Great Zimbabwe ruins

Moving now to Zimbabwe, after changing a bit my original plan to stay 1 week longer in Africa. This will allow to have those few days in Zim, to see the only ruins Souther Africa has, then to check the HIFA music/art festical in Harare, the capital.
I am joined by Kylie, good surprise for this few days adventure.

Organizing the trip is already part of the fun... no real easy connections to go in the middle of Zimbabwe, only buses but with real schedule and even less pre-booking... This Is Africa as they say, so just go and try your best!

The 750 km to the ruins will be a memorable day... after leaving the hotel at 6am, we arrive at the border around 6:15am, and are positively surprised to only spend 30mn to do the exit papers then entry visa, despite the already quite busy & messy border office.

The 1st bus is quite easy, leading us to Bulowayo, where there the chaos starts to be interesting. Finding the local bus to go to the 2nd step, Masvingo, is quite a challenge, but we succeed. Once in.... Well, this is clearly the African experience you are thinking from abroad. A van organized with 20 seats, which will tour the same street corner for about 1h in order to catch as many people as possible... probably reaching 30 I would say, you really wonder how people can still get in after a while, but there is always a way.
Once departed, the "bus" will stop every few km to drop people in... and take more back. Quite an experience, it enables a very close contact with the locals! :) Doing 350km is long and exhausting, but clearly the show is entertaining.

Grabbing the 3rd connection to the Ruins, in the dark at Masvingo is quite scary, but so far so good... we finally reach the hotel around 8pm and after 14h of travel, niiiiiiice!

pic above: in the local 2nd bus... when it is not so full, i.e. without 15 persons more betweens the sits or on the laps of everyone...

At the end, well lost in the middle South of Zimbabwe... Coming from Vic Falls, which at the corner of the 4 countries













In the morning, visit to the ruins. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country’s Late Iron Age. Construction on the monument by the Bantu, ancestors of the Shona people, began in the 11th century and continued until the 14th century, which, at its peak could have housed up to 18,000 people. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and is 1 of the



Great Zimbabwe served as a royal palace for the Zimbabwean monarch and would have been used as the seat of political power.
8 kings are supposed to have lived there, and their "castle" was installed on the top of this hill, from where they could watch the country around, but particularly their 100 (up to 200 for 1) of wives...

Quite a small and steep way to the top, but once up there, great view on the surrounding, showing that Zimbabwe is much greener than expected!

The king "trone" was here with an area below to be heard by its people... basic but interesting to see.

 Of course we cannot avoid the "traditional" dance... performed in tee-shirt from China I guess, but the point is not here ;)
Still good and nice to see.

The instrument