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OK so I am going to try and add to what Amy wrote but excuse me if I mention some things that she has already said.
To be honest I never knew how bad it was in Zim, I feel really sorry for everyone involved with the country. But in recent days they have actually been holding talks in SA about a power sharing agreement, so fingers crossed it may bring something good for Zim.
So each hostel also acts as a travel agency and can organise stuff for you to do while you are there. We ended up spending our first day going white water rafting down the Zambesi river. It was an interesting experience as there are crocodile's swimming around in the calm spots of the river between sets of rapids. We had a great time as we rafted through about 13 sets of rapids and we were constantly surrounded by huge cliffs on each side of us as the water runs through a massive cannon. One side of the river is Zim and the other Zam(bia). We actually did flip the boat at one stage and both Amy and I got stuck under it for what always seems like forever, but is actually only a few seconds. Once we were done with rafting we had to hike back up to the top of the cannon, which was an exhausting 20 minutes. Then they provided us some lunch and we felt so bad as there were like 20 people just sitting there watching us eat and obviously they were in need of the food much more than us, we just felt so bad.
The rest of the day we just walked into town and turned down offers for our clothes. Unfortunately the money situation is so ridiculous that there is no reason to have money as it will half in value by days end, so everyone would rather exchange stuff for what they have, so food for clothes etc. We went to the rafting place in town to watch the video of us rafting against the advice of the people at our hostel as they say that you need to be back at the hostel before it gets dark as it is dangerous to walk around at night, what makes it worse is that there are no street lights at all, so pitch black with a magnificent view of the stars. The video was fun and we then ate dinner at another hostel on the way back as our hostel only had one choice of food for dinner as food is so scarce. Then we had the 15 minute scary walk back to the hostel, of course we heard sounds around us all the time and theat could of easily been people or wild animals. We had only seen baboons and wart hogs in town though. We made it back safely.
The next day we went to Victoria falls and walked around in there. It is hard to put words to what you can see as it is so huge, so I hope you have gone to photobucket and checked out the photos. It is like Niagara falls, but 10 times longer. The water spray from it of course soaked our clothes constantly as we walked parallel to it through the forest. It also goes at least 100 feet high than the top of the falls, so there is a constant spray so you can see the falls from 20km away in any direction. I think the falls are about 90m high, so 270 feet or so. We walked around it for a few hours and talk a lot of photos.
Then we walked back to the hotel and got ready for our sunset cruise on the upper Zambesi river. It was great time as we saw some real wild life for the first time on this trip. There were Elephants playing in the water, plenty of crocodiles, hippos and various other birds. The sunset was amazing!!
The next day we had booked a trip to Botswana, Chobe National park. We choose Botswana as they have free visas for us and Zam visas cost $150. Botswana is only 50kms away. We arrived in some posh hotel where we slowly got into a boat and cruised around a river within the park. We saw all sorts of wildlife, Buffalo, Crocs, Elephats, Hippos, Impala, Sabiel. It was awesome and it was just fun to be on our first ever game drive type thing. It was also fun watching all the tourists with there huge cameras and flocking to anything that moved and pushed and shoved for the best shot.
After the cruise we had lunch at the fancy hotel and then went for the actual game drive part. I was a little annoyed as the truck has seats in a 3 by 3 formation and there was a group of 5 that sat in a way that Amy and I almost sat at opposite ends of the truck as they all wanted window seats. It really annoyed me for a while but I got over myself once we started seeing game. Again we saw a lot of things with the highlight being the Elephants playing in the mud. They were just so funny rolling around and covering themselves in mud. We did managed to see a lion, although it was at about 50 feet. Chobe is known for tons of Elephants and it didnt disapoint. We saw at least 40 Elephants in one area just hanging out and playing.
The last day was all about trying to get to the airport. There is no public transport to speak of of course so you are forced to play very expensive prices to get there. We left feeling really sorry for the people of Zim. There is just so much that is needed and we both wish we knew so we could of brought all of our old clothes so we could of just given it to people!! It was amazing the difference from Botswana to Zim, Botswana had everything and the living conditions were great, no wonder everyone we talked to were just trying to get enough money together to buy a bus ticket to get out of the country. It is a big shame what has happenend.
The flight was fine to Joburg where we spent another lovely night at Woodys parents, Marlane and Dave!!
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