O R Tambo Airport Jo'burg

End of the trip, on the way home. Yesterday we were very glad that we had decided to overnight in Pretoria, rather than go directly from Blyde River to the airport. On the N4 we had an hour hold-up with another accident caused by a truck. There was a terrible one on the road just outside Louis Trichard as we drove from Musina a few days ago. It looked as if two lorries had had a head on collision. Yesterday the accident seemed to have been caused by a lorry carrying truckloads of cement. The cab was completely crushed, nobody could have got out of it alive, and the cement was all over the road.
It was nice being back at the Guesthouse in Pretoria where we started the journey. We went to the Union Buildings today, and wandered around Central Pretoria. It is such a nice city with it's wide tree-lined streets. We saw the enormous statue of Nelson Mandela, and the Park, where they were still indications of the party which was held there last Tuesday at his funeral.
I wonder what will happen here now. It feels as if the death of Nelson Mandela will mark the end of an era. Everything we have heard from all South Africans while we have been here would suggest that the country is not in a good state at the moment. Corruption is affecting everyone's lives, from the highest echelons of government downwards. Maybe the country needs to move on to another stage. Maybe while Mandela was still alive the country was still luxuriating in the post-apartheid era, it needs to progress beyond that, to develop into  country of true equals. The white population, with 200 years of existence here, feel under threat. It would be such a shame if black dominance replaced Mandela's intention of an integrated society. I would like to think that this beautiful country will find it's way in my lifetime, but I have some doubts.

Blyde River Canyon

We woke this morning to even more fog or low cloud, I'm not sure which. Our chalet has a wonderful view from the big bedroom window. We are high up, looking out over the canyon, and this morning it was filled with fog. We decided to go to the end of the route planned for today, and work our way backwards, hoping that the sun would burn off the low cloud and we would get a glimpse of the canyon. So we continued as far as Pilgrims Rest, which turned out to be a sort of theme town for gold miners. It has been well preserved and there was a real atmosphere of an early 20C prospectors settlement, despite all the touts and curio stalls. Many of the buildings were dated at 1920 and retained a great deal of authenticity. Looking across the valley we could detect small heaps, overgrown now, but which could well have been mining spoil. We attempted to walk up to the Old Cemetery, but it was too far uphill and we were running out of time. It's a shame we didn't make it, we reminded of the old Cemetery we went to at Lyell in NZ, the graves of early prospectors and their families.
We went on, retracing our footsteps to Graskop, which is at the southern end of the canyon. This turned out to be quite a big place, lots of people, probably lots of tourists, judging by the number of Accommodation signs. It seemed like a busy commercial centre for the area. Continuing on the way northward we stopped of at all the recommended viewpoints for the Canyon. Unfortunately, even though there had been warm sunshine in Pilgrims Rest and Graskop, the fog hadn't lifted from the Canyon itself. It had in fact intensified, we took the loop road, close to the Canyon edge, so that we could go to the vantage points of 'God's Window' and 'World View', but it was thick, thick fog, and we could see absolutely nothing looking down into the Canyon. We only needed to go a couple of kilometres away from the Canyon and we were in bright sunshine. We discovered this when we went to The Lisbon Falls, small in comparison to Victoria Falls, but very picturesque. We went in to the Park Reserve and saw Bourke's Potholes, which were also impressive and it was warm and sunny there. Back at the Camp we went to the two viewpoints and discovered that from the top one we had a excellent view down into the Canyon.
This is a beautiful area, and I am so glad that we came. I don't know how often the Canyon is completely mist and fog free, we have possibly been lucky to have seen as much as we did. The mountains are truly impressive, the jutting rocks, as if the whole landscape has been turned on it's side.
Maybe this is the last entry I'll write in S.A. Tomorrow we return to Pretoria for the last night, to organise ourselves, get our packing sorted, before leaving for the flight on Sunday. Home for Xmas.

Blyde River Canyon

We had a lovely meal at Madi a Thavha yesterday evening, although the service was a bit slow. That didn't really matter at all, it was all very casual. Another good night's sleep and woke up this morning to yet more rain and a temperature of 16C. I had an awful time trying to choose something to buy in order to support the women's project promoted by Madi a Thavha. I finally decided on a blocked collage, beautiful colours and beadwork. It was taken off the frame for me so that I can pack it for the return flight, then once home I'll have to decide how to mount it.
We drove through lots of rain between Louis Trichardt and Blyde River. As we approached the Drakensberg the scenery was stunning, great cliff faces overhanging the road, part forested, part bare  rock. Once here we decided yet again to upgrade to a chalet, so my feeling that we wouldn't get the tent up again was correct. The chalet is fine, bedroom, living area with kitchenette, bathroom, outside covered verandah and braai. It is cold. It was only just warm enough to sit outside to eat at 18.00. I'd think it was cold for an English mid-summer night. While John was lighting the braai I started preparing vegetables for the meal. I scrubbed our last Kumara and put it on the verandah wall to dry off before I wrapped it in foil. We only left it for a moment and then caught sight of a baboon making off with it. Ten minutes later I went into the bedroom and he was sitting on the window sill eating it.
It is so cold tonight we are inside at 19.30. I do hope it's warmer tomorrow, our last full day here before returning to Pretoria and home.

Soutpansberg - Limpopo

Tuesday 17 December
The change is hardly believable, yesterday at this time I was sitting in the shade, with temperatures over 40C, and sweating copiously. We have moved 100 kms south-east from Musina and from 600 metres to just under 1,000. The temperature here is 18C, there is heavy cloud, low mist and light drizzle. I am wearing a long-sleeved warm top and thinking seriously about putting long trousers and socks on.
Last night we stayed in a delightful guest house called Dei Gratia in Musina. Driving through the dirty. dusty roads of Messina  you can't imagine that just a short distance from the main centre, a typical 'African' town, you will discover somewhere like Dei Gratia. Set amongst beautifully landscaped gardens, waterfalls and a couple of amazingly large baobob trees, there are a selection of rooms, opulent, beautifully decorated, maybe a little bit over-the-top. We had dinner on a very good dinner on a verandah, with the gift of a bottle of wine from the excellent and hospitable owner. I struggled with the air-conditioning in the night as we couldn't get any windows opened. It rained quite hard and the temperature dropped. I was tempted to just open the door, but was worried about an influx of moths, mosquitoes and other flying visitors.
After a lovely cooked breakfast, what a treat, we moved southward to our next destination. We continued down the N1 towards Jo'burg. Once again it was distressing to see overturned trailers beside the road and possessions scattered in the dirt. These returning Zimbabweans may have already travelled from as far away as Cape Town and hadn't even made it to the border.Tonight we are staying in another gem of a place, although we are not camping. As we neared the town of Louis Trichardt, after a brief spell of sunny weather, the clouds lowered and we were in foggy drizzle. We did some shopping and moved on to Madi a Thavha, an Eco-Tourism, Fair Trade accredited collective where we had booked a campsite. The drizzle was steady. When we arrived we asked if they had other accommodation available. We have a delightful 'cottage' in their grounds. It is actually one large room with a verandah and shows what you can do with some clever planning. A one and a half metre wall partially divides the room and behind it is a bed with large square mosquito net, tucked into one back corner is a toilet and into the other one a shower. The front half is a kitchen, and sitting area with a good sized dining table. The owners are Dutch and it is beautifully equipped with everything you could need for self catering. Outside on the verandah is another table and chairs and a braai, on which John is cooking as I am writing this.
The owners are a couple of Dutch ex-development workers, when their project ended in 2,000 they decided to stay in Africa and bought up the property as a derelict farm to create their own development project. They used local people and Dutch volunteers to clean up the grounds and then started modernising the original farmhouse, conversion of old buildings and construction of new ones. They have only used materials available locally and recycled wherever possible. There is a community of local Venda people living on site, they work here and also have a training and development programme. They have workshops for local Venda people to produce goods using their traditional skills, particularly bead and fabric work and basket making which are then sold on. They have outreach programmes into neighbouring villages where women work from home and they carry out educational and training programmes. There is a small farm on site producing fruit and vegetables. They have all sorts of accreditations for Fair Trade and Eco-Tourism.
Unfortunately we are still fog and drizzle bound, the surrounding mountains which we understand are beautiful are barely visible. Despite the weather the place and the feel of it are so good, we are wonderfully cosy in our little room and outside on the verandah the foggy hills have their own attraction, we have decided to stay for 2 nights. We hope for better weather tomorrow, although the forecast is not good. We shall see. I am starting to wonder if the tent will go up again on this trip.

Wednesday 18 December
I had a fantastic night's sleep, one of the best for ages, certainly in any non-tent accommodation. The cottage is really cosy, lots of windows we could have open and the big square mosquito net, not that we needed it as yet again there were no mosquitoes. The Malarone really has been an unnecessary waste of time and money on this trip, I don't know if we have just been lucky with the weather conditions, or whether public health information for this area is outdated. None of the people living anywhere on our trip take anti-malarial prophylaxis, but just cover up and use repellant when required Our little electric gadget has been very successful for night time use, and of course, the tent bedroom is mosquito proof anyway.
When we woke up this morning there was blue sky around us and we had a real glimpse of how beautiful it must be here. Some low, wispy cloud flitted around the mountains, but the day looked promising. After breakfast we decided to take the track which had been pointed out to us, up from the farm to the waterfall where the water is sourced from and to a large baobob tree. As we climbed higher we lost the sun and it became quite misty, w assumed (hoped) we had just climbed up into low cloud. We followed the track up with some lovely views through the mist of the surrounding countryside and down to the farm and the camp. We got to the baobob tree and then on the way back attempted to follow a side track which we thought should lead to the waterfall. It was barely discernible, so maybe not walked very regularly. It was quite hard going and when I got wrapped up in an acacia thorn which tore into both of legs, it was time to turn back. I has assumed that as the tracks were marked as a walking route they would be easy going, so I was wearing shorts and sandals. I knew that after all the rain it would be quite wet and, as we have only four days before we fly home, I didn't really want to get either my boots or long trousers, which would be worn on the journey, wet if I was unsure about getting them dry. We did get wet, as the mist thickened and became a steady drizzle as we continued down, back to the cottage. We found an outside tap to wash our feet and the caked mud from our sandals, which are now hanging up under the verandah, hoping they dry a bit before tomorrow.
We are really sad about the weather here, there is so much we wanted to do. Maybe another time! Tomorrow we move on to Blyde River Canyon, another place where good weather and visibility is crucial.

Mussina - South Africa

It's hot! 40+C, and humid. After just over 2 weeks, much further into The Tropics, but at a height of around 1,500 metres we are back to earth with a bang, or more of a whimper. The Highveld in Zim was so comfortable, hot in the sun, but rarely over 30C in the shade, lower humidity and cool nights.
It is unbelievable to us that we came through the Beitbridge Border in 50 mins this morning. We had been told to expect long delays as the Xmas holidays started last weekend and people would be moving across the border in both directions. In fact, the traffic seemed to be one-way, from S.A. into Zim. As we left Bulawayo, on the Beitbridge road there was a continuous stream of S.A. plated vehicles coming towards us, most of them had large trailers stacked impossibly high, way above the car roof-line. There were lots of 'Chinese' bags, black dust-bin bags, packed with goodness knows what. We even saw one which had a wheel barrow and ladders atop of everything else.
We were held up at the first Toll station because one lane was blocked by a broken down lorry, absolutely next to the barrier, so nothing could pass. The other lane was being used alternately for cars from both directions, hence very slow progress. The obvious thing, to us, would have been to make use of a dirt road which looped very close to the main road and collected toll money from one direction of traffic there. It didn't seem that was an option.
The road from Beitbridge to Bulawayo is much nicer than the road from Beitbridge to Masvingo. I know that in a previous entry I have commented on the road side litter, the broken down and burnt out vehicles and the flat and featureless mopane scrub scenery on the Masvingo road. In contrast the road from Bulawayo had much less litter, far fewer derelict vehicles, was undulating and interesting, with some lovely Baobob trees. We weren't very far down the road before we came across the first casualty and there were many more to follow. Dangerously overloaded trailers had overturned beside the road, spilling their contents onto the gravel verge. The possessions of people who must have worked for long hours and small pay, saving their money in order to purchase vital requirements and gifts for Xmas, were scattered everywhere. There were  countless others where the vehicle had managed to pull off the road before the incident happened. Groups of people sat beside the road as others anxiously peered underneath both the trailer and the vehicle to try and identify the problem. Sometimes the vehicle had gone, leaving a few people guarding the trailer, presumably to try and get help. It was the most heart-breaking part of our trip. We must have gone through close to a dozen police road blocks between Bulawayo and Beitbridge, we wonder why these overloaded vehicles were allowed to continue, causing a potential hazard to other road users. On the other hand, who would make the decision to say that things saved for, so needed and so carefully packed had to be unloaded and left behind? I suppose there was a 50/50 chance that they might make it. I do so hope that most of the things reached their destination in time for Xmas.
I am trying to put together a few thoughts about our time in Zimbabwe, such a short time, but we spoke to many people, black and white, but are aware that often what you are told is what people think you want to hear. Any conclusions we draw will be very subjective, the situation is far too complicated to be summed up in a few paragraphs, but I'll try anyway.

Saturday 14 December Matopos NP

Friday 13 December
I think Mlibizi is probably a beautiful place to be in the winter! We really enjoyed our stay there, but it was very warm and very humid for us in December. With temperatures hovering just below 40C and high humidity everything was a bit 'damp'. John found the conditions very similar to those he had experienced in Nigeria. As we were coming back from the trip on the Lake we saw two men filleting some large fish. We stopped to speak to them and a white guy appeared from one of the chalets and told us he had caught them that morning. He asked if we would like some fish and, of course, we said yes. He told the men to give us some, we had four beautiful fillets, they were from a very large Tilapia. We cooked them on the braai with some potatoes we were given my the Campsite Manager. I don't know what the local Tonga people eat. Obviously they fish, but it was not possible to buy and fruit or vegetables from the small shop, and there were no roadside vendors or any evidence of agriculture. The shop stocked large numbers of biscuits, sweets and sweet drinks and large bags of mealie for sadza, but corn meal and fish stew is not really a well balanced diet.
It finally rained on the Wednesday night, but nothing like the rain that everyone there is hoping for after a prolonged drought. There was a bit of thunder and lightening, but no storm, more a persistent and constant light rain. It meant that we woke up to a wet tent and we packed up in a light drizzle. We stuffed everything n the car and moved on. Soon after we started our journey back to the main road the rain became heavier and more persistent. We drove through areas of localised flooding, I just hope it was raining that hard in Mlibizi. We took more notice of our surrounding on the way back, as we knew where we where headed for and the road was familiar. It is beautiful countryside with valleys and canyons.
As we turned southwards on the A8 from the Dete Crossroads the rain became even heavier and we knew that once again we would not be able to put a tent up. Any hopes or intentions of returning to Tuskers for another one or even two nights were dashed, so with no other options for accommodation we continued towards Bulawayo. We stopped at a Lodge on the road in, just before Bulawayo. We had an 'executive' room, which was very comfortable, quite like a small flat, but was yet another example of a different attitude and concept of completion. I'm struggling with vocabulary here, how can I describe a well constructed building with a large and spacious bedroom, beautifully tiled floor, king size bed, leading into a nice bathroom. However on examination the bed appeared to be a four poster, with a frame around it and one curtain. Why? Overhead was a single size round mosquito net, (for a king-size bed). On low tables there were ornate bedside lamps, however there were no electric sockets to plug them into. In the kitchen the cupboard doors didn't shut, we wedged them with bits of cardboard. There was a kettle, but no plug on it. The only light switch for the kitchen was by a back door, which was firmly locked, we didn't have a key to it and it was obvious it hadn't been opened in a long time. The paintwork was very poor quality, emulsion just rubbing off the walls, light switches hadn't been fitted properly, there was just no attention to detail and a good end product. It fitted with a conversation we had with a white Zimbabwean, born and bred here for many generations, who is having problems ruining his own business, bidding for contracts and getting work. He is constantly undercut by black-run companies who cut corners, use shoddy materials, don't finish things off properly, so they don't work effectively and the government then has to spend more money making constant repairs than it would have cost them in the first place if they had accepted a realistic tender from a 'white' man.
We slept reasonably well, if a little uncomfortably, as the mattress still had it's manufacturers plastic cover on it. There had been more rain in the night so we were pleased to have chosen the Lodge. After breakfast we made our way through Bulawayo and further south to Matopos National Park Area. We are pitched on a campsite adjacent to a very up-market private lodge, $125 per person per night, way above our budget. The campsite is very good as at the moment we are the only people here. It caters for overlanders so it is a big site, set in Mopane scrub. When we arrived the guy on attendance advised us not to pitch near the central facilities as the overlanders can be 'very noisy'. Fortunately there are none expected tonight and just a small group of 5 tomorrow. We have an electric point nearby and a fire pit so it is looking very good. the weather has been very kind to us and I am amazed at how quickly we have dried out. It was showery rain when we arrived here this morning. We took a wet tent out of the car and in our haste to get it up we got poles muddled up, put the wrong ones in and ended up with an even wetter tent. The rain stopped, there is some sun through the cloud cover, we have opened up all the tent vents and within half an hour it was dry. John has a fire going in the fire-pit and life is good.
Tomorrow we hope for nice weather as we want to spend the day in the National Park, it is of historical rather than wild-life interest which suits us fine. Evidently there is evidence of human population going back 100,000 years.

Saturday 14 December
Yesterday evening and last night here was great. We had a blazing fire in the fire pit, then cooked potatoes and the beautiful piece of rump steak we had got from the people at Mlibizi before we left. Unfortunately the heavy clouds continued to pile in and we had to retreat inside the tent awning when the rain started. It was quite cosy, we haven't needed to sit inside the tent before. There is a central covered area here we could have used, but it meant a dash in the rain so we stayed put. Obviously with no-one else on the campsite it was a quiet and peaceful night and we woke up to clear skies and lots of sun this morning.
We have spent the day in the Matobos National Park. The scenery is stunning, large, large slabs of granite, grey, dark and ominous, jutting out of the surrounding forest and scrub. Then there are the kopjes, lumps of granite, boulders, perched precariously on top of each other, defying gravity as thy hang there. The surrounding softer rock has been eroded away over millennia, leaving the harder, weather and time resistant rock to remain in its current forms. We went to Cecil Rhodes grave, no big deal but 'The view of the World' from the top of the rocks was truly amazing. We went around the Park and looked at a couple of excellent examples of rock paintings, similar to the ones we have seen in Swaziland and South Africa. The ones found here are some of the oldest to have been discovered. The whole Matopos area is riddled with caves and it has never been fully explored or mapped, even though it has produced some of the most ancient artifacts to be discovered. The instructions to visitors are that they should only go to the known sites. However if they should stumble upon any others , not documented, they are to be reported immediately.
I'm writing this sitting around the fire pit after  lovely meal of baked potatoes and sausages, the spicy Afrikaaner type we had in South Africa. Dusk is fast approaching, black clouds have been piling up on the horizon for hour, they are now a dusky shade of red as they catch the rays of the dying sun. Occasionally a streak of lightening flashes through them and low rumbles of thunder can be heard. A full or nearly full moon is flitting in and out through the wisps of cloud breaking way. I think that, like last night, there will soon be a short, sharp downpour. I certainly hope it is short and sharp as we will be packing the tent up in the morning, ready for our return to South Africa. What a wonderful ending to our trip into Zimbabwe, our last night camping here, and in such a magical and mystic spot. The only noise, over the thunder, is the Cicadas. It is a privilege to be here, in this place which human kind has inhabited for more than 100,000 years

Wednesday 11 December Mlibizi, Kariba Lake

We arrived at Mlibizi Zambesi Resort yesterday afternoon, after a very short trip to Victoria Falls. After a couple of idyllic days at Tuskers we packed the tent up on Monday morning and carried on northward to Vic Falls. The last night at Tuskers was excellent, we watched the waterhole and so many elephants came to it, herd after herd, from different directions. One young bull was quite desperate to mate and he cornered a female. There were a couple of stand-offs as two elephants went head to head and tussled for a bit. Finally the young bull seemed to win through, but he looked as if he was new to the mating game. He couldn't seem to coordinate mounting her and getting his penis inserted at the same time. After quite a lot of playing around she seemed to get a bit fed up and strolled off. He looked so sad and dejected, left with his penis dangling in the dust. Tuskers is an excellent campsite and we would recommend it whole-heartedly, just check that there isn't a truckload of overlanders booked in at the same time
The campsite I had booked in Vic Falls was Adventure Lodge, which was a mistake. The other campsite in Vic Falls is the Rest Camp, which according to the Bradt Guide, caters mainly for overland trucks, so I decided to avoid it. If I had read the book more thoroughly or done a bit more research, I might have realised that being in 'the industrial zone', rather than 'the residential zone' wold not be such a good thing. The approach to the campsite was dirty and litter strewn. At first we couldn't gain entry to the campsite, even though it was clearly marked from the road it seemed to be through a bit of waste land, but there were just solidly closed iron gates at the end, beyond which we could see what looked like a prion compound. We went back down the road and drove in to the main Lodge entrance, where we were able to check in. The campsite was indeed the walled compound we had seen, and John drove the car back to the gates where he was admitted, while I walked through the Lodge grounds to get there with the very nice young woman from reception.
I can only assume that security must be a really big problem in Vic Falls, because inside appearance confirmed that it was like a prison compound, high brick walls topped with rolls of barbed wire, flood lights designed to stay on all night. The camping areas were nice, grass under large shady trees, a basic but very clean ablutions block. A downside was that it was also the parking area for the overland trucks, even though the people in them were staying in the motel type rooms, rather than camping. The Lodge itself consisted of lots and lots of rooms, with a bar/restaurant/sitting area and and an outdoor area around a small pool. It looked quite nice and we sat there for a bit at lunchtime and tried to use the WiFi connection to do some updating. A television in the bar area pounded away relentlessly and loudly with pop dance videos. We decided to take a walk around the town and maybe find somewhere to eat.
Zimbabwe has a real litter problem. We noticed it first on the Beitbridge road as we entered the county, either side of the road bordered by bottles and cans, plastic bags and take-out cartons. As we have driven around the country we have found similar conditions wherever people seem to congregate, bus stops, outside the small subsistence shops I would call 'duka'. The bomas or kraals (as they are called here) generally seem to be well maintained and tidy, it's the public areas which are not so good. On the 'industrial' or predominantly black side of town where we were, litter was a big eyesore. This is so unlike areas of Tanzania I am familiar with. Even in a large town such as Arusha, where I frequently stayed in the Maasai quarter, the 'streets (dirt) and walk ways were kept so clean, all the rubbish swept up every morning and burnt. This litter problem gave Vic Falls a very scruffy and uncared for feel, a sort of temporary or transit feel. We have heard comments from Zimbabweans that Vic Falls has been spoilt because it has become so commercialised. We didn't find it commercialised, yes there were loads of touts and an abundance of street vendors selling cheap mass-produced carvings, " all my own work". If it is becoming 'commercialised', because Zimbabwe has far and away the best view of the Falls, then it would make sense for the Government to capitalize on that, clean the place up and give it some character as well as the spectacle of The Falls themselves. We took a look at the other campsite, The Rest Camp, and I have to say it looked a whole lot better than Adventure Lodge campsite.
We ate at Mama Africa's and both had excellent meals. John had a game hotpot with peanut butter rice. He liked the hotpot, wasn't so sure about the rice. I had a 'traditional' stew with green vegetable and ugali (corn mealie, called sadza here). It was delicious, in a way I've missed ugali, I got so used to eating it everyday when I was in Simanjiro it became the norm. Similarly I have such nostalgic memories of milky Maasai tea. on our return to the campsite we took a bottle of wine to sit by the pool and play some cards. The disco music drove us away, back to our tent, where some sort of a rave was going on the other side of the brick and barbed-wire wall. This lasted until about 12.00, accompanied by heavy traffic roaring up and down the adjacent road, not a good camping experience.
We were awake early in the morning and we had walked the small distance to the Falls by 08.00. This is November, the dry period,but it was still amazing. We have heard comment that the spectacle of the Falls can actually be better in the dry period. In April and May when they are at their most voluminous there is nothing to see but spray/smoke. The smoke that thunders. We walked around all the view points, getting quite wet as we went through the forested area. It is permanent rain forest as even at this dry period there was enough spray onto the trees for there to be permanent precipitation. Early in the morning the tour groups hadn't arrived, there were very few people. On the way out it was a bright clear morning and the views of the cataracts were great, with many rainbows. By the time we made our way back, meeting the hordes of visitors coming towards us, the sky was heavy and overcast and the light was poor.
We didn't hurry, strolled at leisure and made stops at all the viewing points, but the tour only took us just over a couple of hours so we were back at the campsite by just after 10.00. After a brief discussion we decided to pack up the tent and move on, we really didn't want to spend another night in Victoria Falls, or I suppose more precisely, at Adventure Lodge Campsite.
We were packed up in record time, about 30 minutes and, after a brief stop for fuel, on the road by just after 11.00. We retraced our footsteps to the Dete Crossroads and then followed the tarred road to Kamaviti and then to Mlibizi. It is a wonderful route, the road is a switch-back of ascents and descents, winding it's way through trees and scrub, past baobob trees and Tonga kraals. We hardly saw another vehicle.
We found the Mlibizi Zambesi Resort easily, and it is a lovely spot. We learnt that the current owners have only been here for four months. It is in fact owned by a consortium of share-holders, trying to turn the place around. There are some very nice chalets overlooking Lake Kariba. The camping area is excellent, raised pitches, tree shaded with electricity points. The whole area has the potential to be idyllic, it reminded us of 'Gringo Perdido' at Lake Peten in Guatemala, but much more sophisticated. There is so much that could be done here, but the current owners must take credit for what they have done already in the face of adversity. There is a nice grassed 'sunset deck' looking out over the lake. At 'Gringo Perdido' it was a pontoon built out into the Lake, but of course we swam there, it is not possible to swim at Kariba because of crocodiles. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. We took a two hour trip out onto the Lake on a powered raft with a local man who knew exactly where to go for the best sightings of heron, cormorant, storks and a fish eagle, as well as hippos and crocodiles. We are so pleased that we made the journey from the A8 to Mlibizi, 90 minutes each way, the resort itself was good, but we also had a feeling of being in the heartland of Zimbabwe, as we suspect not many non-Zimbabwean tourists venture this far. The people living around here are Tonga, displaced by the building of the dam and the creation of the Lake.

Tuskers Campsite - Hwange National Park

Sunday 08 December
No WiFi here, in fact very basic camping. It's a campsite attached to a very expensive lodge, Ivory Lodge. The campsite is a rather scrappy piece of land close to the Lodge, but with it's own facilities. Impressions were not good when we first arrived and we thought we might stay only one night, but as we unpacked and pitched the tent it grew on us. There isn't electricity supply to individual pitches, just to a central covered eating area. We were a bit concerned about mossies and not being able to use our repellant machine unless we pitched very close to the eating area as we don't have a very long cable. We decided to risk it and found a nice corner surrounded by trees and so with some shade. When the man cam to check us in he said there hasn't been enough rain yet for mosquitoes. It is real safari style camping, with hot water supplied from a wood burning boiler. The ablutions area is thatch covered and surrounded by thick canvas. The showers are massive and partially uncovered. We are very lucky as we are here alone, Friday night, the night before we arrived there were 40 people camping here, two overland trucks, it must have been horrendous. So as at Morma Jeanes, we have our own bathroom all to ourselves.
We arrived here late lunchtime after a good drive from Bulawayo. Although there were quite a few buses and several heavy goods vehicles, there was not much traffic. We drove large distances without seeing another car. The road was in very good condition and for most of the way there were large trees either side, with occasional patches of bush. It was all green and scenic, as we left Bulawayo Flame Trees, just coming into flower, were mixed in with the Jakaranda and purple bourganvillea. We passed through one or two settlements, some quite sophisticated where the huts were made from decorative bricks and the thatch was layered. They were usually in groups forming a boma, with a large central hut and an open sided one for cooking. For the most part the land bordering the road appeared to be deserted but tracks leading off into the bush and regular bus stops, often with groups of people waiting at them suggested many more communities not visible from the road.
The Lodge has it's own waterhole, kept topped up with pumped water, which is obviously part of the high cost of staying there. Tall lodges on stilts are arranged around it so it would be possible to sit on your own little deck and watch the animals come and go. It is also visible from the campsite and a high lookout has been built around a tree. We were sitting up in it after we had finished eating when someone came and took us to the Lodge hide which is very close to the waterhole, probably because we are here alone, they would hardly invite 4o overlanders! It was to see the lions, we had watched the elephants, impala and baboons come to drink, but there were two lions which were more difficult to spot as they were well camouflaged by the sand. They looked like two young males, and it was suggested that they might be getting ready for a kill. Then a large herd of buffalo came out of the bush, and a couple of large bulls chased the lions away, who backed off quite quickly. One of the other people in the hide, an expensive paying guest, a bit of a 'know-all' thought there might be a buffalo kill. I know nothing apart from what I have seen on wildlife programmes and learnt from experience in Tanzania, but I didn't think that was likely. Lions rarely kill buffalo and if a buffalo kill is attempted it would be made by a large group, not just a couple of immature males. It was a novel experience, seeing a couple of lions chased away, tails between their legs, certainly illustrating the fact that buffalo are very dangerous animals, not to get mixed up with.
So we had a pleasant evening, no mosquitoes, and a god nights sleep. I did hear lions roaring and was a bit nervous as there doesn't appear to be any protective fencing. There is a list of instructions on the wall about what to do if you encounter a wild animal. Freeze. If they do not go away, back off very slowly to a safe place. Do not run, you will be chased. If you are charged you can try waving your arms and shouting!
We are having a rest day, doing nothing, sitting in chairs with binoculars and watching the water hole. We asked about overland trucks before we decided to stay another night and they aren't expecting one, we just hope one doesn't turn up to spoil our delightful idyll. At first this morning I thought it might rain but the skies have cleared a bit to that typical 'African' cloud cover, and there is quite a breeze. It is also similar to December days I remember in Tanzania at this altitude, hot in the sun, but quite cool in the shade. Although everyone here is hoping for rain, it is late in the year for the heavy rains not to have started here, we hope it stays dry at least until we have moved on in the morning, to Victoria Falls.

Tuskers Campsite - Hwange National Park

Sunday 08 December
No WiFi here, in fact very basic camping. It's a campsite attached to a very expensive lodge, Ivory Lodge. The campsite is a rather scrappy piece of land close to the Lodge, but with it's own facilities. Impressions were not good when we first arrived and we thought we might stay only one night, but as we unpacked and pitched the tent it grew on us. There isn't electricity supply to individual pitches, just to a central covered eating area. We were a bit concerned about mossies and not being able to use our repellant machine unless we pitched very close to the eating area as we don't have a very long cable. We decided to risk it and found a nice corner surrounded by trees and so with some shade. When the man cam to check us in he said there hasn't been enough rain yet for mosquitoes. It is real safari style camping, with hot water supplied from a wood burning boiler. The ablutions area is thatch covered and surrounded by thick canvas. The showers are massive and partially uncovered. We are very lucky as we are here alone, Friday night, the night before we arrived there were 40 people camping here, two overland trucks, it must have been horrendous. So as at Morma Jeanes, we have our own bathroom all to ourselves.
We arrived here late lunchtime after a good drive from Bulawayo. Although there were quite a few buses and several heavy goods vehicles, there was not much traffic. We drove large distances without seeing another car. The road was in very good condition and for most of the way there were large trees either side, with occasional patches of bush. It was all green and scenic, as we left Bulawayo Flame Trees, just coming into flower, were mixed in with the Jakaranda and purple bourganvillea. We passed through one or two settlements, some quite sophisticated where the huts were made from decorative bricks and the thatch was layered. They were usually in groups forming a boma, with a large central hut and an open sided one for cooking. For the most part the land bordering the road appeared to be deserted but tracks leading off into the bush and regular bus stops, often with groups of people waiting at them suggested many more communities not visible from the road.
The Lodge has it's own waterhole, kept topped up with pumped water, which is obviously part of the high cost of staying there. Tall lodges on stilts are arranged around it so it would be possible to sit on your own little deck and watch the animals come and go. It is also visible from the campsite and a high lookout has been built around a tree. We were sitting up in it after we had finished eating when someone came and took us to the Lodge hide which is very close to the waterhole, probably because we are here alone, they would hardly invite 4o overlanders! It was to see the lions, we had watched the elephants, impala and baboons come to drink, but there were two lions which were more difficult to spot as they were well camouflaged by the sand. They looked like two young males, and it was suggested that they might be getting ready for a kill. Then a large herd of buffalo came out of the bush, and a couple of large bulls chased the lions away, who backed off quite quickly. One of the other people in the hide, an expensive paying guest, a bit of a 'know-all' thought there might be a buffalo kill. I know nothing apart from what I have seen on wildlife programmes and learnt from experience in Tanzania, but I didn't think that was likely. Lions rarely kill buffalo and if a buffalo kill is attempted it would be made by a large group, not just a couple of immature males. It was a novel experience, seeing a couple of lions chased away, tails between their legs, certainly illustrating the fact that buffalo are very dangerous animals, not to get mixed up with.
So we had a pleasant evening, no mosquitoes, and a god nights sleep. I did hear lions roaring and was a bit nervous as there doesn't appear to be any protective fencing. There is a list of instructions on the wall about what to do if you encounter a wild animal. Freeze. If they do not go away, back off very slowly to a safe place. Do not run, you will be chased. If you are charged you can try waving your arms and shouting!
We are having a rest day, doing nothing, sitting in chairs with binoculars and watching the water hole. We asked about overland trucks before we decided to stay another night and they aren't expecting one, we just hope one doesn't turn up to spoil our delightful idyll. At first this morning I thought it might rain but the skies have cleared a bit to that typical 'African' cloud cover, and there is quite a breeze. It is also similar to December days I remember in Tanzania at this altitude, hot in the sun, but quite cool in the shade. Although everyone here is hoping for rain, it is late in the year for the heavy rains not to have started here, we hope it stays dry at least until we have moved on in the morning, to Victoria Falls.

Bulawayo

We had the tent packed up and were on the road by 07.00. It was a nice sunny day with a light breeze and no sign of rain. The early morning traffic in Masvingo was gridlocked and we crawled through the town, before turning westerly on the A6 . This main trunk road has a 100kph speed limit and it was easy to see why as cows as donkeys wandered aimlessly across it, sometimes just standing in front of the car for a while. The further we went the heavier the clouds, the blacker the sky became and we saw the occasional flash of lightening coming from them. By the time we reached Mbalabala and turned north on the A5 the rain was all around us. Double speed windscreen wipers were only just sufficient to maintain visibility. The drops exploding onto the windscreen seemed to be marble sized.
When we reached Bulawayo it was a similar situation to when we had reached Norma Jeanes campsite, it would be impossible to put a tent up. We went to The Granite Parks Lodge where we had booked a pitch, it looked lovely, even in the pouring rain. We would happily have taken a lodge there, but they only had a vacancy for one night and were fully booked for Friday. We decided to try and see if we could find somewhere where we could stay for two nights, as the forecast was for the rain to continue. It was not so easy to fund somewhere in our price bracket, up to $100, which was not booked. We were unfamiliar with the city layout and in the pouring rain it was not always easy to identify exactly where we were. We needed cash so we went into the City centre and paddled our way from bank to bank as the ATMs rejected our Travelex Card and refused to give us any money. We began to fear that the violent thunder storm had caused a problem with communications to the U.K. Finally we found a Barclays Bank which delivered the goods, or rather, dollars. It seems bizarre than one country is using another country's currency. From the ATMs we get genuine brand new U.S. dollar bills, with all the usual U.S. insignias and decoration. Where do they come from? How are they obtained? How do they get here? It becomes even more weird as only U.S. $ bills are used, coinage is in South African Rand. Prices in shops are in U.S. $s and cents, but your change is given in rand coins. If the item you are buying is, for example $1.50 and you want to give the exact money you could pay $1 and ZAR50 (ZAR= South African Rand). Some how it all seems to work, but I'm not sure how.
After several attempts at finding accommodation, too expensive, fully booked, and in one case decidedly grubby, we ended up at Parrot Lodge, a quaint little guesthouse run by a Swiss couple, on the outskirts. We have a nice room with a little open corridor outside looking out over the inner courtyard, with some beautiful palms and trees, where we have put our camping chairs. It is spotlessly clean and very comfortable. We sat in the corridor, under the overhang and watched the rain. It was cool, 18C. We were early to bed, where we heard one mosquito, so pleased we have heard one. We plugged in the electric thing and didn't hear anymore.
This morning the rain had stopped, the sun was a bit watery at first, but got stronger as the day went on. We set out to visit the Khame Ruins, an off-shoot from Great Zimbabwe where Shona people set up another vigorous community between 15C and 18C. They are about 22 km from Bulawayo and the journey should have taken 20 mins. It took us 2 hours. There was virtually no signposting. I don't know whether there ever was. When we asked about the lack of road speed limit sign posting, we are often never sure whether we are in a 40, 60, 80 or 100 kph zone, we were told that they used to be there, but they have been stolen and the metal used for other purposes. We did see a 40kph sign used as part of the structure of a roughly built house. So maybe there used to be signs, maybe there didn't. Our long journey was not a waste of time, we drove through many townships, people going about their daily tasks, working the ground, selling a few things by the roadside. At no time did we feel uncomfortable or ill at ease. When we finally found the correct road, we still weren't sure as it was only a dirt track, nothing like the grand entrance to Great Zimbabwe. A man came out of a hut and unlinked a chain to let us in. We were the only people there. In some ways the site is more impressive than Great Zimbabwe itself, being miles from anywhere and completely in the bush. It is nowhere near as grand, you can stroll round it in an hour or so. The highlight is probably the magnificent example of the intricate stonework the Shona developed. This has been partially and painstakingly restored under archaeological supervision by groups of young volunteers from several African countries and France. France spearheaded the initiative, provided a lot of the skill base and some of the funding, some also came from UNESCO. Just as we were leaving we were amazed to see as least 4 mini-buses arrive and disgorge lots and lots of young people. We spoke to the group and learnt that they were archaeology students and other interested people and volunteers, they were predominantly black but there there was a very good scattering of young white people amongst them. As we left they were being organised into groups for various activities.
We drove back to Bulawayo and got lost again, ending up on the road leading from Victoria Falls. This caused us to come face to face with a police roadblock, where eery car was being pulled over. It is compulsory in Zimbabwe to carry at all times your driving licence and the original registration document to prove ownership of the vehicle, or in our case the Temporary Import Permit we had obtained at the border crossing from S.A. When we left this morning John knew he had forgotten to bring it, it was at the Guest Lodge, but decided to busk it. Not a good decision! We had already been stopped twice, close to going Khame ruins, and again when leaving. On both occasions we had talked our way out of it by engaging the policeman in conversation about The Ruins, our travels, how much we were enjoying our time in Zimbabwe. On both occasions, thus distracted the policeman had not asked for our papers, but just waved us on our way. However this was a serious road block, on a much larger and busier route. Initial attempt at conversation didn't work, we admitted we knew that we were in the wrong, but not really culpable as we were strangers. A higher authority was called over, there were several imposing looking officers standing together under a tree. One approached our vehicle. He was in khaki with several pips and  he sported a peaked cap with badges on it, and was carrying a 'twizzle stick', like an old style British Army Officer. Quite a lot of banter followed, he said we would have to pay a fine, I said I thought that would be unfortunate as all our other experiences in Zimbabwe had been so good. The banter continued, and we ended up laughing together. He has written down his rank and name for us, he is a Major General, and his personal phone number. If we have any problems anywhere in Zimbabwe, or if we need any help we are to phone him, he will be waiting for our call and will always be ready to help us. We waved him goodbye and went on our way. We didn't pay a fine.
We continued on into Bulawayo City Centre, where we got some money and went to see the travel agent I have been corresponding with about the possibility of finding accommodation at Mbilizi, on the Zambezi River, after we leave Victoria Falls, if we arrive there in the rain and are unable to pitch a tent. We have exchanged phone numbers so that we can make sure there will be vacancies on the dates we decide to go. Bulawayo was a different place today, in warm sunny weather. The traffic wasn't quite so hectic and we didn't have to paddle. Considering it is Zimbabwe's second largest city it has a comfortable, relaxed feel to it. No-one hoots at the traffic or makes a fuss, they just dip and dive and give way to pedestrians. There were one or two beggars, but less than we saw recently in Granada, Spain. We received no hassle at all, just smiles. Yet again we were surprised at thee state of the country, after what we had heard from the British Media. Of course there is rural poverty, people eking out a living from a small piece of land and a few animals, much as know they do in Greece. Here they may not have access to electricity or piped water. In the countryside we see many women carrying large buckets of water on their heads, from lakes and rivers to their homesteads. As we know, poverty is comparative, and it is difficult to compare this sort of poverty with families in the U.K. who may only have electricity when they can afford to put money in the meter and may have scarcely enough money for food until their Social Security Allowance arrives. In Bulaway there seemed to be the same sort of affluence we would expect to find in a U.K. city, people carrying iPads and Smartphones, well dressed and happy. We ate at a Nando's, which was very busy, three young boys, probably in their early teens, were playing with their smart phones, families came in with small children, groups of young people together.
All the infrastructure here is much better than we expected, by and large the roads are good, despite the lack of signposting. This is the second place we have stayed at with a WiFi connection. This is not a country on it's knees, struggling to survive, people we have spoken to are contented with their lives and happy bout what is going on around them. Will I ever get a chance to ask how they feel about corrupt elections, slaughtering of white farmers and their families, turning people off land which had been in their family for generations, even if it was originally stolen from original Zimbabweans by their forebears?

Norma Jeanes, Zimbabwe

Our last night here. It has been such a good stop. We don't usually stay in one place for four nights, but are so pleased we decided to here. It really has given us a chance to get a feel for Zimbabwe, in beautiful surroundings. I am thinking that this may turn out to be the highlight of our Zim trip as tomorrow we are on the tourist trail. In the four days we have been here, apart from the guy who runs Norma Jeanes we have only seen 3 or maybe 4 other white people. Today we took a drive round to the other side of the Lake, passing through what seemed to be a very upmarket resort called Glenlivet, advertising several Mountain Lodges. We followed the edge of the Lake and saw for ourselves how low it is. There has not been adequate rainfall for the last two years , and water is constantly taken from the Lake to irrigate the Cane Sugar Plantations downstream. The dirt road took us through several small communities, groups of round, mud-brick, thatched huts, usually with a few cows and goats and cultivating maize. Once again everyone was very friendly.
So here we are, getting ready to move on. We arrived here in torrential rain, and after 3 beautiful days more heavy rain and storms is forecast for tomorrow. We have organised the tent and car as well as we can, aim to have an early night, and be up soon after dawn to get packed up, we hope, before the rain comes. Then to Bulawayo....

Norma Jeanes, Zimbabwe

After a leisurely start this morning we went to the Great Zimbabwe archaeological site. We decided to have a guide and are very pleased that we did. Our guide was a nice young woman called Pamela, who spoke excellent English. We learnt that she is 23 and doing an internship at Great Zimbabwe while she is at College in Harare working for a qualification in Tourism. We were able to discuss lots of things, but it wasn't until after we had left that I remembered I had meant to ask her if higher education here was free or subsidised. There was one another private car parked in the car park when we arrived and when we checked in we were told that the previous visitor was also English, but we didn't actually see anyone. The only other visitors we saw during the trip were schoolchildren on educational trips. Pamela told us that children come from schools as far as 500 km away to visit the site and learn about their history. The children were so friendly, and as I am trying to learn a few greetings in Shona and tried it out on them, they became even friendlier. One particular school group, from a school about 100 kms away came to the refreshment hut while we were taking a pause to drink a soda. They all wanted their photographs taken with us, and we posed with groups while they snapped. We noticed quite a few smartphones being passed around and lots of camera phones. As John observed most of them were better and newer than his. Talking about it afterwards we wondered whether it was a private school. Questions we hope we will get a chance to ask, are there private schools in Zimbabwe, what is the education system, We find it hard to believe that some of the children we see around here, walking to and from their schools, often barefoot, would be taken such a distance on a school trip.
Great Zimbabwe is an amazing site, we had seen footage of it on the 'Lost Kingdoms of Africa' TV series, but it did nothing to convey the size and complexity. We made a tremendous climb up an ancient path to the King's residence. In places we had to squeeze through narrow gaps between boulders on loose stones (H & S eat your heart out!). At the top we had a commanding view over the surrounding countryside, as would have had the king. Further down were the enclosures of his Queen, his first wife, and the other 199. It is rumoured that he had 400 children. We were shown a sacred tree whose bark, when made into a tea, he drunk as an aphrodisiac to enable him to accomplish this. His first wife, the Queen held a high status. She could consult and advise with the King. She was also responsible for the sex education of the young people when they reached puberty. We saw artifacts of small penises, vulvas and vaginas which she used as visual aids in her lessons, and the remains of a special sex education hut. We also saw the 12 metre high conical tower where later archaeologists and researchers suspected that she stored a fortune in gold, but none has ever been found.
All this took place between 13C and 18C, it was remarkable to learn about such a sophisticated society living and trading as far away as Asia and China. In many places the building is original, in others it has been very sensitively restored. A further point I found of particular interest was that the magnificent walls, and enclosures, as well as all the structures inside were made by 'free' labour, unlike many other monuments, such as the Egyptian pyramids and Greek and Roman buildings relied upon slave labour. The philosophy seems to be that Ancestors took the form of Divinity, the King was not divine but omnipotent as he was able to communicate with the Ancestors. The community, it's structure , success and survival was the most important thing, and everyone worked willingly to maintain and promote this. True Marxism? I am impressed with a society which had no deity and believed that people had the power of wisdom and knowledge. I have a lot of research to do over the long winter months on our return to England.

Norma Jeanes, Great Zimbabwe

We learnt this morning that last night's rain was the first since the dry season. The campsite owner and his gang of workmen have been hard at work all day, repairing the damage which it did. He told us that it had hardly soaked into the ground at all, but had run off down hill. There are gullies and channels everywhere where the water went. We were dry and secure in our little hut and are thinking about having a couple of night in the tent, then moving back into a hut for Wednesday, the last night here, as more heavy rain is forecast for Thursday when we move on to Bulawayo.
Last night we were talking about our first impressions of Zimbabwe. The long drive in through flat Mopane Scrub was not enhanced by the large number of burnt out vehicles beside the road. We have seen this in other African countries, but there seemed to be quite a lot here. There were also a lot of roadside vendors, mostly selling fruit.
We woke up this morning to  beautiful sunny day. We decided we would be able to put up the tent, but we went to Masvingo first to give the ground a bit longer to dry out. It was a very good experience, we took some money from an ATM and then did some shopping at a Pick n Pay. We bought our vegetables from women in the street. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. We saw one other white person, apart from that everyone was else was black. We must not generalise and compare with S.A. as the experience was not dissimilar to the shopping trip we made into the Venda community from Kruger's Punda Maria Gate. Ironically those Venda people a an ethnic group, asp live in Southern Zimbabwe, bordering the Limpopo River. However everyone here is Shona, the most prolific and widespread people here and in Zambia. I should be able to confirm this tomorrow, but I believe that Shona were the main inhabitants of Great Zimbabwe, they are an ancient tribe.
This afternoon we took a drive around Lake Mutirikwe, amazing scenery, great, black granite boulders, with the remnants of last nights rain oozing over them. We were at 1,100 metres but in the distance we could see higher mountains against the sky-line. It really is the most beautiful place.
We are the only people camping here tonight. The two Canadians, father and son motor-bikers on a round trip from Cape Town to Addis Ababa and back in 4 months, who escaped from the rain and took a cabin next to us, left this morning. The ablutions facilities here are excellent, we have a bathroom all to ourselves. We are only just over 24 hours into our trip trip to Zimbabwe, I hope the rest is as good as this.

Norma Jeanes Lakeview Resort, Zimbabwe

After leaving Kruger yesterday we repeated the shopping trip drive we had made a couple of days previously, through the Venda villages and small communities. Once again, it felt very odd to be out of the Park, not driving at 40 kph, although we had to be careful about cows and donkeys crossing the roads. Once we were through Louis Trichard (Makhado) and on the N1 road away from the area occupied mostly by Venda people it was noticeable that the women were no longer in traditional dress but in westernised clothes.
Mussina was a hustling, bustling African town. It was a Saturday lunchtime and the remains of a market was being cleared away, loads of rubbish and debris. The small mini-buses. which provide the main form of transport in all the African countries we have visited, buzzing all around, often laded not just with passengers, but also all their purchases. We had a problem finding the Old Mine Guesthouse, where we had booked in, as the turning from the main road was closed off for road works. In the end John followed another vehicle and drove over the pavement. After tortuous twists and turns on bumpy and uneven dirt roads we found it. Although close to the centre of the town, once inside the compound it was a totally different environment, leafy gardens and trees, a real ex-colonial feel to it. We had a large room, with bathroom and small kitchen area. We went out to eat at a nearby Steak House chain and had fairly typical food, a bit too heavy for me as I had indigestion and an unpredictable bottom for most of the night. The owner warned us about the malarial mosquitoes, but the window screens had holes in them. John mended those with parcel tape and I stuffed the gap at the bottom of the doors with toilet paper. We sat outside until after 20,00, but didn't see or hear any mosquitoes. Neither were we aware of any in the night, although we did have two anti-mosquito devices going.
So we left at 07.00 this morning for the dreaded Beitbridge Border crossing. It was so much better than we expected. By 09.00 we were into Zimbabwe heading up the N4 towards Mashvingo, two hours. The exit from S.A. was so much easier than we remember it being three years ago, when it took us longer to complete all the paper work to get out of S.A than it did to enter Swaziland. At the Zimbabwe border the worst part was the touts, who were all over us like ants as we drew up. These are people who offer to fast track you through the laborious system for a fee, which in effect they cannot do. Some off them very cleverly string what looks like an ID card around their necks to give the impression that they are legal. I made a quick inspection of one, and I could have done better myself. We fended them off, an official told us to avoid them as they were touts. What I don't understand is why, if the authorities know that these touts are operating, once inside the building there were numerous signs to say that touts would not be served, only the bearers of current passports, they aren't rounded up and moved out. We found all the actual officials to be pleasant and helpful, responding to our requests for help and advice, and almost just waving us through. It could be that our age is an asset, but we would like to think that the maturity which comes with age and the 'African' interpersonal skills we have developed in our travels assists us. We find that following the traditional greetings process, punctuated with humour and cultural appreciation, smooths our path on most occasions. We have since been told by Zimbabweans that two hours must be a record, some Canadians staying here took over four.
Once in Zimbabwe we drove for a long time through the ubiquitous mopane scrub. The landscape was flat and barren, the sky heavy and overcast, it was dismal. We saw a few people with donkey-drawn carts, there were few signs of agriculture. Then after about 200 kms every thing changed, the landscape became dramatic, with huge boulders jutting upwards, some bare rock scoriated where rain had poured over them, others gently rounded and tree-clad. We saw more evidence of agriculture, crops cultivated, grazing animals. All the time, however the clouds thickened and grew blacker and more menacing. We turned off towards Norma-Jeanes, close to Great Zimbabwe, where we had booked a campsite. As we drove into the camping area the rain started, at first quite lightly, we decided to hang on a bit before putting the tent up. Within 15 minutes we were surrounded by another terrible storm. Thunder and lightening all around us and very close, torrential rain. We decided to upgrade to a cabin and drove back to Reception. We sat in the car for at least 30 minutes before making the two-metre dash to the Reception door, waiting for a let-up in the force of the rain and the cracks of thunder and lightening. So we are now in a neat little 2 bed room, we have to make a dash for the ablutions and a kitchen annex, but we are dry. The storm has passed, but it is still raining steadily. In a lighter rain moment we took a look at the campsite and it appears to be draining well, but is very wet. We will have to see what tomorrow brings.

Kruger National Park, Punda Maria

Wednesday 27 November Punda Maria
Last night we had another amazing and terrifying storm, simultaneous and continuous thunder and lightening, gusts of strong wind and heavy rain. Our mobile phone network coverage, which was slow and laborious at best here at Punda Maria yesterday, has now disappeared completely, presumably as a result of the storm, so I don't know when I will be able to upload this.
We drove to Punda Maria from Bataleur yesterday morning, after another indulgent breakfast of eggs and ham. We stayed on the tarred roads but still saw plenty of game on the way. Punda Maria campsite ground was a bit disappointing after the excellence of all the others. It is unbelievably stony, people who know the site seem to come prepared with rakes and stiff brooms. It is on a slope and undulating, so it is quite hard work to find a level piece of ground with some shade where a tent can be pitched. It is not very busy so we finally decided upon a shady spot and swept it with our small brush as well as we could. We are still on quite a slope and I rolled off my sleeping mat a couple of times in the night onto a very stony tent floor.
Another downside is the fact that a laundromat is advertised, but all the washing machines are broken. At this half way stage of the trip, thinking we would be at a well-equipped site, I had planned to do a washing machine wash of our bedding, tea towels etc., instead of which I am scrubbing them by hand in a bucket. The ablutions block for the campsite is quite small, 2 toilets, 1 shower and a bathroom. It's OK at the moment but there must be queues for toilets and showers when the site is full. The shop is very basic, with limited supplies. These are all negative comments, but in fact the campsite has a nice feel to it, lots of trees, close to the bush, very laid-back.
When we got here yesterday afternoon we were unsure of exactly how we would spend the last few days in the Park. One option which had occurred to us was that we would spend two nights here, then move up to the privately owned Pafuri Tented Site for the last two nights. That would enable us to spend more time in the region of the Luvuvhu River and the Thulamela archaeological site, both marked as things we really wanted to do. We battled with the slow and intermittent phone and data transmission to discover that the Pafuri Tented Site, the only accommodation available in that part of the Park is horrendously expensive, about £250 per person per night. It is such a shame that the eclectic northern strip, with amazing biodiversity and with availability to an important archaeological site, is priced well out of our resources, and I would suspect also of many others. As it happens any disappointment about not being able to afford to stay there was removed by the knowledge that it isn't an option. The floods last January which devastated Shingwedzi also destroyed the Pafuri site. Whereas SAN Parks has rebuilt Shingwedzi and re-opened it as a very good, well appointed Rest Camp, Wilderness Safaris, who I think are responsible for the Pafuri Camp, still haven't come to an agreement with their insurers. One disappointed followed another when we discovered that due to the floods the Thulamela Archaeological Site is still not open to the public. We checked this out with Punda Maria Camp officials, as we would have considered joining a tour group from here, to have that confirmed, the Site is closed.
So here we were yesterday evening at Punda Maria, replanning the last few days of our journey through the Kruger Park, enjoying our braai, sitting by the tent in the early evening dusk, when flashes of lightening started to appear on the horizon, followed by low rumblings of thunder. We played on, continuing our three hands of Crib, John was victorious 2-1, as the lightening became more persistent and the thunder louder. We decided to zip up the tent and go to bed. As at Maroela, we were hardly settled when the wind started. The intense flashes of lightening and the ear-numbing roars of thunder are scary but manageable, the intensity and strength of the gusts of wind, threatening to rip our tent from the ground is the really frightening part. Once again we held onto the sides as it was buffeted around. This time our experience of the previous storm paid off, John had replaced tent pegs with strong nails anchoring us firmly to the ground. Although the poles bent in the wind and the tent rocked from side to side nothing came loose. Then the rain came as well. Torrential rain battered the sides of the tent as we tried to hold it steady against the wind. The rain continued after the wind had stopped and the storm drew away. As the noise of the storm abated it was replaced by the ear-splitting sound of frogs. They continued long after I dozed into an uneasy sleep. At some time, maybe around dawn, the noise from the frogs stopped and the cicadas began.
Around 05.00, when we were both awake, it was a still and sunny day, although the sky was still very overcast and we wondered if there was more rain to come.
The rest of our day has been so good. The shop at Punda Maria is very limited so we decided to go our of the Park to do some shopping. The SatNav showed us a large supermarket about 40 kms away so we headed for it. As soon as we were outside the Punda Maria Gate we entered a different world. I have already said that living inside the Park as we have for nearly a month has been like removal from the real world. I hadn't expected re-entry to be so dramatic and sudden. Less than 2 kms from the Park gate put us into a world of circular thatched huts, fields ploughed by harnessed cattle, women working in the fields with rudimentary tools. The destination the SatNav gave us was a busy, buzzing, and lively town. The main street was a corridor of improvised stalls, selling everything, but mostly fruit and vegetables. We drew into a complex, labelled by the street sign as 'NEW'. We found a Shoprite Supermarket, where we bought a few basic groceries. We spotted a Hardware Store sign, where we bought some more long nails. We didn't see another white face. We were stared at, but everyone was friendly and helpful, We knew that we were in a totally non 'white= affluent' area when no-one rushed forward to 'mind our car' for a small tip. Maybe we were such an oddity, combined with our age, I joked with the young woman at the checkout desk in the Liquor Store, that she hadn't asked John to prove he was over 18, as it was stated she needed to do.
We finished our shopping and drove back to the camp, back into our little bubble of unreality. Our shopping expedition is one of the highlights of our trip so far, just a tiny step into the real world of South Africa.

Thursday 28 November Punda Maria
Still no mobile phone coverage after the storm of a couple of nights ago. It's annoying and frustrating for us as there are several things we would like to check up on before we go to Zimbabwe, as well as upload this journal. The inconvenience for the Camp administration is much worse than that. We now appreciate that all their computerised system is dependent on a mobile phone network. We are not sure how they are coping with centralised bookings as we checked in before the outage, but a trip to buy one item from the Camp shop requires taking a packed lunch. We've given up getting an ice cream out of the cabinet before every thing else has been checked out. Each item purchased is hand written into a receipt book, every detail including bar code number is recorded, then totalled up using a calculator. The character of the local people does not have haste as one of its attributes, any intrusive diversion, such as a greeting from a colleague, may cause a further delay in the transaction, hence the melted ice-cream scenario.
The restaurant is currently out of action, due to a bat infestation of the roof over the kitchen. When we arrived we were told that the restaurant might be closed on the following evening. Now that work has begun it is obvious that it could be closed for many days or even weeks. The stench from the bats now that the workmen have broken into the ceiling cavity is disgusting and choking, the workmen are actually wearing masks. Yet, as with the previous entry, Punda Maria is an engaging Campsite. In comparison to all the other Camps we have stayed at in Kruger Park it is unassuming and run on traditional 'African' lines. All the other Camps have provided facilities for every campers needs or wants, whereas Punda Maria is back to basic camping.
Today we went up to the far north of the Park, where the scenery is dramatically different. Tall and distinguished Baobob trees dot the landscape. Kopjes rise majestically from the plains, which disappear into the distance, lasting for ever. The route is often undulating, corners turned to find copses of trees and pools of water. There are fewer animals but many more birds. It is empty and lonely.
We tried to drive to the Thulamela Archaeological site, but the track was blocked, a fallen tree pulled across it. We stopped at the Picnic Site and spoke to a Ranger there who had no idea when it would reopen. I asked him about the fact that even when Pafuri Camp is rebuilt it is too expensive for most people to stay at. It seems that SAN Parks has a plan to build a Camp in the area, over in the direction of 'Crooks Corner'. Things seem to be happening quite slowly in some parts of SAN Parks at the moment. It is incongruous that on the one hand Shingwedzi Camp has been completely rebuilt and the Pafuri Picnic spot looked brand new, levelled and reconstructed after the floods last January, but coming up to the busiest tourist season of December and January, Punda Maria has just decided to replace the bat infested restaurant and hasn't replaced its washing machines. An affordable Camp in the northern Pafuri region would surely be a good financial investment, it's surprising it hasn't happened before. We keep hearing comments from fellow campers, white South Africans who love the Park and have been coming here for many years, came with children and now bringing grand children, without any racist comparison, who say that unfortunately it is not as well maintained as it used to be. If it is now under black South African management, why should that make a difference? Can there really be such a racially stereotypical diverse view on what is considered 'good management'? We have both spent time in a number of 'African' countries and in some ways envied the 'what ever will be, will be', 'if God wishes' approach to life, however....??
We continued eastwards to 'Crook's Corner',  where the Limpopo River provides a boundary between the three countries, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. It became known as Crook's Corner because it was where poachers, smugglers and people traffickers hung out. There could easily pass from one country to another to escape whichever police force or military was pursuing them. Having seen maybe one other tourist car all day, we discovered three or four others parked there. The occupants were mostly birders, hoping to catch a glimpse of rarer migrant species traveling a little further south from the heat of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. We had a conversation with a couple from The Eastern Cape who were interested to hear about our trip three years ago when we had passed through that area. They were also able to answer some questions we had. The flood level of January this year was not as high as that of February 2000, but the destruction and devastation was much worse. It wasn't simply a matter of the river flooding, an enormous tidal wave was created at the confluence of the Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers. The Luvuvhu normally drains into the Limpopo, but on this occasion as both rivers were in full flood, it was met with a wall of water coming in the opposite direction. This explains why we have seen trees uprooted and fallen in more than one direction, and why whole tracts of land were removed and replaced. We also learnt that it is unusual to see so much water at that point of the Limpopo, this could be due to some residual water still remaining in the river bed since last January, but it is difficult to say because the whole river course has been remodelled. It was very fortunate for us, I have a photo of 'the great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo', unfortunately I didn't manage to get a young elephant in it.
It was one of the best days we have had in the Park. We didn't see the game, but the scenery was stunning, so different to anything else in the south. It is a cool and overcast evening. Perhaps it will rain.

Friday 29 November Punda Maria
It did rain it the night, not heavily, more of a thick drizzle and was damp and cool when we woke up this morning. We are now on countdown to leaving the Park, indeed to leaving South Africa, as we cross over the Limpopo River into Zimbabwe for the next stage of the trip. The drizzly rain cleared a bit, although it is still damp and overcast. We have cleared and repacked the car, preparing for the next stage of the journey. We are slightly apprehensive about the border crossing at Beitbridge as we have had so many warnings and cautions about it, but all the information about travelling in Zimbabwe has been positive. We are ready to move on. Looking back on the trip so far, if we were planning it again with the knowledge we have now, we would have had a week less in the Kruger Park and maybe spent the other week in Limpopo Province in South Africa. I think we have missed an opportunity to have had more variety in the trip, the central area of the Park is very similar, with game sightings being the main attraction. On our return trip to Pretoria we are overnighting in the area of the Soutpansberg and are sorry we will not have longer there. A week exploring this northern and less visited part of South Africa would have interesting.
Another thing to add is that we have been in the Kruger Park for 24 days and nave not seen or heard a single mosquito. Maybe there hasn't been enough rain yet? We have decided to start our anti-malarial prophylaxis this morning though, just to be safe as we go further north into wet and steamy Zimbabwe.
I have had a few more thoughts about the white/black management thing, especially the washing machines! Maybe I ought to try and see it from a more 'African' perspective. The Punda Maria Camp was originally created and equipped by whites for whites. I remember when I was in Tanzania and a young black woman offered to do my washing for me. She returned a beautifully clean and spotless shirt without the stubborn stains I had been unable to remove. When I congratulated her on this I was told that the problem is that we (white) people rely on machines to do our work for us, and so we have lost the skills and ability to perform simple and basic tasks for ourselves. Who needs washing machines? There seems to be a number of women living in and around the camp, maybe partners of men working here. I have noticed that they do chores for some of the campers, their washing up and some cleaning, maybe they also do washing, by hand, somewhere? It doesn't sit comfortably with my philosophy of independence and not asking anyone else to do something I am not prepared to do myself, but I do that in other aspects of life. Is it that I consider these tasks to be 'demeaning', therefore  I'm not prepared to hand them down to someone else? It would certainly be a way of putting money into the local economy.

13.30 and phone coverage has just returned so I will upload this now. It's very overcast, heavy and sultry, so if we get another storm tonight it could get wiped again. We are hoping not, as we would really like a dry tent to pack up in the morning.                                                                                                      

Kruger National Park, Bataleur Bush Camp

Sunday 24 November
There isn't mobile phone coverage at Bataleur Bush Camp, so I won't be able to upload this until we get to the next Rest Camp, which will be Punda Maria in a cuple of days time.
Tonight I will sleep in a bed. I hope it is a good experience, I love the tent so much. This is a 'treat' and a different experience. We are staying at one of the Park's 'Bush Camps' for a couple of nights. It's the only way we could get to sleep so deep in the bush, these are remote fenced areas and camping is not allowed in them. We picked this one because it was so small, just 7 cottages, some are much larger and can accommodate as many as 80 people. Bataleur is primarily a bird-watchers hang-out, that's fine with us, we have seen so much game, and it means it is eerily quiet and isolated. We had a winding route here from Shingwedzi, following a river bed which was dry in parts, but with water pools where we saw hippo, crocodile, herons and geese. There doesn't seem to be a lot of game in the area, although we saw giraffe, elephant, kudu and impala.
Last night at Shindwedzi was rather blighted by the insects. Not only did we have the small flies which have been present almost everywhere, but also a plague of flying ants, small and large crusty beetles, and all sorts of other creatures which would probably make an entomologists day, but just made for an uncomfortable evening for me. It was quite a battle getting into bed without taking any of them with us. We had a good drive out from Shingwedzi yesterday. We took the Mphongolo Loop Road to Babalala, it was such different scenery, lush grass in place and tall, towering trees with amazing trunks. Today we met up again with a couple of Americans we have seen several times, they were also a Babalala, they left in a northerly direction and we returned southwards along the Mphongolo road. Less than a kilometre from Babalala they saw an adult Cheetah and 4 cubs. We saw a Goliath Heron and a Fish Eagle. To see the Fish Eagle was wonderful, they are such magnificent birds, but I think the prize was the Goliath Heron. It was so beautiful, it's neck so long and when it flew off it's feathers were almost iridescent.
We enjoyed the stay at Shingdwezi, maybe because everyone was so pleased to see us and all the facilities are in excellent condition having just been restored after the floods last January. We watched a video made by the crew of a helicopter rescue team, as they airlifted people to rescue from trees and the tops of buildings. Looking at the large, deep and almost empty river bed now it is impossible to imagine how it could ever have contained that amount of water.
During the drive here today there was so much evidence of extensive water damage and erosion along the river bed. Vast gulleys dissect the soil and, close to the river, trees hang perilously over the dry banks with roots exposed.

Monday 25 November
It is very quiet here, only 3 of the bungalows occupied. As they all set amongst trees you don't really see anyone else, but we caught a glimpse of another middle-aged-ish couple, necks weighed down with telescopic camera equipment, serious bird-watchers.  I talked to one of the Camp employees this morning and learnt that they are all on 'zero-hours' arrangements. They only get paid if there are residents and they have work to do. They are so pleased to see us! After our braai we strolled over to the hide, from where you can see out over a water pool. It was dusk so there weren't so many birds, but we watched as a small herd of elephants with one of the youngest calfs we have seen, came to drink and bathe. Back at the bungalow we had a pleasant evening sitting outside in the covered kitchen/eating area. The insect population was much less and didn't bother us at all. Some tiny bats flitted out of the thatch roof, explaining some of the streaks down the walls, and polished off quite a few. I have no idea which type of bat, but in the dim light they seemed to have a bluish hue.
When we came outside to get coffee and breakfast this morning we had to sweep everywhere and clean all the surfaces. After we had gone to bed the squirrels and any other small animals who might make mouse like droppings had obviously held a party. We had adhered to the warning signs about keeping food in the cupboards because of squirrels, but I had left a sealed plastic container of olives out, that had been nibbled through but they don't seem to have been impressed with the olives. There isn't a monkey or baboon problem here, otherwise the cupboards wouldn't be safe, monkeys would open the doors and baboons might well tear even locked doors open. The damage wreaked by baboons at Maroela when they rampaged through the cooking area outside a caravan and the adjacent tent was awful. They pulled tables and chairs over, smashed crockery and glasses, and upturned any container they could find.
Enjoying the luxury of the bungalow we cooked eggs for breakfast and then took a drive to 2 nearby water spots, a lake and a dam. Both of them are in the area only available to people staying at the Bush Camp, no day visitors, you have to be booked in as a resident. The lake and the dam were both vast and deep, the best stretches of water we have seen anywhere, but we only saw hippos and crocodiles, mid-morning not being a good game viewing time. A startled herd of Impala dashed across the road ahead of us, totally disorganised and running in every direction, suggesting that they had been disturbed by a predator. We turned off the car engine and sat quietly for a time, but we didn't see anything.
We came across 2 Woodland Rangers deep in the bush. They were in camouflage gear and very heavily armed, rifles and lots of ammunition slung around their bodies. We stopped to speak to them. We knew that here in the northern, less visited and more isolated part of the Park poaching has been a problem. They told us that since they have been working up here things are much better, they keep a patrol on the Mozambiquan border, which is how poachers gain access, the western and southern boundaries of the Park are in South Africa and well fortified and guarded. In the north a tiny area abuts the Limpopo river, forming a border with Zimbabwe, but the whole of the western boundary is also the border with Mozambique, through the Lembobo Mountains. I have no idea how the Mozambiquans monitor the National Park their side of the border, or what effect it will have if it ever becomes possible to create the trans-frontier Park envisaged, taking in that part of Mozambique and extending across the Limpopo into Zimbabwe. I am sure it will all be very 'political'.
There are plenty of birds here at the bungalow for us to see and we will probably take another look at the elephants tonight.

Kruger National Park, Shingwedzi

Well, the rain came, and quite a lot of it. It started yesterday early afternoon, soon after we got back from a short drive, and continued throughout the afternoon and evening until this morning. There were some occasional short periods when it stopped, but it seemed like more heavier spells. We haven't encountered many what we would call 'conventional' tenters on this trip. There are several caravans and motor-homes, but the popular tenting option is what looks like a very expensive piece of equipment. It looks like a trailer with a canvas packed top. At what appears to be a simple cord pull it transforms itself into a large tent, the back of which is over the trailer. Large canopies come out in all directions putting the whole thing under rain/shade cover. The back side of the trailer, under a canopy, opens down to form a stocked kitchen unit, with fridge, freezer and a breakfast bar. If it is along the same lines as a safari 4 X 4 option we had a look round at Letaba, then boxes on rollers pull out which contain everything you need. The safari 4 X 4 at Letaba was really only for 2 people as you climbed a ladder to sleep on top. It was very sophisticated though, an adapted Toyota Hi-Lux with the ability to raise the undercarriage for very rocky off-road stuff and a swamp attachment. Most of the people with the trailer version seem to have families. In fact one arrived at the site last night, after dark, in the rain, with 2 small children and a baby. So we, with our pitch and strike plain old tent are a bit of an exception. However, even after the heavy and the persistent rain of the last 24 hours we are still dry inside, the lack of extremely strong and gusty wind means we are much more secure.
It was cold last night, I put long trousers and a thick top on and even contemplated sleeping in my clothes. Once we were tucked up in the bedroom unit in my sleeping bag, at 20.00! , I was quite warm enough. The tent is a bit on the flimsy side for some of the extreme conditions we have encountered, but is doing well, loads of ventilation but quite secure and large enough to sit in if it rains.
So we  had a dry couple of hours when we got up this morning around 07.00 which enabled us to put everything outside and sweep out and de-ant the front of the tent. As the groundsheet isn't integral it seems lots of leaves and sand blow in. We also emptied out the car contents and reorganised our packing. We had stocked up with supplies before coming into the Park, which was quite unnecessary, as the Camp shops sell enough basic stuff to keep us going, not the range of fruit we might like, but enough. They also sell very small quantities of things, which we have discovered is a very good idea, without proper refrigeration, we buy ice on a daily basis for a cool box, it is difficult to keep anything which is not in a water-tight container cool. Fruit, for example, ends up swimming in water as the ice melts.
Some light rain has returned so we are back inside doing a bit of catching up, I'm writing this and John is looking at route-planning, and we are starting to think ahead to Zimbabwe. We have spoken to several people who have been/go there, and although we have been warned about police corruption, particularly at the Beitbridge border crossing, the country seems to be in a much better state than the British media reports, which is what we thought before we came.
On 'political' issues maybe I have time now to add a few more thoughts about the South African situation. An important thing to mention first is that I have only spoken to white people. We have seen black people staying in the Camps, but they seemed to be in the more expensive bungalows. That would fit in with what we had heard about a very rich black elite, and poverty amongst most of the population. Kruger National Park seems to be completely black run. With the exception of one white person appearing momentarily, presumably from a back office, all the staff we have met have been black, not just the manual workers but also the administrative staff. There may be many others in Glass Towers somewhere, but we haven't encountered them.
So from the white minority  we have met camping there seems to be a story of reverse apartheid, resulting in an exodus of the young whites, in  search of work. A white man we spoke to was self-employed with one or more small businesses. He told us that a major problem is the recruitment of the best staff for the work. Because of the quota system reflecting the percentage of the population, if he advertises a job and has an outstanding white applicant he can't offer him the job unless he has already filled his required quota of black employees, and has to give the job to the 'best of the worst'. I wonder why there is such a paucity of good black applicants? Surely if the education system is free and accessible then, considering the percentages argument, there should be more skilled black Africans than white for each job? Another point he was critical about was the government requirement to create jobs wherever possible, for example he was not allowed to have self-service pumps at his fuel station, he had to allow pump attendant jobs. This must obviously reduce his profit margin, but on the other hand high employment usually leads to a more stable society. Maybe it is something to be considered in the U.K.? Should petrol pump attendants be re-introduced? How about a permanent attendant in public toilets??

Kruger National Park, Shingwedzi

Another place, another storm, although this time nothing like the one we had at Maroela.
The Letaba campsite was vast and set amongst Mopane trees, which are loved by the Cicadas. We had heard them from the car as we drove through the Mopane scrub, which predominates in this very dry area. At the campsite they were deafening and we attempted to find a shady spot closer to an Acacia tree. I am not sure if it is because the trees are not in full leaf yet, and as the rainy season arrives they produce more foliage, but full shade at the moment is hard to find. Usually the best we can do is dappled shade even we can find any at all. The first night there we cooked on the braai and put our light on after dark. We were immediately surrounded by flying Cicadas, flying into and on us. We backed further and further away, leaving them to enjoy the light all to themselves, and then eventually turning it off and finishing our wine in peaceful darkness. A couple who had arrived at the campsite about the same time as us and who had pitched closer to the perimeter fence called us over to see the hyenas padding up and down, just as we had seen them at Crocodile Bridge. We noticed that they had built up their braai after eating and didn't seem to have the same Cicada problem as us. He said that the fire and the smoke discouraged them.
Letaba is a well equipped site and on the second night there we had a meal at the restaurant, looking out over the Letaba river just before dusk, as the animals came down to drink. It was very pleasant. Even though we didn't need it for cooking we lit the braai when we got back to the tent and it did keep most of the Cicadas away which gave us a much more pleasant evening sitting outside. We had heard that the weather would remain unsettled for the next few days and we checked it out with an internet forecast. Heavy rain was expected for the area from Wednesday evening through Thursday and Friday. We had been going to stay at Letaba for three days and then move on to Shingwedzi for the next three. That would mean that we would possibly have to strike and pitch the tent in rain on Thursday. We decided to move to Shingwedzi a day early, having four days there instead. After our experiences at Maroela we would prefer to be safely installed before the next storm.
So we had a pleasant drive here yesterday, thickening clouds around us as we came further north. At reception we learnt that the Shingwedzi Camp only reopened at the end of September after devastating floods last February. Evidently very heavy and prolonged rainfall combined with a rapid rise in river level caused it to overflow the banks. There must have been well over a metre of flood water, it came up above window level in the reception and restaurant areas, and completely swamped the camping site, washing cars away. This means it must have flooded all the chalets and bungalows which are between the reception/restaurant area and the camping ground.
The campsite was almost deserted, big enough to take over 100 tents, there were three with us, although several of the bungalows appeared to be occupied in the evening. The ablution and kitchen blocks all look new, so presumably they have been replaced. The site is also completely level and only sand and grit, so perhaps it was bulldozed to remove the gullies which must have been created by the flood waters, not to mention cars and caravans being dragged across it. We cooked on the braai as the sky darkened and flashes of lightening appeared on the horizon. As soon as we put the light on there were swarms of tiny flies around it. As at Letaba we drew further away and were not troubled by them. By the time we went to bed at  20.30 the clouds of flies were unbelievably thick, they seemed to settle on anything white. We took great pains to make sure we didn't take any into the bedroom unit with us, undressing outside in the dark and shaking all our clothes well.
The temperature and the humidity were as high as anything I have ever experienced. At 20.30 it was still 38C and I was sweating from every conceivable part of my body. We lay naked on our sleeping mats, just dripping, careful not to move as that created even more sweat. When we were in the Camp shop this morning one of the people working there, who lives on-site,  said that last night was one of the worst he has ever experienced, very unusual. He was surprised that it didn't develop into a terrific storm, but there has been very heavy rainfall in some other places, just outside the Park. We were hardly in bed when the wind started, so exactly the right decision. We steeled ourselves for the worst as the tent was buffeted in the gusts. However it was no where near as dramatic as the previous storm. There was very little overhead lightening and we only heard a couple of low and distant rumbles of thunder. There was no rain. One of the campsite workers, when we mentioned the possibility of rain, he said not here, not now. The forecast covered the whole area, from Punda Maria to Letaba, maybe that was where we could see the storm on the horizon, but Shingwedzi didn't get so much rain, which was why everywhere is so dry and arid.
We didn't sleep badly, despite being alert to any major wind gusts. The 10 inch nails held everything in place
This morning brought a totally different day, almost a 20° drop in temperature and    some light rain. 21C is the maximum forecast for today and tomorrow and maybe some rain, but it seems to be of the steady rather than storm variety.
Yesterday on the way here we saw an amazing site. We were following the Shingwedzi river and glancing out of my car window I thought I saw some hippos in the water. John stopped the car, they were in fact two elephants. We wondered if they were mating in the water. Do they? Is it easier? They were rolling around, on top and underneath each other, and frequently one or other was completely submerged.
We have had a small drive out this morning to a nearby dam. The feel of the Park is very different here, some less organised, far, far fewer people.