GREAT ZIMBABWE RUINS

WEATHER: Cool and 22C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Who would have thought there were ruins in Zimbabwe

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of anything

BUYS OF THE DAY: A delicious meatlovers pizza that Jim and I went halves in for 8USD

WORD OF THE DAY:

CAMP SITE RANKING: Flushing toilets, hot water, Wi-Fi and a lake view 4 out of 5 stars

We have 350km to travel today.  So the departure times are starting to at least have a pattern now which makes the waking up a little easier when you get into a regular wake up time.  6.15am get up, for a 7am breakfast and on the road again at 7.30am. 

We drove for 3 hours and had a stop at what looked like a road stop in Australia of 4 shops in a row of take away shops.  The funny thing about this place was that they all had a similar name.  There was Creamy Slice, Pizza Slice, Slice Express and Chicken Slice.  We were only supposed to stop for 15 minutes, but we were all so hungry after eating breakfast at 7am, we all went a little crazy and shopped in the supermarket, ordered up pizza’s and ate some hot chips from the chicken joint, Jimbob and I went halves in a meatlovers pizza, and it was one of the best pizza’s I have had since leaving home and then I continued to go halves in a bag of hot chips with Dave.  Not a bad munch session for 10.30 in the morning.  Apparently there are more of these places as we head further south.  Yip yay.

A travel morning in the truck, so to kill some time I have started to pick my favourite photos of my Africa component to pop on to my IPod.  Looking back at what we have done so far, it has been a pretty amazing adventure so far.  You sometimes forget just what we have done and to think it was 5 weeks ago is pretty amazing in itself.  Some of the things that still brings a smile to my dial include the jetboat incident with Paps, that still literally brings a laugh, again with Paps the swapping of the name stickers, to have one on his glasses and then his shoe one lasted 3 days before he found that one, more recently the bag snatch in Zim, the pay back to Dave the next morning, numerous tent laughs with my tentie Lisa, we have had some crackers, Jimbob and his 24 hour rule for all things medical, financial and anything else in between, the Onion and this one is for Jo the bearded meat, Jools quote Oh My God and the list goes on.  It cheered me up to think of all the good times and just how lucky we all are to experience this magnificent country. 

We rolled into camp at 1pm and the place is quite quaint.  Lots of buildings, lots of green carpet, a cook area, an area for a fire and an amazing view over the lake.  We erected out tents, had a small lunch (we were still full from our munch session) and then we were back in the truck at 2pm heading to The Great Zimbabwe Ruins.  Who would have thought there were ruins in Zim.  This will be interesting.  We only had to drive 15 minutes to the site where we met our guide for the afternoon and he took us around the world heritage site.  Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which existed from 1100 to 1450 AD during the country’s Late Iron Age. The monument, which first began to be constructed in the 11th century and which continued to be built until the 14th century, spanned an area of 722 hectares (1,784 acres) and at its peak could have housed up to 18,000 people. Great Zimbabwe acted as a royal palace for the Zimbabwean monarch and would have been used as the seat of their political power. One of its most prominent features were its walls, some of which were over five metres high and which were constructed without mortar. Eventually the city was largely abandoned and fell into ruin.

 So after 3 hours, we circled back to the beginning.  It was a pretty amazing experience and definitely worthwhile.  We drove from here to the a dam where we got to watch the sunset set and we got some amazing shots.  A beautiful sunset in Zimbabwe. 

The weather has turned a little frosty, so lucky we had a fire going when we got back.  Simon had been super busy and dinner was ready to go the second we arrived.  So by the time we finished dinner around the camp fire and had washed and flapped everything it was only 7pm!!!  It was cold and pitch black and it felt like 9pm.  So Dave and I decided to have a voddy before bed, that turned into 3 and by the time we had finished them it was 9.20pm and a respectable time to go to bed.