12th September 2009

Today is going to be a long driving day as we start heading towards the Border. We spent two hours shopping at Polokwane. This small city was founded by Voortrekkers in the 1840's and is now home to South Africa's African National Congress - the current ruling political party.

We parked our truck outside a furniture store and when we came back from shopping there were a number of African entertainers singing and dancing on the street.

Our overnight camping stop was at Forever Resort Tshipise. There was a lovely natural heated pool which we all enjoyed.

13th September 2009

Up at 4am and set off for the Zimbabwe border. We arrived at 6am and it was totally disorganised. Overloaded Buses had been there for days waiting to clear customs. Trucks were lined up for miles. It was very dirty and the facilities were disgusting. We had an incident where an angry African man borded our truck and started yelling and waving his arms around. Luckily our truck driver came back and moved him on. We were all glad to get out of there.

We continued our journey to the Zimbabwe Ruins - the city of Stones. Our Guides name was Phillip.

The Great Zimbabwe Ruins are sub-Saharan Africa's most important and largest stone ruins. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1986, the large towers and structures were built out of millions of stones balanced perfectly on top of one another without the aid of mortar. Great Zimbabwe gave modern Zimbabwe its name as well as its national emblem -- an eagle carved stylishly out of soapstone which was found at the ruins.

Despite the facts, colonial administrations as late as the 1970's still denied that black Africans were the creators of this once great city. This is why Great Zimbabwe became an important symbol, especially to those fighting the colonial regime during the 1960's through to independence in 1980. Great Zimbabwe symbolized what black Africans were capable of despite denials by white men in power at the time. Once power was rightfully transferred to the majority, Rhodesia was named Zimbabwe.

The name "Zimbabwe" was most likely derived from the Shona language; dzimba dza mabwe means "house of stone".

Once our tour was over we continued onto Gwera arriving at 19.30 hours.

What a surprise - out of the middle of nowhere,off the beaten track we drove into a beautiful, well managed Park - Antelope Park.