Zimbabwe (Bradt Travel Guide) - Softcover

Paul Murray has been visiting Zimbabwe for over 25 years and now spends half of the year there living amongst a community of the country’s key tourism specialists. He is actively involved in promoting tourism to Zimbabwe and was shortlisted in the 2011 Zimbabwe’s Achievers Award for services to Zimbabwean tourism. He is a contributor of articles to Zambezi Traveller, and is an advisor and freelance feature writer for several other publications and tourism related ventures.

Excerpt from previous edition

Canoeing on the Zambezi

“Words like ‘tranquil’ and ‘serene’ leap to mind as you gently paddle downstream wending your way round pods of hippo and marveling at how close you can get to that elephant quenching his thirst on the bank. Binoculars and cameras will be used to the full with the dazzling array of riverine birds and wildlife on offer but don’t put your paddle down for too long or you’ll find yourself drifting a little too close to hippo territory. You may well experience a ‘leg-over’. This entails all the canoes coming alongside each other with everyone hooking one leg over the side of the next to form a raft and then simply drifting down the river. An essential ingredient of this maneuver is breaking open the cool-box for a couple of beers. One of my enduring memories was the twin reflections on an almost mirror like river of the sun setting in one direction, with a rising full moon in the other. Nights are spent on the bank or on a sandbar often with only a mosquito net between you and the stars.

One major selling point for these canoeing/walking/camping trips is generally left out of the brochures. The guides are invariably ‘larger than life’, tend to have a brilliant sense of humor and are excellent raconteurs. With just a little prompting, the evenings you spend around the campfire listening to their outrageous and hilarious stories of life in the bush will stay with you forever.”