Day 52 - Goodbye to the Addison clan

Our last few days have been pretty quite since the Brennocks and the SJC girls have been at school.  We haven't been able to go out to Willow Park for fear of interrupting their schooling and homework.  So this morning started off no differently than the last few.  We saw the girls off to school, had breakfast and then started to discuss ways to fill in our morning.  After the lengthy, and somewhat unproductive discussion, we sat down to an episode of Fringe when we got the call from Auntie Deb about her car not working.  The car had been playing up for the last couple of days and it finally decided to die.  We believed it to be the battery but as we were unsure, we took it to the Holden workshop.  They promptly told us that it was the battery and that they couldn't help us as they had no batteries in stock.  Being told to try another place, we found a battery specialist who had batteries in sock but as they were in a meeting, they couldn't help us for the next little while. T.I.A.

Once we had finally managed to get the car fixed, we did a little shopping in town and waited to pick up the girls from school.  They finished at 1 o'clock which allowed us to leaving for Willow Park by just after 2 o'clock.  

Today was the first day of school out at Willow Park.  Some of the girls had homework to do which meant that they were busy working away to get it done.  It was also they day that the 'Birthday Granny' came out to give the kids, whose birthday it is in January, their presents.  There were about 8 girls who have their birthday this month and each girl got some clothes and a collection of stationary and toys.  It was a great afternoon to hang out with the girls.

Coming back into town we had a BBQ at the Addison's to say goodbye to them as they leave early tomorrow morning.  There were many laughs from the last few weeks and even a vague plan to be back here in a few years time for the full day rafting.

It's scary how fast our trip is beginning to wrap up.  I personally am not looking forward to our last day which, judging by how quickly times goes here, will be in only a couple of days.

Thanks for reading,

Alex 

Day 51 - A birthday never to be forgotten

Being as organised as Jonno and I are we had a cracker of a day planned for Alex's birthday today.

Our first plan was to wake up after Alex, which we executed perfectly. We slept in and Alex had already had breakfast without us. It only got better. We got one present for Alex yesterday (the one that he told us to get) but we had forgotten to get the rest of his gift, so after breakfast while we were sitting around Jonno gave me that all too obvious wink, we handed Alex a weak excuse that we were going to go buy some newspapers and off we went. After picking up the rest of Alex's presents we headed home for a couple of hours before we picked the girls up from school.

Alex's birthday present from the girls at SJC

Alex happily holding Nokubonga hostage

Once we had collected the girls we headed home to grab some lunch and then headed out to Willow Park where Alex's next present was waiting for him. We gave Samantha and the other girls strict instructions to have buckets of dirty water ready for Alex's arrival today. They were ready and had it all planned out. The bucket of disgusting muddy water was on the roof ready to be dropped onto his head, but someone told Alex the plan and he was off like a flash of lightning, running to the babies home to only delay the inevitable. We regrouped and attacked him with numbers. Alex was removed from the babies home from a large group of excited girls and taken to an open area for what was going to be a messy present. Alex wasn't going down without a fight and took Nokubonga as a hostage. The other girls showed no mercy and both Alex and poor Nokubonga were drenched in a disgusting concoction of water and dirt. Alex fought back with a hose and sprinkler, which was the beginning of yet another water fight. This time we were really outnumbered. SJC was a packed house again with a number of girls back from their short holiday break. Alex somehow avoided the brunt of the fight and stood back as Jonno and I were wet from every angle with big buckets of water. Needless to say we lost and the girls made sure we knew it. It was this water fight that led to our most exciting adventure yet on our trip. 

Alex on attack with the sprinkler

All three of us were drenched, so naturally we took our shirts off for the drive home. Turns out that this was a bad idea. As we pulled up to the police roadblock we were called to a halt. We thought the policeman was just joking with us at first. Telling us that driving without a shirt is considered indecent exposure and would result not in a fine but immediate arrest and an appearance in court. It wasn't until the officer told us to pull over to the side and wait that we thought he might just be serious. Turns out he was. Even though we had a good joke with him and a few other policeman as they had a good laugh at our stupidity we were looking down the barrel of having the car impounded and being taken to the watch house for up to a week before a court hearing. We tried all the excuses we could come up with "we're Australian", "we didn't know it was illegal", "we are on our way back from an orphanage" "It's Alex's birthday today"  etc. None of them worked and things weren't looking great...Not until Alex pulled out one of the most important lines that one must know when in trouble with the police. "What must I do?" It turns out that $20 freed us from our 3 counts of indecent exposure. We gave our persuasive friend the $20 and got out of there as quick as we could. 

Alex and Madz with his birthday toffee syrup

We eventually got home and celebrated Alex's birthday with pizza and coke. We also gave him his actual birthday presents. All 8 of us individually gave him a bottle of Toffee syrup. I'm almost certain this is what God would put on his toast each morning. If you are thinking 8 bottles is too many, you clearly have never tasted this syrupy goodness. Deb gave him a nice canvas painting and Jonno and I gave him the canvas painting he had picked out yesterday. 

I'm sure Alex will never forget his 22nd birthday. He can one day tell his kids that he was drenched with dirty water and almost arrested for indecent exposure on his 22nd birthday. 

For me I hope today was the first and last time a policeman asks me to get of the car by saying "Get out of the car, I want to see your belly button." 

Happy birthday Alex. I'm stoked to be able to be a part of your very eventful 22nd birthday. 

Day 50 - Fun Facts

G'day
We awoke to the familiar surroundings of our bedrooms at Debbie's home in Bulawayo. Coming home quite late from the Addison's last night, a sleep in was well deserved but this morning was a special occasion, so special that none of us could sleep in and everyone was out of bed by 6am. Today was the first day of school for 2012 and every Brennocks girl and Lisa Taylor were dressed in their uniforms ready to greet the day. It was definitely a big day for Becky and Lisa as it was Becky's first day in prep and Lisa's first day at a public school and not at willow park. After parading their uniforms and then eating breakfast and discussing nerves, excitement and anticipations, Debbie drove off with the kids waving goodbye to us. Fun fact: school starts at 7:30am and finishes sometime around 1pm.

So we were home alone sitting in the silent environment discussing how quiet the mornings will now be. We discussed what we wanted to do and achieve for the coming days. Fun fact: our 2 month holiday will end in 2 weeks (sadly). So with approx $2k of donations left, Debbie suggested a portable mixer system with mics and speakers would greatly benefit SJC for any concerts, presentations etc. Alex took the responsibility in researching the best possible deals in south Africa since audio engineering is his field of expertise. Andrew and I also did some much important issues in the morning, Facebook. Fun fact: If you can't find it in Zimbabwe, drive to another nation like South Africa, cause they will probably have it.

We had planned to pick Lisa up from school and then head out to Willow Park to see the girls at SJC for we haven't seen them in 10 days, which actually feels a lot longer. So with time to kill before 1pm, we decided to do some gift shopping and souvenir hunting. It's Alex's birthday tomorrow and guys being guys we had no idea what to get him, so we asked him to give us a covert sign if there was something he liked. We walked into a store, got the sneaky wink and purchased Alex's birthday present, an African image on canvas. Fun fact: The sneaky wink was invented by Alex Taylor in 2012.

We headed to the street vendors (which if you've been following the blog we met them on Day 2) and started the negotiating process to secure some awesome African handiwork. The street was laid with wooden craftsmanship of the big 5 animals (leopard, lion, elephant, rhino and buffalo), key rings, bracelets, wooden bowls and toy vehicles made out of wire. The cool thing about these handmade creations are that you can watch them making their crafts on the spot. With just a piece of wire and a pair of pliers, a man was making the feet of his guineafowl creation. Andy and I paced ourselves up and down the street constantly being asked to view people's items for sale. Alex insisted on not participating in this part of the shopping expedition. When we saw something we liked the negotiation process began. Fun fact: 'Negotiating' was invented by Alex Taylor in 1547. It would always start off with the salesman naming their sale price and then us telling them 'they're dreaming' in response. After constant haggling, we would agree on a price that was ridiculously lower then the initial asking price, be accused of being unreasonable and then the exchange would occur. Andrew told me one salesman was willing to use Andy's shirt as a bartering item, unfortunately it was only valued at $5. After an hour of shopping, it was time to pick up Lisa Taylor from her first day at a public school. As the air-raid siren blared through the air signifying the end of the first day of school, kids streamed out of the buildings in their green and white striped uniform. Lisa walked to the car with her friend, Senso, and we dropped her off at Tina's house, one of the staff members at SJC. To our surprise, Samantha, one of the girls at Willow Park who has been away over the christmas break was there waiting for a lift back to SJC. We were only too happy to taxi her while her and Lisa caught up with each other.

We arrived at SJC in the afternoon and were greeted with many hugs. It's been 10 days since we've last seen the girls and the babies but to them and for us it's been 10 days too long. We spent a few hours there just catching up and seeing what the girls had been up to while we were gone. The girls were also interested to hear what Samantha got up to over Christmas and New Year.  Gogo Rhoda had a very special present for us. She made 3 beanies for Alex, Debbie and I. What a fantastic lady. We departed SJC and wished them luck as they start school for the year tomorrow. We arrived home, had a delicious dinner thanks to Debbie and was then greeted with a power cut while we were starting to write our blogs. Fun fact: 'Power cuts' were invented by Alex Taylor in 1342.

Thanks for reading

Jonno

Days 46 to 49 - Vic Falls

I have a hard job of trying to sum up our very packed three day trip to Victoria Falls but I'll try my best...

We arrived at the falls at around 3pm, checked into our hotel and headed out to the main street to book whitewater rafting for the following morning. As we walked the main street we were bombarded by people telling us to raft with them because they would give us a good price. We had 9 people in our group wanting to raft so companies were very keen to get us on their side. We met with one group and were quickly confronted by a man yet again promising a good deal. We met this particular guy later that afternoon and scored a pretty good price for rafting the following morning.

Alex, Jonno and I at the Boma restaurant

For dinner we headed to the Boma restaurant, which is about experiencing as much of the African culture as possible in one night. We were dressed up in African man dress things and given some blue face paint to bring out the inner braveheart. We were treated to African dancing, singing, story telling as well as drumming, which everyone in the restaurant got to join in on with their drum which we were given throughout the night. Along with the great entertainment we were treated to some super tasty African meat. Kudu, warthog, croc tail, Boerwors, Buffalo steak and the Mopani worm. Alex (who had already eaten one) sternly told Jonno and I that we were not to leave the restuarant until we had eaten this worm. Successively swallowing the worm was worthy of a signed certificate signed by the Mopani worm chef...Any food that is worthy of a certificate once eating it is bad news in my bad books. Jonno and I in our wisdom decided to beat this worm challenge straight up. I was mentally preparing myself by telling myself to expect a large juicy worm that would explode in my mouth. My preparation was all wrong. This worm was like chewing on charcoal. The taste wasn't bad it was just near impossible to swallow. However, we succeeded and proudly walked out of the restaurant with our certificates ready to add it to our resumes when we get home. Jonno and I celebrated by going all out for the main meal and order everything available. Alex, who has previous Boma experience laughed at us along with the chefs who were all too happy to give us everything. Our eyes lit up as all different kinds of meats and sausages were piled onto our plates. We were overwhelmed but a little excited to eat so much meat!

Team 'Titanic' ready for the Zambezi

Day 2 of our Vic Falls trip started at 6:30am where we were picked up for our rafting debrief before we took on the mighty Zambezi river. We signed our indemnity forms, which were full of 'importnant' information according to the form and headed off to the falls. We made our way down the gorge where I saw Alex land on his rear three times in quick concession. We got into our raft where Alex and I were all too happy to take the front and were given a 5 minute crash course in whitewater rafting. Ahead of us were the back half of the Zambezi rapids (11 to 23). We cruised through the first few and were super confident heading into rapid 16...which by memory was a three part rapid named "The three ugly sisters". We headed into the rapid sideways, which I don't think was the plan and were hit by a large wall of water, which threw me into Alex pushing him off the boat who was quickly followed by both Jonno and I leaving our two Irish mates (Damien and Neil) and two instructors onboard.

Jonno posing while the rest of us row

Jonno was the only lucky one and managed to grab the safety rope on the side of the raft while Alex and I were lost in the rapid. We managed to get back in eventually and had massive smiles on our faces. We wanted to get thrown off and we got our wish! Apart from rafting through rapids we were given a chance to jump off a 20m cliff face into the river, which we all jumped at the chance to do. We also did a LOT of throwing each other out of the rafter...so much so that our instructor said Jonno did more swimming than rafting. Rafting was awesome fun...on the other hand the walk out of the gorge wasn't that crash hot. It was hot, steep and zero fun. We did make it though and were welcomed to lunch and cold drinks at the top of the gorge. That night we headed out on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. We went up and down the river spotting a good number of hippos, a crocodile, elephants and a postcard standard African sunset.

Sunset from the cruise

Jonno, Alex and I at Victoria Falls

On our last day in Vic Falls we decided it would be best to actually go and see the falls. But before we did that Alex, Jonno and I headed to the gorge where the gorge swing, flying fox and zip line took place. It was there I decided that I valued my life and would just do the zipline while Jonno and Alex put their names down to do all three adrenaline experiences that afternoon. We eventually made it to the falls and understood pretty quickly why it is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world.



The magnitude of water and the sheer size of the falls was breathtaking. At each viewpoint we would get more and more wet from the mist of the falls as we stood and stared at this awesome God-made creation. After our visit to the falls it was time...time to head to the cliff face and swing across it, jump off it and fly across it. Jonno, Alex and two others who we were travelling with were crazy enough to do all three, while I was happy to take one for the team and take photos of their final moments. They all survived the flying fox and even had the nerve to say it was a bit boring. Next was the zip line, which had come much quicker than I would have liked. The others decided that I had to go first seeing as I was only doing one activity but Jonno decided he needed another burst of adrenaline and did the gorge swing before I had a chance to go...I was so upset. The gorge swing was crazy. A 70m free fall in 3 seconds along with a further drop and ridiculously long swing across the canyon. Jonno made no nose and to be honest it didn't look like he was moving for a while. He eventually yahoo'd and we were all relieved to know he was still breathing. We each survived our gorge swings and zipline runs with the crazy people agreeing that the gorge swing was the greatest rush ever.

We ended our time at Vic Falls with Des and Pete's crew (13 people) with burgers and our whitewater rafting DVD and photos, which provided a lot of laughs. We were up early the next morning packed and ready to leave Vic Falls by 8:30am for our 6 hour drive home to Bulawayo. As good as our little African tourist adventure was, we were ready to go home to see Deb and the girls as well as our family out at SJC. Deb had a lasagne and salad dinner prepared and ready for both Des and Pete's crew and us. We headed to Des and Pete's for dinner and shared stories as well as traded a lot of photos between each other. We were pretty tired and ready to sleep after a long day but somehow Jonno and I got sucked into a game of 'Phase 10'. Little did we know that this was a loooooonnnnngggg game, which led Jonno and I to what some people might consider 'cheating'. This needed to be done so we could win the game and go home to bed. We all agreed that we would play one more round and the first person to get the required cards won. After a few dramatic coughs and singing songs with the lyrics being the specific cards we required, Jonno slipped me the three cards I needed and I laid my cards down to win and more importantly end the game. The other players were amazed at my hand, which both Jonno and I responded with "It was just a really lucky hand". Not even the padlocked gate (thanks Alex...or Khulu) stopped us getting to our beds where we crashed quickly.

Sorry for a long blog...It was hard to get so much into a small space.

Andy

Day 42 - 46 - Binga

Our houseboat

From Monday to Friday, the three of us spent our time at Binga, just north of the Victoria Falls, where we had the chore of fishing every morning and evening while staying on a houseboat.  This was part two of three of our 10 day holiday.  For this trip, we had to part with Auntie Deb and her girls, leaving the Addison clan and ourselves - 18 in total.

The storm

Our first few hours on the water entailed quite a severe storm in which we lost pillows and cushions from the top deck, the jacuzzi cover and a jerry can.  Needless to say, it was an experience that many on the boat would prefer not to relive.  However, after the storm we were blessed with a beautiful African sunset. 

The itinerary for the next few days went something like this:-

Post-storm sunset

• Wake up
• Go fishing for a few hours
• Eat breakfast
• Sleep
• Eat lunch
• Sleep
• Go fishing for a few hours
• Eat dinner
• Sleep

Jonno's big fish

There were lots memorable moments on the houseboat, such as seeing some game on the shore and jumping off the top of the boat into the water.

There were several records made while on this trip.  Jonno was the lucky one to land the biggest fish of the trip, a 1.5Kg Bream.  Neil caught the smallest fish.  Andrew caught a turtle and the biggest catch for one trip was approximately 30Kg of Bream.

It was a great time to relax, get to know each other and stand be in awe of the awesome scenery.


Alex

Day 41 - SAFARI!!

Happy New Year blog readers!!!!

Hope you welcomed the new year in a lavishing way. Since last night's dismal DJing and Andrew's party-saving music we stayed up quite late and celebrated till 12:30am. Today we awoke to a glorious morning topped off with hot breakfast overlooking the park. We prepped up by 9:30am and headed off to see the game at the game park, 1500kms of nature I believe. We took both Des and Pete's 4wds and our one and only 'Curtain Wondervan' to look for the big 5 game; Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Rhino, Cheetah and other animals that Africa had to offer. Everyone took their massive cameras including Alex, while Andrew and I had a tiny cameras to capture the moments.

We drove through bitumen and then onto dirt roads constantly on the lookout for anything moving. The geography was typical Africa, always changing, and always breath-taking and amazing. We looked high and low looking through every available window Curtain Wondervan had to offer. We pulled up to the first waterhole and saw the elegant Zebras with ostriches doing their thing in the background. The main highlight at this first waterhole was in the water itself. We could see a few nostrils poking out of the water and then WOW, 3 Hippos emerged from the water. It was a momentous sight and it felt like I was in the heart of Africa.

Driving for another hour or so we searched everywhere for the big 5, however all we could see was impalas and buffalos, one of the big 5. Curtain Wondervan was keeping up with the 4wds, but, the rough dirt roads were not helping the trip. We pulled into a picnic area to have some lunch and to work out what to do next since we weren't seeing much animals. It was decided that the younger kids, Debbie and Des would take the van back to our camp site while the rest of us would go further and quicker in the 4wds. We departed after lunch and drove a few for a few minutes when we saw another big 5 animal, the elephants. These gentle giants were covering themselves in mud as a means of cooling themselves down. It was great actually seeing this in real life and not on some David Attenborough documentary. Further down the track we continued seeing impalas, kudus, waterbucks and more elephants in the different environments. We were now desperately wanting to see the ever elusive lions, but to no avail. In fact, there wasn't much animals out today, possibly because they partied too hard for New Years.

We had been driving for about 5-6hrs and we decided that we had to turn around and head home. It was disappointing not being able to see lions or rhinos but we did see a group of baboons doing their monkey business. It was a really cool sight. One last highlight was seeing a giraffe. Man, they are just a fantastic creature.

So u may not hear from us for the next 5 days, because we will be on a houseboat cruising down a river fishing.

Thanks for reading

Jonno

Kudus and Impala in the background

Damo taking photos

Day 40 - The night I became a DJ

Hello to our beloved blog readers! We have found internet at our hotel and so we shall bless you with our New Years blog even if it is a day late. 

A large portion of our last day of 2011 was spent packing for and driving to Hwange game park, which was the beginning of our two week African touristy adventure.

Jonno and Alex outside their room

With 4 cars and two trailers packed to the absolute limit we headed off on our 3 hour journey to Hwangi. Armed with over 130 lollipops we were ready to roll and surprisingly we had no hiccups on our road trip at all! We got through the police roadblocks without any problems and made it to Hwange in good time.

The game viewing area at the hotel

We arrived at Hwange and got into our rooms and spent time swimming, relaxing and checking out some of the game from the viewing area at the front of the hotel. Even just in our couple of hours this afternoon we were about to catch a glimpse of Impala, Wildebeest and some Zebras. We were all pretty hungry after a long day and fortunately there was a lot of food on offer for dinner tonight.

DJ Wellington and DJ Trance working some magic

After dinner is when the party really begun and things started to get interesting. There was a DJ…and for the record I use the term DJ VERY VERY loosely. The music he was playing was repetitive to say the least and his music wasn’t really liked too much by the crowd. So, I was pressured and pressured by Jonno and Alex to go and get my laptop and help the guy out. I felt bad and didn’t want to step on the “DJ’s” toes and kept saying “If the next song is as bad as this one, I’ll do it.” I never did it. So, my friends who have great initiative decided to do it for me and Jonno asked the DJ if it was ok if I got my laptop out and played a few songs. DJ Wellington as he was known was ok with the proposal and my non-existent dream of becoming a DJ happened. I quickly came up with my own DJ name (DJ Trance) and got amongst the DJ action. I played some of my songs and he played some of his. I wouldn’t call it a success but the night would have gone a lot slower for everyone if we didn’t do something…that’s for sure! Both Maddie and Lisa won awards for their moves on the dance floor and as the DJ continues to play long and repetitive music we await midnight where we enter 2012 where I can only hope the music improves along with the calibre of DJ’s working on New Years Eve around the world.

We hope you all had a great New Years Eve and we hope 2012 is your best year yet.

Andy

P.S I wrote this blog while DJing with my mate DJ Wellington