|
Tuesday, October 10th, Lokathula Lodge, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Well, what can we say except, "Told you so"....... This is a truly fantastic place to vacation in.
The border at Kazungula was, once again, a simple breeze. Leaving Botswana was simple, almost just filling out our exit details form and saying goodbye. Zim was even easier - not even a form to fill in and we are stamped through for 3 months. We did need to get third party insurance - $US10.00 for 2 months. Vic Falls is only 70Km from the border, we see nothing on the road as we pass through the Zambezi game park, and it's a good road so we are wandering around looking for our nights resting place - (our time share starts tomorrow), by 12:00. There are lots of people simply hanging out on the main street - we are not sure what this means yet. At the main garage, there is Diesel and no one is queuing anywhere. We try the first place we see for a brief overnighter - a fairly basic camping and overland spot with some basic 4 bed rooms for $US30.00. It's not brilliant, but it's a place to stay. The place is well run, clean, tidy and appears to be pretty full. There is a foreign exchange desk, tour operators and a fridge with pops in it. We move in and shower & change. Back at the office, there is a sunset cruise, including drinks and snacks on the Zambezi for 2 hours at $US15.00 each, kids half price. We book up for it. In town, there appear to be quite a few tourists about, and at least as many people on the streets trying to convince them to come on one or more of their expeditions. As we have had nothing except pops since last evening, we check out a local restaurant. These prices are silly! The total meal for the 4 of us is about US$8.00. The recent 40% devaluation certainly works in our favour, plus everyone is giving 10 - 12% more on top of that without any commission. As ever - do not play with the street changers; the semi official exchangers who have tiny booths on the street, All have a security guard at the window and are honest and will not screw you. Everyone here smiles, is very friendly and we all have zero feelings of any animosity. After the indifference of Botswana, the reservations of Namibia, and the out and out paranoia of everything that moves in SA, this is an incredibly warm, wonderful feeling. The Falls beckons us, but we'll wait a day or two for that adventure, so we return and do the sunset cruise. The evening cruise is real enough, exactly what was advertised in fact. The agent at the lodge takes us in his car to the banks of the Zambezi. The captain is only 26, but is extremely professional and very competent. I chat with him about the last time I was in Zim - he was only 4 then. We are the only four on board, the others are late. At exactly 4:30, we cast off to head downstream where there are about 15 - 20 elephant crossing the Zambezi river from Zambia to the Zim side. Our captain wants to get there before they leave, so we head out without the others. When we arrive at the crossing point, he thinks they are mating - apparently this is de rigueur for elephants.
Snacks in town - pizza's for the kids, and some really good "Zambezi" grill for me. Even cheaper than lunch. This place gets my vote! The accommodation was less then wonderful, but we survived, and come morning, we are up early, and have checked into Lokathulu Lodge by 9:00AM - quite a record for a time share anywhere in the world! The manager tells us to drive everywhere due to the wild animals roaming around, even in the immediate area. We have a very large 3 bedroom two story luxury house with huge canvas "windows" which are the entire front wall of the first floor which opens onto the reserve. Once again it is totally serviced with beds made and kitchen cleaned every day, dontcha just love Africa? - we did invite you folks, where are you? This place is truly magnificent - probably the best time share yet. It is totally inside the boundaries of a fenceless game reserve, and the signs heading to the lodge have "Beware of Elephants" in several places. The chalet is brilliantly private - in fact we have very little idea that any other rondavels are near. We are in number 23, they go up to 30, and the nearest inhabited one is currently #15. Almost our own game park. As in time shares elsewhere in Africa, this is totally serviced. Every thing re organised, made washed and put away where we can easily find all the stuff to make dirty again. Now THIS is Africa at it's very best. There is a famous restaurant attached to the lodge (The Boma), and a hotel 0.75 Km around the gravel road. The manager at the check in tells us we get a 30% discount at both places. By 9:20, we are having a slap up buffet breakfast overlooking a fairly lively water hole down in the valley: the buffalo from last night have migrated here for breakfast. Ours, bye the way, for the four of us for $US12.00......... and this is top of the line luxury hotel we are talking here. I'm really beginning to like Zimbabwe! As we have kitchen, fridge etc, we head off to town to try the local supermarket fare. Lots of aisles, but not much selection. Fruit & veg are somewhat lacking - must be the heat, and the dairy leaves some things to be desired. No scanning equipment here, still, the tills do not have the chicken wire robbery diffuser we came across every where else; maybe this is a more law abiding society. We stock up with various stuff and stack the stuff in the lodge for later investigation. Get a national newspaper. Gordon Bennet - this is real news! There is nothing sycophantic about this lot! They are all tearing into Mugabe with real enthusiasm, plus, everything I read, even letters to the editor, are all not only cogent, but well argued and based in Law and facts. Diesel is about the same price as everywhere else we've been - about what it was in Canada before we left - $C0.70/ litre, probably cheaper than N. America now! There are still no queues for fuel. Gold! Its bloody hot here, so we retire to the pool. Attempts at school work are pretty much no more than that. Dinner at the Boma, it is in the top 3 restaurants in Zim, and once again, there are Mopani worms on the menu, along with Crocodile tail salad, smoked Buffalo, Kudu and Warthog steaks, Ostrich kebabs, and Impala Bourguignon. I try them all, and so do the kids. The restaurant gives you a certificate if you eat (and keep) a Mopani worm - we all get one except for the missus who is probably avoiding them due to some religious issue.. This place does the real total dining experience: Chibuku (a really sour poor mans beer) to start, Ndebele dancing and singing every half hour, witch doctor, fortune and story tellers wander around to every table. An African twist on the Gypsy violinist I guess. We have a ball and are all totally pigged (warthogged?) out and over indulged by the time we leave.
During the night I wake up to scrunching sounds; its two bloody great bull elephants, literally eating the trees just outside our bedroom window! We head out of the door, one of them is only 5 metres away from our door. We can actually smell the animals we are so close. Photo ops - the video is the only one accepting this amount of moonlight. About 40 metres away, we see a large Cape Buffalo, within seconds it smells the elephants, and leaps away into the night. The bulls amble around destroying whatever they feel like eating, and we return to bed. During the day, we practice our defences, I'm the one with the stick.... In the bar, there is a satellite based TV, CNN and BBC are on, plus sport, US sitcoms, movie channels etc. CNN seems to be the only channel with advertising. After over 3 months, actual live news is a strange concept. The Middle East, Nobel Peace Prize and other esoteria. Gets a quick viewing. Not sure if I want to know, but it's comforting in a way to see that our host country is not currently making the headlines.
We talk to a few of the other residents, mainly white Zims, mostly farmers, mostly phlegmatic and resigned to the current political gyrations. Most are old enough to have fought in the last (pre independence) war, on the wrong side. There are not many young whites around, but this is a weeks vacation for everyone here. Initially, I'm amazed by the black populations perception of the sad state of the state. To a man/ person, they are very unhappy, and some want Ian Smith (the white prime minister who led the war against Mugabe in 76 - 82) to come back to run the country. And these folks are not joking! This area is however Matabele, the African tribe who does not have the political power in Zim. This is also exclusively a tourist paradise, and tourism is waaaaaaay down. We would certainly never get this time share at 3 days notice under "normal" pre violence circumstances. I'm constantly amazed at how friendly, articulate, educated, immaculately clean and neatly pressed everyone is here. Even the beggars read the newspapers and can discourse very well (this is a debater & public speaker talking here!) and extremely politely (they would make great Canadians), especially with regard to the current government. The overall effect is that the Zimbabweans, do not deserve Mugabe and all this destabilising crap. There appears to be no safety issues here. We (and many other tourists) quite happily wander around, well anywhere after dark, with no worries, paranoia, or concerns for our safety. The only exception to this is when I change a large pile of money, and have to get back to the van with a pocket bulging with notes, but there is never any problem, period.
However, more pool, more food, more lounging watching the game run in front of our lounge - for us very few up market tourists, this is simply vacation heaven: what a life! Distance travelled this entry: 150 Km. Distance moved on trip this entry: 75 Km |
Zim is still a wonderful place, spectacular areas, masses of wildlife, lovely people (if you avoid being ripped off by the street
currency exchangers - I did...avoid it that is), a great tourist infrastructure (without many tourists), a really cheap dollar and plenty of
cool places to spend it.
The elephants leave up the Zim banks, and the boat returns for the remaining three adults and two babies and our snacks. The trip
now becomes a gentle meander between the banks of the Zim and Zambian shores. The sun lowers, we 
As our chalet is a few hundred metres from this place, we have walked here (in daylight), now it's time to go home. We walk 100
metres..... Not so fast! What is that shadow just ahead of us? It's a Cape Buffalo; this is not an animal you would like to meet
anywhere except from some secure position. Out on the manicured lawns, it is only 20 metres away, is NOT that secure location or
where we'd like to be. However, the security guys are well ahead of this situation, as soon as they saw us leave, they were in their van
and within the 15 seconds we have taken to walk here, they had located us. We are escorted to our door. They radio back to HQ that
we are safely deposited. VERY impressive.
The week passes by, this really is a vacation station! The supermarket supplies all the basics, even some locally produced red and
white wines are on the shelves, hmmm, taste as good as mine back in TO. At $C4.00 a bottle this is pretty acceptable. We 
The strange thing about .the Zim money, is that it is based around a unit of money that has eroded incredibly over the past 5 years.
Twenty years ago $Z1.00 was worth $US1.50, now, its only worth $US0.02, and less on the open market, consequently, we have to
measure our currency needs in "inches" or kilo's of $ZIM100 (about C2.50) notes - that's as big as it gets here. The other side of
course, is that 4 can eat a good lunch for $ZIM400.
