This is an authorized translation in English of a post in French by @terresco: De Cape Town à Mombasa, 3 mois, 8 pays, 12 500 km – Le Zimbabwe

Remember that the person who speaks here is NOT me, Vincent Celier (@vcelier), but @terresco, a French guy.

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Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is announced by an endless queue of trucks, which I let you imagine the state, arrested at random, as a freeze frame. "Can you move forward your beautiful truck a meter please, so that I can cross this ditch and gain another 50 m to the border?" Patience and good humor, some exclamations and lots of laughter: this is Africa. They will spend several days waiting here, we will need a good hour from this "trucky" labyrinth to reach the border post.

Few individual cars but many people. It is not a tidy line, as in England, it's more of a kind of rugby scrum. It grows, it screams, it's laughing. One eye on the cars, the other on the papers, a little joke with the neighbor. Two hours later, the stamp slammed down and noisily on my passport. The stamp, symbol of power, must be heard. Its trace is more shy, will need to renew the ink ... Welcome to Zimbabwe.

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Once past the final barrier a good road brings us directly to Victoria Falls. No longer accustomed to good roads, we tend to drive a little faster. Crossing as suddenly as sovereignly, a giraffe with the right of way reminds us to be cautious. Victoria Falls is a small, artificial city that exists by and for the falls whose name it has usurped. Name inherited from the first European discoverer, the famous Dr. Livingstone, you know him I presume. He baptized them with the name of the Queen of England, the no less famous Queen ... Victoria. The city on the other side in Zambia took the name of the explorer.

The falls, located on the Zambezi River that serves as a natural border with neighboring Zambia, are obviously spectacular. The river flows into the fault of the plateau and is almost 2 km wide and a hundred metres high. Although we are in the dry season, a powerful noise emerges and a cloud of humidity requires us to be equipped with a poncho. You can walk throughout this impressive collapse, like the Iguassu or Niagara Falls.

The city is a totally uninteresting tourist center, it has its own airport for a quick trip to the falls. Policemen on every corner make sure that the tourists are not bothered by the locals, often just trying to communicate. Travel agencies organizing all imaginable activities fight with trendy restaurants and African handicrafts made in china the monopoly of the street. From sunrise to sunset helicopters punctuate the atmosphere, flying over the falls with wealthy tourists.

The Zambezi river

The river is beautiful; renting a boat in the late afternoon and going for a walk along its wild banks, upstream of the falls, is an exceptional experience. Exceptional by the approach of animals since water, crocodiles, elephants, hippopotamuses and all types of birds are ubiquitous; exceptional also by the landscape that will ignite at the end of the day with all the colors of Africa. I like sunsets because even when you do not know anything about photography, it always be a good picture.

The crocodile lives on the banks of the river. He is waiting for his hour. The boat allows us to approach within a few meters without any risk.

Zimbabwe

This is the day of separation, our friend will drive directly to the capital Harare from where he will reach Cape Town. We will continue our trip alone for two more months. So let's get out of the Victoria Falls theme park to get into the real Zimbabwe.

The country has long had a bad reputation for the traveler. Robert Mugabe, in power for almost 40 years, needs no introduction. Famous in the 1990s for its agrarian reform, expulsion and murders of white farmers who moved agricultural wealth to Zambia and ruined the country. In recent times, at age 94, his only goal is to empower his much younger wife. This is an opportunity to travel again in this beautiful country. We were there just at the right time, his desire to impose his wife led to his dismissal last November.

One of the curiosities is that the country does not have its own currency. The currency was the Zimbabwe dollar but after hyperinflation it was abandoned in 2009. One can buy, in memory of this time, where all the inhabitants were billionaires, 100 000 000 Zimbabwean dollar bills that have only memory value. Since then, the country has been using foreign currencies, mainly US dollars, South African Rand and a few others. Imagine a cashier where you pay in Euros and ask for your change in the currency you want!

Hwange National Park

Prolongation of parks in Botswana is very close, everyone advised us against his visit. Poaching is said to have decimated the animals and to make the place dangerous. I do not know about poaching but we saw an impressive amount of animals. Alone, in camps where the lion roared at night watching over its territory, you do not go out of the tent to go to the bathroom at night, you must find another way. Extremely friendly guards, most born locally, happy to share their knowledge and their exciting memories.

The Animal King is actually just a big cat. He naps all day but at night, his roar, which carries farther than 6 km, encourages respect.

The giraffe is curious, it likes to be photographed.

Camouflage of zebra

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With the best will in the world I will need several articles to talk about crossing this country. After Hwange we chose to follow the shores of Lake Kariba to reach, to the northeast, the Mana Pools and the Zambia border. Tracks on which I broke my record of slowness by car, forgotten villages of the world, people all the more welcoming since they have seen almost nobody go through in years. We still have some way to go and explore.

-- @terresco

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Africa, the long crossing
From Cape Town to Mombasa: South Africa
From Cape Town to Mombasa: Namibia
From Cape Town to Mombasa: Botswana

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All pictures are property of @terresco