BOSMAN'S BUSH
TELEGRAPH - 21 APRIL 2000
Hi all
We have just
spent the most superb week at Victoria Falls.
I am happy to report that this week's telegraph is a lot less despondent
than the last. The falls themselves are absolutely spectacular and its
virtually impossible to describe just how magnificent they are. When the Lonely Planet describes the falls
as "one of the most memorable sights in the world" they are not far
wrong. The Zambezi River widens to 1.7
kilometers and then plunges 107 meters into the Zambezi Gorge. The force of the falling water is estimated
at around 545 million liters per minute and sends up clouds of spray up to 500
meters into the air. These statistics are a rather inept attempt on my part to
capture and explain the magnitude of the falls but I am afraid it is completely
inadequate in describing the beauty of the area. Exploring the many footpaths around the falls, one passes through
a dense rain forest and is virtually drenched in spray coming off the falls. Superb! The Zambezi is so full at the moment and it
is estimated to be rising almost three inches per day as all its tributaries
empty their contents into it. Our river
guide mentioned that he had, in all his years of guiding on the river, never
seen it this high so early in the year.
The whole
Vic Falls area is a Mecca for adrenaline junkies offering everything from bungi
jumping to river boarding. We had hoped
to be able to do a day of white water rafting but because the river was so full
and there had been a couple of drownings, all white water rafting had been
closed until further notice. We had to
settle for canoeing down the Zambezi - an adventure of the more soft-core
variety. We hit the river in inflatable
canoes and canoed about 40 kilometers downstream to a spot just above the falls
where we were pulled out. The canoeing
was pretty strenuous and we even had to contend with a few rapids (albeit
minute!). On top of this we had to be
vigilant not to offend the resident hippo and crocodile population. Nev and I seemed to have been issued the
only canoe in the group that had a puncture.
The canoe kept taking on water and we had to keep on stopping to bale it
out. We also kept having to have our
canoe pumped up mid river by the guide.
The whole trip was tons of fun and we returned to our campsite sunburned
and exhausted. It was only when we had
completed the trip that we were told that someone had been attacked by a hippo
while meandering down the Zambezi in an inflatable canoe. He did not have a lucky escape and lost a
leg poor bugger. Had I known that
before setting out on the trip I might have had some serious second thoughts -
I certainly would have paid more attention to hippo spotting!
Nev was
determined to do the Vic Falls bungi jump having done both Gouritz and
Bloukrans before. I, on the other hand,
was not that brave (or stupid) and was content with the adrenaline rush of
walking out onto the Vic Falls bridge between the Zim and Zambian borders and
hanging over the edge trying to photograph Nev doing his jumps. When we arrived at the jump site we
discovered that they were running a special of two jumps for the price of one
(which in itself made me nervous) so Nev was able to do two bungi jumps, one
forwards and one backwards (show off!).
Check out the bungi pics at the end of the mail.
After a hard
day of bungi jumping Nev treated me to tea at the oh so colonial Victoria Falls
hotel. The hotel is pure British
colonialism and I would imagine has not changed much in 100 years. It is absolutely stunning and high tea is
served on the Stanley terrace between three and five thirty in the
afternoon. Tea is served by the most
polite of waiters, kitted out in starched white waistcoats and comes complete
with cucumber sandwiches (with the crusts cut off), scones and sticky
buns. As we sipped on our Earl Grey we
surveyed the Zambezi Gorge, the Victoria Falls and watched the remainder of the
afternoon's bungi jumpers launching themselves from the bridge we decided that
life could definitely be worse. I self
indulgently inquired from the hotel reception as to the cost of a room hoping
that perhaps we could skip camping for a night. It was not to be however and the receptionist looked down her
nose at me and muttered "Its 375 dollars
madam...............US". We had to
settle for tea and return to our campsite that cost us the equivalent of 7 US
dollars per night!
On our way
back to our campsite we were pulled off the road by the Zimbabwe traffic
police. While we were trying to figure
out what was going on police cars and motorbikes came screeching by, sirens
blaring, followed by a motorcade of black Mercedes Benzes, the biggest of which
had the ostentatious number plate "Zim 1". As it flashed by be caught a glimpse of El Presidente - the one
and only Mr Mugabe. The motorcade was
followed by jeeps filled with military and riot police. We had not read any newspapers and so were
quite unaware of the SADC summit that is taking place in Vic Falls this
weekend. Being obsessively curious I
made Nev take me up to the Elephant Hills hotel, in the direction of which the
posse was headed, so that I could see whether (in true tabloid style) I could
catch a glimpse of any other dignitaries.
When we arrived at the hotel the place was swarming with journalists,
army generals and politicians – none of whom I recognized - and I did not catch
sight of the president again. Pity - I
would have liked to have asked him whether it was safe to travel through his
country. We had a highly expensive gin
and tonic while I tried to suss out information from our rather dozy
waiter. All I got was that Mr Mugabe
was looking tired - I'll bet - being public enemy number one must really take
it out of one! The highlight of the
visit was witnessing one of Mugabe's bodyguards switching the number plates on
"Zim 1" and replacing them with ordinary Zimbabwean number plates.
We have been
amazed that every single person that we have spoken to in Zimbabwe, whether
white or black, and from all walks of life seem to be anti Mugabe and
ZANU-PF. There seems to be enormous
support for the MDC and almost complete unanimity that Mugabe will lose the
upcoming elections. Everyone is tired
of the corruption and poor state of the Zimbabwean economy and even the most
reactionary seem to feel that Mugabe has outlived his usefulness. With the overwhelming swell of public
opinion against Mugabe and the fact that he had shown up in Vic Falls we
decided it was probably time for us to high tail it out of there. So we are back on the road again and on our
way back to Pretoria. The trial run is over - and we have survived - just! We are reluctant to go back to Pretoria as
we have traveled almost 2000 kilometers north and Cairo is only another 5000
away. It seems like back tracking. When
we look at our logbook we see that we have traveled almost 10 000 kilometers in
total zigzagging across the three countries that we have visited. However, that said, our Land Rover does need
work and we do need to dump some of the kit that we have been schlepping around
with us and haven't used. I too need
some work - a haircut, some highlights and perhaps a leg wax. We will just have
to be careful that we don't lose impetus for the rest of the trip.
Hope you are
all well.
Lots of love
Penny
