The first stop of the tour in Zimbabwe was the Kuimba Shiri Bird Park, formally known as the Admirals Cabin. This has
to be my favorite camp site on the tour to date. The dorm rooms were not that
great as they were infested with spiders, and when you had a shower you had to
be careful not to be electrocuted on the taps, but there was heaps to do. I
went out on the lake for a speed boat ride and came very close to 3 rhino
grazing on the banks of the shore- it was fantastic. I also witnessed a black
and white kingfisher diving for its dinner, giraffe, impala, ostrich and a
variety of birds. The thing I liked the most was the birds within the bird park
that you could interact with. I helped to feed the baby birds, and spent a lot
of time with “Dox”, an infant owl.
I
also liked the fact that you could order great strawberry milkshakes from the
bar, and buy decent chocolate from the shop for $1 usd.
Since I was here in Zim last year the Zimbabwe dollar has been abolished,
and all trade is conducted in foreign currency. The most common currency
accepted is the USD, this is followed by the Rand, and some places accept the
Pound. This means that the cheapest thing that you can buy costs $1 usd, so if
you go into the shop and buy something for $1.50, they will make up the change
with lollies to the cost of 50 cents.
I hitched a ride with Anoop, Josh and Anissa into Harare from the bird
park. The good thing about being white here is that if anyone white sees you
walking they stop to offer you a lift. We were picked up by a 60 year old south
African born, white, Zimbabwean woman. She was quite interesting to talk to as
she works in aged health care, and is owed a great deal of money from the
elderly that she takes care of- mostly due to the political situation and the
huge loss of bank funds stolen by the government. It is interesting being here,
because everything that you see before you is paid for in cash, there is no
credit. If you want a house you save up and buy it out right in cash, same
thing with a car. Additionally I find it hard to get my head around the idea of
not keeping any money in the bank. At home I rarely carry cash, I put
everything on my debit card- I can not imagine having to hide my entire wealth
within my house because it is not safe in the bank.
Harare was ok, we went into the white area to the main shopping area.
Internet there was $1 usd for 40mins, and the connection was a decent speed.
Anoop and I spent some time on line checking emails and then went to the
market. We then caught a minibus back into the city centre and jumped on a bus
back out to the bird park. When we went to the bus stand a fight broke out
between one of the minibus drivers and another man. I had not realised, but we
had asked the driver if he went to bird park, and he said yes for $20 usd…. I
laughed and said “no it only costs $1 usd each, we are not paying any more than
that”. He said ok, get in. What I did not see was the que of locals on the
other side of the van, waiting to get on. It seems the driver thought that he
could make a bit of extra cash out of us cas we are white, and was going to
ignore all the locals waiting to get onboard. Seeing this one of the men
waiting came around to the driver and started shoving him hard and yelling at
him in the local tongue. Three of us were already on board, and we dodged the
fight to jump out, heading to the back of the bus rank to find another ride.
We left the bird park to head for Great Zimbabwe, which is where
Zimbabwe attained its new name, after the change from Rhodesia. It cost $18 usd
for a guided tour of the ruins, and it was very interesting. The kingdom was
built on a hill, and made entirely from stone, with the remaining walls still
being impressive today. We spent 3 hours exploring the ruins, and listening to
the life style of the day. I think the most interesting thing is that the King
had 200 wifes, and that no human remains have ever been found of the
inhabitants of the kingdom. Anoop and I got up at 4.30am to watch the sun rise
from the ruins, as we were camping at the bottom of the hill. I have never seen
a more amazing sun rise, the colour of the sun was brilliant, and well worth
the climb back up the ruins (similar to doing the 1000 steps).
We
left Great Zimbabwe for Antelope Park, which is where we are currently camped. It
is the most boring camp site to date. It is 10km from town- with a 6km
driveway, and there is absolutely nothing to do unless you are booked on an
activity. The others in the group are going on lion walks, lion feeds, elephant
rides and horse rides. I did a lion walk last year at Victoria falls, and I
don’t see the point in paying money to see lions eat a piece of meat within
their cage- you can see that at a Zoo or on TV. The only activity that I have
booked is the night time lion encounter- which is in a 4x4 and involves
following the lions while they hunt for their prey- apparently you have a 1 in
4 chance of seeing a kill- which I have never seen. As for the elephant
activities- I don’t feel right about sitting on an elephant while it is told to
do things, they are incredibly intelligent, and I would prefer to see them free
rather than tools for our entertainment.
We are here for 4 days, and my activity is not until the last night.
Ok so i am now in an internet cafe, just walked 16km from camp to get here. Much better to be in town than that camp for another day, hopefully i can hitch ride back, i don't fancy another 2.5hrs of walking in the sun!! Otherwise all is well, I will be uploading photos- check them out
