At The Freelands in Harare, Zimbabwe

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We were this close!!!

Back to normal on transport in Zimbabwe.  Our combi-van actually left pretty quick and we had the front seats, so no-one could be crammed in beside us.  The driver, Artwell, was really nice, but kept stopping for long periods of time.  Who knows why?   So we sat, and waited and waited in the heat of the day.  After loading a freezer on the roof at one stop, we actually ran out of fuel about 10km from our destination.  This was only about 50km from where we last fuelled up, so no IDEA why the bus boy skimped on the fuel.  So again, we sat waiting for him to run to town and get fuel.  Luckily he found some rides, so only waited an hour.  But the entire 160km trip had taken us 4.5 hrs on good roads.  But, you get what you pay for, and it only cost us $5.  Next, on to a big bus which was full when we arrived at it.  Off it went and we thought things were looking good, but it went to another station 1km away, where everyone got off the bus.  Turns out it was just arriving in to town, not leaving.  So, we sat and waited and waited for it to fill.  2 hours later and plenty of heat and frustration from the driver continually honking and revving the engine high to attract people, but after 2 hours it was a bit much.

Tommy, the 300 year old Galapagos tortoise

Aside - I don't really understand that in very poor countries with not much money, they insist on leaving all the engines running for hours and revving it up constantly. That just wastes money, but they don't seem to understand that concept!!!  It's all about noise and attracting attention I guess!
But I digress….  upon arrival in Harare, we noted that the city looked quite clean, modern, and quite orderly.  Our friend Mike Freeland (that we met in Plettenberg Bay) picked us up and took us home to see Fiona, and they also had a little party going.  Lots of good food and drink with their friends - it was really nice.
While in Harare, we had some more contacts and managed to visit Ryan and his mother Barb, along with the family for the afternoon.  Great to have a braai and chill out by the pool, but most of the guys were a little hungover as it was Ryan's stag the night before. 
Fiona was working as a teacher, and their daughter Ashleigh worked at a local restaurant, but lucky for us, Mike did not have a regular job.  That meant he was eager to take us around, and discover places he hadn't been to before either.

Flamingoes at Lake Chivera

First, was a drive out to Lake Chivera via the downtown of Harare.  The lake looked like it used to be a nice place to visit, but a little rundown around.  There was an impressive bird sanctuary there that nurses some of the birds of prey back to health.  There were plenty of specimens of owls, kestrels, eagles, and then some large birds like kori bustards, storks, and the largest heron in the world.  You were also allowed to walk freely through the flamingoes and other water birds.  All in all, I was pretty impressed for $5.
Then, we took the backroads to eventually find the Lion and Cheetah Park.  This one was also a shocker - for $6 each, there were about 45 lions.  And you could drive into the large enclosures and we literally had the cats outside our car doors. 

Wake up yawn

One male had some bad bedhead, and the females were busy cleaning the ticks from each other.  It was good to see them in a good environment.  There were loads of them around too, everywhere you looked.
They also had a small but impressive game park that we could cruise around.  Impressive amongst the huge balancing rock landscape, were zebras, antelopes and others.  Possibly my favourite part was as we parked up to enter the cage area, there was a massive Galapagos tortoise.  His name was Tommy and is estimated at 300 years old!!  I couldn't believe how big he was, and you could get close to touch him.  He was pretty slow for a 300 year old. They had cheetah, hyena, serval, wild pigs, and others in some cage areas, but Tommy was the highlight.

Martin on the Balanced Rocks of Domboshawa

The following day, Mike took us out to Domboshawa, a place just North of Harare.  It is an area of interesting landscapes, with large granite rock hills, and balanced rocks all over the place.  Very bizarre, and plenty of caves with ancient rock paintings.  We hung out there for sunset, which disappointed, but the surroundings were what we came for.  We played around, balancing some of the rocks above our heads, at least that's what the photos show!!
We had some delicious meals at Mike and Fiona's and they also offered to loan us a pick-up truck to visit the lake up North.  Great offer, and we will take them up on that tomorrow.  *Stub