Once again, sorry to repeat myself, but we are back home. This time to a favourite time share in Vic Falls.

Peter and Maureen arrived last Sunday, (Dr. Goldthorpe I presume?), and we have more or less completed our mandatory adrenaline and fattening activities.

We sadly departed Masuma Dam but not before we feed diesel to the water pump and watch as the daily practice repeats itself. This pump is restricted to 20 Litres per day, about 10 - 14 hours due to the severe foreign exchange shortage. It seems that companies are now sponsoring water holes, but a drum of 210 litres of diesel is still very difficult to get here, even on the black market. Watch the news in the fall to see how this shortage pans out folks.

We finally depart and promise Abiot we will return with our friends in August.

I try to lay another ghost to rest by heading off via Robins Camp again. While doing the same trip last time in 2000, this was where we got a massive hole in our tyres. It takes about 2 hours to do 45Km. When we arrive, they ask us very nicely if we are staying, sadly I tell them no.

"We have only had three groups stay here in the last month" I'm told. As ever, we are met with smiles, understanding and dignity. These people deserve far far more than they are getting, not just from their government, but also our governments and tourists.

We are now trying to get within cell phone range to ask Peter & Maureen to bring out some extra film for us - I screwed up our requirements, not allowing for massive photographing in Hwange. We are now pretty low after Hwange. So the morning and up to 3:30PM, is spend in a long battle with sharp point rocks, corrug g g g g g g g g g g g ations and elephants and the time. We get within hailing distance, but I screw up the international dialling code, and we miss their departure time (as I thought, actually it was 12 hours later, but I doubly screwed up here!). Another ghost of flat tyres on dirt roads pops off as we reach tar after about 6 hours gyrating over the cobbles. The kids seem to be used to this kind of travelling.

Arriving at Vic Falls, and once again, we see no riots, no blood on the streets no soldier at every corner. Everything much the same except there appear to be far more overlanders than last time.

Being an old hand at Vic Falls locations, it's off to the freezer store for steaks, bacon, boerewors, chicken, fish etc etc. Enough of this roughing it business. Next its down the road for fresh fruit, veg bread and a visit to the "supermarket" (no one in North America would recognise it as anything more than a poorly stocked 7 - 11). The supermarket still has a pile of stuff, not exactly Loblaws, but we have adjusted to all the shortages. I see salt and instinctively grab two. This is very unusual. Forget sugar or flour buddy. Salad probably costs more than all the other stuff: feta cheese, olives (really good ones) and dressing taking about 35% of the total bag of loot. After the wilds of the game parks, this is really a treasure chest of grub.

We still have huge bundles of local cash, but only manage to get through a small portion of it - about 2 inches of the biggest denomination.

Checking the local action, it appears that the "Adrenaline Capital" of Africa still has all the goodies, plus more. Ultra lights and Abseiling are now on offer. Three years ago it was $90 for white water rafting, now it's $125 for THREE adventures. People still desperate here, and we are immediately surrounded by hopeful agents trying to sell their packages and make enough to live off of for 3 months. Thats all it takes. We buy two national papers, one to see the news, the other to see if our advert has been correctly spelled and the email address is correct. It's all fine, now to see if there is any response. The other paper has a front page headline "Crowds Tear Gassed Waiting for Cash" It appears that there are no bank note in Zim. People waiting to withdraw cash can only get a maximum of $ZIM5000, this in $ZIM 50's and 20's. In converted cash, this is about $CAN3.00. Apparently, these folks were gassed because there was no longer even this amount to give out, and so the police were obviously forced to tear gas them.

We see the local version here. As it's Friday, people are queuing up outside any financial institute that serves cash. Today the limit is $ZIM5000 - about $US2.00 - this maybe enough for a few days of food, then another queue. They all wait patiently in line, maybe 30 - 50 per back/ building society.

Lokathula looks as great as ever. Sans Elephant. Now there is an electric fence around the lodge to dissuade the elephants from entering. Being watered daily, they love the place, treat it as a restaurant and destroy it by the hour. Now there are none inside the lodge area. There are still however, the ubiquitous warthogs running around everywhere, working hard at mowing the lawn. It's wonderfully green here. We slip back into colonial mode.

First its showers all round, then Gin & Tonics as the sun goes down. Braiing our huge stock of great grub, glorious starlight dining experience complete with the brilliant Milky Way in all it's glory (have I mentioned this before?), as Africa continues to enthral us.

Saturday, and its to the Vic Falls Safari Lodge right next to us for a massive breakfast. We sit overlooking the dam about 100 metres away.

I take the "Highland Special" breakfast. Supposedly including (real?) Salmon. Well maybe, but it could also be an extremely thin piece of smoked Lowland Catfish. This is Africa, relax. I freak out at Aiden when he rejects his as having "yokes are too hard". I think it has something to do with the cost of his breakfast being a fair percentage of the populations monthly income.

The bill is about $US15.00 - hey this is a very classy place remember! I ask the waiter if we can photo him with the cash pay for it. "Hope you don't mind" I ask him. "Happens all the time" he tells us.

In town, we check out a few things. I need a CD for all my pix as a back up, see what prices are on the street for our adventures. Another visit to the supermarket: Wow! MILK! I take 10 bags before everyone sees them. All prices about a quarter of local Canadian, except for imported goods which are about the same as we would pay back home. The Boma, the local restaurant in the Lokathula grounds beckons us and we pig out on all manner of exotic game. Kudu, Impala, Warthog - many times, Crocodile, Ostrich, Buffalo Streaks, Eland Stew, plus for the timid, straight sirloin steaks. This place is supposed to be one of the top 5 restaurants in Southern Africa, it's certainly very good food with a better than adequate floor show, and is close to packed. As the cost per person is $ZIM25,000 (maybe twice the average monthly salary), this is quite possible. Looks like both tourists and locals, so at least someone in Vic Falls has some cash.

We try and walk back to our lodge, but security insists on driving us the 100 metres just in case something wild, animal or human gives us any problems.

Sunday, and it's time for the arrival of the Swansea contingent. Peter & Maureen are due to arrive, so I meet them at the airport about 11:30. The one and only thing Maureen demanded from me this tyrip, was that I was here to meet them..... Mission accomplished! They look surprisingly well rested after their 2 night flights from Toronto. Seems that Air Zimbabwe bumped them up to first class from London to Harare, so they are feeling no pain.

We have an easing into the African adventure on the way from the airport. All old colonial hat for me, but up front and fresh experiences for these folk. They are not jet lagged, so once everyone is settled into their rooms, unpacked and sort of caught up, its into the pool - warmest yet in Africa - now up to "refreshing". Once we have a few Malawi Shandies and warthog sandwiches (truly great!) in our hands, everyone relaxes in the afternoon sun for a few hours. There is still a pile of day left, so we all squeeze into the cruiser and head out to the crocodile farm about 5Km away.

It's good to get a recap on how to avoid being eaten by these snapping and biting machines (punch their snout, gauge their eyes, or if your arm is in their mouth (!!!?), pull the flap that keeps water from going down their throat - preferably before you do). The guy giving the tour certainly knows what he is talking about. These folk have not changed much in the past 200 million years, and the demonstration with their feeding of elephant meat is certainly enough to make sure we do not tangle with them.

Back at the lodge, and we are braaing out the back. I get a call from the office to say that the contact we were given via Eleanora in Toronto is here. Pater & Maureen have brought a pile of stuff over for him. We meet him and his friend, and he tells us he will find "good prices" for what we are after. I ask him to call us with the price, but he comes back in the middle of dinner, this time with 2 friends, and I assume, waits for us to give him the cash for the deals he has worked out. I do not buy this and tell him we will check it all out tomorrow.

Monday, Organising Day!

Mo & I take about 2 hours phoning around Zim South Africa and Zambia, booking and checking our next 3 weeks. We get just about all of it fixed up except for our Zambian booking. We save the $US30.00 per person visa fee if we book a hotel and come in on a "manifest". We need to email our details, but my site has been down all weekend (and continues to be on/ off for weeks - ed).

Apart from a few details, its all fixed or at least delegated and ready to go.

Now it's time for the falls , lots of rolls of film, video and digital shots, ad neasuem. Group shots, single shots. Mosi Oa Tunya roars and thunders complete with double rainbows. Quite an awesome sight. It's over a kilometre long at this time of the year, and thats just the Zim side. There's even more over there in Zambia. I call Jimmy, my mechanical dude who cannot make it out here, even though it was his dream so he can at least hear the falls that he longed to get to. Maybe next time Jimmy!

Finally we have done our bit for tourism, and head back into town to fix up our weeks activities.

The first guy I meet on the street gives me a better deal than our contact last night. Hmmmm. Not sure about this. After a bit of soul searching, we book up with the new agent, and we are set for the week: Cultural; village tour, fun: Elephant ride; Adreneline: White Water Rafting, fun stuff: early morning horse ride in a game park, followed by a sunset booze cruise on the upper Zambezi.

Its "Happy Hour" at the Lokathula tonight, we meet a few people, but hardly anyone shows up. Talking to one of the managers there - he's an N'debele, he tells us that he is emigrating to South Africa. Seems to be a bit of a littany here. We met another (white) Zim guy who is in town to say goodbye. Another one who has been harassed into quiting the country. This is the 3^rd one we have met so far. Listening to their stories, you wonder how they have lasted this long.

Back to our travels, the cultural village turns out to be highly recommendable. As we sits outside his hut, the chief Melusi, takes us through the gamut of village life through the ages, not some boring history lesson, but a real incite into Africa and how it worked, and still works in the rural areas and also how government and politicians fit into the traditional mix. His animal name is Mpisi: Hyena and we understand how Hyena's, are the animal kingdoms cleaners, and this is why he is a conservationist.

He has had no formal education, but is certainly an intellectual. After nearly 2 hours of his stories and details, we do a village tour, ending with a fantastic traditional lunch. Peter get an instant taste for Chibuku, the African Maize beer. You can actually stay here at a hut if you wish to experience traditional village life - the tourist hut has glass windows though: to book try PO Box CT408, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Fuel, being the problem that it is, I grab some wherever I can find a reliable (ie non watered down) source. This lot should see me through to Zambia.

An elephant ride turns out to be fairly tame, really just a tourist past time. There have an armed guide out front to direct us, and we travel at about 3 Km per hour over well worn trails. The professional video dude who accompanies us and make a quite forgettable video (actually it's very good, but not really for us), takes a great Christmas card shot - coming in a Christmas card to you soon. Riding an elephant like a horse, leaves us a little bow legged after 2 hours in the saddle. I spice up the ride by calling a friend in Toronto on the cell phone. "Hi, I'm calling from the top of an elephant near Vic Falls"........

After our ride, our guide simply launches, totally unrequested, into an incredible condemnation of the government and all its works. No doubt about it, everyone detests what is happening here, and surprise, foreigners are not being blamed, much as the communications minister would like everyone to believe. This guy is a Shona, the government is basically his tribe. Something will have to change here soon.

Wednesday for white water blasting - again for Aiden & I. The water is very high, so we start rafting at Rapid #10, rather than 5 last time. No more easy riding for us - this time we do the full rowing exercise. It's bloody hard work, and we all get tipped out at Terminator II. Funny, Maureen & I are at the front for this one, and as we go into the final hydraulic, I scream "we are going over!", and we did. We mostly all hang onto the raft (short swimmer), and get in ready for our next heart pumping episode. Our guide, Khazi, tells us we are doing just great. Well he would have to wouldn't he, but we are all alive, with only a few bruises, so he's probably right

We are supposed to be doing the rafting and river boarding, but they do not bring all the equipment. So, by the time we reach rapid #23, we are cocky enough to go "long swimmer" and Aiden, Kayla & I simply jump into the rapid and bob down the river. Gordon bennet it was rough in there, but I was very proud that the 3 that went include my two kids. Kind of twist on the baccalaureate concept I suppose.

Kayla, Ilge & I are up early for our horse ride in the game park. Peter & Maureen actually see us riding in the park as they pig out at the Safari Lodge breakfast. Kayla & I start with a mad hack down a dirt path - scares the shit out of me. Kayla tells me the horses are very badly schooled. What ever, thats it for galloping!

You get incredibly close to animal on horseback, probably because their scent far outweighs our. Three metres away from some animals you would not usually get close to. The highlight was when we head down to the river. It's truly beautiful here in the mornings. Elephant tear up the grasses across the water. Ahhh. What a life! !

I get my CD ROM copied expertly by Nadir (try 091 312823 oe 011 208 376 if you need similar), fix up my cooking gas, find gas with Peter for our Hwange trek, and generally get everything organised to depart.

Our final swansong is the riverboat sunset booze cruize. We did it last time, so it's a bit hackneyed for us old timers, but no trip to the falls is complete without one. Peter & Mo enjoy, and the cameras whir.

Interspersed with this, there is time for a visit to the Vic Falls Hotel, check out the crafts and indulge. I also update our supply of local cash.. The rate has gone up since we changed last week.

For our final evening here, we do the Boma restaurant again and those brave ones amongst us get our "Expert" level certificates at eating Mopani Worms - a local delicacy of Moth caterpillars, Maureen plays a game of chicken and challenges us to keep up with her, this time 3each and we all admit to enough.

We all (mostly) visit the fortune teller at his stall near the exit, yes even me. "Long, strong and travel" seems to be my future, with 9 grandchildren before I die........ - Well look out kids.

We defy security, and walk home, the first part of our communal trek successfully (hopefully complete without loss of life.

Tomorrow, the real African adventure begins for our fellow Toronto adventurers - hope they enjoy it!

Odometer: 309902 Distance Travelled: 220Km Trip Distance: 220Km, Total Trip 4225 Km