End of Kumuka trip

Hello all from Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, i've decided, is a good country to go to if you feel like turning mildly insane. hehe na just kidding. its just, if i could use one word to describe it, that word would be SLOW. everything is slow here. but its all good. a good cheap place to stop inbetween activities. i've finished with the tour group now which is kind of bitter sweet. on the one hand its good to be able to do what you feel like doing, rather than what someones organised for you... on the other I met some really cool people on this trip that i will really miss.

yesterday i had a walk around the falls, it was really cool. really beautiful. apparently its not the wet season so there's not much water, but its kind of good cos it means you don't get completely drenched (or any more so than you do just from standing opposite the main falls) and you get to walk right to the edge of what is called 'danger point' and you can do it without slipping and falling over cos its not so wet from the spray.

some of you know i saw niagara falls last year; my comments? well, niagara is more about sheer volume. its main part is just one clean sheet of water and its because its so immense is why its so awesome. victoria falls is spectacular in a different way. its just really beautiful. more beautiful than niagara i would say. theres one look out point where you can stand on a block and look down into the main falls - all you can see is steam and its just really cool. its actually quite pleasant walking around the falls. first of all, its more humid here in zimbabwe than its been anywhere else, which is the kind of heat i'm used to since i'm from the tropics. second the spray is really quite cool when you're walking around they have this lovely dense jungle type atmosphere along the top of the falls.

So this morning i went on a horse ride which was nice. you get a lot closer to the animals than you would in a vehicle, and because they can smell and see mostly horse, they don't act skittish or weird, they just behave like they usually would which is kind of cool. we saw a lot of new animals we haven't seen yet on the trip - waterbuck, bushbuck(?), bigger monitors, uh what else, i think the rest we had seen; impala, warthogs, etc. but it was good, we went out to a point sort of closer to the upper part of the falls/river and that was nice. we also got to get off the horse and walk out to the edge of the falls and stand at the top of them. that was pretty awesome.

what else have i done here... well yesterday i went and walked around town.

i meant to have a rest in the afternoon but i got bored at the backpackers so iwent walking. i don't know why but it seems like every local has two main things on their agenda; one, to sell something to you and two, to marry you. its really quite funny. if they figure out you;re not going to buy anything, their next question is, what about an african boyfriend? sometimes i think it would be funny to see their reaction if we said 'ok'. haha. but the markets was interesting, you get hassled alot but i got someone to show me how they did the carvings and that was pretty interesting to see. it's been interesting talking to the locals, i had a chat with a girl working in one of the shops back in kasane for a good half hour and she told me about her family and stuff and asked where i was from. i also happened to meet the guy that runs the backpackers i'm at now, who is zimbabwean but has a really strong english accent. he sounds like a lot of the boys from school. apparently hes lived in london on and off for the past eight years or something. but anyway it was good to chat to him because hes told me that if he hears of any tour trucks (like the one i just hopped off) heading in the direction i want to go (Maun), then he'd let me know cos it'd be cheaper than what's currently my most feasible option which is getting an expensive transfer to the kosinsomethingoranother border and then taxi to kasane, then bus to nata, then bus to maun. anyhow. i have heaps of time so i'll see what comes up.

i haven't been over to zambia yet but i might go for a day some time when everyone has left.

a few people are going on to nairobi on a tour but they're here til monday so i'm sort of trying to savour the time i have with them before i go! trying to, i'm really tired i think cos i walked around a lot in the sun yesterday and the day before. but anyway. so maybe zambia for a day, idon't know yet, apparently you can get a day visa for US$10 which isn't too bad. i've got a tight budget over here though. speaking of which, the hardest thing i've found about being in zimbabwe is money. you can't get it out of atms and banks because the official exchange rate is completely crap compared to the unofficial one (which everyone goes by, it'd be stupid if you didn't). its a huge difference. i changed my money to local zim dollars at US$1 to Z$1500, and at hotels and stuff its US$1 to Z$250 which is an absolutely huge difference.

there's a little bit to do here although u have to be careful not to throw all your money into adrenaline activities. i only did 2 (which i'll tell u about later) but yeah, the main reason i think i've deicded to stay here is i think it'd be nice to have a bit of a rest and just chill for a while, also its much cheaper for me to stay here than it is to stay in Maun in botswana (where i meet earthwatch) and theres a little bit more to do. i keep walking past an aquarium that looks alright. i must have seen more aquariums than anyone else on this planet but i've heard this one has good freshwater exhibits...

anyhow what was the other thing.. o yea my two activities; i did the lion walk (sorry mum) and the horse ride which i already told you about. the lion walk was really, really cool. when else would you get to go for a walk with a lion (like you would with a dog)?? it was just so cool to be around them. LIONS! the two girls were about 12months and the boy (called Amanzi) was abuot 10 and he was just adorable. they were pretty big. their paws were just massive but it was nice because you could touch them and everything, and walk behind them holding onto their tail. it was really nice. a few of us gave them our email addresses so they could contact us about volunteer information. heh heh.

the last thing i wanted to talk about with regards to zimbabwe so far is the backpacker place i'm staying at... everyone is complaining hahaha but its really not too bad. there's been worse, i dont think its actually too bad. there's a pool, although i think you'd have to be pretty game to swim in it since its bright green. but the main thing is none of the doors lock (but its fine because there's lockers), its a dodgy walk back if you go into town for dinner and have to walk back in the darkness - fine in a group but fernando has already told me not to walk home at night when i'm here at night (which i wasn't planning on... i was planning on being a night hermit and staying inside the gates) and probably the most intruiging thing is that our room is right behind the bar, which means it is noisy as all hell at night. i've been fine, i just fall asleep straight away, i don't know if its because i've stayed at college and therefore had ample training re falling asleep with noise. but its really funny the first night we went to brush our teeth and it was like brushing your teeth at a pub, really funny actually! i've been told to move to another place but i dont know if i can be bothered really, i like the people who work at the place and i haven't had trouble sleeping yet so i dont know if i can be bothered carrying my bags somewhere else. the most annoying thing actually was that last night there was a mosquito that kept biting me but i dont think anyone could have done anything about that.

what else, oh we got our trip tshirts made which turned out cool. i got to do the main designing (i can see those of you in australia who know me fairly well rolling ur eyes seeing its maybe the 5th tshirt i've made in the past year... haha, sorry!) but everybody else had input too and the tshirt guy suggested putting flags on the sleeve which really made it look nice.

k well i think thats all i have to report about zimbabwe so far, its a beautiful country, as soon as we crossed the border it got greener and slightly more hilly and the trees in the distance were sort of a bluey green. its nice. nice looking country. i'm going to see if i had anything to say about my trip before i got to zimbabwe since this is the first time i haven't been frantically using the internet in a rush!! other than that some time in the next few days im going to burn my pics on cd, hopefully i'll be able to put some on the internet, but no promises. i have a few on facebook that i put up in swakopmund i think most of you on facebook have seen them though. ok, ciao for now