June and Clive told us about the farm, and explained that the
Regions owners had actually started with a bush camp before building the main lodge with the view of the gorgeous dam. They had said it had been abandoned so we jumped in the landy to go check it out. The camp is built next to another dam and is a number of thatched little houses on stilts that obviously used to house people in sleeping bags, and built behind these houses are open air bathrooms :D I can understand why Clive keeps the place from falling down, it's great! They have groups of school kids come through and stay there, and I used to go on similar outdoor education program's with my school and I think it's a wonderful idea! After fully exploring the camp sight, we decided to head to another interesting spot on the farm called sand cliffs.
On the way to the camp we had passed a very very dead and quite smelly kudu, and on the way back Dan really wanted to stop and have a closer look. (Sorry to all who are squeamish!!) Thankfully we were stood and parked down wind from the animal and so we could have a look without the stench! The buck was enormous, and we couldn't figure out how it may have died, but assumed it may have been from starvation. I wasn't that enamoured with the number of maggots obviously enjoying their meal, so I got swiftly back into the car, and told Dan to get in so we could leave :D Driving on the road away from the buck was disgusting, because the smell that the wind was taking away from us whilst we were next to it was revolting!
Once we left the buck we drive down the other side of the fork in the road and had a look at the 'sand cliffs'. The sand cliff were surrounded by quite a large dry riverbed that looked too soft to drive on. We had a look from a small distance and started to find our way back to the lodge. Snob after turning around we found parts of a skeleton on the side of the road and got out of the car to have a look at the scattered bones. Not far from the first bone that we saw was the skull of a rather large kudu. The animal had clearly been dead for quite some time and all of the bones were very clean and appeared almost fake. Jenny and I each took a photo with the large skull and horns. And immediately after getting back in the car we got a bit turned around and didn't know exactly where we were or where we were going. We wandered around the lands for a little while and found our way to 'flat rock', a large expanse of exposed (you guessed it) flat rock. I let my inner child out and insisted on driving across the rock much to Jenny's dismay. Jenny assured me she knew precisely where we were and eventually we found our way back to our house.
Jenny had also discovered yesterday that there was a 'say yes to the dress' marathon on tv today so we spent much of the day watching more wedding programs. Somehow I foolishly thought these program's would no longer be interesting to Jenny once we we married but I was wrong. We spent the entire day up until dinner watching these programs until we headed to the main lodge and joined our hosts for a dinner of fried mushrooms, a main of beef, and some apple crumble pie for dessert. All in all, a good day.
Last night June and Clive told us about the farm, and explained that the
Regions owners had actually started with a bush camp before building the main lodge with the view of the gorgeous dam. They had said it had been abandoned so we jumped in the landy to go check it out. The camp is built next to another dam and is a number of thatched little houses on stilts that obviously used to house people in sleeping bags, and built behind these houses are open air bathrooms :D I can understand why Clive keeps the place from falling down, it's great! They have groups of school kids come through and stay there, and I used to go on similar outdoor education program's with my school and I think it's a wonderful idea! After fully exploring the camp sight, we decided to head to another interesting spot on the farm called sand cliffs.
On the way to the camp we had passed a very very dead and quite smelly kudu, and on the way back Dan really wanted to stop and have a closer look. (Sorry to all who are squeamish!!) Thankfully we were stood and parked down wind from the animal and so we could have a look without the stench! The buck was enormous, and we couldn't figure out how it may have died, but assumed it may have been from starvation. I wasn't that enamoured with the number of maggots obviously enjoying their meal, so I got swiftly back into the car, and told Dan to get in so we could leave :D Driving on the road away from the buck was disgusting, because the smell that the wind was taking away from us whilst we were next to it was revolting!
Once we left the buck we drive down the other side of the fork in the road and had a look at the 'sand cliffs'. The sand cliff were surrounded by quite a large dry riverbed that looked too soft to drive on. We had a look from a small distance and started to find our way back to the lodge. Snob after turning around we found parts of a skeleton on the side of the road and got out of the car to have a look at the scattered bones. Not far from the first bone that we saw was the skull of a rather large kudu. The animal had clearly been dead for quite some time and all of the bones were very clean and appeared almost fake. Jenny and I each took a photo with the large skull and horns. And immediately after getting back in the car we got a bit turned around and didn't know exactly where we were or where we were going. We wandered around the lands for a little while and found our way to 'flat rock', a large expanse of exposed (you guessed it) flat rock. I let my inner child out and insisted on driving across the rock much to Jenny's dismay. Jenny assured me she knew precisely where we were and eventually we found our way back to our house.
Jenny had also discovered yesterday that there was a 'say yes to the dress' marathon on tv today so we spent much of the day watching more wedding programs. Somehow I foolishly thought these program's would no longer be interesting to Jenny once we we married but I was wrong. We spent the entire day up until dinner watching these programs until we headed to the main lodge and joined our hosts for a dinner of fried mushrooms, a main of beef, and some apple crumble pie for dessert. All in all, a good day.
Epic Adventure -- Day 79 -- 16/11/12 -- Bulawayo to Modumela Lodge
So once again we left the packing until this morning. I packed while Jenny showered and she packed while I showered. We had asked the maid at Dave's house the day before if she had any old Zimbabwe bank notes and she agreed to bring what she had for us to have a look at this morning. While Jenny was busy sorting out the last of the packing I asked the maid if she had brought the notes. She produced a bag of assorted currency ranging from $100 to $10,000; probably 100 notes in total. I asked her if we could buy them from her and offered her 5USD for the lot. She told me she wanted much more for them, because she was hoping that Zimbabwe would resume use of the old dollar and then "[she] would be rich". This clearly is not going to happen, so I wished her the best of luck and didn't buy the notes.
We drove into town once we packed the car and headed straight to the bank to ask the woman at the information counter if her friend had the other notes we wanted. She told us that he would be arriving in an hour, so we left to drop Dave's keys off at the factory with his colleague Christine. From Dave's work we drive to the Internet cafe where we emailed and posted some blog posts. We then picked up some food for our week at Modumela lodge in Botswana. Once we finished our tasks at the shopping centre we'd used up enough time and drive back to the bank to see if our man had found us the right notes.
When we arrived at the bank the tellers friend was waiting for us. We had parked the car just outside the bank so we could move there to discuss payment for the notes. Unfortunately when we got in the car he told us that he didn't have any of the 1 or 5 billion notes but he did have another pack of 100 millions. We paid him $10 for the pack of notes and thanked him for his efforts in helping us, he even gave us three 5 billion notes he managed to find. Once we had the last of the currency we were going to find we set off from Bulawayo and headed towards the Plumtree border post.
The drive to the border post was fairly uneventful except for the numerous police road blocks. We made our way through the border with relative ease and were back in Botswana where the police generally leave you alone and corruption is nowhere near as rampant. Just down the road from the border was a station where we had to pull of the road and get the car sprayed with a solution to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease. We even had to get out of the car and step on a damp cloth soaked with the same solution. From there we continued until we found Modumela Lodge about another 15 minutes away. When we arrived at the lodge we met the owners Clive and June and sat down for a drinks and introductions with them on the porch of the main lodge.
We found out soon after our arrival that we were the only guests staying at the lodge for the duration of the week. As such, June and Clive decided to put us in the nicest chalet they had! One of the few times we have been upgraded on this trip and we really appreciated their generosity. After our chat with them we went to our lodge and had another drink or two and watched some tv before getting ready to head back to the main lodge for dinner with our hosts.
Meals at the lodge are P1500 for two people for the whole week, and that is for a full english breakfast and a three course dinner. Very very reasonable if you ask me! Our dinner tonight started off with asparagus in butter, our main was a scrumptious steak and kidney pie with squash and carrot sides and dessert was the most amazing fruit salad I have ever eaten!! I went back for thirds :D We enjoyed a few beers and ciders with June and Clive after dinner whilst chatting to them about the lodge, themselves and our travels. I feel very privileged to be here and Clive and June are such wonderful hosts! The food is delicious and all the staff we have met are so kind and professional, I would highly recommend it here! Eventually we went back to our house to go to sleep, in the large and comfortable king size bed :D
We drove into town once we packed the car and headed straight to the bank to ask the woman at the information counter if her friend had the other notes we wanted. She told us that he would be arriving in an hour, so we left to drop Dave's keys off at the factory with his colleague Christine. From Dave's work we drive to the Internet cafe where we emailed and posted some blog posts. We then picked up some food for our week at Modumela lodge in Botswana. Once we finished our tasks at the shopping centre we'd used up enough time and drive back to the bank to see if our man had found us the right notes.
When we arrived at the bank the tellers friend was waiting for us. We had parked the car just outside the bank so we could move there to discuss payment for the notes. Unfortunately when we got in the car he told us that he didn't have any of the 1 or 5 billion notes but he did have another pack of 100 millions. We paid him $10 for the pack of notes and thanked him for his efforts in helping us, he even gave us three 5 billion notes he managed to find. Once we had the last of the currency we were going to find we set off from Bulawayo and headed towards the Plumtree border post.
The drive to the border post was fairly uneventful except for the numerous police road blocks. We made our way through the border with relative ease and were back in Botswana where the police generally leave you alone and corruption is nowhere near as rampant. Just down the road from the border was a station where we had to pull of the road and get the car sprayed with a solution to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease. We even had to get out of the car and step on a damp cloth soaked with the same solution. From there we continued until we found Modumela Lodge about another 15 minutes away. When we arrived at the lodge we met the owners Clive and June and sat down for a drinks and introductions with them on the porch of the main lodge.
We found out soon after our arrival that we were the only guests staying at the lodge for the duration of the week. As such, June and Clive decided to put us in the nicest chalet they had! One of the few times we have been upgraded on this trip and we really appreciated their generosity. After our chat with them we went to our lodge and had another drink or two and watched some tv before getting ready to head back to the main lodge for dinner with our hosts.
Meals at the lodge are P1500 for two people for the whole week, and that is for a full english breakfast and a three course dinner. Very very reasonable if you ask me! Our dinner tonight started off with asparagus in butter, our main was a scrumptious steak and kidney pie with squash and carrot sides and dessert was the most amazing fruit salad I have ever eaten!! I went back for thirds :D We enjoyed a few beers and ciders with June and Clive after dinner whilst chatting to them about the lodge, themselves and our travels. I feel very privileged to be here and Clive and June are such wonderful hosts! The food is delicious and all the staff we have met are so kind and professional, I would highly recommend it here! Eventually we went back to our house to go to sleep, in the large and comfortable king size bed :D
Monday, 19 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 78 -- 15/11/12 -- Bulawayo
So today we were planning on going to Matopus, a game reserve 30 km outside of Bulawayo. We figured we would leave around noon which gave us the morning to continue our search for the correct currency. We had a cup of coffee and tea at the house before driving into town and returning to the shoe shop next to the bank to ask if they were able to find any of the old banknotes. I was delighted when we arrived that the man we spoke to the day before obviously had quite a few bank notes in a backpack with him. We had asked him to find the 1, 5 and 20 million denominations and unfortunately he could only find a pack of $20 notes issued soon after they removed twelve 0's from the currency. He told us that this pack of 137 notes had been his last pay before dollarisation and he even gave us a bank statement of his stating his account balance as $5,135,453.32! He didn't want anything for the notes and bank statement so we thanked him earnestly and left.
This put us in the situation that we still needed to find notes to fill out our monopoly, set so we walked back into the bank next door and asked the woman if she could have her friend look for the 1 and 5 billion dollar notes. She told us she would let us know tomorrow morning if he had the notes. We thanked her for her continued help and departed for the Internet cafe. We figured we would use the Internet to upload some posts and pick up some lunch supplies from the TM before driving to the game reserve. But on the way to the Internet cafe we both had a change of heart and just felt like staying in Bulawayo today. The cricket match was still going on so we decided to get some lunch as planned from TM and then go and relax and watch the cricket for the afternoon.
After uploading a couple of blog posts and checking email,and Facebook we went into TM and bought six fresh bread rolls and some ham for our lunch, and a coke and fanta. I had cleverly made up some mazoe orange juice And then frozen it so we would have cold drinks for the duration of the day. We took our food and drinks and headed back to the cricket ground to watch the second innings for Ben and Pete's team. We arrived when the score was 72-2 and based on the other teams first innings they needed to hit 400 all out to have a chance of winning.
During the afternoon Jenny continued reading her book and we took turns playing a new name we downloaded called hill climb. The batting team was going nowhere fast and after 4 hours they were only on 280-6 by the end of the days play. Tomorrow is going to be the last day of the test and I don't see Ben and Pete's team winning unless they seriously up the run rate. It was avert nice afternoon in the sun and we were very glad that we stayed to watch cricket instead of going to the game reserve. We were both very tired from lying in the sun and headed back to the house for some food. Jenny was keen on having 2-minute noodles and I finished off the pasta from the night before. We then sat out on the patio and chatted over some drinks about what we would do if we won the lottery, a fun conversation to have every once and a while, and headed to bed.
This put us in the situation that we still needed to find notes to fill out our monopoly, set so we walked back into the bank next door and asked the woman if she could have her friend look for the 1 and 5 billion dollar notes. She told us she would let us know tomorrow morning if he had the notes. We thanked her for her continued help and departed for the Internet cafe. We figured we would use the Internet to upload some posts and pick up some lunch supplies from the TM before driving to the game reserve. But on the way to the Internet cafe we both had a change of heart and just felt like staying in Bulawayo today. The cricket match was still going on so we decided to get some lunch as planned from TM and then go and relax and watch the cricket for the afternoon.
After uploading a couple of blog posts and checking email,and Facebook we went into TM and bought six fresh bread rolls and some ham for our lunch, and a coke and fanta. I had cleverly made up some mazoe orange juice And then frozen it so we would have cold drinks for the duration of the day. We took our food and drinks and headed back to the cricket ground to watch the second innings for Ben and Pete's team. We arrived when the score was 72-2 and based on the other teams first innings they needed to hit 400 all out to have a chance of winning.
During the afternoon Jenny continued reading her book and we took turns playing a new name we downloaded called hill climb. The batting team was going nowhere fast and after 4 hours they were only on 280-6 by the end of the days play. Tomorrow is going to be the last day of the test and I don't see Ben and Pete's team winning unless they seriously up the run rate. It was avert nice afternoon in the sun and we were very glad that we stayed to watch cricket instead of going to the game reserve. We were both very tired from lying in the sun and headed back to the house for some food. Jenny was keen on having 2-minute noodles and I finished off the pasta from the night before. We then sat out on the patio and chatted over some drinks about what we would do if we won the lottery, a fun conversation to have every once and a while, and headed to bed.
Epic Adventure -- Day 77 -- 14/11/2012 -- Bulawayo
So we woke up this morning with the goal of watching some of the cricket match that Ben and Pete from Masvingo were playing in. We figured we had a little time in the morning to explore a bit of downtown Bulawayo before driving to the cricket ground. We went into the centre of the city and parked near the restaurant we seemed to be frequenting. We first headed to the bank to see if the very nice woman we met the day before had been able to contact her friend. She told us that her friend had been able to find the $10, $50, $100 and $500 million dollar banknotes, she told us that he would be arriving in town in about an hours time, so we thanked her and walked around for the next hour killing some time. We figured we would use this time to ask everyone else we could find if they knew where we could get any of the old notes.
Our first stop was a shoe shop next to the bank where one of the members of staff said he had plenty at home they would bring for us the next day. We kept checking a few shops but the rest of them either said they didn't have any, or that we should pay them a lot for the notes, which we were not going to do. One Indian man who owned a clothing store came out of the back holding a tattered 50 000 note and told us that he had more at home but they sell for between $20 to $100 at the airport so it would depend on what we would pay him. We thanked him and left swiftly, knowing we would never come back. The notes do not sell for that much at all, and if they do it's only the brand new $100 trillion notes, not the smaller denominations we were looking for. We also asked at the reception in the reserve bank, as that is where all the notes went, and the one guy there gave us his phone number so we could "talk freely" later because the bank has "eyes and ears"! We decided it felt too weird so we didn't phone him after work!
We got tired of asking around for old notes, and I was getting really hungry, so Dan and I went back to cafe Munandi for brunch. It turns out that they used to be the restaurant called Sisters that I remember fondly, but it was sold and changed hands to this new cafe. They still do really good chicken and mayonnaise toasted sandwiches, which is what we both had. After our sandwiches we went back to the bank and waited another half an hour for the guy to arrive. Eventually he did show us and asked us if we could go chat in our car about the notes because it was considered illegal to sell the notes as even though they are now useless the government still classifies them as valid currency.
In the car he pulled out four packs of 100 almost brand new bank notes of the four denominations! We knew what the notes could go for on eBay and haggled with him till we were all happy with $10 per 100. It is a fair price for the amount of notes we bought for the game, and he was happy too. I left Dan and the guy in the car while I went and tried to get change for our $50 note. Everyone claimed not to have any change at all, and even when I went back into the supermarket to buy something small she claimed they didn't have any change, which I know was a lie. Anyway I eventually had to go stand in the queue at the bank and thankfully got the note changed there. I got back to the car after about 20 minutes, I think they thought I was never coming back!
We left the centre of Bulawayo then, happy with our stash of notes. We also told the guy that we may come back to him if we can't find the rest that we need for the game. We headed for Dave's company to collect the keys and to show him what we had bought. He was really impressed with our purchase of notes and wanted to know how to contact the guy if he wanted to buy some. He gave us the keys to the house and instructed us to drop them off at his office before we left town. From there we drove back into town to pick up some snacks for lunch at a spar near the bank and then programmed the sat nav for the cricket grounds.
Upon arriving at the ground we were unsure if we we in the right place because there seemed to be no sign of life. I walked up a small embankment so I could see into the grounds and sure enough there was a cricket match taking place with about 15 spectators. We grabbed the blanket from the back of the car and our lunch supplies and walked around the pitch until we found a spot in the shade of a giant tree to watch the match. When we arrived the score was 172-2 and we soon realised that Ben was fielding about 20 meters in front of where we were sitting. We had a short chat with him during a change of batsmen and found out that his team was all out for 150 in the first innings of this 4-day test match.
Soon after we arrived a few wickets fell and before we knew it the score was 225-5. Jenny was reading a book on the iPad and not paying too much attention to the cricket. I told her that if I said "ball" a 6 was headed our way and she should cover her head. About 10 minutes later their 7th man hit a long 6 that was headed straight for us. I shouted "ball", we lost sight of the shot in the tree overhanging us and we both covered our heads. Good thing we did because the ball passed within a foot of my head and landed 2 feet behind us!!! Jenny continued reading for the duration of the afternoon and I continued paying close attention to the match. At 16:45 their last wicket fell and I felt bad for their #2 batsman who was still on for 189!!
We left the grounds having thoroughly enjoyed our day and drove to TM to pick up some supplies for a pasta dinner. When we got back to Dave's house I cooked dinner while Jenny continued reading. We then had our food and watched a couple of home design shows before calling it a night after a very relaxing day.
Our first stop was a shoe shop next to the bank where one of the members of staff said he had plenty at home they would bring for us the next day. We kept checking a few shops but the rest of them either said they didn't have any, or that we should pay them a lot for the notes, which we were not going to do. One Indian man who owned a clothing store came out of the back holding a tattered 50 000 note and told us that he had more at home but they sell for between $20 to $100 at the airport so it would depend on what we would pay him. We thanked him and left swiftly, knowing we would never come back. The notes do not sell for that much at all, and if they do it's only the brand new $100 trillion notes, not the smaller denominations we were looking for. We also asked at the reception in the reserve bank, as that is where all the notes went, and the one guy there gave us his phone number so we could "talk freely" later because the bank has "eyes and ears"! We decided it felt too weird so we didn't phone him after work!
We got tired of asking around for old notes, and I was getting really hungry, so Dan and I went back to cafe Munandi for brunch. It turns out that they used to be the restaurant called Sisters that I remember fondly, but it was sold and changed hands to this new cafe. They still do really good chicken and mayonnaise toasted sandwiches, which is what we both had. After our sandwiches we went back to the bank and waited another half an hour for the guy to arrive. Eventually he did show us and asked us if we could go chat in our car about the notes because it was considered illegal to sell the notes as even though they are now useless the government still classifies them as valid currency.
In the car he pulled out four packs of 100 almost brand new bank notes of the four denominations! We knew what the notes could go for on eBay and haggled with him till we were all happy with $10 per 100. It is a fair price for the amount of notes we bought for the game, and he was happy too. I left Dan and the guy in the car while I went and tried to get change for our $50 note. Everyone claimed not to have any change at all, and even when I went back into the supermarket to buy something small she claimed they didn't have any change, which I know was a lie. Anyway I eventually had to go stand in the queue at the bank and thankfully got the note changed there. I got back to the car after about 20 minutes, I think they thought I was never coming back!
We left the centre of Bulawayo then, happy with our stash of notes. We also told the guy that we may come back to him if we can't find the rest that we need for the game. We headed for Dave's company to collect the keys and to show him what we had bought. He was really impressed with our purchase of notes and wanted to know how to contact the guy if he wanted to buy some. He gave us the keys to the house and instructed us to drop them off at his office before we left town. From there we drove back into town to pick up some snacks for lunch at a spar near the bank and then programmed the sat nav for the cricket grounds.
Upon arriving at the ground we were unsure if we we in the right place because there seemed to be no sign of life. I walked up a small embankment so I could see into the grounds and sure enough there was a cricket match taking place with about 15 spectators. We grabbed the blanket from the back of the car and our lunch supplies and walked around the pitch until we found a spot in the shade of a giant tree to watch the match. When we arrived the score was 172-2 and we soon realised that Ben was fielding about 20 meters in front of where we were sitting. We had a short chat with him during a change of batsmen and found out that his team was all out for 150 in the first innings of this 4-day test match.
Soon after we arrived a few wickets fell and before we knew it the score was 225-5. Jenny was reading a book on the iPad and not paying too much attention to the cricket. I told her that if I said "ball" a 6 was headed our way and she should cover her head. About 10 minutes later their 7th man hit a long 6 that was headed straight for us. I shouted "ball", we lost sight of the shot in the tree overhanging us and we both covered our heads. Good thing we did because the ball passed within a foot of my head and landed 2 feet behind us!!! Jenny continued reading for the duration of the afternoon and I continued paying close attention to the match. At 16:45 their last wicket fell and I felt bad for their #2 batsman who was still on for 189!!
We left the grounds having thoroughly enjoyed our day and drove to TM to pick up some supplies for a pasta dinner. When we got back to Dave's house I cooked dinner while Jenny continued reading. We then had our food and watched a couple of home design shows before calling it a night after a very relaxing day.
Friday, 16 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 76 -- 13/11/2012 -- Bulawayo
So this morning we had a proper lie in and didn't emerge until 10:30! Since we had a huge number of these posts to upload we figured we should head into town and find a place to eat breakfast/lunch that had free Internet. We showered and drove to town arriving at the same place we ate lunch the last time we were in Bulawayo. They didn't have Internet but we figured we knew the food was good so sat down for a much needed meal. Jenny wanted a chocolate milkshake but they were out of chocolate ice cream, so she had a strawberry daquri instead. I asked for a coke and a double espresso and the espresso never came. O well. None the less we had a decent lunch and asked the waitress if she knew anywhere that we could use the Internet. She recommended a place in the basement of a shopping centre next door.
True to her word the place did have Internet but looked very dodgy and smelled like fish. We decided that if we didn't find anywhere else we would come back the next day. At this point we remembered that we needed to try and find the Zimbabwe currency for our monopoly board so we headed down the street past a place Jenny calls the corner. The corner is actually a street pavement, that is lined on either side with people selling all manner of African curios and crafts. When I was little and my family would visit Bulawayo, my parents would give Jess and I a few Zim dollars and set us off a one end of the corner and collect us at the other end, and it was up to us to see what we could get for our money. It was a brilliant way to learn how to haggle from a young age, a lesson that has stayed with us ever since, and comes in handy a lot! Thanks Mum and Dad :D
We stopped in a bank and asked the staff if they had any of the old Zimbabwe bank notes or we where we could find them. The woman was very helpful but told us that their bank did not have any because they only opened after the US dollarisation. We thanked her and walked across the street to a Barclays, where we asked a lady on the information desk, called Leocardia, if she knew of where we could get hold of these notes. She was extremely helpful, and explained that the banks could not give out the old notes, but she did have a friend who she thought had a trunkful of them left. She asked is what denominations we needed and how many, and she told us to come by tomorrow to find out if he has what we need. We thanked her and set off to find an old ice cream shop that I also used to go to we. I was little, called Eskimo Hut.
Because it was not on the sat nav we got a little lost and ended up pulling into a shopping centre to ask there. A car guard tried to explain where we needed to go, but as soon as he told us to to straight whilst pointing to the right we gave up listening. We found a place that had Internet and looked clean and did not smell like fish, so we paid the $1 each for half an hour. I downloaded a couple of iPad mortgage calculators despite telling the lady we were not downloading anything, ad uploaded a few of the blog posts. Even though I know we will love them when We are done this trip, they are a pain in the ass :D I also looked up on google maps how to get to Eskimo Hut and when we had used up our 30 minutes we went to find it.
The shop sells soft serve ice cream in cones and cups, but also dips that into a few different flavours, my favourite being crunchie, a melted caramel and honeycomb flavouring which freezes to the outside. They also used to have two flavours called green mamba and pink pantha, sprinkles that stick to the ice cream. Unfortunately they didn't have any if those three flavours, they just had the normal chocolate coating and flake bars, which is what I had. They haven't had the other three for the last two months and are not sure when they will get them again, which I found quite sad. We programmed the sat nav to Grantham road and went in search of Dave's clothing factory, Jasmines Clothing.
It was extremely interesting, Dave gave us a tour of the factory and we watched the clothes being cut, sewed in all manner of ways, ironed out and eventually hung up with tags attached for sale. We also saw the layers of cloth for a skirt being cut up, and with an insane hand saw that could cut 20cms of cloth at one time! Dave also showed us the way that he calculates the numbers for each item, how much fabric is used and wasted, how many can be made by each employee in an hour, how that relates to output and final sales value, and eventually what his profit margin is on each item. After our tour we said thank you to him, and he told us he would only be home at around 9:30pm as he was going to play bridge with friends after work. We then decided to head back to the same shopping centre we had been in with the Internet as there is a large supermarket there called TM.
We bought two T-bone steaks for our dinner, and also some drinks and Mazoe orange juice, the most delicious concentrate in the world! While Dan was paying I stood outside to quickly check my email again and a girl walked up to me while I was doing that. She told me that she knew me from somewhere and when I questioned her as to where she told me her name was Lorinda and she also used to live in Selebi Phikwe! It is such a small world, she used to be in my junior school! She and her brother love here now, as her fiancé comes from Bulawayo. After saying goodbye to her we drove home. We watched some tv and wrote more of the blog before preparing the potatoes for dinner. We ate basically the same as yesterday, the T-bone steaks, potatoes, butternut and salad. We stayed up watching tv and sitting enjoying the gorgeous evening outside till Dave came home at half nine, and we spent the rest of the night chatting till it was time to go to bed.
True to her word the place did have Internet but looked very dodgy and smelled like fish. We decided that if we didn't find anywhere else we would come back the next day. At this point we remembered that we needed to try and find the Zimbabwe currency for our monopoly board so we headed down the street past a place Jenny calls the corner. The corner is actually a street pavement, that is lined on either side with people selling all manner of African curios and crafts. When I was little and my family would visit Bulawayo, my parents would give Jess and I a few Zim dollars and set us off a one end of the corner and collect us at the other end, and it was up to us to see what we could get for our money. It was a brilliant way to learn how to haggle from a young age, a lesson that has stayed with us ever since, and comes in handy a lot! Thanks Mum and Dad :D
We stopped in a bank and asked the staff if they had any of the old Zimbabwe bank notes or we where we could find them. The woman was very helpful but told us that their bank did not have any because they only opened after the US dollarisation. We thanked her and walked across the street to a Barclays, where we asked a lady on the information desk, called Leocardia, if she knew of where we could get hold of these notes. She was extremely helpful, and explained that the banks could not give out the old notes, but she did have a friend who she thought had a trunkful of them left. She asked is what denominations we needed and how many, and she told us to come by tomorrow to find out if he has what we need. We thanked her and set off to find an old ice cream shop that I also used to go to we. I was little, called Eskimo Hut.
Because it was not on the sat nav we got a little lost and ended up pulling into a shopping centre to ask there. A car guard tried to explain where we needed to go, but as soon as he told us to to straight whilst pointing to the right we gave up listening. We found a place that had Internet and looked clean and did not smell like fish, so we paid the $1 each for half an hour. I downloaded a couple of iPad mortgage calculators despite telling the lady we were not downloading anything, ad uploaded a few of the blog posts. Even though I know we will love them when We are done this trip, they are a pain in the ass :D I also looked up on google maps how to get to Eskimo Hut and when we had used up our 30 minutes we went to find it.
The shop sells soft serve ice cream in cones and cups, but also dips that into a few different flavours, my favourite being crunchie, a melted caramel and honeycomb flavouring which freezes to the outside. They also used to have two flavours called green mamba and pink pantha, sprinkles that stick to the ice cream. Unfortunately they didn't have any if those three flavours, they just had the normal chocolate coating and flake bars, which is what I had. They haven't had the other three for the last two months and are not sure when they will get them again, which I found quite sad. We programmed the sat nav to Grantham road and went in search of Dave's clothing factory, Jasmines Clothing.
It was extremely interesting, Dave gave us a tour of the factory and we watched the clothes being cut, sewed in all manner of ways, ironed out and eventually hung up with tags attached for sale. We also saw the layers of cloth for a skirt being cut up, and with an insane hand saw that could cut 20cms of cloth at one time! Dave also showed us the way that he calculates the numbers for each item, how much fabric is used and wasted, how many can be made by each employee in an hour, how that relates to output and final sales value, and eventually what his profit margin is on each item. After our tour we said thank you to him, and he told us he would only be home at around 9:30pm as he was going to play bridge with friends after work. We then decided to head back to the same shopping centre we had been in with the Internet as there is a large supermarket there called TM.
We bought two T-bone steaks for our dinner, and also some drinks and Mazoe orange juice, the most delicious concentrate in the world! While Dan was paying I stood outside to quickly check my email again and a girl walked up to me while I was doing that. She told me that she knew me from somewhere and when I questioned her as to where she told me her name was Lorinda and she also used to live in Selebi Phikwe! It is such a small world, she used to be in my junior school! She and her brother love here now, as her fiancé comes from Bulawayo. After saying goodbye to her we drove home. We watched some tv and wrote more of the blog before preparing the potatoes for dinner. We ate basically the same as yesterday, the T-bone steaks, potatoes, butternut and salad. We stayed up watching tv and sitting enjoying the gorgeous evening outside till Dave came home at half nine, and we spent the rest of the night chatting till it was time to go to bed.
Epic Adventure -- Day 75 -- 12/11/2012 -- Harare to Bulawayo
After all the walking yesterday, Dan and I woke up late to find everyone but the maids gone. They told us that Cecelia had just popped out for a while and would be back soon, so we busied ourselves with showering, packing up the bags and packing the car. We had just finished packing the car when Cecelia arrived home, perfect timing. I made sure we had done the last check and we managed to say thank you and goodbye to Andy and grab a muffin before we set off on our way to Bulawayo. Thankfully the road was fairly busy so each police check point we passed we simply waved at them and drove by, regardless of if they were busy or were wanting us to stop. Most of the time I would just clock to see if they had a car or not, and if they didn't we would just drive on and smile :D
After around 3 hours of driving we became pretty desperate for fuel as the light had just come on, but as we drove through town everywhere seemed to have no diesel! We eventually turned the car around to go to the normal looking petrol station we had seen on our way into town but were to late to pull into the first time. Here we put $40 of fuel in the car and continued back into town to find some lunch for Jenny. We had a look at a few of the places to eat and they all looked pretty average, pizza and fried chicken seemed to be all on offer. Once we had a short look around we decided to get a Nandos wrap and get back on the road. We were making pretty good time to Harare and were looking at arriving just after 16:00.
When we got to Bulawayo we found David Mouat's, an old friend of Dad's, house without too much trouble but arrived to find nobody home and the gate locked. After a few moments wondering what we should do, the maid who had just finished work, walked up to us from the road and she offered to phone Dave for us. The maid let us in through the gate and Dave said he would be home from work a little after 19:00. He also told us how to open the gate to bring the car in, and asked us to get dinner sorted. I pulled out some onions and potatoes and Dan set to work cutting the skins off the butternut squash. The potatoes turned out to be a really nice, cut into thin round section and boiled for a few minutes and then grilled in the oven with the onions and a little butter to coat them!
We had pulled three T-bone steaks from the freezer which were defrosted by the time Dave came home at 7:30pm and we had them with the potatoes, butternut squash mash and salad. It was a lovely dinner, and it was great to finally meet Dave after hearing so much about him from Dad. We chatted for a long while, hearing some great stories about the travels that Dave has done, and we eventually all went to bed at half 10, knakkered after our long day of driving and Dave's long day of work.
After around 3 hours of driving we became pretty desperate for fuel as the light had just come on, but as we drove through town everywhere seemed to have no diesel! We eventually turned the car around to go to the normal looking petrol station we had seen on our way into town but were to late to pull into the first time. Here we put $40 of fuel in the car and continued back into town to find some lunch for Jenny. We had a look at a few of the places to eat and they all looked pretty average, pizza and fried chicken seemed to be all on offer. Once we had a short look around we decided to get a Nandos wrap and get back on the road. We were making pretty good time to Harare and were looking at arriving just after 16:00.
When we got to Bulawayo we found David Mouat's, an old friend of Dad's, house without too much trouble but arrived to find nobody home and the gate locked. After a few moments wondering what we should do, the maid who had just finished work, walked up to us from the road and she offered to phone Dave for us. The maid let us in through the gate and Dave said he would be home from work a little after 19:00. He also told us how to open the gate to bring the car in, and asked us to get dinner sorted. I pulled out some onions and potatoes and Dan set to work cutting the skins off the butternut squash. The potatoes turned out to be a really nice, cut into thin round section and boiled for a few minutes and then grilled in the oven with the onions and a little butter to coat them!
We had pulled three T-bone steaks from the freezer which were defrosted by the time Dave came home at 7:30pm and we had them with the potatoes, butternut squash mash and salad. It was a lovely dinner, and it was great to finally meet Dave after hearing so much about him from Dad. We chatted for a long while, hearing some great stories about the travels that Dave has done, and we eventually all went to bed at half 10, knakkered after our long day of driving and Dave's long day of work.
Epic Adventure -- Day 74 -- 11/11/2012 -- Harare
So because we had not over indulged in drinks as much last night as we did the night before we woke up this morning feeling much better. This was a good thing because we had arranged for me to play golf with one of Andy and Cecilias friends Tim. Tim had graduated from St. Andrews in the late 70s and when he found out we were both St. Andrews grads, and I played golf, he was keen for a round. We had a breakfast of toast and jam before driving into town to try and find an ATM. I had heard horror stories about trying to find cash from ATMs in Zimbabwe so we figured it was not going to be a simple task.
We set the sat nav to take us to an ATM which turned out not to exist; a great start I know. We the. Found an ATM at standard bank in which none of my four cards would work. So we set off to find another group of ATMs that were all being updated and none of the were working. Eventually we found our way across the street to an ATM that finally gave us the money we were after. We drew enough from this machine to ensure that we would not have to go on such a long search for the duration of our time in Zimbabwe.
Having secured the money that we needed we drove to find a gathering called 'Pimms and Paintings' that Jenny had found out about in a booklet that Cecilia gave us concerning things to do in and around Harare. The function was being held in someone's large garden just outside of the town centre and was a fundraiser where local artists could exhibit and sell their works. Jenny and I had a short look around and concluded that most of the paintings were horribly overpriced and so found our way to the drinks tent where Jenny bought a small Pimms that she enjoyed while we people watched. Shortly after Jenny finished her drink we decided we had enough of the function and drove back to the house to get ready for the golf in the afternoon.
When we arrived back Andy told us it was a good thing we had returned when we had because Tim was coming to pick us up in about one hours time. We had some of the left over Pizza from yesterday and a beer while we waited for Tim. I also checked that the golf bag I was using (Andy and Cecilia's sons) was stocked with everything I needed for my round. Andy also informed me that we were going to be playing Royal Harare, one of the best courses Zimbabwe has to offer. I only hoped my game, and the weather, would hold up.
Tim arrived just as a short spell of torrential rain had passed. We loaded my clubs into the back of his truck and set off for the golf course. When we got there we went inside to pay and the clerk asked I f I was a member of any other golf club. I pulled out my St. Andrews links ticket and he took $10 off my greens fee! We started on the tenth tee because the course was fairly busy and we were off. Jenny had come along to walk with me and was in charge of converting the distances from meters to yards using the converter on my phone. Much to my surprise I played very well on the front nine and only my putter let me down. I made the turn in 41 and we stopped at the bar for a drink before continuing our round. Jenny had a fanta and Tim and I both had a coke. We resumed our play on the first tee and I was determined to fix my putting on the second nine. Somehow this determination worked and I completed the back nine in 35 for an 18 hole total of 76! Not too bad for a 7,000 yard course I have never seen before.
Once we finished playing we stopped back in the bar for some more drinks and had a long chat with Tim about his time in St. Andrews, and about our time there. It seems that it has changed a little, notably the May dip only used to be a couple of hundred people whereas now it is a couple of thousand. We called it a day once we heard the second huge rumble of thunder, and she we walked out of the gates of the golf corse and back to Tim's car we saw a massive black cloud headed our way. The lightning that cloud threw out on our way home was insane, we were really glad to no longer be on the course.
It started raining just as we got back, and after a few minutes of conversation with the Engelbrecht's Tim left swiftly after dropping us off so as not to get stuck in the storm. Our plans to write and upload blog posts this evening were foiled when the Internet stopped working at the house, for some reason it would only work on two of their computers and no one else's. Instead we watched the Amazing Race, which Jenny is convinced we would win if we had the chance to participate, and America's got talent. Dinner included two lovely chicken and beef curries from a new place Andy and Cecelia were trying for the second time, some rice, salad and banana. Banana goes really well with curry! After I polished off most of the beef curry, we sat outside for a little while enjoying the rain before calling it a night and retiring to bed.
We set the sat nav to take us to an ATM which turned out not to exist; a great start I know. We the. Found an ATM at standard bank in which none of my four cards would work. So we set off to find another group of ATMs that were all being updated and none of the were working. Eventually we found our way across the street to an ATM that finally gave us the money we were after. We drew enough from this machine to ensure that we would not have to go on such a long search for the duration of our time in Zimbabwe.
Having secured the money that we needed we drove to find a gathering called 'Pimms and Paintings' that Jenny had found out about in a booklet that Cecilia gave us concerning things to do in and around Harare. The function was being held in someone's large garden just outside of the town centre and was a fundraiser where local artists could exhibit and sell their works. Jenny and I had a short look around and concluded that most of the paintings were horribly overpriced and so found our way to the drinks tent where Jenny bought a small Pimms that she enjoyed while we people watched. Shortly after Jenny finished her drink we decided we had enough of the function and drove back to the house to get ready for the golf in the afternoon.
When we arrived back Andy told us it was a good thing we had returned when we had because Tim was coming to pick us up in about one hours time. We had some of the left over Pizza from yesterday and a beer while we waited for Tim. I also checked that the golf bag I was using (Andy and Cecilia's sons) was stocked with everything I needed for my round. Andy also informed me that we were going to be playing Royal Harare, one of the best courses Zimbabwe has to offer. I only hoped my game, and the weather, would hold up.
Tim arrived just as a short spell of torrential rain had passed. We loaded my clubs into the back of his truck and set off for the golf course. When we got there we went inside to pay and the clerk asked I f I was a member of any other golf club. I pulled out my St. Andrews links ticket and he took $10 off my greens fee! We started on the tenth tee because the course was fairly busy and we were off. Jenny had come along to walk with me and was in charge of converting the distances from meters to yards using the converter on my phone. Much to my surprise I played very well on the front nine and only my putter let me down. I made the turn in 41 and we stopped at the bar for a drink before continuing our round. Jenny had a fanta and Tim and I both had a coke. We resumed our play on the first tee and I was determined to fix my putting on the second nine. Somehow this determination worked and I completed the back nine in 35 for an 18 hole total of 76! Not too bad for a 7,000 yard course I have never seen before.
Once we finished playing we stopped back in the bar for some more drinks and had a long chat with Tim about his time in St. Andrews, and about our time there. It seems that it has changed a little, notably the May dip only used to be a couple of hundred people whereas now it is a couple of thousand. We called it a day once we heard the second huge rumble of thunder, and she we walked out of the gates of the golf corse and back to Tim's car we saw a massive black cloud headed our way. The lightning that cloud threw out on our way home was insane, we were really glad to no longer be on the course.
It started raining just as we got back, and after a few minutes of conversation with the Engelbrecht's Tim left swiftly after dropping us off so as not to get stuck in the storm. Our plans to write and upload blog posts this evening were foiled when the Internet stopped working at the house, for some reason it would only work on two of their computers and no one else's. Instead we watched the Amazing Race, which Jenny is convinced we would win if we had the chance to participate, and America's got talent. Dinner included two lovely chicken and beef curries from a new place Andy and Cecelia were trying for the second time, some rice, salad and banana. Banana goes really well with curry! After I polished off most of the beef curry, we sat outside for a little while enjoying the rain before calling it a night and retiring to bed.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 73 -- 10/11/2012 -- Harare
So after the many drinks and fantastic banter of the night before I think I can comfortably say I had not been so hungover this entire trip. My eyes had been larger than my stomach and the 8 beers and 100ml of scotch had taken its toll. I crawled out of bed at 8:00 and joined Cecilia on the porch for a much needed cup of coffee while I apologised for anything ridiculous I might have done last night. Andy offered to make me a sandwich as a hangover cure but I wasn't sure I could eat anything. A few minutes later Jenny joined me outside and Andy produced a bacon and egg sandwich for me despite my protests. It did just the trick.
Andy and Cecilia told us they had bought us a wedding gift that they thought was too big for us to take back to Scotland. Their gift was a lovely wrought iron sculpture of a man on a bike that had a stand on the back for a potted plant. Jenny reassured them we could at least take it to Zambia and take it back on our next trip if we didn't have enough space and we thanked them for their kindness. Andy recommended that we go walk around the craft market where they bought the sculpture because Jenny would likely enjoy the other crafts they were selling. Andy drove us there and we spent an hour wandering around several shops. He was right and Jenny wanted to buy everything she saw. The most beautiful item she saw was a large bowl with the torsos and heads of African ladies coming out of the bowl, and it was all hand painted in beautiful,and vivid colours. Some of the lady's even had babies on their backs! At $250 we decided that it may not be a good idea! Once we exhausted the shops we joined Andy at a cafe in the centre of the market for a drink. Andy ordered a sandwich that took ages, and when it finally came it was an omelette instead! He sent it back and we continued to wait for our drinks, Jenny's chocolate milkshake took the longest! The service was appallingly slow but eventually we all got what we ordered and had a very nice snack.
When we finished at the market we returned home and spent a large portion of the afternoon lounging in the sun and watching some of the cricket on tv. Jenny also spent a lot of time bouncing on the trampoline and convinced me to join her! Of you ever want to laugh like you used to when you were a child, jumping on a trampoline is the best thing ever! Near dinner time Cecilia suggested driving to a large hill carved out of rock just outside of town to have a walk about and get some amazing views of Harare. It was about a 30 minute drive and on the way there the clouds were looking rather ominous. Upon arriving we only had about 10-15 minutes of dry weather before the rain and lightning started. We intended to walk the whole way to the top of the bare rock formations to get the best view of the town but the lightning put a damper on those plans. We quickly made our way back to the car and drove home for a wonderful steak dinner on the braai. We enjoyed drinks on the porch before retiring for the night; fewer drinks than the night before might I add!
Andy and Cecilia told us they had bought us a wedding gift that they thought was too big for us to take back to Scotland. Their gift was a lovely wrought iron sculpture of a man on a bike that had a stand on the back for a potted plant. Jenny reassured them we could at least take it to Zambia and take it back on our next trip if we didn't have enough space and we thanked them for their kindness. Andy recommended that we go walk around the craft market where they bought the sculpture because Jenny would likely enjoy the other crafts they were selling. Andy drove us there and we spent an hour wandering around several shops. He was right and Jenny wanted to buy everything she saw. The most beautiful item she saw was a large bowl with the torsos and heads of African ladies coming out of the bowl, and it was all hand painted in beautiful,and vivid colours. Some of the lady's even had babies on their backs! At $250 we decided that it may not be a good idea! Once we exhausted the shops we joined Andy at a cafe in the centre of the market for a drink. Andy ordered a sandwich that took ages, and when it finally came it was an omelette instead! He sent it back and we continued to wait for our drinks, Jenny's chocolate milkshake took the longest! The service was appallingly slow but eventually we all got what we ordered and had a very nice snack.
When we finished at the market we returned home and spent a large portion of the afternoon lounging in the sun and watching some of the cricket on tv. Jenny also spent a lot of time bouncing on the trampoline and convinced me to join her! Of you ever want to laugh like you used to when you were a child, jumping on a trampoline is the best thing ever! Near dinner time Cecilia suggested driving to a large hill carved out of rock just outside of town to have a walk about and get some amazing views of Harare. It was about a 30 minute drive and on the way there the clouds were looking rather ominous. Upon arriving we only had about 10-15 minutes of dry weather before the rain and lightning started. We intended to walk the whole way to the top of the bare rock formations to get the best view of the town but the lightning put a damper on those plans. We quickly made our way back to the car and drove home for a wonderful steak dinner on the braai. We enjoyed drinks on the porch before retiring for the night; fewer drinks than the night before might I add!
Epic Adventure -- Day 72 -- 9/11/2012 -- Troutbeck to Harare
Because we had been in the lounge until 22:00 last night we put off packing until this morning. We knew we had to be out of the house by 10:00 so we woke up at 8:30 to pack up the bags and pack the car. While Jenny was packing the bags I brought in the computer and iPod and redid some of our music so we had something different to listen to while we were on the road. When we were finished the packing Jenny made us some bacon rolls with the last of the food and we departed the cabin for reception. We figured we should take advantage of the free Internet and we sat and had some drinks before leaving Troutbeck for Harare. Jenny insisted we hand in our keys to the gate guard so that reception didn't know we were leaving (otherwise they might not have given us the Internet code).
The drive to Harare was only going to take about 4 hours so we had enough time to stop at a few places along the way. The first place we stopped was the Pine Tree Inn where Jenny and her family used to visit when they came to Zimbabwe. The inn was very nice but they had suffered a forest fire very recently and so the landscape left something to be desired. The fire had been so recent that several tree trunks and root systems were still on fire! We even met the owner on the way back to the main road and he told us the fire might be a blessing, now he could take out all the trees he never liked, haha :)
We continued our drive for the next 200km or so before we had to pull off and stop for some fuel. I only put $25 dollars worth in the car because we were running very low on cash, and we continued on our way. Because of all the police checkpoints our trip was taking a little longer than we thought so we didn't stop again until we pulled into Harare. Once we arrived we discovered that we had made very good time and so stopped off to get some pizza at a local restaurant before carrying on to the house to meet Andy and Cecilia. When we arrived at their house we found that only Cecilia was home and Andy would be returning from a business trip in the next hour or so. We gathered outside on their lovely porch and enjoyed a cup of tea while we waited.
Sure enough Andy arrived shortly after and was keen to open a beer after his long trip. We all settled back into our chair on the porch with our drinks in hand and shared stories from our travels and learned more about the Engelbrecht's. Food was served shortly after and consisted of lasagne and salad, just what we needed. When the food was finished the drinks continued flowing and Andy broke out a few bottles of scotch once he heard that I worked for a bottle shop in St. Andrews. We continued our discussion concerning drinks and just about everts thing else over many many scotches and beers until we all decided that we had our fill. At this point we all headed to bed, some of us able to walk straighter than others.
The drive to Harare was only going to take about 4 hours so we had enough time to stop at a few places along the way. The first place we stopped was the Pine Tree Inn where Jenny and her family used to visit when they came to Zimbabwe. The inn was very nice but they had suffered a forest fire very recently and so the landscape left something to be desired. The fire had been so recent that several tree trunks and root systems were still on fire! We even met the owner on the way back to the main road and he told us the fire might be a blessing, now he could take out all the trees he never liked, haha :)
We continued our drive for the next 200km or so before we had to pull off and stop for some fuel. I only put $25 dollars worth in the car because we were running very low on cash, and we continued on our way. Because of all the police checkpoints our trip was taking a little longer than we thought so we didn't stop again until we pulled into Harare. Once we arrived we discovered that we had made very good time and so stopped off to get some pizza at a local restaurant before carrying on to the house to meet Andy and Cecilia. When we arrived at their house we found that only Cecilia was home and Andy would be returning from a business trip in the next hour or so. We gathered outside on their lovely porch and enjoyed a cup of tea while we waited.
Sure enough Andy arrived shortly after and was keen to open a beer after his long trip. We all settled back into our chair on the porch with our drinks in hand and shared stories from our travels and learned more about the Engelbrecht's. Food was served shortly after and consisted of lasagne and salad, just what we needed. When the food was finished the drinks continued flowing and Andy broke out a few bottles of scotch once he heard that I worked for a bottle shop in St. Andrews. We continued our discussion concerning drinks and just about everts thing else over many many scotches and beers until we all decided that we had our fill. At this point we all headed to bed, some of us able to walk straighter than others.
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 71 -- 8/11/2012 -- Troutbeck
After a really light breakfast of fruit and fruit juice, Dan and I decided to take a drive up the road from Troutbeck to see of we could find Santa's Workshop, which I didn't yet know no longer existed. We drove for around 10kms and found nothing at all, so we turned around and drove back to the Spar we tried to walk to yesterday. We asked when we got there if it was open and we were directed to the entrance of another building which turned out to be the shop, not where we had originally thought it was! Oops :) It turned out that the Spar was abysmally stocked, only a few bags of cips, some rice, cooking oil and breakfast cereal were basically it's only products. I did manage to get a chomp chocolate bar for an expensive $1, they are usually about half that in SA.
The little stalls outside the Spar did sell bread which we bought for bacon rolls for tomorrow breakfast and we decided not to get the ridiculously strong cigarettes for Dan. The bar at reception apparently sold cigarettes so we went and sat in their lounge with tea and coffee, using the internet till the bar opened. We managed to chat to Mum, Jess and to Roy on skype and arranged to phone Roy at 9:30 our time this evening so we could say hi to Snuggie and Mo :D At about half twelve we were super hungry and moved to the sun lounge to eat lunch. I had told Dan that we could not come and stay at Troutbeck and not eat any trout, so we both ordered the Nyanga Trout with chips. In our house the menu says that every timeshare guest that eats lunch or dinner with the hotel gets a free soft drink, but they are no longer doing that and had neglected to change their signs, so we had to pay for our drinks.
While at lunch we started to hear amazing claps of thunder, and saw a storm making its way over the mountain towards us. We headed home to start a fire and whilst it rained we put together ideas for the monopoly board we have. Dan came up with the brilliant idea that we should design and make our very own monopoly board about ur trip, completely customised to what we did and where we went. The properties will all be places we have stayed at, the chances and community chests will be things that actually happened to us on the trip (like, your car has blown a tire, pay $100 to get a new one) and the go to jail will be get stuck at a border post. After chatting for quite a while about the ideas we have for the game, I decided that I wanted to go on a walk around the golf course when it stopped raining. Dan wouldn't come with me, so I went alone. The walk was really beautiful, I went over the hill in front of our house, to the right and back towards the houses over the bridge that separates the timeshare's lake from the hotel's lake.
On the road back up to the house I went to where they cut firewood and took some more kindling as we had used all of ours up trying to keep the fire alive during the rain. We had another short power cut when it got dark, and we frantically tried to find the candles so that we could see. Thankfully their generator kicked in 10 minutes later, and we went to get more kindling. We watched tv in front of ur fire till it was 9pm when we walked down in the pitch dark, because Dan didn't want to drive, to the hotel reception. We played on the Internet waiting for Roy to get home. His meeting ran longer than he had anticipated and the reception wanted to close which ment that we just missed him :( Unfortunately we packed up and went back to the house to tgo to sleep, unfortunately not having spoken to him or the kittens.
The little stalls outside the Spar did sell bread which we bought for bacon rolls for tomorrow breakfast and we decided not to get the ridiculously strong cigarettes for Dan. The bar at reception apparently sold cigarettes so we went and sat in their lounge with tea and coffee, using the internet till the bar opened. We managed to chat to Mum, Jess and to Roy on skype and arranged to phone Roy at 9:30 our time this evening so we could say hi to Snuggie and Mo :D At about half twelve we were super hungry and moved to the sun lounge to eat lunch. I had told Dan that we could not come and stay at Troutbeck and not eat any trout, so we both ordered the Nyanga Trout with chips. In our house the menu says that every timeshare guest that eats lunch or dinner with the hotel gets a free soft drink, but they are no longer doing that and had neglected to change their signs, so we had to pay for our drinks.
While at lunch we started to hear amazing claps of thunder, and saw a storm making its way over the mountain towards us. We headed home to start a fire and whilst it rained we put together ideas for the monopoly board we have. Dan came up with the brilliant idea that we should design and make our very own monopoly board about ur trip, completely customised to what we did and where we went. The properties will all be places we have stayed at, the chances and community chests will be things that actually happened to us on the trip (like, your car has blown a tire, pay $100 to get a new one) and the go to jail will be get stuck at a border post. After chatting for quite a while about the ideas we have for the game, I decided that I wanted to go on a walk around the golf course when it stopped raining. Dan wouldn't come with me, so I went alone. The walk was really beautiful, I went over the hill in front of our house, to the right and back towards the houses over the bridge that separates the timeshare's lake from the hotel's lake.
On the road back up to the house I went to where they cut firewood and took some more kindling as we had used all of ours up trying to keep the fire alive during the rain. We had another short power cut when it got dark, and we frantically tried to find the candles so that we could see. Thankfully their generator kicked in 10 minutes later, and we went to get more kindling. We watched tv in front of ur fire till it was 9pm when we walked down in the pitch dark, because Dan didn't want to drive, to the hotel reception. We played on the Internet waiting for Roy to get home. His meeting ran longer than he had anticipated and the reception wanted to close which ment that we just missed him :( Unfortunately we packed up and went back to the house to tgo to sleep, unfortunately not having spoken to him or the kittens.
Epic Adventure -- Day 70 -- 7/11/2012 -- Troutbeck
After waking up and falling asleep countless times throughout the night, I eventually got up just before 5am and went through to the lounge to find Dan on the mattress in front of the TV watching the election progress through one eye. I cuddled up with him and watched the coverage And half slept. At around 5:30am the tv shut off, Dan thought it was my fault but it turned out to be a power cut! So much for watching the coverage right up until one of the candidates was voted president. We went to sleep on the floor till the power came back on at 8am and we turned on the news to see that Obama had won!!! Hurray for the democrats and all intelligent people! We unwrapped our Swazi glass champagne flutes and celebrated with the bottle of J C Le Roux that we have saved from Waterberry Hill.
After eating bacon and eggs and watching Romney's concession speech and Obama's victory speech a few times on Sky news we both showered and got ready for the day. Because we had now eaten almost of the bread we bought we walked out of the resort gates and just down to the petrol station and shop. The shop looked really closed and we didn't feel like buying any bread from the street vendors so we carried on down the road past some cows and calves. I had hoped we were heading in the right direction to find an old shop we used to love, called Santa's Workshop. We couldn't find it. And it turns out that it no longer exists, but what we did discover were some old fishing pools that Jessica and I caught trout in when we were little, and we're forced to hold them under the slimy gills for photographs :D
We walked back to the resort and went to explore the garden and lounge areas that we hadn't yet seen. They were just as I remembered and even smelt the same because they had pine log fires going in the huge fire places. We walked down the hotel room corridors and I told Dan the story from when Jess and I first came to Troutbeck when we were early young and we would run up and down the passageway knocking on people's doors and hide :D It was quite a warm day some settled down in the sun lounge overlooking the mountains and lake and I had a double thick vanilla milkshake that was divine! Dan went to ask them about Internet which we were told was $10 per day per code, but as we left he remembered we were timeshare guests and that meant the Internet was free for us! We went back to the house for a lunch of bacon rolls And to watch a little tv. We considered going on a walk around the golf course but decided to go back to reception instead to use some Internet.
After uploading a lot of backlogged blog posts since Kruger, and checking various Facebook and email accounts we went back home for a braai. The view from our porch is spectacular, so we got the fire going and settled down to watch the sun set. After the coals had died down and the boerwors was on the fire, it became clear that it wouldn't have enough strength to cook the sausage the whole way through as it was quite thick. I turned on the ovens grill and while the wors finished cooking I put some carrots on too. We rounded off our meal with a couple of beers and a savanna and watched tv till we went to sleep.
After eating bacon and eggs and watching Romney's concession speech and Obama's victory speech a few times on Sky news we both showered and got ready for the day. Because we had now eaten almost of the bread we bought we walked out of the resort gates and just down to the petrol station and shop. The shop looked really closed and we didn't feel like buying any bread from the street vendors so we carried on down the road past some cows and calves. I had hoped we were heading in the right direction to find an old shop we used to love, called Santa's Workshop. We couldn't find it. And it turns out that it no longer exists, but what we did discover were some old fishing pools that Jessica and I caught trout in when we were little, and we're forced to hold them under the slimy gills for photographs :D
We walked back to the resort and went to explore the garden and lounge areas that we hadn't yet seen. They were just as I remembered and even smelt the same because they had pine log fires going in the huge fire places. We walked down the hotel room corridors and I told Dan the story from when Jess and I first came to Troutbeck when we were early young and we would run up and down the passageway knocking on people's doors and hide :D It was quite a warm day some settled down in the sun lounge overlooking the mountains and lake and I had a double thick vanilla milkshake that was divine! Dan went to ask them about Internet which we were told was $10 per day per code, but as we left he remembered we were timeshare guests and that meant the Internet was free for us! We went back to the house for a lunch of bacon rolls And to watch a little tv. We considered going on a walk around the golf course but decided to go back to reception instead to use some Internet.
After uploading a lot of backlogged blog posts since Kruger, and checking various Facebook and email accounts we went back home for a braai. The view from our porch is spectacular, so we got the fire going and settled down to watch the sun set. After the coals had died down and the boerwors was on the fire, it became clear that it wouldn't have enough strength to cook the sausage the whole way through as it was quite thick. I turned on the ovens grill and while the wors finished cooking I put some carrots on too. We rounded off our meal with a couple of beers and a savanna and watched tv till we went to sleep.
Epic Adventure -- Day 69 -- 6/11/2012 -- Masvingo to Troutbeck
We woke up early, at 6am this morning to pack and get ready to leave, even though we knew we would probably not be ready to leave straight away. We had a really great breakfast of toast, fried eggs, sausages and tomatoes. The sausages that Kerry gets from a farmer friend of hers are really yummy, they actually taste like pork :D We ended up chatting with all the Nish's for quite a while, and they gave us very very valuable advice that on our drive we would pass through the diamond fields and to not stop at all on that stretch. People would stand at the side of the road and make a shape of a diamond with their thumbs and forefingers, and if you stopped more often than not it could actually be a police ambush, at which point, even if you were stopped for a sandwich, they would accuse you of dealing in diamonds and put you straight into jail! Ok, so no stopping then!
We left their house at around 8:00am and on our way out of town we stopped to fuel up. I had read on the Troutbeck information sheet we had to check in that we were advised to bring food along with us as the Spar opposite the resort didn't have much. We set the sat nav to take us straight there and we were to pass through Mutare, where we decided to stop for food for the three nights we were at Troutbeck. On the road to Mutare wedding see a man gesturing for us to buy diamonds, who we speedily drove by! Don't get me wrong, I love diamonds but not uncut, illegal ones!! We stopped at the Spar in Mutare and stocked up on food, atrociously expensive food. They wanted $9 for a tub of feta that would have cost us $4 in South Africa. They didn't sell firewood either. We only bough the bare necessities before leaving the town.
We carried on driving the last 140kms to Troutbeck, and thankfully didn't encounter nearly as many police stops along the way, obviously there are not enough opportunities on the quieter roads to rip people off. we arrived and checked in at around 3 in the afternoon, and we're given the keys to our house, number 14. The resort and area is much the same as I remember it, a lot less green because we usually went after the rainy season, but it looked just the same. There was also the heady smell of pine trees in the air that I remember so very well from when I was little. Our cabin is lovely, probably in need of an update in the next couple of years, but still very homely and with an absolutely stunning view of the lakes.
When we had unpacked the car, the first thing Dan did was turn the TV onto the news to find out what was happening with the presidential elections. I made us each a bacon roll and we got the update on how all the voting was going in the different states. The voting booths would only start to close between 2am and 5am our time, so we planned to stay up and watch the voted roll in. We spent much of the afternoon outside enjoying the view and inside flicking between normal TV and the news. I brought down a mattress from the loft and laid it in front of the tv to have a nap while Dan continued watching repetitive speculative coverage.
Once it was about 9 in the evening Jenny decided she was going to properly retire for the night and asked me to wake her up every once and a while with updates on the election. I had assumed that we were only 7 hours ahead of the east coast of the states but we we really 8 hours ahead. This meant that the results would be coming in later than I thought and it made sense to grab some sleep before the first polling stations closed at 2 in the morning. So I set an alarm for 1:00 and drifted off to sleep.
We left their house at around 8:00am and on our way out of town we stopped to fuel up. I had read on the Troutbeck information sheet we had to check in that we were advised to bring food along with us as the Spar opposite the resort didn't have much. We set the sat nav to take us straight there and we were to pass through Mutare, where we decided to stop for food for the three nights we were at Troutbeck. On the road to Mutare wedding see a man gesturing for us to buy diamonds, who we speedily drove by! Don't get me wrong, I love diamonds but not uncut, illegal ones!! We stopped at the Spar in Mutare and stocked up on food, atrociously expensive food. They wanted $9 for a tub of feta that would have cost us $4 in South Africa. They didn't sell firewood either. We only bough the bare necessities before leaving the town.
We carried on driving the last 140kms to Troutbeck, and thankfully didn't encounter nearly as many police stops along the way, obviously there are not enough opportunities on the quieter roads to rip people off. we arrived and checked in at around 3 in the afternoon, and we're given the keys to our house, number 14. The resort and area is much the same as I remember it, a lot less green because we usually went after the rainy season, but it looked just the same. There was also the heady smell of pine trees in the air that I remember so very well from when I was little. Our cabin is lovely, probably in need of an update in the next couple of years, but still very homely and with an absolutely stunning view of the lakes.
When we had unpacked the car, the first thing Dan did was turn the TV onto the news to find out what was happening with the presidential elections. I made us each a bacon roll and we got the update on how all the voting was going in the different states. The voting booths would only start to close between 2am and 5am our time, so we planned to stay up and watch the voted roll in. We spent much of the afternoon outside enjoying the view and inside flicking between normal TV and the news. I brought down a mattress from the loft and laid it in front of the tv to have a nap while Dan continued watching repetitive speculative coverage.
Once it was about 9 in the evening Jenny decided she was going to properly retire for the night and asked me to wake her up every once and a while with updates on the election. I had assumed that we were only 7 hours ahead of the east coast of the states but we we really 8 hours ahead. This meant that the results would be coming in later than I thought and it made sense to grab some sleep before the first polling stations closed at 2 in the morning. So I set an alarm for 1:00 and drifted off to sleep.
Epic Adventure -- Day 68 -- 5/11/2012 -- Masvingo
So after some discussion with Jenny and some persuasion on Graham's behalf we decided to stay for one more day in Masvingo and spend some extra time with the Nish's. I helped Kerry make eggs for breakfast this morning, cooked with onions and served with toast. They were delicious!! After breakfast a couple brought their female jack russel aroind to mate with Kerry's jack russell. Laura had a couple of exams today so I offered to take her to school so that Kerry could stay and talk to the couple who were trying to get their dog pregnant. Poor Laura is sitting her O level exams, and Declan is sitting his A levels, and they both have a frightening amount of exams. It makes me really truly glad that I have now finished university and I never have to sit a pointless exam again :D Hurray!! Our drive to school took us through a really large police road check, but thankfully on the way there and on the way back they let me through without an issue. Having a foreign registered car in Zimbabwe does seem to cause a lot of attention and hassle!
When I got back the couple had left to run some errands in town and were coming back later to get their dog. They breed in jack russell's and already have a few buyers for the puppies they may have. I decided when I got back that due to the issues we have been having with the front tire and because it has two reasonable size cuts in it that are concerning us, the we should switch it out for our brand new spare and have it as our spare instead. Thankfully, because I married a strong and handsome boy, I sat back and watched him change our tire in the hot sun :D When he was done he switched into his swim trunks and took a dip in the Nish's pool to cool off.
We took today really easily, we had stayed to spend more time with the Nish's so we just chilled for the afternoon, drinking beers in Dan's case :D he watched a little of the local cricket on TV while I unpacked and repacked our bags, we had let them get into quite a state! Kerry was very kind and told me that she knew of a pharmacy that would sell the treatment for malaria over the counter! Nothing like that would ever happen in the UK, the pharmacists are probably so scared of being sued, but this could honestly save either my life or Dan's life, if we pick up malaria in a remote area. The $28 that the two treatments cost us is well worth it in my opinion, sort of like insurance, it's a "waste" till something terrible happens and you really need it!
While in town I also picked up a reflective safety vest to appease the police at all the bloody road blocks. They will find anything to pick upon it seems. We found this out on our way to Masvingo when one stopped us, asked to see our triangle, fire extinguisher and vest, and when we produced them he spent the next five minutes inspecting our break lights and tires and eventually let us leave after telling us "next time you come to Zimbabwe you need to have a long reflective strip on the back of your car, you are lucky I didn't fine you $10". Such lies, as we read up extensively on what we needed to get through Zimbabwe with no hassles and the only reflective car thing we needed were four small reflective rectangles, white and red, for the front and back bumper, which we have! There is so much corruption here, it is incredibly frustrating to put it very mildly.
When I got home Dan and I finished packing our bags and the car. Kerry had organised to cook fillet for dinner, a real treat for us because in the UK you would spend around £35 per kg, so needless to say we don't eat it often! It is a lot less expensive here but just as tasty! She made a delicious mushroom and onion sauce to go with the fillet, as well as creamy potatoes and green beans. It was really such a divine meal, and I certainly ate too much :D We moved inside and sat in their new extension and had a look at all the old Zimbabwe dollars they had kept when they became defunct. Even though I have been around enough Zimbabweans and lived in Africa for a lot of my life it still blows my mind to hear about the effects of their hyper inflation first hand.
Graham and Kerry own a supermarket and petrol station, and they were explaining to us how up to three times a day they would have to phone the bank to find out what the current exchange rate for the Zim dollar was and adjust their product prices accordingly. By hand. Three times a day! The value of items was doubling every 30 hours, and at its peak a tin of Coke was $7000000000000 which is seven TRILLION Zimbabwe dollars!! They had originally pulled them out because Dan wants to make a Monopoly board personalised about our epic adventure inmAfrica and wants to hopefully use the old Zimbabwe notes. Because Kerry and Graham have such a large selection of notes from $1000 to $50000000000, we can't use them for the lard until Dan works out what denominations we need and how many of each. They very kindly gave us one of each of the notes in any case, for interests sake :) We all retired to bed, Dan and I had a quick bath first and then went to sleep for the last time in the Nish's house.
When I got back the couple had left to run some errands in town and were coming back later to get their dog. They breed in jack russell's and already have a few buyers for the puppies they may have. I decided when I got back that due to the issues we have been having with the front tire and because it has two reasonable size cuts in it that are concerning us, the we should switch it out for our brand new spare and have it as our spare instead. Thankfully, because I married a strong and handsome boy, I sat back and watched him change our tire in the hot sun :D When he was done he switched into his swim trunks and took a dip in the Nish's pool to cool off.
We took today really easily, we had stayed to spend more time with the Nish's so we just chilled for the afternoon, drinking beers in Dan's case :D he watched a little of the local cricket on TV while I unpacked and repacked our bags, we had let them get into quite a state! Kerry was very kind and told me that she knew of a pharmacy that would sell the treatment for malaria over the counter! Nothing like that would ever happen in the UK, the pharmacists are probably so scared of being sued, but this could honestly save either my life or Dan's life, if we pick up malaria in a remote area. The $28 that the two treatments cost us is well worth it in my opinion, sort of like insurance, it's a "waste" till something terrible happens and you really need it!
While in town I also picked up a reflective safety vest to appease the police at all the bloody road blocks. They will find anything to pick upon it seems. We found this out on our way to Masvingo when one stopped us, asked to see our triangle, fire extinguisher and vest, and when we produced them he spent the next five minutes inspecting our break lights and tires and eventually let us leave after telling us "next time you come to Zimbabwe you need to have a long reflective strip on the back of your car, you are lucky I didn't fine you $10". Such lies, as we read up extensively on what we needed to get through Zimbabwe with no hassles and the only reflective car thing we needed were four small reflective rectangles, white and red, for the front and back bumper, which we have! There is so much corruption here, it is incredibly frustrating to put it very mildly.
When I got home Dan and I finished packing our bags and the car. Kerry had organised to cook fillet for dinner, a real treat for us because in the UK you would spend around £35 per kg, so needless to say we don't eat it often! It is a lot less expensive here but just as tasty! She made a delicious mushroom and onion sauce to go with the fillet, as well as creamy potatoes and green beans. It was really such a divine meal, and I certainly ate too much :D We moved inside and sat in their new extension and had a look at all the old Zimbabwe dollars they had kept when they became defunct. Even though I have been around enough Zimbabweans and lived in Africa for a lot of my life it still blows my mind to hear about the effects of their hyper inflation first hand.
Graham and Kerry own a supermarket and petrol station, and they were explaining to us how up to three times a day they would have to phone the bank to find out what the current exchange rate for the Zim dollar was and adjust their product prices accordingly. By hand. Three times a day! The value of items was doubling every 30 hours, and at its peak a tin of Coke was $7000000000000 which is seven TRILLION Zimbabwe dollars!! They had originally pulled them out because Dan wants to make a Monopoly board personalised about our epic adventure inmAfrica and wants to hopefully use the old Zimbabwe notes. Because Kerry and Graham have such a large selection of notes from $1000 to $50000000000, we can't use them for the lard until Dan works out what denominations we need and how many of each. They very kindly gave us one of each of the notes in any case, for interests sake :) We all retired to bed, Dan and I had a quick bath first and then went to sleep for the last time in the Nish's house.
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 67 -- 4/11/2012 -- Masvingo
Kerry cooked us a very delicious breakfast of Scrambled eggs with chives on toast. The eggs tasted delicious, and Kerry told me that her trick was a little cream so that the eggs did not split, amazing! We each had a bath and got ready slowly to drive to the Great Zimbabwe ruins. One of the people who had organised and set off the fire works came over for tea with his son, so we sat and enjoyed recounting the previous night for an hour. Dan and I set off at around 11 for the ruins, with a view to go to their shop and garage, Stop Over. Just before we left for their shop we noticed that one of the tires on the car was looking a it flat so we got out the tire gauge and the compressor and filled the front right tire to the correct level.
Jenny had assured me that she knew exactly where we were going to get to the Nish's shop. This however turned out not to be the case and we spent to first 20 minutes of our drive criss crossing Masvingo in an attempt to orient ourselves. As soon as we figured out we were on the correct road a white bakkie pulled up beside us while we we driving and pointed to our front right tire while beeping its horn a few times. Because of our problems earlier in the morning concerning the tire pressure we assumed they were notifying us that something was wrong with the tire. We pulled over on the side of the road and I stuck my head out the drivers window to have a look at the tire, it seemed fine. The men in the bakkie pulled up in front of us and told us they were members of the Zimbabwe public police and they would need to search our car. The men were dressed nothing like police officers and we had been warned about situations like this. Jenny told the men "we are in a hurry" and I pulled away from their parked car. We took the first turn that would take us back into the centre of Masvingo intending to make a bee line for the police station should the men follow us.
The men carried on straight and didn't follow us towards town. Once we had given them a minute to get a bit ahead of us we turned back onto the correct road and proceeded to the Nish's shop. About 500 metres after returning to the road we crested a hill and found a police checkpoint. We intended on stopping to tell the police about the would be robbers but decided against it when we saw the men and their truck stopped at the checkpoint. We drove through the checkpoint never intending to stop even if the police told us to. It looked very much like the men were working with the police but not as police; corruption at its finest.
When we arrived at the shops Jenny went inside for some drinks and snacks for the day while it put some fuel in the car. Because I had never purchased fuel in $/litre I had no perspective if the fuel was expensive or not. As such I put 20 litres in the car rather than filling it up at $1.40 per litre. Later figuring out that this amounted to a little more than we were paying in South Africa but not much.
Finally after all of the delays and diversions this morning we managed to make it to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. Before our visit today I had never heard anything about the ruins so upon arriving, and paying our $15 a head, we headed straight for the museum to learn a little more about the ruins we were about to see. The ruins are a large group of stone walls built without mortar between 1200 and 1700 AD by natives who built their houses amoungst the structures. Walking around the ruins I couldn't help but wonder exactly why the walls were built. They did not form any portion of the people's living quarters, did not form complete enclosures and were monumental in height. Why would a group of people build stone walls that did not provide housing or protection and clearly took an immense amount of effort to build? For what purpose? The museum held few answers because it appeared much more propaganda oriented than historical oriented.
When we were finished contemplating the existence of the ruins we drove down the road to have a look at the damn that created the lake on which the boat club is located. The damn was very impressive and after a few minutes admiring it we headed back to the Nish's shop to buy some drinks for the evening. When we returned home we were all in a very cheery mood and enjoyed several drinks and great conversation with the Nish's before firing up the braai for our food. We cooked boerwors and steaks on the braai and continued chatting late into the evening.
Jenny had assured me that she knew exactly where we were going to get to the Nish's shop. This however turned out not to be the case and we spent to first 20 minutes of our drive criss crossing Masvingo in an attempt to orient ourselves. As soon as we figured out we were on the correct road a white bakkie pulled up beside us while we we driving and pointed to our front right tire while beeping its horn a few times. Because of our problems earlier in the morning concerning the tire pressure we assumed they were notifying us that something was wrong with the tire. We pulled over on the side of the road and I stuck my head out the drivers window to have a look at the tire, it seemed fine. The men in the bakkie pulled up in front of us and told us they were members of the Zimbabwe public police and they would need to search our car. The men were dressed nothing like police officers and we had been warned about situations like this. Jenny told the men "we are in a hurry" and I pulled away from their parked car. We took the first turn that would take us back into the centre of Masvingo intending to make a bee line for the police station should the men follow us.
The men carried on straight and didn't follow us towards town. Once we had given them a minute to get a bit ahead of us we turned back onto the correct road and proceeded to the Nish's shop. About 500 metres after returning to the road we crested a hill and found a police checkpoint. We intended on stopping to tell the police about the would be robbers but decided against it when we saw the men and their truck stopped at the checkpoint. We drove through the checkpoint never intending to stop even if the police told us to. It looked very much like the men were working with the police but not as police; corruption at its finest.
When we arrived at the shops Jenny went inside for some drinks and snacks for the day while it put some fuel in the car. Because I had never purchased fuel in $/litre I had no perspective if the fuel was expensive or not. As such I put 20 litres in the car rather than filling it up at $1.40 per litre. Later figuring out that this amounted to a little more than we were paying in South Africa but not much.
Finally after all of the delays and diversions this morning we managed to make it to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. Before our visit today I had never heard anything about the ruins so upon arriving, and paying our $15 a head, we headed straight for the museum to learn a little more about the ruins we were about to see. The ruins are a large group of stone walls built without mortar between 1200 and 1700 AD by natives who built their houses amoungst the structures. Walking around the ruins I couldn't help but wonder exactly why the walls were built. They did not form any portion of the people's living quarters, did not form complete enclosures and were monumental in height. Why would a group of people build stone walls that did not provide housing or protection and clearly took an immense amount of effort to build? For what purpose? The museum held few answers because it appeared much more propaganda oriented than historical oriented.
When we were finished contemplating the existence of the ruins we drove down the road to have a look at the damn that created the lake on which the boat club is located. The damn was very impressive and after a few minutes admiring it we headed back to the Nish's shop to buy some drinks for the evening. When we returned home we were all in a very cheery mood and enjoyed several drinks and great conversation with the Nish's before firing up the braai for our food. We cooked boerwors and steaks on the braai and continued chatting late into the evening.
Epic Adventure -- Day 66 -- 3/11/2012 -- Francistown to Masvingo
We ended up sleeping a million times better last night than any night in the previous 2 weeks and it was well needed considering our ambitious second day of driving. We rather ambitiously aimed for Masvingo by early afternoon; no easy task considering we had to pass through the Plumtree border post from Botswana to Zimbabwe. We quickly repacked the car early in the morning and were back on the road by 6:30. I decided that I wanted to pick up some Pula before leaving Botswana just so we had access to local currency immediately when we crossed back into Botswana in 2 weeks time.
Once we picked up some currency at a petrol station under construction, we stopped at another station just down the road to fill up the car before our long journey. While filling up Jenny reminded me that the last item we needed for the car was an oval sticker with a BW printed on it to designate that our car was a Botswana registered car. It turned out that these stickers are very hard to come by, at least if you try to pick them up anywhere between Francistown and the Plumtree border post. Jenny drove the first leg of the trip until we reached the border post and stopped at several other stations in an attempt to find one of these stickers to no avail. So we decided to have a go at the border post without one.
When we arrived at the Plumtree border post we were both immediately glad that we had chosen to avoid the Beit Bridge post. The border post was almost empty and the only cause of a delay was the vast amount of paperwork that we needed to fill out concerning the temporary export and import of the car. We also needed to buy a visa for my American passport for Zimbabwe and opted to buy a double entry visa because of our planned return to Victoria Falls in a few weeks time. According to literature I had read (and I must have been wrong) my visa was supposed to cost $115 but only cost us $45! The only other charge we had to pay was a car emissions fee of $55. In the end the border post was very pleasant and cost us a moderate amount with no bribes, unlike what we had read and heard about Beit Bridge.
Once we continued our drive we were very very grateful that we had been vigilant with our forms at the border's and our supplies for the car. Within the 100km to Bulawayo we were stopped by no fewer than 10 police roadblocks wanting to see our temporary import permit (TIP) for the car and checking to see if we had the required safety supplies. I handed over the driving to Dan for the rest of the trip once we stopped for lunch in Bulawayo. We tried to find a restaurant called Sisters that I had been taken to by my parents quite a few times when I was younger. It was listed on our sat nav but once we got to where it was supposed to be we couldn't find it nor did anyone know what we were talking about so we found another cafe. Dan convinced me to order a delicious pina colada and for lunch I had a chicken mayonnaise sandwich and Dan had a burger.
After about 5 more pointless police check points we arrived in Masvingo at about 5 in the afternoon. On the way there we passed a very dead and long abandoned bus on the side of the road, and as we passed by we realised that it was a Stagecoach bus! Those are the busses that run around Scotland, we have no idea what one was doing on the side of the road to Zimbabwe. Our phones still have the South Africa sim cards in them and they refused to connect to make a phone call or send a text message until I tried Kerry's phone number again when we drove into Masvingo and got through to Graham!! He gave us directions to his house, but it turns out that we were already past the specific turn off that he was talking about so we got a little lost. We stopped off at a bottle store and Dan went in to get some drinks while I figured out on the sat nav where Graham had been talking about. We eventually found their street, Flame Tree Avenue, and we're driving slowly down it to find the stone wall with black gates when Laura and Graham drove down the road to rescue us!
We had some drinks with the family and caught up, as the last time I was here was around 10 years ago! Kerry and Graham have not changed a bit but Declan and Laura are, obviously, a lot older than I remembered and it took me a little while to get used to that :D The Kyle Boat Club on the Masvingo dam was hosting Guy Fawkes night and the Nish's were extremely kind and got the two of us tickets to attend with them. Before leaving at 6:30 we met the two English cricketers that are staying in the cottage behind the house, Ben and Pete. They are here for a few months to play with the team in Masvingo.
The boat club was about a 30 km drive away and we arrived just as the sun was setting. We got some drinks from the bar (which was very cheap) and stood on the porch overlooking the lake as a few of the guys tried to light some early fireworks. These early ones tended to explode on the ground for some reason and we only hoped that they figured out what they were doing before the real display was to start. Once the sun had properly set the real display began, and I have to say it was quite impressive for a friendly gathering on the lake. Near the end of the display they lit their Guy Fawkes effigy and it burned and exploded with amazing vigor (they had planted fireworks inside the effigy). When the fireworks, and the fire, were finished we retired inside for some more drinks and waited for the food to be ready.
The food took another 30 minutes or so and didn't disappoint. it very much reminded me of the meals that I used to eat at the picnic grove attached to the Lutheran church I used to attend. When we were well and truly fed, and after Jenny and Laura jumped on the bouncy castle, we sat outside for a few more drinks before retiring for the night. Jenny had volunteered to be the DD for the night and Declan and Laura drove back with us. On the way back to the house we were searching through my iPod for some songs that only drunk people would appreciate. The song we took particular affinity to was the Lonely Island Boys "I'm on a boat" which we played at full volume when we drove to the house for the night. Not sure it was appreciated by all but it was a great way to end the evening.
Once we picked up some currency at a petrol station under construction, we stopped at another station just down the road to fill up the car before our long journey. While filling up Jenny reminded me that the last item we needed for the car was an oval sticker with a BW printed on it to designate that our car was a Botswana registered car. It turned out that these stickers are very hard to come by, at least if you try to pick them up anywhere between Francistown and the Plumtree border post. Jenny drove the first leg of the trip until we reached the border post and stopped at several other stations in an attempt to find one of these stickers to no avail. So we decided to have a go at the border post without one.
When we arrived at the Plumtree border post we were both immediately glad that we had chosen to avoid the Beit Bridge post. The border post was almost empty and the only cause of a delay was the vast amount of paperwork that we needed to fill out concerning the temporary export and import of the car. We also needed to buy a visa for my American passport for Zimbabwe and opted to buy a double entry visa because of our planned return to Victoria Falls in a few weeks time. According to literature I had read (and I must have been wrong) my visa was supposed to cost $115 but only cost us $45! The only other charge we had to pay was a car emissions fee of $55. In the end the border post was very pleasant and cost us a moderate amount with no bribes, unlike what we had read and heard about Beit Bridge.
Once we continued our drive we were very very grateful that we had been vigilant with our forms at the border's and our supplies for the car. Within the 100km to Bulawayo we were stopped by no fewer than 10 police roadblocks wanting to see our temporary import permit (TIP) for the car and checking to see if we had the required safety supplies. I handed over the driving to Dan for the rest of the trip once we stopped for lunch in Bulawayo. We tried to find a restaurant called Sisters that I had been taken to by my parents quite a few times when I was younger. It was listed on our sat nav but once we got to where it was supposed to be we couldn't find it nor did anyone know what we were talking about so we found another cafe. Dan convinced me to order a delicious pina colada and for lunch I had a chicken mayonnaise sandwich and Dan had a burger.
After about 5 more pointless police check points we arrived in Masvingo at about 5 in the afternoon. On the way there we passed a very dead and long abandoned bus on the side of the road, and as we passed by we realised that it was a Stagecoach bus! Those are the busses that run around Scotland, we have no idea what one was doing on the side of the road to Zimbabwe. Our phones still have the South Africa sim cards in them and they refused to connect to make a phone call or send a text message until I tried Kerry's phone number again when we drove into Masvingo and got through to Graham!! He gave us directions to his house, but it turns out that we were already past the specific turn off that he was talking about so we got a little lost. We stopped off at a bottle store and Dan went in to get some drinks while I figured out on the sat nav where Graham had been talking about. We eventually found their street, Flame Tree Avenue, and we're driving slowly down it to find the stone wall with black gates when Laura and Graham drove down the road to rescue us!
We had some drinks with the family and caught up, as the last time I was here was around 10 years ago! Kerry and Graham have not changed a bit but Declan and Laura are, obviously, a lot older than I remembered and it took me a little while to get used to that :D The Kyle Boat Club on the Masvingo dam was hosting Guy Fawkes night and the Nish's were extremely kind and got the two of us tickets to attend with them. Before leaving at 6:30 we met the two English cricketers that are staying in the cottage behind the house, Ben and Pete. They are here for a few months to play with the team in Masvingo.
The boat club was about a 30 km drive away and we arrived just as the sun was setting. We got some drinks from the bar (which was very cheap) and stood on the porch overlooking the lake as a few of the guys tried to light some early fireworks. These early ones tended to explode on the ground for some reason and we only hoped that they figured out what they were doing before the real display was to start. Once the sun had properly set the real display began, and I have to say it was quite impressive for a friendly gathering on the lake. Near the end of the display they lit their Guy Fawkes effigy and it burned and exploded with amazing vigor (they had planted fireworks inside the effigy). When the fireworks, and the fire, were finished we retired inside for some more drinks and waited for the food to be ready.
The food took another 30 minutes or so and didn't disappoint. it very much reminded me of the meals that I used to eat at the picnic grove attached to the Lutheran church I used to attend. When we were well and truly fed, and after Jenny and Laura jumped on the bouncy castle, we sat outside for a few more drinks before retiring for the night. Jenny had volunteered to be the DD for the night and Declan and Laura drove back with us. On the way back to the house we were searching through my iPod for some songs that only drunk people would appreciate. The song we took particular affinity to was the Lonely Island Boys "I'm on a boat" which we played at full volume when we drove to the house for the night. Not sure it was appreciated by all but it was a great way to end the evening.
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Epic Adventure -- Day 65 -- 2/11/2012 -- Hazyview to Francistown
When we woke up this morning we knew we had one of the longest days of the trip so far ahead of us. Our goal was to make it to Francistown, Botswana by the end of the day and we only hoped our decision to avoid the infamous Beit Bridge border post was the correct one. Because of our dinner the night before we chose to pack our bags this morning and had the car loaded and ready to leave by 6:45. Heath had recommended stopping in Nelspruit to get the relevant work done on the car (including the flush of the cooling system) but our schedule, coupled with the fact that Nelspruit was in the wrong direction, convinced us to skip the intense car maintenance and head straight for Botswana.
We set off down the road with no option but to include unpaved roads on our route because our road out of the accommodation was unpaved. Our sat nav usually asks you if you would like to include or avoid unpaved roads, but rather annoyingly it glitches on this aspect if you start out on an unpaved road. About 100km into our journey we encountered the first of the gravel roads. Turns out that the unpaved roads on this route were very poorly maintained and they were very slow going. Once we cleared the 30 km or so on these gravel roads we reset the GPS to keep us on paved roads. Once we made this decision the next 200km or so were very swift and mundane. Near lunchtime we naturally decided to break for some food, as well as to pick up some supplies for the car that are required by law before entering Botswana and Zimbabwe. We pulled into a shopping centre in Mokopane, the last major town before Botswana's Martins Drift border post.
Just after getting out of the car we noticed a significant amount of shouting coming from the street and spotted a few men running amongst the traffic. At first it was not clear as to what was happening but it soon became apparent that the man sprinting up front was being chased by a combination of police and car guards. The street was very busy and the pavement was packed with people, a fact that likely aided in the mans capture after 100 metres of frivolous escape efforts. Once the man had been tackled by the guards he was subject to significant physical abuse from the bystanders around him, who were smacking him with their bags and hands for stealing.
After the commotion Jenny and I went into the shopping centre where we found a spar to buy some food supplies and a Game (South African equivalent of a home depot) where we could buy our required car supplies. We bought a 25litre diesel jerry can, a fire extinguisher, a reflective triangle, a bottle of injector cleaner, reflective stickers and a torch. The jerry can and injector cleaner were a necessity for our trip, the rest were all 'required by the government of Botswana and Zimbabwe' mostly to avoid having to pay bribes every time we go through a police checkpoint. Once we finished picking up our supplies we stopped for fuel and to fill up the jerry can, before we got back on the road and headed towards the border with Botswana.
I remember going through this border when I was much younger. Many a time my parents would drop Jess and I off at the door and go to park, so that we could push our way through the chaotic throng of people and save them a spot! You were doomed to hours at the post if a bus, or seven, arrived before you as no one stands in orderly queues! Thankfully when we arrived we had only a handful of people there, so we were able to get through quickly and painlessly. Within 40 minutes we were through the South African and Botswana border's and on the road again. Even though we had made very good time so far we knew it would still be a long push to make it to Francistown before nightfall.
We really wanted to avoid driving at night because of the frequent animals on the road and so Dan put foot to the floor. Unfortunately we were just behind our schedule and it didn't appear as if we were going to make it before dark. We started looking to see if we could find a place to stay shy of Francistown in an effort to get off the road but the accommodation choices are few and far between in Botswana if you are not in one of the towns. Our hand was forced and we had to push on past dark, a very scary experience, and something I do not wish to repeat on this trip.
The road was quite busy in both directions so we couldn't keep the brights on for very long, if at all, and the frequency and number of animals on the side of the road that we only saw at the last minute was petrifying. The pot holes towards Francistown were also quite bad and were difficult to see and avoid. After traveling these last terrifying 90 km we finally arrived in Francistown and pulled into the first hotel on the road we saw and at just R400 for the room we were happy to take it. After 700km and 12 hours on the road we most certainly needed rest and collapsed into bed at 8:00pm after a very very long day.
We set off down the road with no option but to include unpaved roads on our route because our road out of the accommodation was unpaved. Our sat nav usually asks you if you would like to include or avoid unpaved roads, but rather annoyingly it glitches on this aspect if you start out on an unpaved road. About 100km into our journey we encountered the first of the gravel roads. Turns out that the unpaved roads on this route were very poorly maintained and they were very slow going. Once we cleared the 30 km or so on these gravel roads we reset the GPS to keep us on paved roads. Once we made this decision the next 200km or so were very swift and mundane. Near lunchtime we naturally decided to break for some food, as well as to pick up some supplies for the car that are required by law before entering Botswana and Zimbabwe. We pulled into a shopping centre in Mokopane, the last major town before Botswana's Martins Drift border post.
Just after getting out of the car we noticed a significant amount of shouting coming from the street and spotted a few men running amongst the traffic. At first it was not clear as to what was happening but it soon became apparent that the man sprinting up front was being chased by a combination of police and car guards. The street was very busy and the pavement was packed with people, a fact that likely aided in the mans capture after 100 metres of frivolous escape efforts. Once the man had been tackled by the guards he was subject to significant physical abuse from the bystanders around him, who were smacking him with their bags and hands for stealing.
After the commotion Jenny and I went into the shopping centre where we found a spar to buy some food supplies and a Game (South African equivalent of a home depot) where we could buy our required car supplies. We bought a 25litre diesel jerry can, a fire extinguisher, a reflective triangle, a bottle of injector cleaner, reflective stickers and a torch. The jerry can and injector cleaner were a necessity for our trip, the rest were all 'required by the government of Botswana and Zimbabwe' mostly to avoid having to pay bribes every time we go through a police checkpoint. Once we finished picking up our supplies we stopped for fuel and to fill up the jerry can, before we got back on the road and headed towards the border with Botswana.
I remember going through this border when I was much younger. Many a time my parents would drop Jess and I off at the door and go to park, so that we could push our way through the chaotic throng of people and save them a spot! You were doomed to hours at the post if a bus, or seven, arrived before you as no one stands in orderly queues! Thankfully when we arrived we had only a handful of people there, so we were able to get through quickly and painlessly. Within 40 minutes we were through the South African and Botswana border's and on the road again. Even though we had made very good time so far we knew it would still be a long push to make it to Francistown before nightfall.
We really wanted to avoid driving at night because of the frequent animals on the road and so Dan put foot to the floor. Unfortunately we were just behind our schedule and it didn't appear as if we were going to make it before dark. We started looking to see if we could find a place to stay shy of Francistown in an effort to get off the road but the accommodation choices are few and far between in Botswana if you are not in one of the towns. Our hand was forced and we had to push on past dark, a very scary experience, and something I do not wish to repeat on this trip.
The road was quite busy in both directions so we couldn't keep the brights on for very long, if at all, and the frequency and number of animals on the side of the road that we only saw at the last minute was petrifying. The pot holes towards Francistown were also quite bad and were difficult to see and avoid. After traveling these last terrifying 90 km we finally arrived in Francistown and pulled into the first hotel on the road we saw and at just R400 for the room we were happy to take it. After 700km and 12 hours on the road we most certainly needed rest and collapsed into bed at 8:00pm after a very very long day.
Epic Adventure -- Day 64 -- 1/11/2012 -- Kruger National Park
Today we planned for a much more reasonable start to our journey into the park, arriving at the gates at around 9:00am. We didn't intend on staying in the park for as long as we had during previous days and so we thought we would take a route that kept us quite near the entrance gates and not so far into the depths of the park. Our previous exploits had taken us towards lower Sabie and so today we decided to take the first left turn we could away from Sabie and towards the Paul Kruger gate. We saw almost nothing on our last trip, a herd of buffalo and a herd of impala, a baby mongoose and one elephant. The Ellie made up for not seeing any more game because even though he was a musth bull, he did not try to charge us and simply trundled along next to the car for around 20 minutes.
We left the park at around half twelve and headed straight for the tourism shopping centre that Pioneers is situated in, to see if there were any interesting shops there and if we could have lunch. Unfortunately, bar Pioneers, there was nothing interesting there, and we tried to have some sushi for lunch at a seafood restaurant but they had broken their rice machine. We left and drove to the place we had enjoyed our R25 breakfast as they had a brewery there. It was not an actual brewery, it was a bar that sold homemade beers but didn't have any in stock! Dan had a castle instead, and they did make sushi so we each had 8 pieces of rainbow roll before heading home.
When we returned home I wanted to sit and have a few more drinks while Jenny was a bit more active and persuaded me to join her on the trampoline for some exercise disguised as fun. While we were playing on the trampoline a fairly young man and his four year old daughter joined us at the play area. Jenny continued bouncing on the trampoline inviting his daughter to jump with her while I struck up a conversation with him. Turns out he is from Zimbabwe and was more than willing to share his advice about traveling into the semi-tumultuous region. He recommended that we reconsider our route to avoid the Zimbabwean border post Beit Bridge at all costs, which was advice we took gladly. After a while chatting to Heath we found out that he is an electrical mechanic and we asked him if he would have a look at the land rover to see if he could diagnose the cause of its continuous engine problems. We brought the car up to Heaths house and he had a listen to the engine. His advice to fix our troubles was that during the time the car had been left idle before our trip there was likely a growth of fungus in the fuel tank that was now clogging the injectors. What he suggested was that we get an anti fungal fuel injector cleaner that you add to the fuel, and to possibly get the radiator cleaned as the coolant was very brown with rust.
By the time that we had chatted to Heath about the car for a short while it was getting on to dinner time, so we said goodbye and thanked him for his advice. We took the car back to our house and changed to go to dinner at the Pioneers Butcher and Grill for a second night in a row. This time around Jenny and I both ordered the fillet (hers a 200g and mine a 300g) which were by far the best steaks we had tasted in a long time. So much so that we were shocked that our dinner, including a desserts and 2 glasses of wine only cost R350!!! After we finished our fantastic meal we headed home for an early night in preparation for our early departure to Botswana tomorrow morning.
We left the park at around half twelve and headed straight for the tourism shopping centre that Pioneers is situated in, to see if there were any interesting shops there and if we could have lunch. Unfortunately, bar Pioneers, there was nothing interesting there, and we tried to have some sushi for lunch at a seafood restaurant but they had broken their rice machine. We left and drove to the place we had enjoyed our R25 breakfast as they had a brewery there. It was not an actual brewery, it was a bar that sold homemade beers but didn't have any in stock! Dan had a castle instead, and they did make sushi so we each had 8 pieces of rainbow roll before heading home.
When we returned home I wanted to sit and have a few more drinks while Jenny was a bit more active and persuaded me to join her on the trampoline for some exercise disguised as fun. While we were playing on the trampoline a fairly young man and his four year old daughter joined us at the play area. Jenny continued bouncing on the trampoline inviting his daughter to jump with her while I struck up a conversation with him. Turns out he is from Zimbabwe and was more than willing to share his advice about traveling into the semi-tumultuous region. He recommended that we reconsider our route to avoid the Zimbabwean border post Beit Bridge at all costs, which was advice we took gladly. After a while chatting to Heath we found out that he is an electrical mechanic and we asked him if he would have a look at the land rover to see if he could diagnose the cause of its continuous engine problems. We brought the car up to Heaths house and he had a listen to the engine. His advice to fix our troubles was that during the time the car had been left idle before our trip there was likely a growth of fungus in the fuel tank that was now clogging the injectors. What he suggested was that we get an anti fungal fuel injector cleaner that you add to the fuel, and to possibly get the radiator cleaned as the coolant was very brown with rust.
By the time that we had chatted to Heath about the car for a short while it was getting on to dinner time, so we said goodbye and thanked him for his advice. We took the car back to our house and changed to go to dinner at the Pioneers Butcher and Grill for a second night in a row. This time around Jenny and I both ordered the fillet (hers a 200g and mine a 300g) which were by far the best steaks we had tasted in a long time. So much so that we were shocked that our dinner, including a desserts and 2 glasses of wine only cost R350!!! After we finished our fantastic meal we headed home for an early night in preparation for our early departure to Botswana tomorrow morning.
Epic Adventure -- Day 63 -- 31/10/2012 -- Kruger National Park
We slept in this morning, planning on going to Kruger a little later. After getting showered and changed we left house around 9am and drove to the same entrance gate, as it has more dirt roads and it less busy than the one gate closer to us and Paul Kruger gate which is the busiest in the
park. Hopefully that means more animals, and as we got so lucky on our first day it was worth a shot! The weather was really beautiful today, finally it wasn't raining and we could see a lot further off the road. We ended up getting a little lost around the circle dirt roads by the gate as we had the first day because the map I had wasn't very detailed. Thankfully 3G and the iPhone came to the rescue and we eventually found the road we wanted. There were loads and loads of wildebeest, three separate heards of an average of 50 to a heard, it was a brilliant sight.
I spotted a few elephants tucked away on our left soon afterwards, and a car that had been closely tailing us drove straight past while we parked and stopped the car. The reward for our patience was watching the heard of 20 elephant cross the road and seeing the two tiny baby elephants too! There was a short moment where I was ready to start the car and reverse as I didn't know if we had upset one of the mums, but thankfully they kept on walking. We ended up having to wait for 5 minutes behind a car on the bridge to stare at two uninterested birds but it was worth it when we took another road than they did once we crossed and saw a huge male elephant straight afterwards! Dan noticed that he had secretions coming out between his eyes and ears which we were warned about when we entered the park. He is called a musth elephant and they can be very aggressive, so you are warned to keep a very safe distance and not stick around for too long. We had reversed from the road we were on to watch him cross the bridge road, but where we had parked was obviously too close for comfort for him as he began charging us! Dan quickly high tailed us out of there!!! It's quite scary to be charged by an animal who could literally crush our car if we gave him the cance.
We didnt see any large game from then on, just a few buck. What we were able to do was help a chameleon and antortoise cross the road. They really dont move very fast at all, and even though the speed limits in the park are 40kms per hour on the dirt roads and 50kms per hour on the tar road, some people wouldnt see them and could squish them! After our animal rescue mission we headed straight back to the house through Paul Kruger gate. We had showers and got changed to go out to dinner, and watched the finale of junior masterchef before we left. Dinner was at a very highly recommended place on trip advisor, and we were not disappointed!
The restaurant was called Pioneers Butcher and Grill, where we had large glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and amazing amazing steak! I had the 300g rump, basted in the Pioneers special glaze that was amazing and a side salad that turned into chips as the waiter clearly wasn't listening to me. They were both divine! Dan had Rump Mozambique, a steak topped with anchovies, peri peri chicken livers and a fried egg. He asked for the vegetable side and got green beans and an amazing sweet potato mash that I had quite a lot of :D We also shared a creme brule for dessert and enjoyed our meal so much that we asked our waiter, Bernard, to ask the chef to come over so we could say thank you. She had obviously not been told why we were calling her over and looked a little apprehensive as though we were going to complain!! She was really pleased when we thanked her profusely for the delicious meal, and told her we would be back for dinner again tomorrow because it was so good! We went to sleep full and very content :)
park. Hopefully that means more animals, and as we got so lucky on our first day it was worth a shot! The weather was really beautiful today, finally it wasn't raining and we could see a lot further off the road. We ended up getting a little lost around the circle dirt roads by the gate as we had the first day because the map I had wasn't very detailed. Thankfully 3G and the iPhone came to the rescue and we eventually found the road we wanted. There were loads and loads of wildebeest, three separate heards of an average of 50 to a heard, it was a brilliant sight.
I spotted a few elephants tucked away on our left soon afterwards, and a car that had been closely tailing us drove straight past while we parked and stopped the car. The reward for our patience was watching the heard of 20 elephant cross the road and seeing the two tiny baby elephants too! There was a short moment where I was ready to start the car and reverse as I didn't know if we had upset one of the mums, but thankfully they kept on walking. We ended up having to wait for 5 minutes behind a car on the bridge to stare at two uninterested birds but it was worth it when we took another road than they did once we crossed and saw a huge male elephant straight afterwards! Dan noticed that he had secretions coming out between his eyes and ears which we were warned about when we entered the park. He is called a musth elephant and they can be very aggressive, so you are warned to keep a very safe distance and not stick around for too long. We had reversed from the road we were on to watch him cross the bridge road, but where we had parked was obviously too close for comfort for him as he began charging us! Dan quickly high tailed us out of there!!! It's quite scary to be charged by an animal who could literally crush our car if we gave him the cance.
We didnt see any large game from then on, just a few buck. What we were able to do was help a chameleon and antortoise cross the road. They really dont move very fast at all, and even though the speed limits in the park are 40kms per hour on the dirt roads and 50kms per hour on the tar road, some people wouldnt see them and could squish them! After our animal rescue mission we headed straight back to the house through Paul Kruger gate. We had showers and got changed to go out to dinner, and watched the finale of junior masterchef before we left. Dinner was at a very highly recommended place on trip advisor, and we were not disappointed!
The restaurant was called Pioneers Butcher and Grill, where we had large glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and amazing amazing steak! I had the 300g rump, basted in the Pioneers special glaze that was amazing and a side salad that turned into chips as the waiter clearly wasn't listening to me. They were both divine! Dan had Rump Mozambique, a steak topped with anchovies, peri peri chicken livers and a fried egg. He asked for the vegetable side and got green beans and an amazing sweet potato mash that I had quite a lot of :D We also shared a creme brule for dessert and enjoyed our meal so much that we asked our waiter, Bernard, to ask the chef to come over so we could say thank you. She had obviously not been told why we were calling her over and looked a little apprehensive as though we were going to complain!! She was really pleased when we thanked her profusely for the delicious meal, and told her we would be back for dinner again tomorrow because it was so good! We went to sleep full and very content :)
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