15 – 17 August – Victoria Falls, ZIMBABWE

I apologise that my blog recently has contained no photographs.  Over the last two weeks the speed of the computers in the internet cafes I have used has dropped markedly and the price for their use has gone up in equal measure!  The result is that it is now taking up to 20 minutes to download just one photograph from my laptop into the blog which works out to be about £4.50 per photograph!  I therefore have given up the unequal struggle but hope things will improve as we move on.

The drive from Namibia to Zimbabwe on 15 August was uneventful and only took some 6 hours, including negotiating two border crossings. The section through Botswana took us through Chobe National Park and we saw a surprisingly large number of animals on the way.  The Namibian and Botswana border crossings were fairly slick but the one into Zimbabwe was slower, bureaucratic and inefficient.  This we soon found was the norm. The supermarkets in Namibia, we found, contained most of our needs.  Botswana sold just about everything and both were clean and hygienic.  But when we reached Zimbabwe, the Spar and TM supermarkets in Victoria Falls were both poorly equipped.  Thank goodness we took Lynne Taylor’s wise advice and stocked up with rations for the next two weeks in Botswana!  The same can be made for the people: we were never hassled in Namibia and Botswana but the touts in Vic Falls are now a dreadful nuisance. 

We arrived at the Vic Falls campsite in the late afternoon and found it also lagged behind those we had used in Namibia for comfort and cleanliness.  The hot water for showers and washing was lukewarm and most of the equipment was in a poor state of repair. Vic Falls town was the same: I had good memories of it from my time in Zimbabwe twenty years ago but it is now somewhat neglected and dirty and the lack of tourists suggests this is having and effect on the local economy.  We were told that tourists now tend to stay just over the border in Zambia or Botswana and are driven over for day trips to see the famous Victoria Falls - certainly, the hotels in Vic Falls seemed half empty and this is the height of the season!  We walked around the town the day after our arrival and then went to see the Falls.  The entrance fee is now USD30: I think we had paid less to see the whole of Etosha National Park in Namibia a fortnight earlier!  And the queue to get in was long as there is only one entrance desk.  I wonder if this noticeable decline will be reflected over the rest of Zimbabwe during our month long stay here.

It is peculiar to find that Zimbabwe now uses US dollars as it’s currency but it seems this has helped reduce the rampart inflation that was endemic here until two years ago.  Street traders now offer souvenir one million Zimbabwean dollar banknotes for sale to tourists for a few US dollars.

The campsite today (17 August) now has an invasion of baboon and vervet monkeys and we have to leave someone on guard lest they destroy our belongings and rip open the tents.  I can see that this has been an ongoing problem as the perimeter fence has electric wiring laid all around the top but I guess it no longer works for they now get in with ease.  There is however a camp dog in residence and, though old and stiff, he works hard (when not sleeping) to see them off with growls and shoulder fur standing on end - I note though that he is careful not to get too close!  Baboon incisors are as large as those of a leopard and would do fearful damage to an adversary if cornered.  In return for his services though, the old dog is fed by grateful campers so both parties benefit from this unusual relationship. But I see that a new tactic has been developed by the baboons which the old dog has yet to fathom.  Baboons are canny animals and have learnt, when they see the old dog on patrol, to mount lightening raids across the camp from the perimeter trees overlooking the fence.  In a single raid taking seconds they will race across the open ground, tipping up rubbish bins and grabbing tasty morsels as they sprint for the opposite fence and safety.  But we humans are learning too during our brief sojourn here.  We find if we stoop to pick up an imaginary rock as the baboons approach they retreat rapidly for safety.  I guess this game for survival has gone on for thousands of years.

This morning I picked up Mike Moody from Victoria Falls Airport some 12 miles out of town, avoiding the police speed traps as I drove.  Air Zimbabwe is apparently on strike so Mike’s journey to reach here had been somewhat convoluted and since leaving the UK, had involved some 5 plane journeys over the last few days!   For the next three days we will now be four strong (I fear the Landrover will groan with this extra weight and the additional food and water we need!) whilst we drive through Hwange National Park.  We will then return to Vic Falls on Saturday for a single night to drop off Tony Howgrave Graham (our doctor) for his return journey to the UK and the other three of us then will continue along the Zambezi Valley to Tashinga Camp in the Matusadona National Park.  Our visit to Matusadona will be a major highlight of the journey.  We (the trustees of our charity Conservation Zambezi, working in close harmony with Lynne Taylor and The Tashinga Initiative) have spent the last eighteen years trying to raise money to help preserve the unique biodiversity of this part of the Zambezi Valley - I will tell you more when I have completed my visit!