Into Zim and onto Hwange & Kariba

The crossing into Zimbabwe was easy – almost 30 minutes exactly! It would have been shorter had we not been asked, by the most enthusiastic Botswanan we have met to date, to fill out a questionnaire regarding our tourism experience in Botswana. We didn’t have the heart to tell him that we felt (very generally speaking) that the Botswanans are the most aloof people we have come across so far.  

 

Here an example to illustrate my point:

 

When the waitress asked us at breakfast two mornings earlier if we wanted more coffee – the tone was:

Approach our table, looking over her shoulder – then gazing out past us, over the river – no eye contact – looking super bored – I dare you to say yes to more coffee you bastards….  Col hesitated, but took her up on her offer – brave move! She didn’t have the milk with her, but thankfully she didn’t have to come back with that as Col doesn’t take milk in his coffee. That was the first time we saw her smile. 

 

When generally comparing the people of Zambia, Namibia and Botswana – we found the Zambians to be the friendliest, the Namibians to be more German than African, and the Botswanans to be aloof, and have taken being tip orientated, to the next level.  No joke – every campsite had a tip box of some sort, either tied to a tree or glued on the BBQ.  Every ablution block, within the campsites, had their own jar/tin/box of some sort, with a hand written sign that read ‘TIPS’.  One old mayo jar even had printed out $50.00 US bills stuck to it – so the message was clear – leave your money (not just your change) here!  No running water, hand soap, or loo paper? Sucks to be you – the toilet has been cleaned at some point – you owe a tip. Peeing has never been so expensive!

 

What Botswanans lack in small chit chat and enthusiasm, they make up  for in their names.  We have met Blue, Yesterday, Memory, Godknows, and my favourite – Twinkle, the barman at the Chobe Safari Lodge.  It got to the point that when we asked ‘what is your name?’ – if they replied with Bob, or Joe we were a wee bit disappointed. 

 

We stayed at Vic Falls long enough to get ourselves online, and make a plan of some sort as to where we would visit.  Time is going faster than we would like.  We have about 3 weeks for Zim, so rather than rush things, we have opted to visit Hwange, Kariba, Matsudona N.P. and Mana Pools, before heading to Harare.  From Harare the plan is to go to Tete, in Mozambique, to meet up with a friend before he heads off for Christmas. 

 

First stop – Hwange.  We really enjoyed this park, despite coming across lots of elephant carcasses.  At one waterhole there was a total of 14 dead bodies, all different ages, and at different stages of decomposition.  I feel it doesn’t matter how often you see it – your heart breaks a little each time. The good news, (if you can call it that), is that they are not being poached.  Most of the bodies we have come across still have their tusks in place.  The draught is the main cause for the deaths. 

 

In Hwange they have hides whereby you can sit, at an elevated level, and watch the waterholes below you, which all have solar water pumps.  The first hide we visited; we spent time with 7 lions who were feeding on a baby elephant.  The lions where fat as houses.  The male with that pride was an enormous individual, sporting a huge dark mane, he was very impressive! He gave us the hairy eye ball for as long as we were there.  Eventually, the smell of death before breakfast got the better of us, and we moved on. 

 

When we moved from Robins camp to Main camp, we spent time at another waterhole where two Zimbabweans had set up for the day.  We spent about 4 hours here.  The waterhole was never empty – lots of Elephants came by for a much needed drink and mud bath, as well as Giraffe, Zebra, Kudu, Sable and Hippos.  Tracy & Graham were excellent company, and over a lunch of crisps and a couple of bevys, we covered all topics of conversation, from what it was like in Zim whilst Bob was in charge, to woke culture, and everything in between.  We all got on like a house on fire (despite them being Toyota folks).

 

From Hwange we opted to drive along Kariba Dam in the direction of Mana Pools.  In Botswana we stayed at 15 different campsites during our 20 days stay, so we thought we would have 3 nights in one place to catch up on things.  Wash the sheets, bake bread, write blogs, check Andromedas oils, do more laundry, give Col a haircut, and paint my toe nails as the nail polish keeps getting stripped off by the anti-mozzie spray, etc.

 

Fresh as (wilted) Daisies (The heat is something special!) we were ready to get back on the road!

 

Next: Matusadona National Park, &  Andromeda gets attacked by a sausage in Mana Pools!