I'm now out of Zimbabwe so it's safe for me to say that "Mugabe Sux!!"
My last update was from Dar Es Salam in Tanzania. Well a lot has happened since then. Claire and Ken have become so close that they have become known as Clen. But I am no longer sharing a tent with Bjoern, I managed to get my own. So it's not all bad.
We drove for many miles for several days in the truck and turned up at Kande Beach on Lake Malawi in Malawi. We went on a village tour to see how the poor Malawegians were getting on. The highlight of the tour was the local school where we were the main distraction. Then the head teacher hit us up for some donations. It seemed stupid to pay all these middle men at World Vision or wherever when you can pay straight to the source. So I gave $50 USD to pay for the education of an orphan. Though it may go towards helping the head teacher buy a new car.
Some of the group decided to head out on a boat with the locals to do a spot of fishing at a nearby Island. I wasn't up for that but decided to go for a swim. I said to Tom, from the young English
couple, that I was thinking of swimming to the Island. He said OK, and off we went. It was when we were about half way there that we realised it was quite a long way. But like Ethan Hawke in Gattaca, "I never saved any for the swim back", and we pushed on. Luckily the fishing boat was still at the Island and we got a ride back. The locals estimate it was a 600m swim but it seemed a lot longer than that to me.
In Malawi I bought a whole bunch of wooden stuff, including these quite big Malawi chairs. I had a local from the village called Fred Flintstone who was helping me to part with my money. People love these chairs until they find out how much they are to post. But more on that later.
Following Kande Beach we were 4 days on the road. Usually getting up around 5 or 6am and getting into camp at about 5pm. Most of the time I spent playing cards, or the game "500" to be precise. After 10 hours straight Clen, Tom and I had gone slightly mad. So much so that I went open misere on more than one occassion (ask a 500 player if you don't know what that means).
Finally we lobbed into Zambia and the town of Livingstone. Named after the goofy English explorer that got himself lost. A good bonding experience and almost compulsory for these truck trips is the booze cruise. First we go to a little village that has lots of goofy clothes and buy each other fancy
dress outfits. You don't know who's got you and how mean they are going to be. Well they were particularly mean to me. I had to wear a leopard skin g-string and a red lace negligee. For my sake and everyone else's I chose to wear my boxers underneath. The booze cruise had all you can drink beer and spirits and true to form I drank so much I passed out. Not such a great idea when the owner of the campsite is named Grubby and he decides to take photos of your
testicles. But it was a good night for the crew as both the Zimbabwean group leader and the alcoholic truck driver (pictured to the left) both picked up a member of the group.
After a day of recovery we went White Water rafting down the Zambezi river. I was fine on the grade 5 rapids, but on a grade 2 rapid I lost my balance and fell out, much to everyone's amusement. I even had time to say, "uh oh here I go!"
While in Livingstone I thought I'd check out how much it would cost me to get my wooden stuff back home. Well the DHL wanted $600 USD, Fed-Ex wanted about $350 and the post office wanted $170. I'll hang out until Zimbabwe I thought.
W
e then crossed the border into Vic Falls on the Zimbabwean side. They are really struggling and even in this very touristy part of Zim the supermarket had virtually nothing. All I could find was a tin of grapefruit slices and a pack of cards with Asian girls in Bikinis. So I both one of each.
The Zimbabwean economy is so screwed that $1 USD is worth $30,000 Zim dollars. But that's if you use the bank. On
the black market it's $300,000 Zim dollars. So of course I chose the black. Which was great at the post office. It's about the only place that must use the proper rate and I posted my stuff for $20USD. I was so excited I tipped the posties. Now let's hope it makes it home.
Most of the group was breaking up and going their separate ways in Vic Falls. So we had a farewell dinner and a few drinks. I think I got back about 2am, but I had to get up at 6am to watch Geelong win the AFL Grand Final. I was then booked in for a bungy jump straight after. I learnt a valuable lesson don't drink and bungy. I didn't throw up during the bungy, just before and after.
A walk around Vic Falls helped. The fresh cool water sprays you as you wander around. I was happy to pay the $20USD into Mugabe pocket.
I'm now in Botswana. Where Ange is the only cool kid left of the Truck. We still have the whinger and his wife, weird Adelaide girl and the quiet one I forgot initially. We've picked up 5 extras. 4 of them are couples over 50 and there's another standard Kiwi chick. One of the couples are American.
We went on a game drive yesterday and it's now official. I'm bored with Elephants. I just want to see a leopard but I don't think it will happen. In fact I'm pretty bored with riding on the truck for 10 hours a day too. But oh well only 5 days to go on the tour and about 5 days in Cape Town then I can go home and rest.
My last update was from Dar Es Salam in Tanzania. Well a lot has happened since then. Claire and Ken have become so close that they have become known as Clen. But I am no longer sharing a tent with Bjoern, I managed to get my own. So it's not all bad.
We drove for many miles for several days in the truck and turned up at Kande Beach on Lake Malawi in Malawi. We went on a village tour to see how the poor Malawegians were getting on. The highlight of the tour was the local school where we were the main distraction. Then the head teacher hit us up for some donations. It seemed stupid to pay all these middle men at World Vision or wherever when you can pay straight to the source. So I gave $50 USD to pay for the education of an orphan. Though it may go towards helping the head teacher buy a new car.Some of the group decided to head out on a boat with the locals to do a spot of fishing at a nearby Island. I wasn't up for that but decided to go for a swim. I said to Tom, from the young English
couple, that I was thinking of swimming to the Island. He said OK, and off we went. It was when we were about half way there that we realised it was quite a long way. But like Ethan Hawke in Gattaca, "I never saved any for the swim back", and we pushed on. Luckily the fishing boat was still at the Island and we got a ride back. The locals estimate it was a 600m swim but it seemed a lot longer than that to me.In Malawi I bought a whole bunch of wooden stuff, including these quite big Malawi chairs. I had a local from the village called Fred Flintstone who was helping me to part with my money. People love these chairs until they find out how much they are to post. But more on that later.
Following Kande Beach we were 4 days on the road. Usually getting up around 5 or 6am and getting into camp at about 5pm. Most of the time I spent playing cards, or the game "500" to be precise. After 10 hours straight Clen, Tom and I had gone slightly mad. So much so that I went open misere on more than one occassion (ask a 500 player if you don't know what that means).
Finally we lobbed into Zambia and the town of Livingstone. Named after the goofy English explorer that got himself lost. A good bonding experience and almost compulsory for these truck trips is the booze cruise. First we go to a little village that has lots of goofy clothes and buy each other fancy
dress outfits. You don't know who's got you and how mean they are going to be. Well they were particularly mean to me. I had to wear a leopard skin g-string and a red lace negligee. For my sake and everyone else's I chose to wear my boxers underneath. The booze cruise had all you can drink beer and spirits and true to form I drank so much I passed out. Not such a great idea when the owner of the campsite is named Grubby and he decides to take photos of your
testicles. But it was a good night for the crew as both the Zimbabwean group leader and the alcoholic truck driver (pictured to the left) both picked up a member of the group.After a day of recovery we went White Water rafting down the Zambezi river. I was fine on the grade 5 rapids, but on a grade 2 rapid I lost my balance and fell out, much to everyone's amusement. I even had time to say, "uh oh here I go!"
While in Livingstone I thought I'd check out how much it would cost me to get my wooden stuff back home. Well the DHL wanted $600 USD, Fed-Ex wanted about $350 and the post office wanted $170. I'll hang out until Zimbabwe I thought.
W
e then crossed the border into Vic Falls on the Zimbabwean side. They are really struggling and even in this very touristy part of Zim the supermarket had virtually nothing. All I could find was a tin of grapefruit slices and a pack of cards with Asian girls in Bikinis. So I both one of each.The Zimbabwean economy is so screwed that $1 USD is worth $30,000 Zim dollars. But that's if you use the bank. On
the black market it's $300,000 Zim dollars. So of course I chose the black. Which was great at the post office. It's about the only place that must use the proper rate and I posted my stuff for $20USD. I was so excited I tipped the posties. Now let's hope it makes it home.Most of the group was breaking up and going their separate ways in Vic Falls. So we had a farewell dinner and a few drinks. I think I got back about 2am, but I had to get up at 6am to watch Geelong win the AFL Grand Final. I was then booked in for a bungy jump straight after. I learnt a valuable lesson don't drink and bungy. I didn't throw up during the bungy, just before and after.
A walk around Vic Falls helped. The fresh cool water sprays you as you wander around. I was happy to pay the $20USD into Mugabe pocket.I'm now in Botswana. Where Ange is the only cool kid left of the Truck. We still have the whinger and his wife, weird Adelaide girl and the quiet one I forgot initially. We've picked up 5 extras. 4 of them are couples over 50 and there's another standard Kiwi chick. One of the couples are American.
We went on a game drive yesterday and it's now official. I'm bored with Elephants. I just want to see a leopard but I don't think it will happen. In fact I'm pretty bored with riding on the truck for 10 hours a day too. But oh well only 5 days to go on the tour and about 5 days in Cape Town then I can go home and rest.
Stumble It!
No comments:
Post a Comment