First outings in Zim

Welcome to Zimbabwe!

Now that I have you up to date on day to day life in Harare (see previous post,) I'll start catching you up on our Zimbabwe excursions.  We flew into Harare on September 22nd - I can not tell you how good it felt to be landing on African soil again. I LOVE Africa and hadn't been here since 2007 (the longest I had been away from the place since my first trip here in 1995.) Our first 10 days here in Zimbabwe overlapped with my mom and stepdad, so we all did the tourist thing for a bit. And it was great. Thanks so much to Katy and David for taking us all in. Our first weekend in town consisted of the Hoggerty Hill Fair and ultimate frisbee on Saturday, a picnic at  Lake Chivero on Sunday, and a morning hike to Domboshawa on Monday.

HOGGERTY HILL FAIR

Definitely inspired by the English contingent - the fair consisted of games, a waterslide and entertainment. It was perfect for the 2-8 year old crowd. Our kiddos all had a good time :)

Zavi and Miles on the waterslide.

Cuddling the boys to warm them up after 100 trips down the slide

Grammy and Eliza 'fishing'

Zavion's favorite game? Shooting things with the paintball gun, of course

Mr. Boom Boom (Harare's resident clown) comforting Zavion after a waterslide arm injury

LAKE CHIVERO

Imagine, if you will, a family picnic in the shrubbery by a lake - being visited by numerous ostriches (and all manner of other birds,) zebra, baboons, a far-off giraffe...  and then driving to find a mommy rhino with baby, a herd of wildebeest and a troop of monkeys.  Zavion, I don't think we're in America (or Europe) any more. What a great day out :)

Great picnic spot...

...with this as a view!

Zavion on the run (completely oblivious that he's running right into the path of an ostrich!)

David and his telescope - great for birdwatching (Grammy's favorite activity)

So frikkin' cute

wildebeest

monkeys at play

DOMBOSHARA

One of the things Zimbabwe is known for is all of the rock outcroppings and strange rock formations that abound... Domboshara is one such place.  We had a great time climbing the huge, granite slab (kids taking turns leading the way,) admiring the millinea old cave drawings, chasing cute lizards, picnicking under the 'balancing' rock and, all in all, enjoying another great day out :)

And they're off!

Mighty hikers

Mom and Mike setting a slightly different (more sane) pace. Note the rock formations behind them.

Ancient rock paintings

Local lizard

Near the top!

I love this - Katy trying to make the kids look while I take the photo

The result

Admiring the view

The kids rushing to the picnic spot - the 'balancing rock'

Perfect spot for some lunch!

Yes, that's nearly 70 year old Grammy sliding down the rockface on her bum. On purpose. Classic.

Chillaxin'  What a great first few days in Zim!!