"Safari days 2 - 6" a Zimbabwe Travel Page by Rusket

Entering Zimbabwe was a nightmare! The line of trucks was several kilometers long. We were fortunate to have an experienced guide / driver, he got us through in just 2 1/2 hours, paperwork included. This safari was the only time during our 8 1/2 months journey around the world we participated in an organized tour, and I do not regret. We saw and learned a lot during the 30 days it lasted, but more important for my choice was security. Drifters, with whom we travelled, have another policy than many other tour operators: The have only one guide / driver on their trucks, and cooperate with local companies on route. This way we always had guides with local expertise, and our "private guide" Warren was able to have some time off once in a while.

Zimbabwe was a lot drier than South Africa, in many places the crops had died.

There was an election coming up, and riots occured daily. We were thus one of the last groups to be let through. I was asked during our journey if we had any trouble, and the answer is no, except that we were stopped three times in police controls. As always Drifters were concerned about safety, and due to the riots Warren chose not to stop in Bulawayo.

Souvernir sellers were along the road all the time, and a lot of their stuff was of really good quality!

I was amazed when we stopped to buy ice at this shop; I always thought SPAR was a norwegian chain of grocery stores. Apparently not, we found them both in South Africa and in Zimbabwe :-)

I have chosen to write separate pages about the four stops we made in Zimbabwe:

The Great Zimbabwe ruins
Matopos National Park
Hwange National Park
Victoria Falls

Picture: Elge is enjoying the passing landscape though the large windows of Froggy (the truck). A good advice: Bring an inflatable pillow like Elge has on the picture, your neck won't hurt when you fall asleep, which you occasionally do on longer transport stretches.