A quick trip through Zimbabwe and Mozambique

7400km's from point of destination

As we sit in Blantyre, Malawi, impatiently waiting for a rear tyre to arrive from South Africa for our lovely Yele, we thought we might update you on the last couple of weeks. We arrived at Vic Falls from Botswana after a long day in the hot sun trying to cross the border into Zim. Within an hour we had been stopped at a road block and also pulled over for speeding. Here's the thing, to this day there has never been an instance where my wife has told me to go faster, never! Not in a car or on a motorcycle. On this particular day, just after we crossed the border and before we encountered our first man of the law, I saw a sign that said 80kmh. So at that speed we went. After about 15 minutes Karla taps me on the shoulder and says, "Why are we going so slow?". I reply something along the lines that I think the speed limit is still 80 as there has not been a sign indicating otherwise. Admittedly, this really should have been a 100km road. "Come on...let's get going!", said Karla. We proceeded to edge towards 85kmh and, just like that, out jumped three police chaps with their radar. I couldn't believe it! As we were summonsed to the side of the road I very politely pleaded innocence, "My bike, with this load, can only do 80 officer, I've been watching it the whole time!" Well, that went nowhere and we were asked to park up and receive and pay our fine. Karla jumped off and I proceeded to park the bike on somewhat hilly ground. As I hopped off I heard Karla cry, "Yele" and there our bike was falling in slow motion to the ground (the bike needs somewhere flat to be able to rest on her side stand). I rescued her as the officers realised they were going to have a hard time issuing a fine when I was holding up a bike and promptly told us to be on our way and "don't speed!" We made a mental note to ourselves re: the way to avoid fines in the future!

Oh Zimbabwe!! The land of infinite speed traps and that man Bobby Mugabe. Karla and I met some really lovely folk in Botswana that were from Harare in Zimbabwe and so we hooked up with them after Vic Falls. Robin was, up until recently, the Zimbabwean cricket coach and told me this funny story which I simply have to share. Don't quote me on the dates or the exact nitty gritties but the gist of it is absolutely true;

On a particular day Zimbabwe celebrates their independence and apparently it is a rather big deal. Everyone who is anyone is there and Bobby Mugabe and his croonies stop the country and make sure every form of media has been hijacked to ensure the country watches the celebrations. So, five or six years ago this day came around as is the norm, cue Mr Mugabe standing on the stage being watched by the country waiting for the air force to do their fly over to celebrate all that is good about the Zimbabwe and it's air force. Well he stood, and he stood and he stood some more. Cue a very uncomfortable silence... I have no idea how long it took for someone to say let's move on but eventually it was clear to all that the air force weren't coming. Apparently the jets took off on time from some 90kms away, no problem with that, the issue was that it turned out to be a little far and the pilots could not find Harare, the capital city. TRUE STORY!!! We were told they were all promptly fired, some say worse!

Zimbabwe, land of the 100 trillion dollar note (we have one, it's worth nothing) has now converted its currency to the US dollar and only the dollar...there are no cents in the country and we found it amusing that change is provided in however many South African Rand they think is correct, an "I owe you" written on a piece of paper from the local supermarket or your choice of lollipop. It is also the land of the magnificent Victoria Falls and the ferocious Zambezi river. I was here as a youngster about 16 years ago, I rafted the Zambezi then as a wild child who lived for all things fast and furious. Now I was back and this time it was my wife who wanted to experience one of the world's most challenging rivers to raft on. And did we have a ball!!! If you are ever in Zimbabwe or Zambia for that matter you simply have to do this, it's not negotiable. The grade 4 and grade 5 rapids (Grade 5 is the highest that you can commercially raft and there are only a few places in the world that you can do it) are so wild that they swallow whole rafts and spit people out in all directions. Karla loved it big time, wishing it could have lasted longer! Afterwards, we gossiped about the two Frenchies on our boat! He was hamming it up for the cameras and she simply sat there as if on a canoe whenever we were supposed to be hammering our oars into the walls of water that were engulfing us. I have the video to show you at some stage! Anyhoo... We will be doing it again in Jinja, Uganda which is another grade 5 river in a few months time.

Zimbabwe is also a land of extreme power cuts, sometimes 12 hours a day even in capital/major cities! Locals were struggling to say the least but they simply accept these things and get on with life. Thus, we found the Zimbabweans extremely tenacious and very friendly. They have all been through some really rough times but things are definitely on the up for this country. The locals appear to be returning to rebuild and there appears to be some positive investment happening which is really great. I think the really sad thing about this lovely land is that it was once such a majestic place, still evident in the streets of Bulawayo and Harare, but now there are so many empty shops and houses. The big colonial streets are very grand, covered in large trees and lined with glorious jacarandas and poincianas. I have not seen houses of this size anywhere else in all my travels, people lived really well here and indeed some still do. I really did not expect the levels of positivity that we experienced, you can feel that things are getting better. We had some really interesting interactions with some locals who told us how bad it really was not so long ago. It must have been quite a frightening place to be.

A week is hardly sufficient time for a country like Zimbabwe, we missed Lake Kariba and the beautiful eastern highlands so we will be back. To boot, Karla got quite sick in Vic Falls and had to spend the day in hospital. She is all good now. Also, the people were fabulous too and a country rebuilding itself needs all the help it can get.

We were in and out of Mozambique within 24 hours so don't really have too much to say about it really. We were both sad not to have been able spend some more time there as it was a massive change to what we had seen in all of the previous countries. A lot poorer, they speak portugese and they have really cheap and great seafood. We travelled through some pretty villages and stayed the night in a town called Tete. Here noone wears helmets and there are a few boys on big superbikes which was a bit of a surprise to say the least. Turns out that they are all stolen in South Africa and brought across the border. We promised ourselves that we would make it back here some day. I sense a repeat trip...

As mentioned earlier, we are actually in Malawi now, the rear tyre butchered following a pesky bolt and that has led to some interesting interactions. But you will have to wait a little while yet, we have yet to complete this small but crowded landlocked country and still have people to meet. As a preview, we have reverted to buses, bakkies and bicycle taxis as our lovely Yele waits for new shoes. The locals have proven interesting, and the lake is simply beautiful.

More to come shortly... here are a few shots of Zim/Moz...

Be well, thinking of those who are about to give birth, yes there are that many...

P and K xxx

Vic Falls




A bus stop in Zim! It is burnt along many of the main roads in Zimbabwe - we thought they might have been backburning everywhere but we were told that the locals just like fire (for all sorts of reasons).



These were temporary toll gates set up at regular intervals along the roads in Zim, apparently the fees go to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and then....we're not sure.



The landscape between Zimbabwe and Mozambique is dotted with the beautiful baobab. We have a habit of nudging each other and pointing, it seems,to each and every one. This is the largest one we've seen thus far...pretty huge hey!



The pretty tree-lined streets in Harare, Zim.



Here's a fellow we met in Zim...He rides around on his bike delivering various things such as milk and parmaceuticals to communities in need for the organisation 'Mother of Peace'.



A Mozambiquan village set amongst the baobabs, we think it would definitely be a sought after location!



The stunning scenery on the border of Mozambique and Malawi.

Botswana

Warm greetings once again,

So, a couple of days ago now, we crossed over from Botswana into Zimbabwe, everything changed drastically once again. More on Zim at a later date, let's talk about Botswana!

You will recall that when last we spoke, we had all intentions of making Botswana a fleeting visit and be in and out within a week. Well, that didn't happen and we left there with no time left on the visas that had been given to us. This happened for one reason; Botswana was magical!

We expected nothing and we got so much more. It is a wild place, all animals roam free and elephants and hippoes walk into your camps frequently. Days on the bike are spent constantly watching for elephants, lions and extremely large kudus which if we were to collide with any of these, well we would definitely be the worst off for sure. Walking out of your house and coming face to face (literally) with a large tusker is extremely daunting/exciting. Especially so when there are no boundaries and nothing to prevent him from simply doing whatever he wants. Botswana in short was all about the wildlife and the beautiful people.

It was however also, a country where I think for the first time ever, we realised just how wild animals here are and what can happen if precautions are not taken. Sometimes people get hurt and this happened several times in the last few weeks! It's quite interesting, you don't normally hear about these things and this is definitely the case when you are actually in the country where it has happened. I can only assume it's because they don't want tourists frightened as it's what everyone is here for really. I won't elaborate on the specifics of these incidents simply because that's not what I remember this magical place for.

It seems like ages ago when we first entered Botswana. The last stretch leaving Namibia up to Rundu and Divundu was when we first felt like we were actually in Africa proper. Namibia and South Africa still have that European feel to them but it was in those northern parts, when the huts started appearing, when things got exciting for us. While Namibia was all about sand, crossing the border into BOtswana introduced us straight away to green grass and well fed cattle. Strange really how an official line can do that, the change is so instant and obvious. Our first night in Botswana saw us decide against taking a late ferry when we spoke to some super friendly locals and they told us that the road across from the ferry was fraught with wild animals and to "watch ourselves", especially as it was dusk. So watch ourselves we did, we backed into a little town and decided on a place called Drotsky's as some local folk had mentioned the name to us. 3km's down a sandy bush track in the dark had us a bit on edge. It is amazing what your imagination conjures up after the sun has set in an unknown country. We imagined we were on route to a Russian mafia getaway or something similiar, and after seeing all the chefs sitting around the fire with the sillouettes of their hats flickering in the the firelight, Karla was convinced that we had stumbled upon a KKK retreat! When we asked how much a room was and were informed $100 USD each, we decided a late night tent pitch would be best. The kind folk there told us they would give us camp site 11 - the nicest one. Down we went, through thick bush on our trusty steed, with the odd fire flickering here and there where other campers had pitched their tents. When we arrived it looked nice enough in the bike's headlights, although too dark to see futher afield. As we were pitching our tent an enormous sausage like thing fell from above, and we exclaimed "what on earth was that?" or something along those lines, just as we heard the unmistakable grunt of a hippo, probably about 10 metres from our tent. A short wander with our head torches showed us that the river was right behind us! The path down to the water was approximately 2 to 3 metres but I figured there was no way that an animal of that size and weight would be able to clamber up that river bank. We decided that we would chance it and confirm this up at the bar, after all it was Karla's birthday and a cold beer was definitely in order. The lovely staff at Drotsky's bar promptly told us that there were some local hippoes that clambered into camp in search of the fruit of the 'sausage tree' but not too worry, that we'd likely be sleeping and would not see them. Fantastic!! As we proceeded to drink many beers, yes, the likelihood of seeing any hippoes by our tent that night decreased! In the morning when we awoke there the hippo tracks were. And so Janice, we certainly 'watched out for hippoes' on Karla's birthday!!

The next morning we decided that a late breakfast here at Drotsky's was in order. It is amazing what daylight does to a place!! It was a lush paradise built on the delta; bird spotting, tiger fishing, wildlife viewing, this place was a little oasis of heaven. We sat on an open roofed veranda and gorged on a cooked breakfast and fruit while watching the Okavango river in full flow beneath our feet. It turns out that the place is famous for river activities with the upper echelons of society, it's not cheap, but then not much in Botswana is really. So that really set the tone for us and Botswana. This is a country whose tourism policy has been aimed at lower numbers, higher yield. Most places are luxury and you get pampered. So we decided that when in Rome...

We flew into the inner delta and pampered ourselves in total luxury, sipped G and T's while watching hippoes chase elephants while crocodiles sauntered past, floated on traditional mekoros and cruised along the Chobe river front. We also spent time camping in villages in rural regions off the main tourist trails, we chatted with locals, ate their fabulous bread, played with their children,listened to their stories, marvelled at their friendliness, dodged elephants and kudus appearing out of bushes while riding at 90km's per hour and crashed on their sandy roads.

I think that a few photos are in order with a few words on each, the stories could go on for a long while yet. So, this country was our favourite thus far, perhaps because we didn't expect it? No way, it is a phenomenal place by anyone's standards. The people were amazing, so friendly, so well spoken, intelligent and indeed educated. I highly recommend a trip here to indulge in the luxuries that it offers.

This photo encapsulates for me my time in Botswana. This was our chalet in the inner delta at a place called Oddballs camp. The whole front of this chalet is open to the river, there is a rustic bed draped with a net for the mosquitoes, luxury duvet and gorgeous pillows. It is a thatched roof, there are bats in there too, they fly around your bed during the day and night, the place was luxurious while being so rustic at the same time. Also, a massive contrast to our usual sleeping arrangements. This big fella comes through on the odd occasion, twice while we were there for two days! He is almost the same size as our "honeymoon chalet" as it was called. He does whatever he pleases, if you are in the chalet when he comes, you are told to ignore him and he will eventually move on. No fruit in your home or he will have it. This is the delta, there are no fences, you might see this guy and his family, you might not, all part of it, blew me away!



These next shots too epitomise what made this such a special place, the people, the little kids. They were adorable...






This sign is quite interesting, apparently the Chinese are showing a special interest in Botswana, they think that anything made in China is extra special!



This is a shot of a local chap guiding his mekoro on the delta, the only real way to get around the delta's waterways.



This is Gripper, he was our guide for a day on a mekoro trip in a village called Seronga. He was an amazing man, he recently lost his wife who was out fishing on a mekoro when tipped over by a hippo, she couldn't swim and drowned.




This is us on the mekoro with Gripper.



This is Jeremy, he was our guide for three days in the inner delta, again a lovely man, didn't speak the best english but was very warm and sincere.



This lady is the only baker in Seronga. They only have white bread so you get pretty blocked up mostly but if you get there early in the morning you can buy the loaves steaming hot and they are delicious.



This is me eating said bread before hitting the road. This was needed as the road into this village was 100km's long and took us 7 hours to do it on the way in!



These ladies were blind drunk! They invited us in to chat... Entertaining!




A local street seller in Seronga.





A large baobab tree with a local lady walking down the road carrying shopping in the traditional way.



Karla, loving cruising along the delta in a mekoro.



Washing day in the delta for us, drying in the sun, ensuring not being taken by animals who seemed to find our clothes interesting.



Me waiting for the ferry.



Me trying to get through some of the sandy parts which are really tough with two on the bike.



This shot I really loved, these kids have never seen anything like this ever! When I fire her up, half of them bolt like cheetahs, very funny.



Mekoro on the delta, so peaceful.



Karla about to take a shower. How amazing was this? Solar powered hot water into a bucket that you hoist above your head and shower in the open while elephants are roaming about 10 metres from you.



This is one of our luxury cabins in the inner delta. You need to fly in to get here.



This is me with the cargo that we flew into the inner delta with. We did a really late last minute booking and I think this is the result of that.



This is us at another of the luxury camps we stayed at.



This is us having a sundowner at our camp, inner delta.



Mekoros in the water at our camp site, inner delta.



Traditional huts, local village, inner delta.



This lady is building her house. The women build the houses here and the men do the fencing and I am not sure what else really! Note those empty cans inserted into the wet clay for decoration.



Legend we thought she was.



Local girl with baby on her back.



Okavango delta from the air.



Elephant herd, Chobe National park. I have never seen so much wildlife in one place as we did on this three hour sunset cruise.



Chobe National Park, hippoes close by grazing.



Sunset, Chobe river



This is the first time we have actually taken a shot of both of us on the bike. Now you get an idea of the moving mass and what we look like.



They run out of fuel constantly in these parts, some had been stranded here for three or four days. This is what happens when it eventually arrives.



Finally, this chap is Kevin Brown. We first met him on the road in Namibia about a month ago. He is from Matlock, the same small English town where my dad resides in the UK. He is cycling from Cape Town all the way up to Cairo, 12000kms! John, Mal and Hamada, get your skates on and try this on for your next challenge. We keep bumping into him. We are going to bump into him again. It is quite concerning when someone is crossing a continent at the same pace as you are when they are on a bicycle. I know I know... He has different concerns when crossing some of the roads that we do, he has pedal his bum off as there are wild animals that have a much better chance of catching him than us. Legend! See you soon on the road somewhere pal...



So that's all for now, I had no idea that I would have so much to say about Botswana. Thanks for the comments about the blog thus far, glad you are finding our tales entertaining.

Until next time, be well, love to you all.

P and K (somewhere in Africa)

xxx

Farewell Namibia, Dumela Botswana! 5000km's from point of origin

Greetings once again, as we have now crossed over into Botswana, I thought I would leave you a few images that will highlight what we will remember Namibia for...
Firstly, the open spaces that go on forever... enough said...



Secondly, quad biking in Swakopmund! What a blast that was. You just ride over these majestic dunes and carve your own tracks. They go on forever and you become so disoriented with the sheer size of nothingness, a definite highlight for us both.



The almighty dunes of Sossusvlei! That is Karla on the horizon, this is coming down from Dune 49, so called as it it the 49th dune from where the dunes start and it is located 49km's from the camp.



Lastly, GRAVEL ROADS!!! Beautiful as the landscape that surrounds them is, by the time we left I had had enough. More specifically, "Sink Plate" (that is Afrikaans and does not read like a plate for your dinner, pronounced, "sunk plaata", or similar). They are not really an issue for big 4x4's but on a heavily loaded motorcycle they are bone jarring monsters that had me cursing non stop. I longed for bitumen daily and my wife knew all about it...



In summary, we had high expectations for Namibia and it didn't disappoint. The open spaces and sheer nothingness were astounding and the silence was at times overwhelming. I still don't know where all the people in the south of the country are however, days on end and not a soul in sight.

Here is a few shots of some interesting people that we have met thus far on our trip. Firstly, these two Germans had ridden 10000km's in six weeks. They flagged us down in need of a pump. They bought these Chinese motorcycles in North West Africa and were limited to 80 - 100kmh. They were a tad crazy we thought, still legends for sure!



This is Andrew out hot air balloon pilot, he is training to become a commercial pilot and gave us a very memorable flight over the Kalahari.



This is Tondo, he was our quad biking guide for our trip into the dunes in Swakopmund. Hilariously, a short way into our trip, Karla got bogged on one of the steep dunes. Tondo didn't appear to be too impressed and went to her aid. He told her to get off the bike and then said to her, "You can walk...". Those that know Karla will know that that is like saying, "Noone puts baby in the corner". When she got her hands back on the bike at the top of the dune she snatched it back from him and rode like a demon for the rest of the day. Seriously, Tondo and I had Yamaha Raptors, zinging little racey quad bikes, she stayed with us on her 125 automatic beasty and did all of the dunes just as we did. Legendary...



This is Herero lady that we met on the road in a place called Ugab.



And finally, we met these two chaps just before we left Namibia and crossed the border. They had the same bikes as we do, they had done 20000km's, all the way from Austria! They had not had one puncture and not one problem with either bike. We shared stories and it was a shame that we were headed in opposite directions, would have been great to continue the yarns over some cold sundowners in the bush. I have included two photos, one to show them and the other to show the psycho local that walked over to us all on the side of the road with a jug of some hallucinogenic liquid and jumped on of these boy's bikes! He wanted a photo of him on the bike, I thought for sure that he was going to do something really stupid. He was so blasted, his eyes were pointing in different directions and for sure if he decided that today was a good day for a ride, it was all going to end badly!




In closing for now, we have been on the road for a month. We are now well in the groove and are loving the fact that we are camping for six months straight. We love cooking strange concoctions on our little fuel stove, in rural areas tins of chakalaka and rice have become our staple diet. We have accepted that it is going to take us longer than we thought to traverse certain parts. We have accepted that being blocked up by huge ammounts of white carbs will be the go for quite some time yet. I have also accepted that when we hit civilised places Karla will run around and buy a basket load of fruit and veges in case we dont come across them again for a while. Most importantly,we've realised that this trip is about the journey itself, it's about being on the road, it's about packing and unpacking tent and equipment daily, it's about time to appreciate and reflect in the endless miles and to enjoy each others company. Each day, something happens that delays us or sends us towards somewhere where we didn't plan on being. We have accepted too, that it really doesn't matter what time we get up of a morning, as we always seem to hit the road right on 10 am. We have tried to disprove this theory several times already and have failed on each occasion, with always an interesting character to chat to, leaking air filter oil in a pannier or something we've forgotten in the bottom of our big bag right after we've packed and compressed it.

And you know, I am always reminded that I am living my dream. I don't need to try, it just happens. And each day I am eternally grateful...

Until whenever...

P and K xxx