Day 28, Zimbabwe, Africa

Good morning from Zimbabwe.
We leave the magnificent Vic Falls and head for the capital, Harare, to pick up some supplies.

Next stop:The ruins of Great Zimbabwe.

Great Zimbabwe is the name given to hundreds of great stone ruins spread out over a 200 square mile area within the modern day country of Zimbabwe, which itself is named after the ruins

During the thirteenth century, a great city of stone arose in the African interior. For more than three hundred years Great Zimbabwe thrived and grew as the capital of a vast gold and ivory trading empire Great Zimbabwe ruins.

Developing from a small settlement in the 8th century, Great Zimbabwe evolved into a powerful and wealthy city state which flourished between AD 1250 and 1450 and at its zenith contained more than twenty thousand people. Its wealth was founded on cattle and subsequently trading gold, copper and ivory to Arab Merchants on the Indian Ocean coast in return for ceramics and
cloth.

By the 15th century the city had fallen into irreversible decline and for the next 300 years was known only to the outside world by hearsay, inspiring wild and romantic speculations linking it with the Queen of Sheba and KingSolomons Mines.

Wars were raged, art and architecture flourished, dynasties reigned and were overthrown. Then the civilization disappeared and left no record of a written language behind, which makes Great Zimbabwe one of the truly lost civilizations of the world

The Great Enclosure is the most impressive and extraordinary of the stone remains and is a large stone enclosure with a maximum diameter of 89 meters.

The wall is 244 meters long and, at its greatest, 5 meters thick and 10 meters high, capped by turrets and monoliths, where carved birds once perched.

Great Zimbabwe ruins is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Look, no mortar!! The entire structure was constructed from millions of granite blocks fitted together without mortar and remains the largest ancient stone structure in sub Saharan Africa

The purpose of the large tower?? That remains a mystery.

Long after the buildings and cathedrals of Europe have fallen, the Great Tower will still stand as a testimony to a long dead civilization........

Hopefully one day Zimbabwe will become a great nation again.......

I wonder how the guys are doing on that trek up Kili.......I cannot contact them......

We say goodbye to Zimbabwe as we head down to Botswana.....where our next adventure awaits...

Day 27, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Africa

Hello from Zambia once again.....

We have a special birthday treat for Monika today
.....Happy Birthday Monika:-)
.........we are going to visit Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders), a magnificent waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

So, let's take a helicopter flip over Victoria Falls....
Wow!!This gives us a real sense of the geography of the Vic Falls area!!

These are undoubtedly one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world!!

The Zambezi River, which is more than 2 km wide at this point, plunges noisily down a series of basalt gorges and raises an iridescent mist that can be seen more than 20 km away.

Surely they are some of the largest waterfalls in the world!!

Jarca and Marti are extremely fit and have been eagerly looking forward to going on the most exhausting of all the activities here.... White Water Rafting on the Zambezi .....
Be careful girls, there are Class 4 and Class 5 Rapids here...

Guess what Sita?? Today you are going on an Elephant Back Safari ! This is amazing! Despite its massive size, the elephants do not disturb the surrounding animals....

Nopi was trying to do some game spotting in a Microlight (which has an open cockpit) but is unlucky so she takes a flight over the falls instead...!

We simply cannot get enough of this waterfall and can see why it is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

The older, indigenous name of Mosi-oa-Tunya is the name in official use in Zambia and both names are used in the UNESCO World Heritage List

With a width of 1,708 metres (5,600 ft) and a height of 108 meters (360 ft), it forms the largest sheet of falling water in the world........simply awesome!!!!!

Bungee Jumping is definitely another one of my "things to do before I die" so I am going to try this adrenaline pumping activity. I have never done this before....but what better place than Vic Falls behind me and the River Gorge in front of me?
Oooooooooooooh, here I go....this is great!!!!!!

The Victoria Falls Bridge crosses the Zambezi River just below the Victoria Falls and is built over the Second Gorge of the falls.

The river is the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, the bridge links the two countries. There are border posts on the approaches to both ends, at the towns of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and Livingstone, Zambia, so we crossed over into Zimbabwe and made our way to our hotel......

We have arranged a surprise for Monika.....a purely African birthday party my friend.......cheers!

I have tried checking in with the guys....no response
Hmm, perhaps they are too exhausted......

We are now going to party the night away with some of the American tourists here...
Happy Independence Day America:-)
Happy Birthday Monika:-)

Goodnight from Zimbabwe:-)