Monday, August 20, 2007
Calling All Bloggers ...
I post my humblest apologies for the delay in my blogging. I have been SOOOOOOO busy with showing my parents around our new world. It has been an absolute blast and we have done some pretty cool stuff …
Hwange National Park
It was an absolute treat to take mum and dad to Hwange National Park. For those who followed us on our adventure last year you may remember Jodi being absolutely terrified by the sounds of lion roaring a few 100 metres away as we camped inside the game reserve (what a woos). This year after many objections from Jodi in regards to the thought of taking mum and dad to camp in the reserve, Jodi got her wish and instead of camping, we all stayed in the Hwange Safari Lodged. I have to admit, I did enjoy sleeping in the nice king size bed and indulging in 5 course dinners and scrumptious buffet breakfasts, but it wasn’t the same as sleeping in the middle of the reserve, seeing all the stars in the sky and hearing all the wild life right near you as you sat around the fire enjoying a good piece of meat cooked on the braai (bbq).
Once again we were able to take our local expert with us so that he could explain all the flora and fauna within the park. We ventured into the park twice, once on the first afternoon and again the following morning. I have never seen so many elephant in my life; they were gathered in the watering hole on the first evening having a bath and a play around. On the second morning I finally got to see lion in the wild; as we were on our drive out of the park mum spotted 4 lionesses with about 4 or 5 cubs … it was awesome to see them so close (they were about 15 metres away).
Once again we were able to take our local expert with us so that he could explain all the flora and fauna within the park. We ventured into the park twice, once on the first afternoon and again the following morning. I have never seen so many elephant in my life; they were gathered in the watering hole on the first evening having a bath and a play around. On the second morning I finally got to see lion in the wild; as we were on our drive out of the park mum spotted 4 lionesses with about 4 or 5 cubs … it was awesome to see them so close (they were about 15 metres away).
Victoria Falls
I thought we were treated really well at Hwange Safari Lodge but I have never stayed in a place like the Victoria Falls Hotel … this place does not hold back on indulging their guests. Imagine waking up to the sound of a light knock on your door, “room service” you hear the man announce quietly as you slip on your soft, white bath robe. You answer the door to and allow the attendant to enter with your complimentary freshly brewed morning tea and coffee with shortbread. WOW, I never get this type of service at home and I could never imagine Jodi waking up early to prepare a nice coffee for me whilst in bed … oh well, the joys of holidays I suppose. After our tea and coffee we would get ready and be treated to a decedent buffet breakfast overlooking the Zambezi river … I have to admit it was REAL hard waking up each morning ;0).
We had an absolute blast exploring the falls and seeing some pretty cool stuff. Jodi and I got to hold a baby croc and we all saw elephant swimming in the Zambezi river on our sunset cruise. This time away was really nice and relaxing … I hope mum and dad come back next year.
We had an absolute blast exploring the falls and seeing some pretty cool stuff. Jodi and I got to hold a baby croc and we all saw elephant swimming in the Zambezi river on our sunset cruise. This time away was really nice and relaxing … I hope mum and dad come back next year.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
A Totally Zim Moment
We have finally got our car … it has taken about 4 months but it has finally arrived. But as usual what should have been a fairly easy task turned into what we now call a Zim moment (these moments can’t really be predicted, but they ordinarily occur when something simple is turned into a HUGE ordeal). These Zim Moments are starting to occur more frequently but all that we can really do is laugh and look forward to sharing the moments with our blogger friends. Enough gas bagging … let me tell you about our car experience …
My goodness this whole car saga has been long and draining, in theory we should have had our car over 4 months ago, but due to certain changes things didn’t quite work out that way … but that is another blog in itself. On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (about 5am) to take the 3 hour drive down to the SA border to collect our car ... this part of the trip was a breeze and was quite pleasant (the smell of our petrol sitting in the back of our friends car could have helped with this feeling). We employed an importing company to do all the stuff in relation to getting the car through immigration, this we felt would save us a lot of pain and heartache at the border ... which it did ... notice I said nothing about time though. We waited in the border town of Beitbridge (which has very little in it) for about 5 hours before we finally got to pick up our car and start our 3 hour trip back home. We couldn’t believe it … finally we had our car and we were on our way back up to Bulawayo … a bit of a long wait in Beitbridge, but no real dramas … what a relief. It was about 10 klm out of Beitbridge that our friends car which I was driving (it has 17" low profile wheels) suddenly started swaying to the left ... I pulled over and hopped out to the sound of shwshwshwshwshwshw ... the two left wheels had blown ... not good. We jacked up the car and started to take the back wheel off so Jodi could take it back into town to find a couple of spares ... the first 4 nuts came off fine, but when we got to the fifth we noticed our nut loosener/tightener did not do anything useful ... we needed a nut key. We called our friend and she advised that she knew nothing about it or where the key could be hidden (she had only imported the car 2 weeks earlier). Only in Zim .... Only in Zim. Jodi went back into Beitbridge to see if she could find any flatbed trucks to take the car back to Bulawayo with absolutely no success. It was only because our friend in Bulawayo knew of the only tow service in Bulawayo that we were notified that in about 5 - 6 hours an old flat bed truck would be here to assist. 5 hour came and went .... 6 hours came and went ... it was after 10 hours that the truck finally arrived (at about 3 am on Sunday morning … 20 hours since we woke up to start this journey). Now when we heard the truck was going to be old we though maybe a truck that was build in the early 80's ... this truck looked like it was build in the early 20's ... it had apparently broken down half way and he had to try to jump start the old thing. After 1.5 hours we got the car up onto the truck and we thought we would finally get going again ... no such luck ... the truck would not start. We decided that seeing it would only be another 2 hours until daylight it would be better to have a rest and try to start the truck and drive home in the daylight. Daylight came and we had the assistance of some young men whose car had broken down also (these guys had been waiting on the side of the road for about 4 days until their diff was fixed) to push start this truck. The engine started and we were off. To conclude, basically the truck broke down again in the same town as last time and he was able to start it again and finally get back to Bulawayo at 9.30pm on Sunday night ... our friends car is still off the road as we try to find two new tyres or 4 new rims which will be better suited to Zimbabwe roads (lots and lots of pot holes) ... I was able to celebrate my birthday like never before ... on the side of a road with some local Zimbabweans ... and the good news ... our car works really well and is a pleasure to drive.
My goodness this whole car saga has been long and draining, in theory we should have had our car over 4 months ago, but due to certain changes things didn’t quite work out that way … but that is another blog in itself. On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (about 5am) to take the 3 hour drive down to the SA border to collect our car ... this part of the trip was a breeze and was quite pleasant (the smell of our petrol sitting in the back of our friends car could have helped with this feeling). We employed an importing company to do all the stuff in relation to getting the car through immigration, this we felt would save us a lot of pain and heartache at the border ... which it did ... notice I said nothing about time though. We waited in the border town of Beitbridge (which has very little in it) for about 5 hours before we finally got to pick up our car and start our 3 hour trip back home. We couldn’t believe it … finally we had our car and we were on our way back up to Bulawayo … a bit of a long wait in Beitbridge, but no real dramas … what a relief. It was about 10 klm out of Beitbridge that our friends car which I was driving (it has 17" low profile wheels) suddenly started swaying to the left ... I pulled over and hopped out to the sound of shwshwshwshwshwshw ... the two left wheels had blown ... not good. We jacked up the car and started to take the back wheel off so Jodi could take it back into town to find a couple of spares ... the first 4 nuts came off fine, but when we got to the fifth we noticed our nut loosener/tightener did not do anything useful ... we needed a nut key. We called our friend and she advised that she knew nothing about it or where the key could be hidden (she had only imported the car 2 weeks earlier). Only in Zim .... Only in Zim. Jodi went back into Beitbridge to see if she could find any flatbed trucks to take the car back to Bulawayo with absolutely no success. It was only because our friend in Bulawayo knew of the only tow service in Bulawayo that we were notified that in about 5 - 6 hours an old flat bed truck would be here to assist. 5 hour came and went .... 6 hours came and went ... it was after 10 hours that the truck finally arrived (at about 3 am on Sunday morning … 20 hours since we woke up to start this journey). Now when we heard the truck was going to be old we though maybe a truck that was build in the early 80's ... this truck looked like it was build in the early 20's ... it had apparently broken down half way and he had to try to jump start the old thing. After 1.5 hours we got the car up onto the truck and we thought we would finally get going again ... no such luck ... the truck would not start. We decided that seeing it would only be another 2 hours until daylight it would be better to have a rest and try to start the truck and drive home in the daylight. Daylight came and we had the assistance of some young men whose car had broken down also (these guys had been waiting on the side of the road for about 4 days until their diff was fixed) to push start this truck. The engine started and we were off. To conclude, basically the truck broke down again in the same town as last time and he was able to start it again and finally get back to Bulawayo at 9.30pm on Sunday night ... our friends car is still off the road as we try to find two new tyres or 4 new rims which will be better suited to Zimbabwe roads (lots and lots of pot holes) ... I was able to celebrate my birthday like never before ... on the side of a road with some local Zimbabweans ... and the good news ... our car works really well and is a pleasure to drive.
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