Me in front of the mighty Victoria falls at the Zambian side
At this page, I will tell you all about my trip to Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. My trip lasted from November 6 - November 28 2001. Dear friends, I would like to start this page saying as Karen Blixen said ”One time I had a farm in Africa”, but I have never had a farm in Africa, even though I wish I had one! LOL. I do want to thank one of Karen Blixens fellow countrymen Holger Jensen at Jensen Safaris in Pretoria, South Africa, for helping me to get hold of a cheap and good ticket to South Africa. You really seem to have a great company there, Holger! Keep up the good work! I flew from Copenhagen, Denmark to Johannesburg International airport Jan Smuts in South Africa. I arrived in Johannesburg at november 7, after having laughed my head of aboard the aeoroplane with 2 South African white women, one Afrikaaner and one English, both living in London. We had heaps of Gin and Tonic´s on the plane. At the airport I was met by Gerrit, a friend of my friends Ronel and Anton van Zyl. I met Anton and Ronel last year too in South Africa. You can read all about it on my page ”My trip to South Africa”. Gerrit was in charge of a guesthouse called the Pretoria Backpackers. I spent 2 nights at the backbackers as Ronel and Anton were working. I arrived in the middle of the week. I really liked the Pretoria Backpackers and my friend Antonie Botes from Pietersburg also met up with me there when he was flying back from Cape Town. We all had some lovely days in Pretoria. The night between the Friday and Saturday, Antonie and I spent with Ronel and Anton at their home in Gaarsfontein, just outside Pretoria. Saturday morning we all got up very early and started our long drive to Zimbabwe. We let Antonie off in Pietersburg and continued our way to the Botswanean border. Botswana was very beautiful and we saw wild animals along the roads. The roads were of very good quality and almost as good as in South Africa. We stopped for the night at Francistown. There we stayed in a kind of treehouse, and almost felt like two Tarzans and one Jane! LOL. The next day we continued driving through Botswana and stopped at Chobe where we spent the 2nd night in Botswana. At Chobe we took a boattrip on the Chobe river. We saw lots of crocodiles, elephants, giraffs, zebras, buffalos and other wild animals along the river. The next day we entered the border to Zimbabwe. We drove straight to Victoria falls and the Lokuthula lodge where we were going to spend 6 nights. Ronel will have to correct me if I am wrong concerning the amount of nights that we stayed there!. When we first drove into the town of Victoria falls a black youngster greeted us in Afrikaans with ” Hoe gaan dit met jou?” which means ”How are you?”. We all got very happy that somebody spoke Afrikaans in Zimbabwe. After we got happy, he cycled past us and shouted ”Varknekks”. We didn´t think we heard the right word, but we did. ”Varknekk!” means ”Pigthroat” in Afrikaans. So this youngster weren´t very kind at all. After that we called ourselves the ”Varknekkbrigade” during our stay in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe we did a lot of activities such as White river rafting on the mighty Zambesi river. The rafting was videotaped by the staff of Shearwater, and now I am the happy owner of one of those cassettes. After the rafting, I was exhausted and as a matter of fact the floor went out of our boat at the last rapid and there we saw a crocodile laying at the shore. We managed the boat to get to the endstation with no floor in the boat. The gorgeclimbing was exhausting, and nowadays when I watch this video I have to laugh when I see one of the black guys leading me out of the gorge. I was the last person out of the gorge. At the gorge top we were offered cold drinks such as beers and cold lemonades. We also did elephantriding which was wonderful, and we also went up in an heliumballoon to watch the sunrise over the Victoria falls. It was absolutely stunning! We also went to Zambia and we actually walked across the falls by foot to the Livingstone island. It was a really dangerous adventure. We walked on a very narrow footbridge above the falls (kind of a log), and some people thought I was blind because of my balancing (LOL)I took it very easy. My Afrikaaner friends were dancing on the log like small Impalas :-), but still you shall remember that this narrow footbridge was a log and we were walking on it without lifelines, so you can imagine that I was afraid. Any mistake would have meant death. At Livingstone island we swam in Crocodile waters, didn´t know that until it was done. :-( We also saw the city of Livingstone and some beautiful hotels around there. After the 6 days at the Lokuthula lodre we went to Hwange former known as ”Wankie”. There we stayed at the mainlodge. A black man called Joseph took very good care of us. Hwangie was an adventure and we saw so many wild animals. We saw almost everything except lions. We stayed at Hwangie for 2 nights. We gave Joseph a nice safarishirt to say thank you with when we departed. After that, we drove back and stayed another 4 nights at Lokuthula Lodge at Victoria falls. We saw the famous Victoria falls colonial hotel, went shopping, drank beer around the pool etc. We absolutely loved the ”Zambesi lager” brewed in Zimbabwe. We also did some gameviewing in the local park around the Victoria falls, and we did see some animals there as well. We actually had wildlife just around the corner at the Lokuthula lodge. One night Anton woke me up and there was an elephant just outside the bedroom window of Anton and Ronel. We also saw a lot of warthogs and velvet monkeys around the lodge. In the streets of Victoria falls we also saw heaps of baboons. Ronel and Anton and I really had a good time, we were having a lot of barbecues or ”braai” as you say in Afrikaans. The last evening Ronel and I actually ate warthog at the Lokuthula hotel. It was delicious and in a sort of madeirasauce with potatoes. Zimbabwe was beautiful but the powerty in which many people lived was obvious to us at times. Robert Mugabe has really destroyed the economy of this once rich and good country. The official exchange rate when changing South African rands to Zimbabwe dollars used to be 25 Zimbabwe dollars for one South African Rand. Robert Mugabe changed this himself so if you changed to Zimbabwe dollars inside Zimbabwe you only got 6 Zimbabwe dollars for one South African Rand. But we changed in Zambia and got 25 zimbabwe dollars for 1 rand. But Zimbabwe is worth a trip, and lets pray that Zimbabwe doesn´t get more destroyed. You should visit it now if you could, as the nature is so beautiful. We drove back the same way to South Africa again through Botswana, and we drove non-stop from Victoria falls to Martins drift at the South African boder. The last night we had to spend in a small cabin as we couldn´t reach the border in time. The border closes at 6 pm every day and does not open until 9 am. There were sooooooooooooooo many mosquitos there at the Limpopo river, and we were a bit afraid as there were no mosquitonets, but we had to sleep there as there were no other place around to stay at. The next morning Anton found a scorpion at the back of his backpack. Kind of scary! After bordercontrols we entered South Africa and came to Groblers Brug! Finally we were back in Afrikaaner-country! Anton and Ronel were pleased to be back, and so was I. But we all agreed on that we had a fantastic time. And it was so nice to meet my dear friends Anton and Ronel again! (Ronel, known to me now as ”Mama Africa”. (A black waitress at a Botswanean restaurant were calling her ”Mama” and I was laughing my head of!) LOL, and Anton ”John Wayne” after his elephantride haha!!, dropped me off in Piefersburg at my friend Antonie Botes guesthouse Daracron. He is the manager there and also has a pastorsdegree! I stayed at Daracron with Antonie or Tony as he is also called from Saturday – Wednesday. I really enjoyed my stay, and he showed me all around Pietersburg, and we also went to see the Harry Potter movie, went to different restaurants, went shopping at the Savannah mall, and I met his friends Ilana, Lisa and Lisa, Hermann etc. I also liked Tonys mom ”Auntie Ritta alot. And her friend ”Auntie Edna” was also so cool. We kept talking German all the time, Edna and I. I left Pietersburg by bus on wednesday morning. I was the only white person in the bus together with blacks, coloreds and Indians. They kept looking at me all the time! I guess it is not very common for whites going by bus in South Africa. At the busstop at Carlton center in Johannesburg I was suposed to catch a cab to the airport. I didn´t know where to get a taxi, but Tony had been speaking to the busdriver who had agreed on helping me. After a long long while the busdriver got me a taxi. The taxi looked like a taxi from hell and the taxidriver looked like a junkie. After hesitating for a long time, I jumped into the taxi. I was so scared. I thought this driver would drive me to a township and mug me and then kill me. He didn´t even speak a word of English. I kept watching all the streetsigns and boards and were looking for the direction ”Johannesburg international airport”. The traffic was vast and after a long time I got to the airport. I was shaking as I was so afraid. I thank my God that I survived that taxiride. My Africa trip was so enjoyable and I arrived home with a great tan. I bought some nice things there such as a huge woodenhippo and a nice bracelet made of silver and elephanthair. I want to thank Ronel and Anton and Antonie so much. Anton and Ronel -I will always be your very own "Crocodile Anders Baobab" LOL! You will always have a special place in my heart and I hope to see you all here in Sweden very soon. You will always be very dear to me! I love you!!! "En vir Antonie ek moet se in Afrikaans, ek is baie lief vir jou my skat, en ek dink nog steeds altyd op jou" And to my other dear South African friends John, Renée and Rick, sorry I didn´t get around to see you too, but I had so few days in South Africa, as the distances are vast! I will see you soon though! I will come back soon and stay longer in South Africa! I love you too! Nkosi sikelele i Afrika!!
Ronel and I swimming in the Zambesi River
Anton and Ronel at our lodge
A wild elephant at Hwange, Zimbabwe
With our guide at the Zambian side of the falls
Mocka, the elephant and I!
Buying craft from s small boy.
Ronel and Anton and I and some other people doing the White-riverrafting down the mighty Zambesi.
Here is my friend Antonie in Pietersburg. South Africa
