It’s not a blog! It’s a travel journal!

The most fun I ever had traveling was when I'd go with my grandfather on truck when I was a kid. We'd stop and load up on old country tapes and hit the road. He always took the long hauls when I'd go with him so we could travel for weeks during the summer and we eventually managed to hit most of the continental US and had so much fun doing it. He always told me stories of all the people he'd met since going on truck and would make a point of introducing me to as many of them as he could meet up with while we were gone.

During one of our trips, we came across this old pole with a car literally wrapped around it off in a field by the side of the road. I asked him about it and he told me that a few years back, a man had fallen asleep on his way home from work and slammed into the pole. He was thrown from the car and didn't have a scratch on him, despite the mangled state of his car. Instead of removing the wreckage, they simply moved it to that field. They thought it would make a cool story for those driving that stretch of otherwise rather boring road. Whether it was true or not I have no idea, but it was certainly an awesome story (particularly for a second grader!) and one of those sights you never really forget.

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~Fallon~

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.- Russell
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Lol, funny blog, I have a lot, still, there’s one little problem, no one will believe any of the stories I might put in here, lol.

Even when I’m in my hometown amongst friends, they used to look at me with disbelief whenever I talked about the adventures I experienced on my travels.

So, I hardly ever talk about these things, I can tell you this, to be on the menu of the food pyramid of wildlife is amazing, lol, it makes one to become very humble in regard to every aspect of life!

Nice blog,

http://www.wowzone.com/monkey.htm

Actually, Wombels, hearing the stories would be cool!

THanks for the tale, Fallon!

"Goodness is the only investment that never fails."
H.D.Thoreau

This a merely a glimpse of what my eyes caught, and I will try my best to translate this in order for all to understand, it has already been brought to my attention that my way of writing isn’t all that easy to follow, so I can only ask to focus and pounder upon the content rather than on grammar or whatever else which might annoy one as a reader.

In order to keep it short, lol, I need to skip a lot of things which I normally would include to project the fullness of my experiences lived.

The main reason why I’m willing to share this, is because I already know writhing it down will bring me back to that moment, maybe not in a physical way, but some emotions whether they are fear, joy, love or pain remain inside and can be brought up when we open doors in our mind to a past once lived.

I have spend more than half my life travelling and working in many different parts of the world, but I have chosen to tell about this place and experience because it was somewhat a turning point in my life which on a later stage in life brought me all I ever needed to know.

Because of my sister who was living in Zimbabwe I had an easier opportunity to visit this most amazing country, most amazing because Zimbabwe has it ALL in one country.

Tanzania and South Africa are amazing, still I regard Zimbabwe to be Africa’s Paradise because of its diversity.

I spend two years upon the continent while mainly resided in Harare which is the capital of Zimbabwe.

The first thing which affects immediately when entering this country is the genuine friendliness of Zimbabweans, it takes a few days to get used to their being, since unlike what one might see on television because of the dreadful situation this country is undergoing. Zimbabweans don’t carry any hatred inside their hearts.

Apart from the Chibuku addicts which are ok themselves everyone is more than a joy to hang around with.

Apart from English, Zimbabweans speak Shona while a smaller percentage speaks N’debele, these percentages differ depending on what regions are visited.

My sister’s boyfriend those days, a Zimbabwean was an incredibly crazy dude! Lol

This dude got me to be invited to join a group of 8 into what one might best refer to as being a life changing adventure, lol

A friend of the Dude had planned a annual trip consisting out of a Canoe trip which would take place upon the Zambezi river.

This from “Mana Pools” to “Chirundu” which would take us about seven days to peddle by canoe.

This canoe trajectory is one which is not popular amongst tourists, tourists mostly venture around Victoria Falls while professional (armed) guide’s organize and accompany these excursions to provide in safety and whatever luxury a person can imagine of.

Having agreed In all my excitement to join this group, I carried no clue whatsoever of what I was actually embarking myself into, lol!

I was lingering in a naïf “yeah yeah” “let’s do it” mode while not even giving it a single thought to grasp the fact, this was by all means no ordinary excursion.

We did not bring along any fire arms, no radios or mobile phones who wouldn’t had worked anyways! We carried inside our canoes all which we needed for the whole journey, everything!

Sleeping gear, drinks, food, cooking gear, foldable chairs/tables and all of our other personal belongings we needed to engage in such a trip.

We had our 4 canoes completely packed making such that maneuvering only, soon became a challenge upon itself, lol.

Do know, although it might all seem to crazy to be true, it was in fact nothing but Crazy while I recall every single detail of it like if it were yesterday!
So, let’s start with this,

Day 1:

We all got together somewhere in the center of Harare to load up one truck with all goods while meeting up with the group, a New Zeeland’s (Kiwis) couple in their late 30ties, two older 60 year old Zimbabwean ex pads, two Australian 19teen year old girls while myself and The Dude!
The two old guys were in charge while also the organizers of this private excursion.

It took us a ride of approximately 5 to 6 hour maybe more to get to Mana Pools, of which the last 2 hours got filled with eating dust upon bumpy roads dirt roads full of potholes .

Once we arrived upon our camping spot we had to hurry up to make the necessary preparations in order to set up our camp for the night, we would only start our canoe trip the following morning.

In Zimbabwe depending of the season it takes less than 30min to go from full daylight to pitch dark, this takes place around 18h, which is a very annoying occurrence to adapt to, it simply bothers the mindset.

Regardless of location in Zimbabwe and many more African countries, between 17h and 18h one can experience an overall change of colors which is no less than magic for the eye to catch. Because of the sun’s inclination there’s a glow of light which starts to veil and cover everything making colors, especially those of flowers and leaves to turn out in amazing beauty. Like if someone was applying Photoshop in real time, lol.

Upon our arrival in the camp zone I also already realized we were inside the “game zone”, meaning, everything which is animal like wonders around freely, haha, imaging standing in the middle of amazingly Big Zoo knowingly realizing none are in the cage but rooming around, lol.

Note, I arrived in Africa only 3 months prior to that trip of which I spend most of my time in the city of Harare, so YES, I was feeling pretty weird inside, this feeling I can now still recall as mixture of fear and excitement, while not in a form of anxiety, more like some serious alertness that flew inside my body which was pretty bizarre. lol

Since most amongst us were behaving rather relaxed it helped to push out some of the (wicked predators) thoughts that were crossing my mind, lol.

Our camp setting was like a few meters away from the river bedside, an open somewhat round space in the middle of trees and vast vegetation, the open access to the river provided us to witness an amazing scenery upon the river and background mountains far away across the other side, those already turning deep red of color cause of the sunset that was starting to kick in.

Soon after we all enjoyed that breathtaking view the Dude and I helped to unload all the gear out of the truck and found ourselves a sleeping spot under a tree, were we gathered our stuff for the night. Because of some safety reasons still unclear to me, the Dude (some others in the party too) had previously chosen to sleep in a 5000* star Hotel, lol. It would be less a hassle to set up and tear down tents daily while also meaning us a less equipment to drag along inside our canoe during the journey ahead.

This literally changes one perspective of sleeping experience, lol, we both had foldable field beds, while other than this no nets or whatever to harm us from snakes, ants or worse mosquitoes, since we were in a Malaria affected area. Apart from tablets we used mosbar soap to harm us from mosquito bites.

After setting up our stuff we all joined in for dinner which had been prepared by the two old guys, upon the folding table which was set near by the huge campfire I could notice a magnum size 2 liter bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey, lol, we all got a small plastic cup filled to celebrate the beginning of our adventure.

I deeply enjoyed spilling it right over down my throat since I knew it would made me to feel way more relax, because I was wasn’t all that much relax, lol. Apart from the Whiskey we had another 300 cans of beer and some “look what I found!!! Vodka” to keep us all in the right mood, lol.

Regardless were one ventures upon this continent, there is always an abundance of alcohol to be found upon it, lol. Even people who don’t ever drink, do get drunk once in a while upon this continent.

I love to drink and get drunk anyhow, ha.
The big flames of the campfire together with the sensation of the Whiskey made me to fully enjoy the moment without watching my back whenever I thought or even imagined hearing something suspicious.

Everything sounded suspicious anyhow…haha

After dinner and cleaning up we got explained by the older guys how we would proceed the following morning, the do’s and don’ts got explained to us in order to ensure a safe trip upon and around the river. This all took place in a no nonsense fashion.

I seriously started to question my (wanna be) presence among the group when we got explained how to proceed in order to wash ourselves.

We were told something like this:

They know we are here!

Find a spot near the riverbank at least 30 meters away from the camp

Get underdressed

Check your entry point

Go dip in the river for a few seconds

Get back out and stay on the spot while facing the river

Soap and wash yourself fully

Take your towel and move away from the spot another 20meters

Check your entry point

Go back in the river and wash of the soap, like fast!

Get your ass back out and move away from the waterline to dry yourself!

Go back to spot one, collect your clothes and move away from the waterline!

Get dressed.

This and a whole bunch of other stuff made me too understand some deeper realities which were surrounding myself and the group.

This was sort of the beginning of everything, lol.

Between 19h and 20h there is some sort of general silence which announces a shift from day to night in the animal world, this silence invades your awareness because one suddenly find itself in a soundless vacuum.

To experience silence I extremely weird, I’m not joking when saying one can actually hear its own heartbeat when this would draw its attention! Myself got to experience this on two occasions.

After the silence one gets to enjoy the rumble of wildlife coming to life like if it were a concert of animal communication, lol.
Radio Animal Sounds like real loud at night!

It starts with hippo’s who are the bass sound of it all, on top of that monkey’s who organize themselves to create trouble. Monkeys love to hang around humans since it means items to play and maybe some food to steel.

At around 22h we were all tired and ready to go to sleep, since we were to wake up early in the morning to get our canoe adventure started!

Before going to our sleeping spots, the old guys called us all together near the river, once we were all there they switched on a torch to light up the water and riverbank, only to show us the amount of crocs and hippo’s which were rooming around, just in case someone might fancy to go for a swim, lol.

Eyes of croc’s turn red while the eyes of hippo’s turn green when light is reflected upon them.

All that red and green I witnessed amazed me enough to open up yet again another beer can, lol!

After we all found our way to our sleeping spots, It actually didn’t even took five minutes before our camp got harassed by 5 or 6 huge Baboons, well, to see one in a cage is one thing, to see them creating chaos in order to find something eat or play with is another, lol.

They almost freaked me out! They were putting up a show like Gremlins, playing with our kitchen gear and other stuff, I also realized they didn’t mind the fire which was still in flames.

Again it added to my inner concern.

After the old guys took care of them peace returned back inside the camp, I overwhelmed by what had just taken place, carried no intension whatsoever to throw myself to the other side in dreamland!

The Dude which was lying and already sleeping having missed the whole situation with the baboons was already long gone, like deep in sleep.

It took like one hour only for myself to witness two elephants passing by trough our camp, was it not for the two old guys to bring it up in the morning I would had believed I had suffered some hallucinating.

Having previously read books describing every single detail of elephant behavior I got somehow hit by a deep sense of awareness! I could actually die, lol, All of a sudden this became a strong meaningful thought in my mind!

I was already drunk when this awareness kicked inn, making me to grow some self disbelief that I had actually allowed myself to be part of all that, I was trying to figure out how I had have had put myself in such a position by joining this company and trip, lol

To deeply question your own actions is quite amazing, mostly this happens after something takes place, this was somewhat different while the questioning was quite confronting to.

It made me feel like a chicken!

Even the amazing amount of stars above my head seemed of no beauty or importance anymore, I carried like deep concerns for my safety while I could not sense it throughout the day in any other of the group, not even the Australian girls or Kiwi couple, while least to mention The Dude.

I felt like many things together, stupid and scary comes close to how felt when lying on that field bed listening and hearing sounds that seemed more close than ever. Lol

It was not over yet, a bunch of hippo’s found their way through our camp to venture themselves into the water, which was yet again another adrenaline shot on top of it all!

I have no clue how much time had passed, but at a certain point I could sense and smell something which made me to open my eyes, only to find myself looking straight in the eyes of a hyena who was staring right into mine!

I took me like a moment to realize and figure out what this strange looking silhouette was all about before I literally froze up of a fear so intense it got me paralyzed.

I could not possibly relate to what I saw, although I realized this big head was one of a hyena, It took me like 20 sec before I got my senses to respond in order get the freeze out of my body.
This monster head was like 1 meter from me and I carried no clue whatsoever on knowing how to respond or act to its presence, It only took me to slowly move for this hyena to take off!

I don’t recall anything else of that night because I immediately fell in a deep sleep few moments after this encounter.

It took me some time later to realize all of those emotions had drained me unto a level, that last one must have made me to release and fall of my energy cliff. lol

The next morning during breakfast everyone was laughing about the report the old guys were bringing over, while they showed and explained the loss and damage we had suffered overnight.

I was still feeling a bit numb because of the short sleep and all the rest, while I explained about the hyena.

The old guys confirmed some had been in the camp while one had put its teeth in one of the food boxes trying to open one up!

One showed us the box which was damaged, while the other explained how the jaws of a hyena are amazingly strong and they would had been able to rip any of the boxes open if they wouldn’t had their way, not been chased away, it came to my understanding I missed that chasing part while sleeping.

The more cynical part was one of the old guys explaining, I got lucky! Lol

I’m laughing now, but I surely didn’t even try to put up a smile up when it was brought to my attention, over the years hyena’s had gone familiar with the taste of human flesh.

Zimbabwe became in depended in 1980, while in the area we were having our trip a lot of casualties had fallen during this period in time of conflict, hyena’s got used to feed upon the corpses which were left unburied or got stranded upon the riverbeds.

On occasions people have since then (1980) been bitten in their face by hyena’s who presumed them to be a dead corpse, the only good news about it was, they immediately run away if they find out it isn’t a dead corpse, while in many cases leaving their victim heavily disfigured.

It has become a well none problem in certain areas, which included ours….how much fun is that! Lol.

This was actually the first moment I saw some concern rising within the group, apart from the Dude and the two old guys who remained the same Dude and the two old guys!

That’s about it for day one, lol,

Well, I surely don’t mind questions, I only wish this doesn’t turn out into a questioning debate, I carry no interest in spending any energy nor attention to that sort of sharing.

For those who carry interest in knowing about Day 2 it might take some time for me to write about that, since I will be out of town for a few weeks.

Hopefully some will enjoy this read and I would love to hear from people who are acquainted with this area or Zimbabwe in general.

If any Zimbabweans (shamaries) share this platform I would love to meet them, I had fun going through it all while writhing, hope some will enjoy to read it,

Africa brings out the real person out of a person, making it’s such and that amazing place to wonder around,

;-)

http://www.wowzone.com/monkey.htm