Botswana, Zimbabwe into Mozambique

Crossing the continent; Botswana, Zimbabwe into Mozambique

Botswana mostly consists of desert, but the part we visit in the North is wetland: the Okavango Delta (where roads sometimes change into rivers: see picture..).There is still tourism in Botswana, but it is deliberately not organised for the mass and you have to be completely self-sufficient of fuel, water and food. If you really want to see something of the country you have to drive a 4x4, or you’d have to pay a lot of money to be able to visit the interesting parts of thecountry.

The Okavango is a river which originates in Angola and turns into a delta in the North-East of Botswana. It eventually ends in the Kalahari desert – where it is totally absorbed by the sand.

As we learn from a South-African zebra-migration specialist (yes, they exist) in Chobe national park, the North of Botswana is one of the last real wild areas of Africa, and probably the world. The wetlands here are still intact and animals still have the possibility to migrate from dry to wet areas when the dry season starts. In contrary to Namibia for instance (Estosha) where the gamefences prevent the wildebeest and zebra’s to migrate, so they have to stay in one place for the dry season. Artificial waterholes help these animals survive. So no real wilderness anymore, but easier for tourists trying to “spot” animals. This same artificial principle you find in most ofthe wild parks of countries like Tanzania and Kenia.

After a lot of offroad (our car consumed 1liter for every 5 km) and an almost empty tank we arrived at Kasane, only 100 km away from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

After topping our fuel tank with cheap Botswana petrol we left a bit anxious for the border with Zimbabwe. Not necessary; in Africa there is a saying: “Who pays stays”, which is valid for every tourist crossing borders. Probably 75% of the money you pay at borders is the true price, though the other 25% consists of made-up fees and taxes (we had to pay some sort of road tax, a road permit and carbon tax).

In Zimbabwe it seems to be very hard to get fuel. Diesel is very scarce and even for petrol we had to drive past numerous fuelstations who ran out of everything. Diesel can only be acquired by having couponswhich are mostly bought by the government and travelagencies far ahead. Well, we never tried so maybe it is less difficult than it sounds, but we are glad to have petrol.

Most people know Zimbabwe (independent since 1980) from the numerous news stories over the past years. President Robert Mugabe controlling the country already for three decades after several dodgy elections; remember the name of Tsvangirai?, the recent (2008 ) land re-divisions, giving black Zimbabweans the right to knock on the door of any white man’s farm and take over his property, an overwhelming inflation causing the national currency to be eliminated (now the US dollar is the official way to pay)… For many tourists enough reasons to book another destination for their holidays… good for us; apart from the awkward heritage you notice everywhere,Zimbabwe has many great things to offer.

The Victoria Falls are magnificent: thanks for discovering mr. Livingstone... Although November is the driest time of the year, resulting inonly half of the falls filled with water, the volumes thunderingdown are anamazing sight. And sound.

Zimbabwe holds a lot of stories, for instance: in Victoria Fall we meet Bruce. Bruce tells us he and his family used to have a sugar cane farm near the city of Bulawayo. In 2008 a man called at their door to announcethat their farm is taken over by a Zimbabwean. This has happened to many white farmers in Zimbabwe. Bruce tells us he has seen (and still sees) fellow ex-farmers ruining their lives because they lost their farm, resulting in high depts and a lot of difficulty to start other business in Zimbabwe. Bruce managed to keep his head up by starting his own garage in Victoria Falls village.

In Bulawayo; the second city of Zimbabwe, it becomes clear to us that the Zimbabweans are good company; always open for a joke or smile (see pics).We meet several artists trying to make their living by expressing their beliefs, feelings or emotions in paintings, sculptures, etc. Unfortunately part of the exhibition was closed by the government (yep, censored: too critical; probably asking for something like democracy). We spent some time with two of the artists.

Then another beauty: Matopos; a rough area full of thousands of years old San rock paintings. People say is the most beautiful place in Zimbabwe. This is also why amongst others Cecil John Rhodes (former Rhodesia was called after his name) wished to be buried here.

Going east from Matopos lies another jewel of Zimbabwe: the oldest and largest man-made structure in Sub-Sahara Africa: Great Zimbabwe used to be a powerful city built around the year 1100 by Bantu people.

We finished our visit in Zimbabwe in the east: green mountains and a lot of rain, but also stunning views. We did a few beautiful hikes in three parts of this area: Bvumba, Nyanga (highest peak in Zimbabwe at about 2690 m) and Chimanimani where we walked for two days in the mountains and spent a night in a cave! Very nice!

Now we’re just starting off in Mozambique. The rainy season definitely started. Travelling from the Zimbabwean border to the coast of Mozambique brought us a lot of rain (but decent tarred roads, so no problems here yet). But fortunately, here at the coast there is a nice breeze, a lot of sun and time to do some scuba diving!