Zimbabwe - Early Memories of Big Trees

I was 7 years old when my parents first loaded my little sister, myself and what seemed at the time like loads of supplies and all our bedding into their sky blue Toyota Carola attached to a tiny hand made trailer.  Off we went with a Church group of I would guess between 80 and 100 people on a convoy road trip of Zimbabwe.

It was my first time out of South African soil, and the travel bug gave me a good solid biting.

I've been to Zimbabwe twice since then, but my favorite memories of the country, however fuzzy and haphazard they are, are from my very first trip.  

The trip as a whole was a phenomenal experience of wild life, especially for a 7 year old.  I remember vividly a supposedly 'tame' giraffe giving one of the other girls my age a good kick.  The girl must've been bruised but luckily didn't suffer any major injury.  Not any less 'scary' was a buffalo stampede I woke up to running through our campsite.  I did not climb out the tent like I remember my Dad doing (doubt he'd have allowed me to) but I remember the rumbling noise and vibrations from inside my sleeping bag.  On that trip we saw up close, and in the wild, lion, hippo, crocodile, giraffe, zebra, dozens of buck (that as a 7 year old did not impress me enough) to list the ones that I remember.  I keep elephants for last because the experience was too great to drop into a list.  Our convoy stopped for what seemed like forever, and we were informed over the radio system that they were waiting for a herd of elephants to pass.  I will never, ever forget the sight of hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of elephants and their calves crossing the road on their way back into the bush.  I always feared my memory of the volumes of elephants was a childish exaggeration, but my mother assures me it was as astounding as I remember.

If you ever make your way to Zimbabwe now, understandably and sadly not exactly a major tourist destination, you will still find the Zambezi falls as breathtakingly majestic as I did over 17 years ago.  You can still lose your way in the maze of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins like I did as both a child and a young adult (having enjoyed the experience as much each time).  You can pose for photos in, on, around and under the giant Baobab trees like we did as a group of kids who couldn't believe we could fit inside the trunk of a tree and climb up the middle and outside the top to sit on the branches.  Sadly you won't find the Harare markets where they used to barter curios for clothes and linen, and if you have anything other than a South African passport you may very well not even be allowed into the country at all. 

Politics aside though, this country is majestic and beautiful and I encountered friendly faces and welcoming atmospheres by the locals on each one of my trips throughout the years.  I hope in the future the country will be healed of it's political issues so that more people in the world can experience the beauty of Zimbabwe.