Jan 9, 2012 - Hwange to Bulawayo and Matopos Hills National Park

Guys - we are not travelling with our SLR - just our point and shoot Nikon S9100 so we hope the photos come out pretty well at your end - they are taken at close range mostly. 7th January 2012 Victoria Falls to Hwange National Park The day started with the new 11 people being shown the truck and how to put up the tents etc. We then set off from Victoria Falls – it was quite a warm day. After a 3 hour drive we arrived at the Painted Dog Conservatory but it was closed and we planned to go again the next day when it would be open. Arrived at...

Dec 15, 2011 - Day 8

Day 8: December 15, 2011 Today I was the first to wake up. I took my shower, and brushed my teeth. Then I went to eat breakfast. When I got done eating I got on the computer for a while. Then when everyone else got done eating we went to the hospital. The reason we went to the hospital was because my auntie was there had been in there all night in labor, and we thought she would have already had her baby by now. But, when we got there we were disappointed because he still hadn’t been born yet. So we left, went to my grandmother’s house and...

Dec 13, 2011 - Day 7

[1Day 7: December 13, 2011 (Tuesday) When I woke up we had stopped for a break. (So that people could get some food and use the bathroom.) After that everyone got back on the bus and we headed to the border. When we got to the border we had to get our bags checked, our passports stamped, and then we were free to head into Zimbabwe. It took about 5 hours to get to Bulawayo. When we got to the place I was really surprised. It looked so different compared to South Africa. There were street vendors everywhere. We stood there and waited for a...

Dec 12, 2011 - Day 6

Day 7: December 13, 2011 (Tuesday) When I woke up we had stopped for a break. (So that people could get some food and use the bathroom.) After that everyone got back on the bus and we headed to the border. When we got to the border we had to get our bags checked, our passports stamped, and then we were free to head into Zimbabwe. It took about 5 hours to get to Bulawayo. When we got to the place I was really surprised. It looked so different compared to South Africa. There were street vendors everywhere. We stood there and waited for a...

Sep 6, 2011 - Bulawayo - Matopos Nat.Park

Ik vertrek vandaag van Vic.Falls naar Bulawayo (+- 6 u). Het eerste wat we doen, na het bidden, is stoppen aan de Chicken Take away om onze lunch te halen ( kippenboutje met chips om half 8 's morgens). Tegen de lunch is het al lang koud en heeft iedereen het al lang opgegeten natuurlijk. Om half 10 staan we aan de rand van de weg met motorpech. Het is nochtans een luxurybus. Ik heb me op een steen gezet na het bushtoilet, net zoals de lokale bevolking.We moeten 2 u wachten tot er een andere bus ons komt oppikken. Ondertussen hebben we dan...

Apr 3, 2010 - Loving Zim!

March 29- April 2 We stayed at Antelope Park for 4 nights and it was a very relaxing few days. The site is beautifully designed with a huge riverfront and plenty of comfortable chairs to sit back in and soak up the scenery. We camped right on the waterfront and it was so nice waking up to a cool dew on the tent and grass and seeing a mist off the river. The common area/ restaurant had self serve coffee, tea, and juice around the clock- it may not seem like much but when you have to boil water on the fire for 20 minutes and use powdered milk...

May 5, 2008 - Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Most amazingly, the train in Zim runs quite well. It's more or less intact(overlooking the no water in toilet and no lights in our compartment). Still, the train stations look maintained etc and the interior of the coaches was in reasonably goo shape for 50+ years old. Compared to Tanzania(the only other RR running that we've seen), it is definitely a step up especially considering Tanz RR should be head & shoulders above Zims but contrarily is sadly lacking. In the morning we find out the train is running late - the stop was to deliver a...

May 4, 2008 - Victoria Falls and beyond...Zimbabwe

After several days(Bon fighting a cold & doing internet stuff) we leave on the free shuttle to The Falls & border into Zim. It is not w/o some trepidation since the parties fighting for control of the country have not come to any agreement & Mugabe's people are continueing to harass opposition people - burning & killing in rural areas is reported. So a runoff election w/o outside observers may end in boycott & further bloodshed. We hiked the 2 km. over the bridge and into Zim immigration where for $30 US we got our visas(sgl entry, 1 mo.)....

Apr 10, 2007 - Bulawayo

Tome' un bus a Bulawayo que se suponia iba a durar 3 horas....terminaron siendo 6 en total! Entre las paradas a recoger gente, las paradas en los bloqueos policiales, etc, fue una odisea. Era un bus con unos 50 asientos (donde debian entrar solo 40) donde metian por lo menos 100, la mitad parados! Por supuesto que entraban tambien gallinas, sacos de arroz, y demas. Los asientos se caian a pedazos y el bus tambien. Al llegar, como yo bajaba primero, tuve que sacar mi mochila de entre una montanha de bultos, todo entre el tumulto de gente...

Mar 3, 2007 - Harare to Bulawayo

3rd March - Today we headed for the town of Gweru and Antelope Park via the great Zimbabwean ruins. The ruins were spectacular. They were set on top of a hill and were made of stone. They were built in a similar design to a castle you would have seen in England with high rock walls. It is believed that the country took its name from these ruins. After looking around for a couple of hours it was back in the truck and off to Antelope Park. Antelope Park is a lion breeding program where they house many lions and are breeding them for...

Dec 2, 2006 - Zimbabwe (Bulawayo)

From all the things you here about Zimbabwe at the moment, it is a great country - it's just the people who are having difficulties. We entered Zimbabwe and after the biggest gruelling we'd had at a border crossing, made our way to Lake Kariba for 2 days houseboating. We split our crew up onto two boats, grabbed a crew, plenty of food and beer and departed for 48 hours of drinking, croc and hippo watching, and a bit more drinking! I did manage to be up to see both sunrises - whether this was at the start of the day or the end of the day...

Sep 26, 2006 - Taking the train

Well I shared the train compartment with one Zambian and two Zimbabwean women last night and abot 16 cockroaches. Pulled out the deet and sprayed around to hunt them out of their hiding holes and at the door hoping it might deter some extra visitors. I think I got them all before it was time for lights out. It didn't help that my room mates insisted on telling stories all about cockroaches in peoples ears so I searched frantically for my earplugs, turned out I needed them anyway because one of the women snored the whole night long. We got...