Friday, May 9, 2003 (Harare - Zimbabwe)
Indecent exposure. We will be sad to say good-bye
to these people. The ups and downs of unpredictability. How on earth did we end
up here? Deciding where not to go is oh so difficult. A farewell to our South
Africa friends. Get my
stick
out of the plane please! Awaiting our free ride to Tanzania.
Day 58. Some days I am just so very tired at
the end of the day that I can’t sit down and write about all the things
that I want to. Such was the case last night. Since it’s an early night
for us tonight with no time pressure on us for the morning, there are a couple
of things I want to reflect on that I might have missed from yesterday’s
log entry, or indeed the past week or
so.
One particular event that I had
to chuckle to myself about took place as the four of us were returning from the
Zambian side of the border, after viewing the falls. It is very hot here under
the African sun. A natural tendency for us Europeans during hot weather is to
shed clothing – particularly when on holiday. Since we did a lot of
walking around in Zambia and then had to walk a kilometre or so back across
through the two border posts, Mags, a Scottish woman and very proud of it thank
you very much, decided that she was hot enough to take off her top and walk in
her bikini top. Now, if we were anywhere in a hot climate zone in Europe nobody
would even notice and none of us gave it a second thought. As we crossed the
bungee-jump bridge, however, a young security office (I assume) that was sitting
on the railings with an AK-47 rifle, motioned for us to come over to talk with
him. He asked Bertie if ‘these women’ were his. He then asked the
three of us to step away whilst he spoke with Bertie and proceeded to lecture
him on the merits of allowing his woman to walk semi-clad through the streets,
as this is apparently an offence. The whole thing was just completely ridiculous
and it was debatable as to whether or not the guy was simply looking for a
bribe. Luckily, however, it seemed more like a warning than anything else and we
were all allowed on our way (with Mags now fully clothed). Africa certainly does
keep you on your toes.
Having spent a
whole week in Vic Falls, we now have a pretty good feel for the place and the
people there. I loved it there and would go back in a heartbeat. We met so many
really friendly people in all corners of the place. There was Michael Johnson
who wrapped and packed all our curios for us at his little stall at the rear of
the market. The guy in the post office was called Faint and was such a warm and
friendly character that went out of his way to help us every time we needed to
sent a parcel. Butterfly was the huge, cuddly, bouncer at Explorer’s bar.
Romeo was one of a dozen or more of the regulars on the street trying to hook
tourists so that he could earn a little bit of commission. Andy, our taxi driver
and personal guide was always there for us when we needed him and kept a
watchful eye on our safety. Warren and Vusa, who were manning their posts at
Shearwater’s Adventures always had a smile on their faces and did a lot of
phoning around for us. Gift, the waiter at the rest camp, was always nice to
chat with. The two lodge shuttle bus drivers were also always good for a quick,
friendly chat. Several market traders that we bought curios from got to know us
on a first name basis but I can’t pronounce, much less spell, their
respective names. Almost everyone on the streets knew who we were after a while
and people would whistle hello to us, as we would walk up and down the town. So
many nice people that the average tourist would ignore or dismiss as irritating
touts became our friends during the time that we spent there. We collected a
number of addresses and contact details and I must remember to send some
T-shirts or some other things for them when we return back to
Europe.
One of the challenging, yet
rewarding in a way, elements of travelling through Africa is the
unpredictability that we must constantly deal with. Since we arrived in Vic
Falls, we were immediately thinking of our continued, onward journey, yet it
took a full week to get anything concrete sorted out. During the course of the
several days that we were there, we were arranging and re-arranging a whole host
of different options for moving on. Initially, we were going to take another
overland tour with Nomad up through Zambia, Malawi and into Tanzania with Dar Es
Salaam being the termination point. After 19 days of rough, dirty and difficult
camping, we decided that this might be too much of a good thing after all. Also,
since Sandy was keen to get back to Europe sooner rather than later, we really
couldn’t afford the time for another three-week overland trip. Our next
option was to get a train from Vic Falls up into Dar Es Salaam but this feel
through due to the limiting factor of no trains running from Vic Falls. There
is, however, a minibus service that would take us from Livingstone in Zambia to
Lusaka in about five hours. Once in Lusaka, we could get the
‘ordinary’ train to Capiri and then the ‘express’ train
across the border and up into Dar. We looked at this option a few times but the
regularity and reliability of the train services might have left us stranded in
places where we would be out of place as backpackers so this idea was eventually
rejected as a primary option but might otherwise be used as a failsafe backup
option. Since flying out of Vic Falls is an expensive proposition, we were
desperate to arrange a surface transportation option and next turned out
attention to possibly catching a life with one of the dozen or more overland
trucks that come through Vic Falls every week. We were having no luck finding a
truck that was transiting and were starting to get desperate when we bumped into
a Wildlife crew at the rest camp that were keen to assist us. We were to meet
with them the following morning but when we got up and went to where their truck
was parked, they had already gone and had left no messages behind. Then,
yesterday morning, we bumped into another overland staff member, from Drifters I
believe, that had three trucks that were heading up North. We were welcome to
hitch a ride with them if we could get to Livingstone, just across the border in
Zambia. The only problem was that he wanted $100 each for the privilege. Since
we had such a lousy experience trying to obtain US dollars in Zambia the day
before together with the fact that his trucks were going to take almost a full
week to traverse the distance, this option pretty much evaporated also. My last
hope was to call the Wildlife headquarters again to speak with Clair about
getting on the northbound truck that she had told me about the other day. It
took a bit of phoning around but we eventually got confirmation that we could
hitch a ride but would need to arrange our own transport to Harare. As luck
would have it, we managed to book the one-way flight this morning for a mere $59
per person.
And so it came to pass
that we are now in Harare, even though we never had any concrete, or even
tentative, plans to be here up till this morning. Who knows where we will be
tomorrow or next week.
Since we will
not be spending the full four-months in Africa as allowed by our flight ticket,
we have had to shave a couple of destinations of the list and so we will not be
seeing South Luawanga (the wildlife national park in Zambia that Theron had
recommended to us), Dar Es Salaam or Zanzibar – at least not this time
around. Perhaps we will return to Africa in the future to see these places.
Instead, we are now trying to make our way to Arusha, where we are supposedly
able to organize some safari tours into the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. I
cannot leave Africa without visiting these places. They are also our last hope
of seeing the Leopard and Cheetah in the
wild.
Returning to the events of
today, we said a very sad goodbye to Bertie and Mags this afternoon at the
airport. After packing half our gear, we went into town this morning to book our
Air Zimbabwe flight to Harare. We had arranged for Andy to pick us up but he
didn’t show and so we had to take the shuttle bus instead. We later
learned that his taxi had broken down. We booked the flights quite easily and
efficiently from the Air Zimbabwe office next to the post office and we also
took the opportunity to say goodbye to some of the regulars on the street and at
Shearwater’s. Andy came up to the lodge with his wife and little girl and
subsequently took us to the airport. Chez, the friendly and very helpful public
relations office from the lodge through which Bertie and Mags had their lodge
accommodation arranged, took them in his car and we met up with each other
there.
The flight to Harare was
uneventful up till the point when the luggage belt in Harare stopped and we were
missing Sandy’s carved walking stick. After a bit of a verbal exchange
between myself and the baggage handling staff that was quite content to just
knock off and head home, they went back to the aircraft and eventually found the
walking stick.
We met the Wildlife
driver that was sent to the airport to pick us up and he took us into Harare to
the Small World backpackers place. As he dropped us off here, he picked up
Theron who we had said goodbye to in Vic Falls almost a week ago. Strange how
small the world can be, sometimes.
We
have a Spartan but otherwise very nice room with an on-suite shower –
although the hot water pressure is extremely low and opening the cold water tap
more than a fraction of an inch forces cold water down the pipes so fast that a
hot shower is practically impossible. We do have a brand new mattress, however,
and so should be quite comfortable for the two nights that we must spend here
until our truck arrives from Jo’Burg early on Sunday
morning.
We’re not quite sure
yet if the truck will be able to take us into Arusha directly or whether or not
we will go right the way through to Nairobi. I looked at a map of Africa briefly
back in Vic Falls and it seems like Arusha is on the way so I am hopeful.
Otherwise, there is a shuttle bus service that goes between Nairobi and Arusha
for about $20 per person but I don’t know how long this takes and,
frankly, by the time we’ve spent three or four days covering the distance
from here to there, we probably won’t be in any kind of mood for another
marathon drive.
Posted: Fri - May 9, 2003 at 08:12 AM