WELCOME ZIMBABWE

WEATHER: Cooler and 25C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Shorter day of travel on the truck

BUMMER OF THE DAY:

BUYS OF THE DAY: Bottle of vodka for 4.50USD

WORD OF THE DAY: ‘Let’s get it on’ – a Dave quote we have all picked up

CAMP SITE RANKING:  We have ALL been upgraded tonight into dorms, so an automatic 5 out of 5 stars.  Hot showers, flushing toilets, awesome bar area – what else do you need.  PS: no internet or Wi-Fi

Well after a massive day yesterday and a great night’s sleep in a BED, it was a 6.15am wake up for a 7am breakfast and a 7.30am departure.  It was good to not worry about packing up a tent, as it was super cold outside and watching all the other made us appreciate the accommodation we had for the night. 

We only had 250km to travel today, so we got to our camp site just out of Harare at 10.40am.  George had mentioned that he would like to upgrade us all tonight, so he went off to make sure this could still be done as we set up the kitchen for lunch before heading back into Harare for a few hours.  Well he came back with some great news and we had three dorm rooms.  One was for the 5 boys, a girl’s room of 5 and another girl’s room of 8.  We got into the room of 8, bought in what we needed form the truck and then headed back outside for a bite to eat.  The weather has really changed here.  If you are in the sun, it is quite hot and you take off your jacket, but the second you are in the shade to the sun drops, it is cold and you need to put your jacket back on.  There was also a wind blowing that doesn’t help the cause either. 

So at 12 noon, we are all packed back onto the truck for the 20 minute ride back into Harare city.  Ben parked the truck at a BP station and we were given 3 hours to wander around and get some stuff done.  I wanted to jump onto the internet, and the best place was at the art museum, which was good as Lisa, Sean and Sarah wanted to visit anyways.  So we walked there, the guys paid there 1USD to get into the museum and Dave and I paid our 1USD for 45 minutes on the internet.  I told you everything seems to come in 1USD amounts!  The internet speed was the fastest I have had since getting onto the African continent.  There was an email from the soon to be ex-husband reminding me our 12 months and 1 day separation is coming up in 4 day’s time, and asking if I can get the paper work started from here for the divorce settlement to be done.  Since the internet was so fast here, I jumped onto the family law website and printed off the ‘divorce kit’ and the appropriate paper work.  I am lucky as we have a Barrister on tour aka David (so he can help with all the legal jargon) and I also have a JP aka Sean that will be able to witness my signature, so the process will not be as hard as I first expected.  Some things just fall into place when you least expect it!

After internet-ing, we went to a café (a proper one) and the boys ordered a coffee and some cake (which was massive) and then we started to make our way back to the truck.  We needed to stock up on some more alcohol, so we stopped at a bottle shop on the way back and I got 6 beers and a bottle of vodka for 10USD!  Not a bad buy I don’t think.  Zimbabwe has been going through a lot in the past few months and the country has only really opened its doors to tourists again in January this year.  Actually Intrepid was the first tour company to recommence its tours again back through Zimbabwe.  So with the financial status of the country in a bit of upheaval they have adopted the USD as their official currency and that is why everything is in USD. 

I now also say goodbye to my Kenyan sim card for my mobile phone.  It now won’t work in the rest of the African countries that I will be travelling to till South Africa.  In the meantime all the other countries sim cards are not reciprocated so I will need a new sim card pretty much each week now till the end of September.  Normally I wouldn’t worry too much, but it is the only contact I have with Shelly and the girls so to me it means a great deal.  So in saying that I had 15 minutes to buy a sim card before we had to be back at the truck.  I left the guys with my grog and said I would quickly see if I could find somewhere to buy one.  I was half way down the street thinking I feel safe enough walking around on my own when some-one came running up behind and had my bag half way off my shoulder for a bag grab when I turned and it was bloody Dave with a massive big Irish grin on his face.  Bloody bastard, my heart nearly jumped out it was beating a gazillion times a minute.  It was nice of him to come with me though, even if he did scare the pants off me.  The sim card search was fruitless but Dave needed some water, so we walked into a local supermarket and bought a 2L bottle.  So the chick rung it up and it came to 1.25USD.  So we handed over 2USD and she doesn’t give coin change, so we went and got a packet of biscuits which bought it up to 1.85USD, so we told her not to worry about the .15 but there is a box of lollies and lollie pops that sit on the counter, and this is how they give you the rest of your change.  So for .15c we got a lollipop AND a lollie.  It is hilarious!  My sim card problem was also solved, as George has leant me his Zim sim for the next 5 days, so I just ran up the road from the truck and purchased 5USD worth of credit from a vendor on the street.  So in the end I survived a fake bag snatch, printed my divorce papers, printed my Seychelles vouchers  and got my sim card so all in all it was a productive 3 hours.

So back to the campsite and our deliciously warm lodgings for the night.  We had a few hours to kill, so nothing like a few beers with some friends to help with that, the bar guy was able to plug in my IPod into his system, so we started a Zim playlist.  So then everyone was looking at my songs and have a great old kack as I do have some very random stuff on there including The Wiggles, a lot of 80’s and soundtrack stuff.  Oh yes they all had a good laugh, but some random songs were making the Zim cut.

Dinner was outside, must a real life experience thing and when we had finished dinner and did the flapping it felt like our fingers were going to drop off!  It was freezing out there and so so thankful we were going to be inside tonight.  I hope Lisa and I don’t go soft with this being our second night out of the tent!!  Yeah I doubt it; we still have over 30 days of camping to go, so we just made the most of a roof over our heads and a bed to lay our head for the night!  When everything had been done we retreaded back inside and all sat down while George did a talk about the African culture ranging from tribes to marriage.  It was super interesting and the 2 hours were used wisely with an open forum where we could ask any questions we wanted.  It truly is an exciting culture and something that you would not find anywhere else in the world.

I normally have my shower later in the evening, to avoid the rush and normally this is beer o’clock, normally with Jim and Sim, or Jimbob and Simbob, so I am more than happy to wait till the end of the night.  The upside of this is that the hot water generally has enough time to reheat and I get hot water, where the earlier showerers, it can be hit or miss with the hot.  Well I had an awesome HOT shower and after curling up in bed it hit me that I had a shower for the first time without my thongs on since starting the tour!!!  UGHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh – oh well I am assuming it won’t kill me?? 

Welcome to Zim.