African Adventure Part 2 - July and August 2022

 I won't keep you in suspense any longer. The meal that reminds me of aunty Ros is...

Lamb shank. I've never had one as good as hers. I think it might be that she uses more orange than most, or more likely, a lot of wine. 

Another long one...

The Saturday began with a rather frustrating search for money. The economy here is, to say the least, fragile. Most places prefer dollars to the actual Zimbabwean currency. But it's hard to find and extremely hard to get anything below $10. Given the number of toll roads and just normal bills it's annoying but at least just an interesting part of our adventure. 

We picked up my literal scans and the disc to go with it and then hunted for diesel. We got there in the end. Bulawayo looks like someone stopped the clock on it in 1950 and then a few places sped up, but stopped again around 1990. The buildings look sturdy and tired. The people are kind, we stick out as tourists. The shops have clothes that, while modern, just somehow aren't. Plenty of familiar names and some brands but yet all unfamiliar too. 

We then headed off for the next stop. Hwange, humorously called Wankie before. The journey was about 4 hours and we arrived at the safari camp. In Malawi we normally pay for a lodge, get the 5 star treatment but we're camping to save the pennies and have a different experience. We are not on local rates here. We all felt a little let down on arrival. It seemed barren and lacked something. We chatted and wondered if we should move on but having had a big drive we were not quite in the mood. A just wanted to stay still and BigA wanted to move. 

In the end we left A in the tent and we went off for a short game drive. It didn't disappoint. In a very short space of time we had 2 great elephant encounters, saw zebra and wildebeest, lots of beautiful and unusual birds, including an owlet and we saw hippo and crocodiles. Upon our return to camp we were brought fire wood and we cooked rice and curry. A few cans of lager and marshmallows on the fire and all felt well with the world. 

The morning began with me doing a load of washing, mainly pants and then we drove off through the park to a hide by a watering hole, to watch the birds and other animals while we had breakfast. So relaxing and peaceful. 

Then we packed up ready to move on. I know I say it a lot but I'm so grateful that he's happy to drive. The landscape shifts, I suppose that's true of most places but here it seems to shift more, lots of trees, showing an autumnal range of rusts, yellows and some green. The land here isn't as orange as Malawi, it's more like chalk dust, much more yellow and white. But so many more trees, it's interesting to think that Malawi used to be more full of trees. Sadly not any more. 

We travelled about 120km or so to get here. Our hearts took a bit of a dip when we saw the coal mines and what appeared to be a massive vehicle grave yard, we'd moved on to get better views. The air thick with the smell of old fire places and soot. But as we continued, thankfully the national park took over and we found our way to Sinamatela. We camped up the large hill looking over the savannah (with trees so not sure if it's allowed to be called that.)

A man called Admire presented himself as our help, he seemed to be in army fatigues and set about chopping wood for us and getting the donkey boiler going. And then I updated this email. While drinking a cold lager and spent some of that asking BigA how to spell things. We cooked a smokey pasta dish and went to bed. 

The next morning was beautiful. Perfect temperature and we had breakfast and a read. BigA had bought a copy of 'The hitchhikers' guide to the Galaxy' for A she had been somewhat reluctant to read it but as we had no connection for a few days and she chose it over her physics revision. She devoured it, taking pictures of some pages and asking questions about its contents. One, was about trying to figure about the imperial measurements that it was using. 

For lunch we drove off into the park and found a dammed lake, hippos and crocodiles clear to see and some odd things that I have been calling pigrats and the real name keeps escaping me. There are tree versions at the camp site, these ones were on rocks so rock ones.

I've checked, they are called Dassies or hyrax. I prefer my name.

On our return to the camp site BIgA spotted a herd of buffalo in the distance and we watched them come in, probably about 250 to 300 of them, if not more. Another calm night, this time curry and rice and we made s'mores by the fire. We had enough battery to watch some David Attenborough before a sensible bed time. We were being cautious as we'd heard animals near by, making sure any trips to the loo where together with the torches scanning the surrounding area. 

On the morning of our third day on this campsite the buffalo were still around and we watched them while waiting for the kettle to boil, BigA spotted what at first looked like a cheetah but after a while and with A's brilliant eyes, we agreed was a pack of lion. 10 in total, not doing a very good job of taking any of the buffalo. The bigger buffalo looking like they were taunting the lion, heading straight for them. I could imagine them saying 'come on then, if you think you're hard enough' the lion wasn't on this occasion. A little disappointed that we didn't see a kill we settled into a slow morning which stretched into a lazy day. BigA went off in search of a few essentials while A drew all day long and I read another book. 

It's been genuinely lovely just switching off, no social media, no WhatsApps, just the routine of a day, sleeping, eating and drinking. Our campsite guard hoping to make himself useful each day and he did the next load of washing. Only in Africa do you go to a secluded campsite and get someone who sets your fire, washes your dishes and offers to iron your clothes. The power has been inconsistent but we have a good solar back up with us. 

I've so enjoyed watching BigA get excited by the birds. He will stop mid sentence and point then mutter to himself, confer with the bird book or grab the camera, or the reverse order then proudly announce the bird he's seen. We've become so used to the hornbills it's like having gulls or crows around. 

That afternoon a couple from Holland came to the camp and we sat around the fire and talked about all sorts things. It was very pleasant. 

The next stop was Robins camp, we took a slow drive through the park to it. We saw a few animals and stopped off at a picnic site to make cheese sandwiches. Robins camp is much more luxurious than the other places we've been to I Zimbabwe. We agreed to have a dip in the pool but it was freezing so only our feet went in and then we treated ourselves to an evening meal at the restaurant. 

A cooler night in the van and an early start for the safari walk. I never feel quite safe on these, the fear of a lion or something else on my mind, but it was lovely to walk about. We measured or feet in the prints left by elephant. The grass, while a vibrant green in places, crunched under our feet, sounding a bit like freshly fallen snow. The guard joined us with a gun, a small comfort. We saw lion and leopard prints, thankfully that was all the evidence of them. More hippo and plenty of birds. 

The rest of the day was a mix of reading, cooking and relaxing. 

The night was cold but we survived. We packed up and set off for Victoria falls. This, of course, is a place I've always known existed but didn't know what to expect. The journey was short in comparison to the others, and we saw giraffe, cheetah, elephant, various antelope and some warthog. The road was rough for a long time, a left turn into proper tarmac and then we saw the airfield and before we knew it, back into a world of shops and restaurants. 

We had a very nice lunch at a posh hotel that feed the assembled vultures and Marabu stalks, it was exciting to see but I did think, my big sister would probably hate this. After that we headed to our next stop. A campsite in the grounds of a hotel. All the things you need, power point, wifi and nice showers. 

We popped across the small road to the micro brewery for the evening, live music and good food. A great way to end the week.