vickygoestravelling

my journey to health and well being via exotic destinations

Tag Archives: baobab


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Gonarezhou – Zimbabwe’s hidden gem

I have always wanted to go to Gonarezhou, Zimbabwe’s largest National Park and one of the least visited. It’s in the south-eastern corner of Zimbabwe, borders Mozambique, and has suffered over the years from the bush war, poaching and general neglect. It is part of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier National Park and forms one of the largest conservation areas in Africa, now managed in partnership with the Frankfurt Zoological Society – and what a difference that makes to the upkeep and efficiency: clean loos at picnic sites, protected baobabs, and strictly no off-roading! Every move we make has to be reported in by our guide.

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Madagascar 5: more schools again – this time by ox-cart and pirogue

How to get to Lamboara school…

On day two we have two schools to visit.  To reach Ankotapiky we drive though spiny forest (euphorbia), mangrove swamps, and arid plains. In the rainy season there’s lots of flooding on this road rendering it impassable so people are cut off.

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Madagascar 4: visiting UWS schools in the remote south west

So here we are on our way to visit eight schools, the training centre and a local hub in three days!  For the first 130 kms we whizz along on the best road we’ve seen, built by the Chinese. We pass a repair gang with its Chinese supervisor in his blue Mao suit. Once we leave this anomaly, we enter the world of truly awful roads – nothing we have experienced so far compares to this. A mixture of sand, rocks, ruts, 4WD-compulsory for the next three days. Progress is agonisingly slow. There is no other traffic apart from ox-carts and a mini bus once or twice a day. It’s too difficult for bicycles, and motorbikes are challenging – a dim European employed by UWS bought one and got horribly lost and had to be rescued. Of course there are no road signs!

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Madagascar 3: Ranomafana  to Toliara – and more lemurs

We leave early, driving through the flood plain again. The paddy is interrupted by what can only be described as brick kilns in factory proportions. We have seen these earlier on the roads, huge stacks of bricks, with room for wood to fire them. The practice is to sacrifice some of the clay in the paddy field to make bricks, either for personal use or for sale. It’s a big decision – eat or diversify. Here we see all family members working together on both activities!

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Big cats galore in Ruaha: Tanzania’s gem

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A typical Ruaha vista

I have never been here before, although it is the second-largest National Park in Tanzania. Much more famous and frequently visited are Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Manyara but, having spent so much time in small tented camps like Goliath in Mana Pools, Zimbabwe, I have no desire to go backwards in my safari experiences. So we pick Nomad, which is owned and run by Bimb Theobald, a business partner of our great tea-broking/growing friend Robin H. We made the best choice! This outfit really understands the balance between sustainability and luxury and invests in their staff. A winning combination. On our way in we come across two wild dogs, far from home – the den is miles away. They haven’t been seen for six weeks so we are very lucky. Continue reading →