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2.01.2010
Soundtrack: foo fighters
Full speed ahead for 2010! even though the party was JUST a party, we had fireworks on the beach and lots of drinks.
To get rid of the hangover me and Gaz we swam to the small island out there in the middle of the lake. It was not too far and the water was clear today. We snorkeled a bit around, saw some small fish, jumped off the cliffs, about 5 m high ( high enough to raise my adrenaline level) -do every day one thing that scares you!- and streched our bones on the flat hot stones, like the lizards do! :) when we swam back we were very happy about what we did cause on the beach there were loads of locals and it was sooooo noisy! Village walk and dining with the locals: rice, beans and spinach, on the floor on bamboo mats.
Now we are driving to Lilogwe, the capital of Malawi and we need to shop cus tonight we have to cook dinner.
Lilongwe is just another city like all cities in Africa. You just stop & shop and drive away. There nothing to explore here, like we are used to. I thought of taking just one picture of the mountains at the horizon, and suddenly our truck was pulled over by the police. They were really mad that one of them was in the corner of my photo and they wanted to arrest me, f***ing lock me up, and take my camera aswell to bring it to court! Just for one picture of the lilogwe labdscape. The thing was, i didn't pay attention to the police, i was just admiring the shapes of the mountain in the sunlight!
We got to the border to Mozambique at 8.30 am. It's 12 and we are still here. More than that: they didn't even start to look at our passports! So we had a nice lunch in " Nomansland" between Malawi and Mozambique and now we are still waiting...it's exactly 13:51 ! Wooooohoooo, we are moving!!! :) heading to the Tete Corridor. We will get there by 7 pm.
It's 7. We are still driving, full speed ahead thru the hot air, after the mozambique sun has gone down. Watching the stars from the truck-beach, hair blown in all direction, can't keep my eyes open. Feels like flying with a hot air baloon.woooooohooooo! Amazing!
The night was warm and comfortable, and the next morning we headed to the Zimbabwe border. The lady who was stamping the passports was incredibly slow so it took her another 3 hours for 20 passports. T.I.A- this is africa! :)
We will spend two days at the Birdland Camp, outside Harare, an amazing place next to the Chivera Lake, owned by a white zimbavwean guy and his family. Was he one of those white people who destroyed the local farmers and took control over the local ranches? They were the only white zimbabweans there, all their employees were black. The white domination can be seen here, didn't feel really comfortable about that. They were so powerful and the poor locals were just working their asses of for them...:( but the whole campsite was amaaaaaaaaazing! Free running zebras and horses, next to the tent, which i put up two steps away from the lake; crocodiles chasing the ducks, a really nice bar and a cool " fancy dress " party! We had red wine and cheese! Mmmmhhhhh! Yummy! ... Or " cool beans!" as Megan would say. I love Megs quotes! Although in the beginning i couldn't understand a word she was saying, because she has this really strong british accent!
The next day, me and Gaz, we got a lift to Harare, which was really fun: i have been to the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, impressing i wouls say. African contemporary art. I really needed to feed my artistic needs a bit. On the way back we chose the local transportation, it was pretty tight in there, the minibus was fully packed with people and a huge 2x2m matress inside! But i absolutely LOVE this kind of travelling like the locals do it. After a refreshing lime milkshake at the bar i went out horseriding around the lake. Toby was a really good horse, 18 years old but still an energy bomb, who lost his right eye, while jumping over obstacles. I feel so sorry for him, because he really is a beautiful horse. I would love to work at this campsite, with the horses. They are well maintained and the staff is cool. The owner cares so much about the aninals: besides the horses and zebras that run wild on his ground, he has 2 lions, which he adopted from the
orphanage when their body weight was no more than 750g! Murdoch and Pacha are now 4 years old. She is really aggresive and would literally eat every human aproaching her, but Murdoch is really friendly. I even touched him, while the owner was playing with him. Lions are reslly hard to tame, because when they feel that the trainer is dominating them, they just attack him, cause they want to be the " kings" ! Than he owned some 1000$ parrots, which were for sale and he recently adopted 2 baby vultures, for hunting. I apreciate it a lot that he has all this money, has a quiet life and cares so much about animals. It must cost a fortune to provide food for the lions: they eat 1 horse a day!!
We are now driving to Gweru, Antelope Park, which is supposed to be a cool place aswell! We are gonna be there for 4 nights.
Antelope Park gave me goosebumps on the way driving to it and when i got there and put up the tent, i was so happy that I could have cried! It was simpy nature beauty! To crown the day, we drank a bottle of red wine on tge bridge over the river, wazching the crocs hunting ducks and listening to the crickets while the sun went down. The next day started with lion cub walking, because they have to get used to the bushes before they will be released in the wild, when they will be about 4 years old. After the walk we were feeding them: terribile experience for me to take the cow, Daisy, which was now torn into pieces and give it to the lions. The flesh was really stinky and covered with flies. We had to take it on the Jeep with us, it was disgusting! The activities continued all day long: a wild run with the horses and the zebras in the savanah, sunset canoeing till my shoulders hurt and an amazing grilled corn for dinner! In the night the crocodiles where
clapping their sharp teeth and I could actually hear the lions roaring! Africa is absolutely incredible! The next day i did the Elephant ride, i watched the elephant training- they are incredibly smart, they were even playing football with the trsiners- went for some more game horserides and hang out at the pool. Sooooo nice and relaxing! There is a cool package if you want to come volunteering here, which might be on my next wishlist!:)
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