Zimbabwe

Hilary and Ed were visiting last week, and I had a week off to travel round Zimbabwe with them. It's a strange time to visit, as there don't seem to have been any guidebooks written since before all the problems. It's peaceful now though, and there's food on the shelves, so a nice opportunity to see a country not overrun by tourists.

Victoria Falls are awesome from the other side of the border, you get much more of a sense of how long they are as you walk along 16 different look-out points in a straight line. The Livingstone side is more of a maze, and I still get disorientated about where I'm standing in relation to the river!

Driving down to Bulawayo we spent an afternoon in a lovely art galllery and then headed on to Kariba. Kariba is a stunningly pretty town overlooking the huge lake formed by the Kariba dam. Before the problems it was a big tourist destination, so there are lots of lovely hotels and lodges to choose from. There's hardly anyone around though, and everyone was so pleased to see us that we had a lovely couple of nights there paying well below market-rate for a lovely lodge overlooking the lake. Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful and I'd really recommend it as a destination.

Back in Zambia the holiday didn't end well, with Hilary getting very sick and not being able to fly home as planned. As I write this they're finally in the air, but I'm starting to think my African holidays are doomed, the last one ended with my friend Dan breaking his leg. Hopefully when Tom and Jes arrive on Thursday all will go smoothly...

So that's the run-down of what I've been up to. I'm hoping that Hilary and Ed will add their comments and maybe some photos when they're safely back in the UK so watch this space.