The best and worst of Southern Africa

So, I think I spoke too soon about Mozambique….I actually wrote that blog post the day before we left and the last day was a bit of a nightmare! We had to get up at 3.45am to get the bus at 4.30am, after a very expensive taxi ride ($12 for about 3 minutes), we arrived at a packed bus station with people milling all around the bus. We had bought the tickets the day before and had been assured we would have seats as our tickets had been relatively expensive. First we had to argue about not paying for our bags which involved them putting our bags on the trailer and then taking them off again when we said we wouldn’t pay, we wer tired, it was 4.10am and we were worried that they would re-sell our seats if we didn’t go and sit down so we paid in the end but it’s so annoying that noone else had to pay. We need not have worried, they re-sold our seats anyway! They packed 5 people across a row of seats intended for 4 people which wouldn’t have been so bad except everyone has luggage as well and the lady next to me took up at least a seat and a half so in reality we were 4 people on 2 and a half seats. Needless to say, 6 hours later when we finally got off the bus I was not a happy bunny and I‘m not sure my spine will ever quite sit right again! We took a minibus to Chimonio (again we were squashed but at least you expect that with a minibus) and again we had to argue about not paying for our bags and walked to a hostel (followed by a slightly crazy drunk guy) in town. The next morning we were up early again, and got a bus to the border town (which is called Machapanda - how cute!) and got stamped out of Moz (wooop!). Unfortunately, it’s not possible to exchange Metical (Mozambique currency) in the banks in either Moz or Zim (I don’t know why this is!) so the only way to do it is on the street in no-mans-land between Moz and Zim- no problems we thought, we know all the tricks as we had been doing it in North Africa. It was all going well and I got my USD and then counted my MTC into the guys hand (as Karl had told us to) and then as I walked away the guy was shouting saying that I had given him 7,000 instead of 8,000 now, I know this wasn’t true as I had counted it more than once and it’s the oldest trick in the book. We tried to just walk away (once you get to the border you’re sweet) but then they started following us, there were at least 5 guys all shouting ‘give me my money’, as I figured our safety was worth more than 1,000 (about £25) then I threw the dollars back at him, grabbed my 7,000 and shouted that I would never return to Mozambique as the people only want to rip you off and are just a bunch of criminals. Too harsh maybe, and I will return, especially to the north but that was just the icing on the cake of our Mozambique experience. Worst country in Southern Africa. 


Anyway, now to the best country in Soutern Africa….we crossed the border and were straight into Zimbabwe. We took a taxi and then a bus and we arrived in Harare early evening. The journey was pretty painless and it was nice as the locals were so helpful and we didn’t feek we were getting taken for a ride. The next day we explored the beautiful city of Harare (there are parks, trees and gardens everywhere and it’s pretty clean) and bought some souvenirs at the local market and then went to the cinema in the evening (for $2!) which was very exciting as I hadn’t been since Nairobi and that was to see a rubbish film (they had good cinema food too although no diet coke! unfortunately).

Crazy hyperinflation in the past!

Lovely Harare

The next morning we got a (nice) bus to Masivingo which is a town about 250km south west of Harare, from there we had a minibus ride and then a long walk (in the heat, with our bags, not pleasant) until we got to Great Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe is the oldest medieval city in Southern Africa and one of Zim’s World Heritage sites - it’s basically the ruins of an old settlement. It was pretty cool, and still quite intact although after seeing how well things have survived in Egypt it was pretty run down. The best bit was on top of a hill as the walls were all built around these huge stones which were already there. They were all dry stone walls as well so it’s pretty amazing that the whole thing didn’t fall down.

Great Zimbabwe

Built around the rocks

We camped right next to the ruins as well which was cool as we were the only tent and this nice lady who ran the shop cooked us a traditional dinner (spinach and peanut butter - strange, beef stew - good and mealie pap - good but pretty bland as it's just maize really) which was really sweet of her. We also met a Zimbabwean couple who were so impressed that we were travelling without a car and invited us up to their hut for drinks. They had lived in England but wanted to return home, it was very interesting to chat to people who had been here during all the ‘rubbish’ as they called it and they were curious about the UK’s perception of Zim. We had another long walk back to the road the next day and then a minibus ride to Gweru which is basically right in the middle of Zim. That minibus ride was funny as the driver slowed down for some baboons on the side of the road (which you literally see every day!) and all the people on the bus were really excited watching the baboons. When we got to town the drover offered to take us to the Antelope Park which was to be our next stop. Although it is called antelope park it is more famous for its lions and I secretly think the driver just wanted to take us so he could get a glimpse as he drove really slow through the whole park! Anyway, we arrived at the beautiful campsite and pitched our tent. The next morning we went out on a lion walk with two 18 month old lion cubs. The cubs are bred in captivity and then they walk with them to get them used to social interaction and the bush, they also encourage them to hunt on the walks as well. Once they are old enough they release them into parks and eventually the wild. The walk was amazing, and the cubs were pretty big considering they were so young. The lions were  brothers and they would play fight and then make up and then play fight and make up again, it reminded us of Tom and Phil, the two twins we used to have on the truck as they would bicker like that all the time!  It was awesome to get up so close to them and they quite often passed right by your legs and you could scratch their backs. There were some impala on top of a hill which one made a half ass attempt to chase but the impala got away which was a shame - our guide was very jealous we’d seen a leopard kill though, apparently the chance of seeing one in 1 in 100,000 (!). 

Hello lion

Thinking about going after the impala

We spent the whole day at the park, played some scrabble (obviously) and then managed to catch a free lift to Bulawayo with the owner who was headed that way. Today we're just killing some time in Bulawayo before getting the night bus back to South Africa (sadly) tonight


Thank you Zim....you've been awesome and I'll definitely be back soon!