Blondie is Backpacking!: Zimbabwe

We arrived ion Zimbabwe too super slow border control with hand written visas! The owner of the houseboat was waiting for us and said the boat was fully prepared for us - he even arranged, at the last minute, for cold savannah to be waiting for us ;) bliss.

The truck transferred us to the houseboat which was huge. It could sleep 24 people and had a swimming pool at the back (wire cage to swim in go keep you away from the crocs and hippo) and a jacuzzi up on the deck. The deck was also filled with sun chairs waiting for us to soak up the sun!

On the first day we all jumped on board and immediately put on bikinis to swim and went to soak up the sun. Exactly what I needed after the loooong drives preceding this!

The boys (unsuccessfully) tried their hands at fishing hoping to catch us some delicious fish for dins, but unfortunately no luck this time - although there were a lot of bites the net holes were just too big and all the crayfish went straight thro!

Once we docked on the shore line we spotted elephants, monkeys, crocs and buck walking rigt by our boat our own little mini safari!

At 5.30 we all grabbed a few beers and headed out onto lake Kariba to watch the sun set. It's so beautiful floating on the water watching the sun set right in front of you with the water looking like it is on fire.

The boys tried fishing again but again had no luck! Just a few smaller fish were caught but they were throw back - no chance if it feeding 16 of us hungry kids ;)

The chefs on board really spoilt us with the most amazing meals - after 3 weeks of no oven/stove/kitchen we were in heaven!

That eve we just sat on deck playing card games and enjoying the local brew ;)

After a few attempts the boys lined the fish net with a mosquito net, got out their sewing kits and tacked it together and VOILA the great problem of he holey fishing net was solved... And the started to catch the big guys!!

Swimming at the shore is not allowed due to all the very hungry crocs that circle the boat, but once you are away from shore they captain allows you to climb out his window and jump from three stories up into the water. It is quite scary -

1) it is croc and hippo infested water and

2) it's so high!

But I did it ;) obvs! A few if the best action shots below!

(That's tave and me!)

Again the sunset was amazing!

As it was quite windy that night the game drive was postponed to the next morning a d we all hopped on board the smaller boat trying to find some of the local wildlife!