sanity restored

seems a bunch of people were questioning my sanity after that last post... to say nothing of what my mom thought. hindsight yeah, not the best thought out plan but it made for excellent stories, a good tan and a whole lot of character. that being said, after more overnight busses and trains than i thought i could do, i'm back in joburg listening to an obnoxious amount of vuvuzelas signaling world cup kick off.

hitching slowed down considerably after namibia. sore backs, sore feet and long distances cramped that style which was probably for the best. instead, we began opting for the worlds slowest trains. somehow, it took us almost 12 hours to travel less than 400km from the coast to windhoek. then later, 15 hours to travel about 400km from victoria falls to bulawayo, zimbabwe. luckily, its super cheap, is a nights accommodation and is certainly an adventure. zim train was definitely a highlight, largely because we prepared ourselves with pizza and beer after days of eating stupid nutrific bars (something you'd normally soak in milk to avoid drying out your mouth and to give it flavour... without it, i imagine it is what hamsters eat).

zimbabwe, despite being freakishly cold at night when you're not prepared for winter in a tent, was somewhere i'd been hoping to visit since doing an aggressive amount of research on it a few years back. obviously i'd love to spend more time there to really get a feel for the place but that wasn't this trip.

instead, i got a chance to see a few of the major towns, as well as these really cool ruins that show pre-colonial development of an african society... shame the portuguese came in and crushed that all. i actually had no idea these ruins even existed (south of masvingo) and they ended up being a really nice note to finish the trip on. of course, so was the 100 trillion dollar bill that we picked up while listening to the guy describe how the bank across the street used to light it all on fire for lack of a better idea. with the USD/rand around, these bills are now being sold to tourists for more than they were ever worth (which still, isn't much). for now, it feels a bit like a ghost town from the 60s full of more whites than i ever imagined, bits of hope, no peanut butter but loads of imported fruit (including avocados, that i'd long been without in SA!).

i feel like that was sort of a weird description of zimbabwe but, it really is a strange place.

anyway. exhausted, i'm now catching up on real life in joburg. real coffee, hot showers, warm clothes and warm food aside, ETFL's to do list has grown over the past month and i'm keen to get moving on it. the traveling has been nice but i couldn't be more excited to sit down today with unlimited internet and get things sorted before another whirlwind takes off...