Sunday 5th August (day 22) - up early at 4:30am as need to be off-site by 6am to head for Zambia. At 7:45am we passed through a walking choir of over 100 folk singing gospel songs on their way to church. All dressed an white smocks, black bootlace tie and black trousers or skirts. Wonderful sound and unexpected. They parted like the waves as we drove through them. Further along passed cotton fields. Housing throughout malawi is much the same with thatched mud huts interspersed with brick built houses with tin or thatched roofs. You do see a lot of brick drying kilns along the roadside. The clay is dug out and put into moulds, then air-dried followed by kilning. When t e clay is depleted they move the kiln to the next spot. Stopped in Lilongwe, the capital for lunch. Noticeable difference on the way in to the surrounding villages. The first big building is a posh smoked glass building that is the Inland Revenue tax office. Very swish for a poor country. Also, traffic lights! Not seen any for a while. Lunch break running around searching for something not too stodgy. People don't seem to go in for healthy food here. Chicken burger in Nando's - they are getting like McDonalds - everywhere. Got some more cash ready for changing at the border - Zambia still uses the Kwacha like Milawi but the notes are different and the exchange rate also different. 1 Milawi Kwacha = 25 Zambian Kwacha. So £1 is approx 7,150 ZK. Wherever we go an Africa we draw a lot of attention, with everyone running towards us and waving. Stopping for any reason also attracts sellers and beggars. Got to Zambian border at 2:45pm. Usual process - first one building on Milawi side to get exit stamp, then drive through a barrier to next building to get Zambia visa. We were lucky in that our visa waivers had been applied for in advance so we got through free. Normally it would cost $50. They where free because we were sponsored by someone on the zambian side for potentially spending lots of money in the country. Took 2hrs to complete immigration when there are 23 of you. Currency changed also. I fealt rich with 100,000 ZK in my pocket - £14! Now in Zambia, headed for our campsite for the night at Mama-rula's in Chipata. A beautiful orange/red sunset on route. Steak, cauliflower & cheese sauce & jackets for dinner - just like home. Discovered an odd but interesting combination - ran out of milk for making coffee so tried peanut butter. Weird but not terrible. Desperate times! Some basics about Zambia - capital city is Lusaka (going tommorow). Dr David Livingstone named Victoria falls in 1855 but they are still locally called by their african name of 'mosi-oa-tunya' or 'smoke that thunders'. In 1890 the country became Northern Rhodesia after Cecil John Rhodes, administered by the british. In the 1920's vast deposits of copper were found that are still a major source of income to the country today. Kenneth Kaunda formed the United Nation Independent Party UNIP in the 1950's that subsequently gained independence in 1964 after which the country was renamed Zambia with Kaunda as president. Unfortunately, the government was very corrupt and civil war broke out with neighbouring states. Kaunda was defeated by a rival Frederick Chiluba in 1991. Inflation soared and he privatised some of the state industries which put lots of people out of work. In 2001 he was kicked out and Levy Mwanawasa elected as 3rd president.
Monday 6th August (day 23) - yet another early start to leave site at 6am. Getting to be a habit running on hardly a single full night's sleep in weeks. Not much happened en-route as a travelling day, destination Lusaka, the capital. Finally finished the book I was reading 'Out of Africa' by Karen Blixen. A danish lady who came to Kenya in 1913 and eventually left in 1931 after failure of her attempts at coffee farming. Being a true story for which she is very famous, it was very apt as I could relate to the areas she described and her descriptions of the local people helped to gel some of the observations I had made. The farm house where she lived has now been turned into a museum. I could have gone there but didn't have time. Her style of writing does take some concentration at times. Got to Lusaka late afternoon to find a lot of places closed due to it being a public holiday. This was because of the area hosting the 81st Zambian agricultural show. Lots of folk running around with their equivalent of tribal face painting. Got to Eureka campsite at 6pm. A typical beautiful african sunset on the way. Like a massive ball of red/orange fire slipping down the horizon that illuminates the sky and clouds in the most stunning way. The next week is going to be busy so after dinner, we had a briefing in options coming up....the details will become clear....whitewater rafting, bungee jumping, jet boating and more...yippee!
Tuesday 7th August (day 24) - Left camp at 7am for final leg of trip to Victoria falls. Noticed the re-appearance of massive termite mounds upto 3 or 4m high. Hadn't seen any since Kenya. They're quite a feature of the landscape. Something I hadn't mentioned earlier is the odd names for shops/huts here. Example - 'Pick-a-lot Faith shop' - now what's that about then? It's actually a grocers! Quite a lot of scrubland burning going on, so the land doesn't look its best right now. Got to our campsite 'Eureka' for the next few days at about 2:30 as there is lots of planning to do for the forthcoming activities. The owner, Obrana, showed a dvd of the options available and then gave a detailed talk. Tommorow's plan Is white water rafting down the Zambesi! Should be exciting. Off into livingstone, the local town for a couple of hours to do some posting and Internet then back for dinner. Managed to pick up a new SIM card for my phone so back in contact again. Not sure how long it will last? 7.6p per text so cheap to use. The practical problems of being on the rosd are apparent Now. I have to get my India visa before 15th october and have few options left. You may remember my failed attempt to get it in Mombasa. I have been in contact with Capetown high Commission and that doesn't sound promissing. I may have to go to Johannesburg but I didn't plan that in. Also, at some point I will either have to get more pages added to my passport, or get a new one. Both take time and whilst i'm on the road these things aren't easy to do. There is so much misleading information about. Also, my planned itinerary in India has been messed around by the tour operator which I could do without as flights have already been sorted. All awkward to resolve with very irregular internet access and almost no phone contact. Virtually every step of the way there have been changes to work around which leads to much frustration.
Wed 8th august (day 24) - Today is one of those days when you wake up and know it's not going to be an ordinary day. Got picked up at 8am from the campsite by 'RaftExtreme' to go whitewater rafting down the Zambesi. The converted german army truck was enormouse and capable of holding an entire battalion plus kit. All controls in german and a 3m climb to get in. Off the the Victoria falls park on the Zambia side and first breakfast whilst we were briefed on proceedings. On with the wetsuits and lifejackets, helmet and paddle in hand. We had to sign an indemnity form before coming on this event against death, loss of limb, or any other form of serious injury. Anyway, no fear here...so off on a walk down a rugged route into the gorge with the sound of vic falls shouting away and getting louder by the second. Got to the waters edge and the sight of both the Zambia/Zimbabwe bridge plus the rapids is an awesome sight. Sat on the rocks for the final briefing and at the same time watching bunji jumpers leaping off the bridge...doing that tommorow! Divided into our groups of 8 to a raft by our captain 'Foster' and then into the rafts, almost everyone beaming from ear to ear. Little did we know. The starting point is called the 'Boiling pot' and leads into a grade 5 rapid. Now, for those who don't know about rafting. Rapids are graded 1 to 6 with 6 being the severest. The 23km stretch we are about to do has 25 sections of rapids and 1 is a grade 6 plus 5 others are grade 5. Not for the faint hearted! Also, being that the water is low at this time of year means that the water is narrower and hence morr ferocious. In other words, this is the most demanding time of year to be doing these rapids. Now, considering that most of us have never rafted before, this is one hell of an introduction! Instructions given and two of us in each raft asked to take up front positions who the rest of the boat would take lead from. And we would also get the brunt of the rapids as they hit. Yep, I was in the front of our boat. The captain would call out our instructions and we would follow with the others taking their timing from us. What I didn't realise was that, with the volume of the rapids rushing by it was impossible at times to hear anything he shouted, So things didn't always go to instructions. Anyway, off we set into the Boiling pot and given some tests to see if we paid attention. Then full of excitement off we went towards the first grade 5. What an awesome experience...the water jits you like a wall and before you know it the raft is up in the air, bodies flying everywhere, more arms and legs than we thought we had, flying in every direction and over she went... Capsized within a few minutes...yeehaah! Now. Bear in mind that you are wizzing down the zambesi at a phenominal rate, and under water most of the time in the freezing cold water, you have to remember the instruction and instinct. Get your head above water, got hold of the perimeter rope on the raft and keep hold of your paddle and mind the rocks. We lost a couple of people who got swept away to be picked up by the safety guys and unfortunetely two casualties. One girl got a dislocated leg with cuts and another got concusion from a bang on her forehead that made her nose bleed also. and her leg was gashed on the rocks, that later turned out to be fractured. So, great start! Anyway, once the raft was righted and all parts reassembled... Those of us who survived unscathed where screaming with the exhilaration of it and high 5's all round. That was a hoot. Unfortunetely, we had to offload one of the injured girls onto the safety boat with her partner due the pain she was in. The problem was that she could not be taken out of the rapids altogether as there is no way out, so she had to stay the duration in pain. The Zambesi is sectioned into upper and lower sections with the most challenging being the upper section where they are thrown at you in quick succession, so off we went into one after another demanding rapids, some of us standing up during the rapid for extra effect and laughing most of the time. It really is good fun if you can handle it. Paddling is tiring work though and you get tired quick which does make it more risky the further you go. The second capsize was one of those that came as unexpected...if you go side on into a rapid, you will flip over, almost guaranteed. Sometimes you can prevent it and sometimes now. With the experience of the first one, the second seemed to be in more slow motion so I was able to get control better and also watch the faces and limbs of those around me. Hilarious in some respects and you are also more able to help your team mates. One girl was so petrified after the first capsize that she was shaking for the whole trip and screamed continouosly, even on the grade 1's! We got her to sing songs to channel her energy into something more worthwhile, so we had musical accompaniment along the way with screams in between. Very funny. We weren't allowed to do the grade 6 as it would have killed most of us, so had to get the rafts out of the water and walk around it. Believe me, a grade 6 is an awesome sight. Now, the Zambesi is known for a few things and one of them is crocodiles. We actually saw one slither into the water in a slow stretch when we passed. Just like one of those scenes in the moves when it it spots its dinner. The previously hysterical girl was now about to go into orbit with hysteria. We were running on adrenalin so couldn't stop laughing. You had to be there! At the end of the rapids is one that doesn't have a name that we decided to name after her. I forgot to mention that all of the rapids have names that seem to fit their behaviour.'Commercial suicide' is rapid no. 9 the grade 6. Rapid no.6 is the 'devil's toilet bowls'. No.16 is the 'Terminator', to name a few. At the end of the rapids there is a cable car to hoist us out of the gorge the our much awaited meal and highly charged atmosphere. The company provided beer, brandy and soft drinks for the return journey so loads of fun on the way back to the campsite. We even saw elephants at the roadside which was an added bonus. We had heard during the course of the day of some recent incidents that could have caused some major panic had we known them earlier. In the past week a guy was killed when his foot got trapped between two rocks when he capsized and he drowned. Another guy got his leg bitten off by a hippo in a quiet stretch. The hippo came under the raft and overturned it and went for him. Apparently there are also piranhas along the route. The satisfaction of getting out alive was, to say the least, rewarding! The two casualties were off to hospital...one came back with a crutch and the other bandaged up. Will get the DVD of today's rafting and that should be delivered tommorow. Also bought the raft extreme T-shirt which has the full rapid map on it. So, literally been there, done that, and got the T-shirt! Back at camp and a mad flurry to sort out the next few days activities. Tomorrow is a busy one. The nerve racking forward and backwards gorge swing and bunji jumping plus other stuff. Evening dinner at the camp and a briefing of what's to come in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is playing havoc with the country so not an easy time to be going through.
Thurs 9th August (day 25) - Up early again for another busy day. Picked up by open truck to go gorge swinging across the Zambesi. It really is freezing cold in the mornings here but warms up rapidly. On arrival at the centre, given coffee and buns whilst we paid up and signed our indemnity forms. Now, for those who don't know what gorge swinging is....from one side of the gorge to the other is slung a steel rope and from the mid point is anchored a standard rope. You are atteched to the other end of the rope by a harness and stand on a platform from where you launch yourself. After doing so, you free fall 53metres in about 3secs or so (about 120km/hr). You have three ways to launch yourself...facing forward, facing backward or the death drop. The most scary is facing forward so did that one first. Once straped up and ready to go, you shuffle to the edge of the platform with a vertical cliff face under your feet, look at the opposite side, count down 3-2-1 and then step out. The freefall is awesome and in 3 secs or so the rope grabs you into the swing and you fly through the air a great speed doing your best tarzan impression. The adrenalin rush is brilliant and I loved it. Once you slow down swinging you are lowered down into the bottom of the gorge, ready to walk out to do it again. The second time I did the death drop. For this you go backwards, crowched down with head forward and your feet strapped together. You lean backwards whilst being held until you are facing upwards a bit and then let go. So you fall backwards with your legs in the air until the rope grabs and you then get pulled into the swing like before. The sensation is completely different because you cannot see where you are going only where you have been and the rock face flying past. The whole experience is superb and the buzz is brilliant. Bought the video of it for posterity. Next on the agenda whilst the adrenalin was sky high was bunji jumping! The truck dropped us off at the Zambia/Zimbabwe border. The bridge between the two countries is where the bunji is done.110metres above the Zambesi where, yesterday we were rafting. The difference between being down there looking up and up here looking down, about to jump off is awesome and at the same time as scary as hell! To get to the jump point you have to get a free pass from border control. Pay up first and this is the sting..$95 for the jump but worth every penny. The jump area has loud music pumping away to get your adrenalin in the mood - as if you need it! Now, looking down isn't the wisest thing to do, but can you help it, no you bloomin well can't. Oh bugger, it's very, very high. Plenty of opportunities to back out, but no way Jose. The bridge is also the railway crossing, a road and also a major tourist attraction so there is a sizable audience here to watch us. Almost certainly thinking how stupid anyone is who would want to throw themselves of a bridge this high. My turn came around soon enough and after watching a few petrified faces go before me really sets the mood. I'm not scared - Honest! Anyway....onto the platform...towelling straps around the ankles, another layer of harder material and then the final strap that gets hooked up onto the bunji. The pep talk and instructions given and a video camera pointed at you to give your parting words to the world before jumping. I gave a minor epic as you can imagine. Up you get...shuffle upto the edge in reverse and then turn around when you get closer...final shuffle to the edge so that your toes are hanging over the edge.....don't look down...damn, I did and it's even higher than it seemed before...count 5-4-3-2-1 and you aren't even allowed to get to one....arms out stretched like a crucifix and a push in the middle of the back as you leap out into oblivion and shout louder than I thought humanly possible. The descent is incredible with the Zambezi rushing towards my face at 140 km/hr whilst spinning around. It isn't until you get really close that you start to slow up. You don't actually feel it, but you are then by the elasticity catapulted back up into the air to almost as high as the bridge again but at that point facing upwards...smile and wave to the camera giving it your best side...don't want to spoil the video! Down you go again...and up again until your momentum finaly slows and you bounce up and down head first and spinning around a lot watching the world go by. Now, various phrases were uttered from my mouth during all of this...some I won't repeat but some were ok. 'you did it boy', 'you must be stupid', '@!~%$kin hell! I seemed to have been hanging ther for ages until the recovery guy appeared. He throws a line around the bunji to hook you in and then pull up the rope until you are vertical and can then get hooked onto the main recovery wire to be winched back to the lower platform. This platform is below the bridge so you are uncoupled and walked back up top. The whole experience is an amazing adrenalin rush and one that I am thrilled with myself for doing. Not that long ago, there is no way I would have done it. With what has been going on my life, I guess I have got reckless and don't seem to worry about what happens anymore ...caution thrown to the wind and just going for everything as I have nothing to lose! The past couple of days have been full of the most amazing experiences I have ever had - and the most personal boundaries I have crossed in such a short space of time. Maybe i'm trying to prove to myself that I still have guts to do these things? Bought the photos from the jump on a CD as they are excellent. Had to rush back to camp as we have a fancy dress booze cruise on tonight, so have to get dressed up with whatever Tom has bought for me??? Oh no....a pink jump suit! What a sight we all were. That suit gave me a wedgie and could have been a bit bigger! Everyone looked superb. Loaded onto a bus and off to catch the boat....this was a homebrew concoction of metal tubing, plates that were buckled and an enormous engine, but it floated and moved which was all that was important ...first rule of the evening...if we drunk the bar dry, everything was free and we would get our money back. What a challenge eh! Next rule, only drink with your left hand or you had to drink the whole drink. Takes me back to my days of club 18-30! Nibbles laid on during the evening and drink that flowed like a fountain. What a raucous sight. Superb fun had by all whilst we partied and watched the sun go down over the Zambezi. Saw hippos, giraffes and crocodiles along the route, which was an added bonus. I was flying fairly high for most of the time so a fitting end to the day. I fealt I had earnt it. After the boat got back to dry land we were all on happy juice and a disco had been laid on so all had a great time boogying away for a couple of hours on the sand.
Friday 10th August (day 26) - up early again as lots to do today as we move on to Zimbabwe later in the day. Making sure everything was charged up. Had to pack up all of my purchases for shipping back to the UK, paying for things and also being picked up at 9am for a helicopter flight. The flight was very slickly run as there is a steady stream of people going through. Not cheap at $95 for a 15 minute fly over the falls, but what an awesome sight. You get to see the whole expanse of one of the natural wonders of the world, mosi-oa-tunya. Headphones on during the flight with constant running commentary from The captain. Really nice experience. Dropped off in town on way back to do some bits. There is a wonderbake shop here that does great food and as a bonus has a free wi-fi hotspot. So first opportunity for ages to get some free internet time. Lovely e-mail from Katie - keeps me sane and miss her enormously. Unfortunately. Had to get back at site for 3pm as heading off to Zimbabwe. Got away on time and went through the normal formalities of exit visa stamp from Zambia followed by entry visa to Zimbabwe. The brits have to pay $55 for the visa whereas everyone else pays $30 cos they don't like the brits. Anyway, took about 2hours to get through as queues were horrendous. Got to our home for the next few days 'shoestrings' and set up camp. Now zimbabwe is a tricky country to be in at the moment as Mugabe is being a pain with his people. The currency here is the Zimbabwe dollar and inflation is running so high that it is almost worthless. It is the only country in the world that has a best before date on its money! It is no sooner printed than it is out of date. Oscar the money changer turned up on site as money exchange is done almost on the black market. We met oscar in the kitchen and had to play his presence down. Even the money we got from him was supposed to be used before end of July but they haven't printed any more notes yet. The notes were issue on 1st March and expired on 31st July. Current black market rate is £1=300,000 Zimbabwe dollars. Now get this...the official bank exchange rate is £1=500 Zimbabwe dollars! You cannot use any credit cards in Zimbabwe. Cash US dollars is the currency of choice here. $5 US is equivalent to 750,000 $Zim. Illegal to take any Zim currency out of the country. We had booked a table at the infamous 'Boma' restaurant so got picked up by minivan at 7pm. Now, Boma is like the carnivore restaurant in Nairobi, but much better. The carnivore has almost stopped serving game meats whereas Boma serves warthog, impala, buffalo, kudu, ostrich, boer and others dependent on what they can get. On arrival you get an african style toga wrapped around you and enter to the hut style building to the sound of african rythms. Starters are from a list. I had guinea fowl & ostrich pate. Washed down with zulu beer which is very yeasty. You then get the option to eat a Mopani worm, which I did and you get a certificate for it. Not that bad, a bit woody but not objectionable. Next the fun starts. The best of the meats by far for taste is warthog...absolutely gorgeous with peanut rice and peanut veg washed down with local red wine. So much choice. And then onto desserts of crepe suzettes with local fruits. During the meal we were all face painted. Me was a chief so suitable design. Then we were all given djembe drums to accompany the makin band of the evening. Imagine 280 drummers hammering out ryhthms...absolutely awesome! In the corner of the restaurant is a witch doctor in his mud hut for anyone who needs a bit of dispelling of deamons. The whole evening was superb and all for $30 all in.
Saturday 11th August (day 27) - Met our new tour leader this morning as we change trucks tomorrow for the next leg of the journey down to Capetown. Steph is her name and also picked up new tent and handed back the previous one (mine was called Springfield) - the new one doesn't have a name just no.10. But maybe it's sign! Not all of us go the whole way, only 9 of the original 23 as many either go home from here or down to Johannesburg. Played guitar in the bar for a bit of relaxation and then walked down to the Vic falls park to see the falls. Entrance fee is $20. For a couple of hours entertained to one of the natural wonders of the world. The first point by the entrance is called 'The devil's cataract' and others are suitably named. The roar of millions of gallons of water plunging over the rocks is phenomenal and is hard to describe. The reason why the natives called mosi-oa-tunya 'the smoke that thunders' is obvious as it does just that. The plunge varies from 93m to 108m and it rains fairly heavy along the path so you get nice and wet but dry in seconds when you move away due to the high temperature. At the end of the pathway you see the Zambia/Zimbabwe bridge that I bunji'd off yesterday and also the rapids I rafted down the day before so an excellent perspective, as well as the rainbows over the falls.The other end of the falls is the David Livingstone statue. Not much needs to be said other than the great discoverer and explorer. Bought a nyami nyami necklace on the way back for $1. These are supposed to be good luck charms representing the falls in an artistic way. Everyone sells them, so I suspect they are much more luck to the makers than the wearers! Back at camp for lunch and then found out that tomorrow is 'hero's' day so a majority of places are closed until tuesday. Doesn't give much time to get any of my long list done. Post office closed already and plenty of shops shutting up early. Went for a walk into town and as usual you get approached by loads of sellers and guys just wanting a chat. One guy announced himself as 'king George'. I asked him what his local name was...I had to hold back the laughter when he said it was....labia! I would stick with king George, wouldn't you? I have also had to get my head around what to do about getting my visa for India and will probably have to DHL my passport to Johannesburg when I get to Capetown and collect it when I get up there. The proces will take 7 days or so and I don't need it when I am in south africa, so probably the best plan. The High Commission won't let me get it at the capetown office which is a bit of a bummer. Met the rest of the group for the next leg of the tour at the Sea spray hotel tonight and briefing for what to expect in the areas covered. There are 9 of us from the previous group continuing onto Capetown being joined by 6 new people. Back to shoestrings afterwards for some farewell drinks.
Sunday 12th August (day 28) - Early start to go on elephant back safari. Picked up at 6:30am. Usual indemnity forms to sign over coffee, in case elephant does a runner if spooked by a wild animal. Shared an elephant with a guy and his daughter from Ireland. About on hour's ride with running commentary from the guide. At the end we fed the elephants and had a photo session before being served a cooked breakfast minus a lot of the cooked stuff! Some food is in short supply in Zim at the moment. After a 'famous burger' went for an explore around town. There is a really nice african curio village here that sells excellent quality stuff. The speciality seemed to be polished stoneware. There is also a posh casino called 'The Kingdom' which also has some exclusive eating places. Everything is double the price of the rest of town but I suspect that the sort of people who can afford to stop here don't ask the price. Managed to get postage stamps which always seems odd to me, that so many places can sell you post cards but not the stamps, and the post office is closed for a few days! As usual, on the way back to shoestrings, a barrage of sellers wanting to swap their merchandise for your shirt, socks or shoes. These people are very poor and clothes are very tradeable. I am going to search through my backpack for some things to swap. Need to get some more money changed on the black market, as the rate on the street can be anything between 90,000 to 150,000 zim dollars to the US dollar, you have to be careful. A musical evening jamming with a few folk by the pool.
Monday 13th August (day 29) - off to Botswana after lunch so need to make sure that everything is upto date this morning.
