Harare update ...

The good news is that I can, once again, download images to my laptop.  I was more than concerned when that couldn't happen!  And I've been out to renew my favourite Zimbabwean bag (etc .... but I didn't get carried away) and we're now back at the office after a lovely lunch for a while before heading to the stables.

I thought though that I'd tell you about the changes I've found since my last visit.  The country now does not use it's own currency, so those million Zimbabwe dollar new notes that David sent us are actually worth quite a bit!  Everyone uses either US dollars or South African Rand - BUT there are no coins.  I had a note yesterday that was so used (as only they can be in Africa) I couldn't tell if it was a $1 or $2 note - used it as a $2 one.

The supermarkets are amazing - you can buy anything and everything.  Prices are in USD but since it's just about parity with the Australian dollar, it makes it easy.  A loaf of sliced bread (white, brown, seed etc) is $1; a litre of milk is 65 cents; a very decent, drinkable bottle of red wine (South African, of course) is $7 (the 2010 range is $5); a lovely bunch of celery was $5; a large tube of toothpaste is
$1-65 - and I can honestly say that I didn't even look at the price of chocolates (just the range) and didn't buy any either.  I also didn't buy the ostrich boerwors (a type of sausage for those none the wiser) - we're bound to be able to eat it once we're at Carnivore, in Nairobi.  At the checkout, if the shopping came to $21-35, bearing in mind there are no coins in the country now, you are given 3 choices:
     1.  forget the change
     2.  you're given a receipt which has the 65c (the value of the change you would have been given) on it, and next time you go shopping you bring the receipt as "credit" BUT each receipt is only valid at the store where it was issued (there's nothing like encouraging repeat business)
     3.  you can choose lollies to the value of the change

Petrol (now readily available again) is $1-35 per litre.

And there are now a plethora of restaurants opened up in the last few years that look wonderful.  Some have craft stores attached to them, some don't.  The quality and range of craft type goods available is amazing.  I could have quite happily gone beserk this morning, but I did restrain myself.  Thought about coming back and buying a crates worth and getting it shipped back to Oz to resell .....

And if I caused any confusion in my earlier update talking about Wonder, that is the name of David's driver/handyman/all rounder.  His full name is Wonder Precious Basket - and it may sound strange or funny to us, but he is very proud of his name and it's interesting hearing the story of why he was called that.  A lof of Africans have what we would consider 'odd' names.

so I've finally got the hang of downloading images - guess the time it takes depends on the internet connection though.  These took quite a while, but this giraffe was at Chingeta yesterday

this is Mambo fitting under Boxer

this is "At the Zebra Crossing"

Lunch today at one of the new restaurants in town - L to R is Wonder, Michelle, Nathan & Ruth (his mum) and David.

Lanolin  urgently needed!!!

Tremayne, ridden by Guta, at the gallops this morning

David's stables - or the front of the main section anyway.  The moonflowers (the white flowers on the left) were amazing, so have also managed a few shots of those as well of course

Hope you enjoy the photos!  Over and out for now, off to these stables in a very short while.