Before I can start the story of my African Adventure...

Here's a bit of background!

I first met Heidi Huber in 1987 at the end of our Spring Semester at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We were all moving into an apartment on-campus for the summer. I moved into the 13th floor, but my best friend Jeff moved into the 7th floor, right next door to Heidi and her roommate Tina. We spent the summer having dinner in each other's apartments, going to the mall, going out on the town, and generally making the summer fun! We've been close friends ever since, even if we are half a world away! Heidi joined the Peace Corps in 1993 and has been living in Botswana. I went to visit her in April, 1995 and spent one of her vacations with her.



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First stop, London! I left from Sea-Tac airport at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 19th, 1995. My friend Bill gave me a ride to the airport. Because I used a Northwest Airlines frequent flyer ticket to get from Seattle to London, I didn't get a direct flight. First I flew to Boston, then to Amsterdam, and then to London.
Piccadily Circus, London Since I was changing airlines, I spent one night in London. I stayed with a friend of a friend of mine from Australia. I had fun exploring the city during the day and we went out on the town that night. London is a great city, I can't wait to go back!	The new South African flag at Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg

See a map of my route through Africa in GIF format.


After an eleven hour flight from London Heathrow to Jan Smuts International Airport in Johannesburg (a.k.a. "Jo'burg") I was in Africa! Heidi was very excited to see me, and relieved - I was forced to check my backpack at the gate in London, and it was the last piece of luggage off the plane, nearly an hour after everyone else!

Heidi & Nissa

African pizza!

Heidi met me at the airport with her friends Tina and Nissa. Tina drove everyone down from Botswana - about eight hours. We left the airport in Tina's car and went to our hotel room at the "Formule One" motel in the suburb of Sandton. Heidi and Nissa had been in Botswana so long, they hadn't had pizza for months - so we ordered Pizza Hut and had it delivered to our hotel room. That night Tina was good enough to drive us out into the city for a bit of big city fun. We went out to a couple of bars and nightclubs in the suburb of Rosebank. The next morning we left Jo'burg for Botswana! We drove about eight hours to Heidi's hut in Tonota and spent the night there.

Heidi and her red bucket Heidi has electricty, but no running water in her hut. She has a red bucket that she fetches water for cooking, and bathing. In the morning we all took showers - Cold Showers - and had some breakfast before setting off hitch hiking our way north to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Since so few people own cars, many people travel by hitch hiking. Usually the driver expects some payment so it's almost like a taxi service. We were very lucky during the trip to always get great hitches!

Heidi loves to get mail!

Hitch-Hiking to Zimbabwe

After having lunch and changing money in Francistown, Botswana we hitched to Bulawayo, about 100 miles away. We got to Bulawayo late, so we checked into the Grey's Inn Hotel, right downtown. We had hoped to rent a "chalet" or cabin in the local campground, but the chalets were all booked-up and we didn't have a tent or a car to sleep in.


Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Heidi and Nissa were excited to go shopping! Here they are at an outdoor market in front of the City Hall in Bulawayo.

Before we got on the night train to Harare, the three of us at dinner in this great Chinese restaurant. Everything in Africa was very cheap - three spring rolls, three entrees, three servings of rice, and three bottles of wine was only $20! After dinner we were a bit tipsy and had some time so we stopped in a bottle shop and got a bottle of "Mainstay", cane spirits. I'm still not sure what "cane spirits" are...



Drinking on the train

We were lucky to have a room on the train all to ourselves, but we had nothing to mix our booze with. I was elected to walk to the front of the train to get mixers (I was the only one who still had their shoes on). I walked the whole way through the train from our car (see the picture below), over people on the floor, past a couple making out in the hall, and up to the "bar" car. Well, they wouldn't open until the train left the station, so I walked all the way back. Then the train left the station, so I walked all the way back to the front. The conductor told me to go back to my seat until they had taken my ticket, so I walked all the way back to our car. Then, after they checked our tickets I walked all the way back to the front of the train. I bought six bottles of Coke (all they had was Coke and Fanta, sometimes you could find Diet Coke or Sprite and the Coke was usually cheaper than water). We mixed and drank and drank and mixed until about 2 a.m. and the train arrived in Harrare at 6:30! We were not very happy campers when we got off the train.


Sunrise in Zimbabwe


Harare

Harare is the busy capital of Zimbabwe. We stayed in a nice hotel not far from all the shopping and museums of downtown. We had a lot of fun at a Greek restaurant for dinner! The owner of the restaurant called up to a friend of his who runs a private "for members only" nightclub. He got us in for free and we had fun meeting people and having drinks outside, under the stars.


Worms and Sticks for Sale


We were only in Harare for one day and night, then we started heading back to Bulawayo - in order to get to Victoria Falls. While waiting at the hitching post, we saw a little kid selling "Worms and Sticks" - I have no idea what you would do with worms and sticks. I guess you could go fishing, but you would also need string, a hook, and some water - none of which were nearby.



Bus Stop!

We hitch-hiked from Harare to about halfway to Bulawayo and then took a bus the rest of the way.


The one night we were in Bulawayo, before leaving for Victoria Falls, we stayed with some of Nissa's friends who got us drunk and took us out to bars to go dancing. Here's Nissa & Heidi getting ready to go out.

We (I) rented a car in Bulawayo and we drove up to Victoria falls (about 200 miles). I had a lot of fun learning how to drive a "stick" on the wrong side of the road from a very nice policeman.

A morning at the garage!

We actually rented two cars in Bulawayo, we got one car the evening when we arrived, but it kept stalling and dying. We went to the rental office first thing in the morning and the rental guy spent four hours with us in the garage getting the car fixed. Well, it never really got fixed, so we returned to the rental office and said "We'll tell you where your car is if you rip-up my Visa statement!". So we cancelled that transaction (I should have been wary - even in Africa - of doing business by candle light!) and went to Avis where we got an Opal Kadett - for only three times as much! But at least it worked.

Doug at Victoria Falls - I was really there!

Victoria Falls was incredible. Truly one of the natural wonders of the Earth. The town of Victoria Falls is kind of a tourist trap, but it is near several national parks in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana where you can see giraffes, elephants, wildebeast, zebras and other animals roaming about.

Baboon Family

This is the chalet we stayed in the campground in Vic Falls

There were baboon families and wild pig families and honey badgers all around in the "rain forest" around the falls. They were also in the campground where we stayed. There were elephants just walking around in the brush just outside of the town of Victoria Falls.

Sunset on the Zambezi River

One evening we took the "Sunset Booze Cruise up the Zambezi". For about $12 you got a four hour boat ride and all the beer or wine you could drink! They even had lots of great snacks.

An elephant - And it's NOT in the zoo!



Victoria Falls (the Zimbabwe side)

We spent one day visiting the Zimbabwe side of the falls, one day visiting the Zambia side of the falls (VERY wet, but well worth walking across the bridge, it's actually quite different from the Zimbabwe side), and one day in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.

A quiet water hole... NOT!

If you'll notice, there are two hippos in the water off to the left and that's not a log on the shore to the right, it's a crocodile! This is a picture from Hwange National Park.

Giraffes in Hwange National Park.

Be careful for elephants crossing when you're driving!!!

Slow going in the rental car...

Just off to one side of the paved road between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls is a dirt road that the donkey carts and pedestrians follow. Even though there were quite a few people along the road, there wern't many towns. If you needed to stop to go to the bathroom, you just stopped and went to the bathroom.

Jo'burg

Johnnesburg from the top of the tallest building in Africa! Since I didn't get to visit Johannesburg on my way into Africa, I visited for just the afternoon on my way home. I had a twelve hour layover in Jo'burg (I flew from Gaboronne, Botswana to Jo'burg so Heidi wouldn't be alone in Johannnesburg after I left).

It was a "quick" trip back: Gabornne, Johannesburg, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Minneapolis, and Seattle in only about 36 hours. At least I didn't get food poisioning on my last day like I did in Australia - I puked and puked and puked all the way from Sydney to Seattle... but that's another story!!!

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