The Global Guy

Botswana was interesting…It’s a relatively poor country with a huge AIDS problem. One of our guides mentioned that 2/3 of the population is HIV+ and pointed out that probably about 90% of deaths in the country were AIDS related. Seeing the huge sprawling cemeteries with their fresh graves was sobering.

It took us two days of driving thru the Kalahari desert to get to our destination. The main reason that tourists go to Botswana is the Okavango Delta. The Okavango river starts near Angola and never actually reaches an ocean. Instead it turns into a huge inland swamp where the river disappears into the desert creating a lush oasis. The usual way to see the area is to hire locals to take you camping in the local dugout canoes called "Mokoros". The local guides propel you thru the swamp, leaving you to nap, read, or just watch the scenery go by. It took about three hours of traveling to reach our campsite. Temperatures during the day reached up into the 90s, so we spent the time hanging around the campsite, swimming in the river and basically just relaxing. When the weather got cooler we’d go for walks around the area. During one of the walks, we saw tons of elephant, and even got charged by one. I thought that bungi jumping was a rush, but I’ve never felt so much adrenaline as when that huge bull elephant charged. Luckily it was just warning us, but even the knowledge that it was going to be ok didn’t diminish the experience. Later on we stumbled over a nearly complete skeleton of an old bull elephant. This place has such good poacher control that both tusks were still on the ground, despite the fact that selling one illegally could probably earn more for our guides in one day than they make in a year.

One of Zimbabwe’s major attractions is Matobo national park. It’s located about an hour away from the town of Bulawayo, and just getting there is a spectacle. As you leave Bulawayo and approach the park, there are many granite outcroppings increasing in size and complexity. Here erosion is gradually trying to destroy the landscape, but creating even more spectacular scenery as it does so.

The area around the Matobo hills are full of hidden caves, sacred places and Bushman paintings. Archaeological digs indicate humans have had a presence here for over 40,000 years. The massive rock formations of Matobo are awesome in their grandeur and create a unique atmosphere. Giant lichen-streaked boulders have weathered in place to create tremendous sculptures, which balance precariously in defiance of gravity. This is also one of the few parks in Africa where you can actually get out of your vehicle (at designated spots only!) and approach the wildlife. The park is especially known for it’s extreme protection of the endangered rhino.

We spend an afternoon here driving around, finding giraffe, eland, monkeys, and the elusive white rhino. Rhinos come in two different types, black and white. The name isn’t really indicative of the color, but white is a poor translation of "wide" which describes the shape of the jaw. They have extremely poor eyesight and hearing, but a keen sense of smell. It’s possible to approach them on foot as long as you take precautions to keep the wind blowing towards you away from the animal. We successfully crept up on a rhino and spent a good 10 minutes watching him nap in the afternoon heat. Suddenly the wind shifted, and instantly he was on his feet, snorting and ready to charge. We all completely disregarded everything the ranger had said about freezing and ran for the car. Luckily for us, he decided not to follow us!

The population of both types of rhinos are slowly increasing, but poaching is still a huge problem. The photo at the top of this post indicates how seriously the rangers actually take this problem!

We pulled up into Victoria Falls yesterday. Immediately we went to book all sorts of adventure activities. Today I’ve gone absailing, flying across a gorge, and free falling on a gorge swing. Tomorrow we’re going white water rafting all day, which should be a blast! We’re doing all these activities on the Zambia side of the falls which means we can actually pay with credit cards. I should have brought a little bit more US cash with me, but I’m stretching it out…barely.

Wandering around the town is really interesting. The town is technically in a national park, so there is wildlife wandering the streets. In just the first five hours of wandering around, I’ve seen warthog, buffalo, and baboon. One night we were even awakened in our campground by an elephant tearing up trees right next to us!

The first night of being here, I’d even eaten warthog and buffalo. We went out to an amazing meat restaurant last night called "Bomas" (Shona for feast) where we stuffed ourselves full of game meat. I tried worms, impala, buffalo, eland, warthog and ostrich. The warthog was absolutely amazing! It just melted in your mouth, and I could have gone on eating it all night.

The second night was dedicated to a "booze cruise" down the Zambezi river. Basically it’s one of those things that the tour companies throw at you to entice you to sign up for all the adventure activities with their particular company. I’d been moderating my drinking for just about all of this trip, but it went out the window this night! The booze was free and strong. The cruise itself was fun, as we motored around the upper area of the river before it plunges down the falls. We saw quite a few crocs in the river, and even a hippo or two.

We spent the next day rafting thru the best whitewater I’ve ever been on. It was all class 5 whitewater, except for one portion that was technically a class six, so we carried the rafts past it. I had one of the worst hangovers of my life during the day, but being out on a river seems to be nature’s perfect cure. The last day there I took a microlight flight over the falls and got to see elephants, crocs and hippos from the air.

The truck is about to get a lot less crowded…six of our members are getting off here, which means we’re dropping down to 16. It’ll be nice to have some more room, but we’re going to miss those leaving.

So far Zimbabwe has been amazing. Despite the terrible policies of the current government, the people and the landscape have been great. We spent three days in a private game reserve near the town of Gweru. There we got the chance to go on a horseback safari, walk with lions in their natural environment, and even go swimming with elephants. The place was amazing, if a little bit expensive. Talking to the owners of this place tells a lot about the current political situation. This was originally a white owned farm, but the owners decided that a game preserve was more fun than growing plants. Legally it is still considered a farm, and there have been several attempts by Mugabe’s cronies to take over the farm. Every time this happens, all the owners have to do is to threaten to just release the lions, and the locals always decide that this farm might just need to stay with the current ownership!

We’re in Zimbabwe at the moment. Yesterday we left Malawi and transited thru Mozambique to get here. Even though we were only there for about 4 hours, it still cost 20 bucks for the transit visa! The drives have been really nice. There are a lot of bush fires right now, and when we’re driving at night, the fires on the mountains look like lava flows coming from a volcano.

Coming into Zim yesterday was the toughest border crossing so far. The truck and all our bags were searched. Right now the Zim dollar is plummeting in value, so when you change money you end up with a pile of the local currency. We went thru a trader and ended up with a huge box of local currency that we distributed. I’ve got about an 8 inch thick wad of cash I’m carrying around, and it’s only equal to about 100 bucks in US dollars. Tomorrow we’re exploring the capital of Harare, and then we’re headed out to a private game reserve where they raise orphaned lions. Should be interesting at the very least.

Today we took a side trip to the Great Zimbabwe ruins. Zimbabwe means "stone house" in the Shona language, and sometime around 1000 AD they had themselves a pretty advanced city life. Great Zim is the largest of the ruins left behind. The construction was extremely advanced. The walls were built with no mortar between the bricks, and it was designed to fit into the landscape as much as possible. Defenses were abundant with lots of walls, and narrow approaches that an army would have a hard time crossing. The ruins have been abandoned for hundreds of years, but there are quite a few local monkeys that have moved in.