The last few weeks have just flown by in a whirlwind of family and fun. We left Livingston for a bit of a road trip through Zimbabwe. We stayed in national parks and our first stop was an area called the Matopos, which is a beautiful place containing huge rock formations.
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| Pete describing something big...maybe the rocks? |
Just a note about the weather...it was cold and wet! Just like a Vancouver winter, but colder and without central heating. I never thought that I would have to wear my toque in Africa, but sure enough I did along with almost all of my clothing!
We went on a game drive one afternoon and came across a giraffe, literally next to the road and just a few feet from our car. Let me tell you, we were just as surprised as the giraffe and after a moment of shock and awe, the giraffe sprinted away. We did follow it into the bush for a bit, but couldn't get close enough for a picture.
From the Matopos, we made out way to the Great Zimbabwean ruins. We lucked out and managed to score a day of sunshine to explore the ruins. The ruins are really old, dating somewhere between the 12th and 15th century, and are pretty remarkable to look at.
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| Back in the olden days, rocks would be dropped from above if you didn't answer the questions correctly. |
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| Jake, plotting his attack! |
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| What goes up, must come down |
We had a fantastic guide who was knowledgeable and very funny, cracking jokes left-right and center. Due to his constant smile, I was a bit surprised when he shared his life story. His dad was part of the opposing party in Zimbabwe which isn't the safest party to belong to. At some point in time, some guys came up to his family house and locked up his father, mother and eldest brother. The house was set on fire and his family perished inside. After escaping to South Africa for a time, our guide came back to Zim and looks after his younger siblings on a very small salary. He has a degree in anthropology, but isn't able to find work in his field. After completing a two year course in tourism he is able to work at the ruins. As there are more guides to visitors, he gets in a tour about once a week. Despite all of his hardships and all that he has seen and experienced, he is such an optimistic and happy guy. It's people like this that are true heroes and they really put things into perspective.
After a week of road tripping, we made our way to lake Kariba to spend a week on a sailboat. The weather was wonderful and we were able to fully relax and settle into the sailing life.
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| Living the life |
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| Just to prove that we did sail :) |
The first night on the boat, there were hippos close by. The second night, there were elephants. The third night crocodiles (mind you, the crocs were probably around the first and second nights as well).
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| Waterbuck with Hippo in the front |
To take a bath, you would let down the net in the back and then sort of jump into the net to get wet, come back out to soap up and then back in to rinse off. Now, rumor has it that Lake Kariba is full of crocodiles and I was pretty scared of jumping into this flimsy net. After seeing everyone else go in, I did manage to get in there to take the quickest baths ever! I should explain our reasoning for bathing in crocodile infested waters. We would only bath in the middle of the lake, far away from any islands. For right or wrong, we figured that if a croc was making a crossing they would be pretty tired out and not want to attack. I suppose the other side of the argument, would be that they would be deathly hungry and looking for anything to eat...but lets stick to the first assumption as it's not as scary.
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| Dan, taking a bath |
To sleep at night, you pretty much rig up a mosquito net to cover the boat and then sleep on the deck under the net. We were doing this while the full moon was happening and it was magical. The only scary part was having to go to the bathroom at night wondering about the crocs. Luckily, no one stumbled upon one at night. I must have had my croc blinders on as I didn't really see any at all, despite other people on the boats seeing them.
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| Stunning sunsets |
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| Beautiful sunrise |
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| Almost all of the crew (Missing Mary, who for some reason is out of the picture...Sorry Mary!) |
After spending a wonderful week relaxing on the lake, we made our way back to Harare just for the night before flying into Durban for Kerry (Pete's cousin) and Lido's wedding. It was my first time to Durban and it was great to be so close to the ocean again. The wedding took place in the Midlands, which is a really pretty area just an hour or two outside of Durban. Pete and I haven't gotten dressed up in a very long time. After a haircut (for Pete) and some frantic dress shopping for me, we cleaned up enough to look presentable.
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| The lovely couple |
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| The cousins |
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| The three Rea boys |
We are now back in Harare spending some time with Pete's mom (Sherrie), sister (Sonya) and super cute niece (Nazya).
We are here in Zim for the next little bit and can't wait for Pete's younger sister (Arminda) and her son Timothe to arrive from Reunion as well as Pete's grandmother (Mary) to arrive from Canada. We wish them all safe travels!
