Ian picked us up in his custom designed land rover complete with a seat right at the front on the bonnet for ultimate viewing. Here is Tom in the seat .......
(there is also a video of me up front via the photos link on the right).
We spent the morning exploring some of the amazing rock formations in the Matopos National Park. “Matopos” apparently means bald head and the park was so named after the big round treeless hills surrounding the park. There was and still is a real problem with poaching in Zimbabwe and this sign at the entrance to the park says it all....
During the morning drive Ian introduced to us heaps of the plants in the park and explained their various uses, including bushman’s soap (great for a bath in the middle of the bush) and the less friendly ones including deadly nightshade and a cactus from which the bushman draw poison for their hunting arrows and spears (a tiny drop of which can bring down an elephant and kill a human in a matter of seconds). Ian also took us to see some ancient cave paintings created by the bushman over generations.
The bushman appear to be a fascinating race although there are hardly any left in Zimbabwe today. One of the most interesting things we learnt was how the bushman have adapted physiologically over the years to their unique way of life. For example the bushman tend to eat only once every few days but when they do eat they can put away as much as 20kg of meat in one sitting. To cope with this feast and famine regime the bushmen’s bodies have adapted so that they store fat in their buttocks – their buttocks actually swell to a significant size after a big meal and this provides them with a constant supply of energy on the days when they do not eat. Ian said that you can always tell when a bushman hasn’t eaten for a few days as he has a very saggy and deflated derriere. Another example is the bushman women who have grown an extra flap of skin over their vaginas as a form of hygiene – the bushman only bathe twice in their lifetime, once when they are born and once after they die.
After our morning exploring the park we went to one of the local villages for lunch. This is where we met “Pondo” the local chief (Pondo means 'pound' - he was born in the year Rhodesia changed its currency) – a very friendly, happy and nimble 80 year old. Here I am with Pondo...
And Tom and I with Pondo - I’m wearing the leopard skin from the leopard which Pondo killed in his youth – it was apparently killing his cows.
Pondo was very excited by our visit and using Ian as an interpreter offered to buy me as his wife for only 300 cows! I passed his offer over to Tom who politely declined – he said he didn't have enough room for cows! Before we left Pondo also took us up to a cave behind the village where they kept their grain stores. Whilst we were listening to the history behind the grainstores, we saw our first (and thankfully only) black mamba snake – just slithering past. The black mamba is one of the most poisonous snakes on earth - even if you manage to get the anti-venom quickly enough it may not help you.
After lunch we headed back into the park with Ian (still talking incessantly and chain smoking – I think Ian must have smoked about two packets during the course of the day!) The purpose of our return visit was for game viewing and also to stalk rhinos. Yes you read right – to track and stalk rhinos!
We knew were on the right track when we saw this...
And after a bit of searching we came across a mother and baby and then proceeded to get within 6 or so metres of them!
Amazing stuff although I found it hard to relax. Ian had told us that if the rhino charged we were to stand our ground initially but that if he gave the command we should get up the nearest tree. Naturally therefore I spent most of the walk eyeing up the closest tree I could climb if necessary.
The next day we set off with Ian again as well as his sidekick Andy. This time we were bound for the Hwange National Park where we were to bush camp that night. We went game driving in the afternoon which was great. Hwange has an overpopulation of elephants – and we definitely saw our fair share during the drive especially around this waterhole at sunset...
After dinner we were sitting around the fire having a drink when Ian and Andy suggested we go on a bit of a night game drive – just to see what we could see. And so several of us piled into the land rover again and set off in search of more game. It was an awesome experience. At one point we tracked and located a whole herd of buffalo. At another point Ian suddenly stopped the land rover switched off the lights. We all sat in silence for a few minutes – he then switched on the lights again and we were surrounded by a herd of elephants – incredible!
The next day we left Hwange, said goodbye to Ian and Andy and after a short trip to the painted dog sanctuary were back on the road bound for Victoria Falls. This was to be Tom and my last stop on the tour as we were due to fly from Livingstone (in Zambia) to Capetown in a few days. The truck which had picked up and dropped off people all the way from Nairobi would then continue on overland to Capetown via Botswana and Namibia.
The Zimbabwe side of the falls is definitely the best. The only downside is that for the first time since we arrived in Zimbabwe we were hassled by hawkers. Every time we walked out of the gate of our campsite they were at us and it got increasingly difficult to politely decline to buy what they were selling. Some of them got quite aggressive. In the end we did actually buy something however not from the hawkers but from the local craft market. The market itself was pretty cool as they don’t just accept cash but are willing to trade crafts for clothes, broken ipods and pretty much anything else you might have to trade. Our purchase was an enormous 32kg, iron wood hippo who we have affectionately named Hugo. Hugo was a bargain at US$60 although we didn’t realise quite what a good deal we got until we saw Hugo’s twin in a posh souvenir shop in Capetown retailing for US$2,000. We have shipped Hugo home and hopefully he arrives in one piece.
We did an awesome walk around the falls themselves getting absolutely drenched in the process. It was wetter than standing in a shower - it was as though we'd just jumped into a swimming pool. These photos don’t really do justice to the incredible sight of the falls but we tried our best to capture it....
We also availed ourselves of some of the nice lodges around the area – enjoying sunset cocktails and a three course meal and wine for less than $20 each.
Given that Vic falls is all about adrenalin sports we also thought we should attempt something. I decided to do a flying fox through the gorge, 100m above the Zambezi River.
Tom being braver did a gorge swing. This involved free falling for 70m – need I say more... Videos of both our efforts are with our photos via the link on the right.
We also decided (perhaps stupidly) that we both needed to get a better view of the falls from the air. So the day we departed the tour we crossed the border into Zambia and each took a 20 min microlite flight over the falls. It was terrifying but insanely beautiful at the same time. Not only did we see the falls in all their glory complete with rainbows but also quite a bit of game including giraffe, hippo and elephant further up on the banks of the Zambezi. These are a couple of the photos which were taken from the wing of the microlite during the flight.
After the microlite flight we headed to Livingstone airport where boarded our flight to Capetown. We were sad to leave the tour and the friends we had made but after seven weeks in a tent we were also ready for a bit of luxury and also some time on our own again.
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