The Victoria Falls is the perfect place to be on a Zimbabwean winters
weekend !!
And the 67th Annual Mining Conference held at the Elephant Hills
Safari Lodge brought home to me just how special this country still is.
Victoria Falls is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and
it is and always will be magical and breathtaking.
The Victoria Falls village has had a major facelift. There are
Tourist Police to look after the tourists and they do their job
diligently and efficiently. The hotels are not crowded but Tourism
seems to be on the increase again thank goodness.
The shops are stocked with a delightful selection of good quality
curios and Zimbabwean Objects d'art. There are bikes for hire, or
beach buggies or trail bikes and go carts for the rough roads.
The Elephant Hills Hotel is absolutely striking, the decor cleverly
incorporates the essence and mystery of Africa and yet remains regal,
cool and imposing.
Instead of massed arrangements of flowers, which would have to be
imported at great cost from other centres, the hotel uses beautiful
soapstone carvings of hippo ponds with tastefully arranged bamboo
shoots nestling in the water.
How subtle and original and artful !!
The service is impeccable, the waiters are friendly and attentive to
one's smallest need and yet discreet and highly trained.
The food was excellent. We had a full on sit down banquet the first
night for the 120 delegates to the conference, served with acceptable
local wines or imported wines at a price !!
The next night we had a true African experience - the Bush Dinner,
served under the stars surrounded by braziers to keep away the cold,
with the tables beautifully laid and an excellent array of local and
traditional dishes.
Marimbas played and young ebony skinned maidens kept us entertained
while we feasted from tables laden with macimbi, mazondo, braised
sable, fried capenta and sadza and relish.
Of course there was plenty of steak and chicken and salad too for the
less adventurous tourist !
The logistics of serving over a hundred people under the stars and
the brilliant full moon, in the magical African bush must be seen to
be believed.
A sundowner cruise on the might Zambesi River brought back all those
memories of days gone by when life was lazy and less stressful.
Elephant, hippo, crocodile and bush buck were apparent and the boat
crew kept us entertained with gin slings and river anecdotes.
A morning jog on the golf course was however the "piece de
resistance" Bushbuck, duiker, waterbuck and warthog were everywhere,
watching me with their deep onyx eyes, suspicious yet unafraid. Those
minute mesh spider webs were everywhere glistening with silver dew,
hopeful of an early morning ant snack. It made jogging difficult as
one tried hard not to stand on the diamond patterns.
Hornbills mewed like babies, vultures soared lazily in the thermals
overhead as if trying to compete with the helicopters and microlites
which forged backwards and forwards ferrying tourists eager to get an
aerial view of the mighty Victoria Falls.
Back in the sumptuous conference rooms, mining matters were discussed
heatedly, but all this seemed very far removed from the real things
in life at the Victoria Falls hamlet.
Beauty, majesty, rivers and massive trees that all meet in harmony at
the foot of one of the most amazing sights that Mother Nature has
ever produced and it is all here to be found in Zimbabwe at the
Victoria Falls.
Born to Maree (nee Kendal) and Matthew Brown in Adelaide, Australia
on the 14th May, a bouncing boy, Owen Thomas. Granny Jenny is over
there and is delighted with her first grandson! Maree's email
address maree.brown@dsl.pipex.com
Joey Neville. Beloved Granny of Michael and Phyllida, Big Granny of
James, Kris, Little Michael and William. A wonderful lady who will
be very sorely missed. Thank you for being such a great granny to
us all.
White - Miggs (Garden and Home)
Passed away in Pretoria on 13th May after long illness. Gone home
rejoicing.
Danny, Colleen and all families
JOSS ALLAN
Dear beloved husband of Edna and father to Clive and Sharon, and the
late Malcom, grandfather to Dylan & Connor passed away peacefully on
Monday the 15th of May.
JOSS ALLAN
Dearly loved uncle, friend, & mentor of Heather, Brian and all the
family.
Such a gentleman with an open heart.
MARGARET LEWIS (PEGS) MORTON - BELOVED WIFE OF ALAN AND MOTHER OF
MARIE, SARAH, HILARIE AND HELENA
(Teacher for many years at Baines School. Died peacefully in Cape
Town on 16th May after long illness)
CONDOLENCES
Hazel Cockcroft.
My deepest sympathy to Derek Cockcroft, ( my son in law ) his sisters
Pat and Linda and their families on the very sad passing of their mom
Hazel who was a lovely lady loved by all who knew her. She is now
at peace, after much suffering.. Much love Esme van Jaarsveldt and
family.
PRAYERS ARE NEEDED FOR OUR OWN DEAR CHARLIE TROLLIP, HIS MOM MARION
IS BACK HOME NOW FOR A WHILE AND HE NEEDS ALL OUR PRAYERS.
PRAYERS ARE ALSO NEEDED FOR DR NCUBE OUR OWN ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON, AN
BY THE WAY IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEND HIM A GET WELL CARD, LINDY
BROOKS WILL TAKE ONE DOWN TO JOBURG FOR YOU. DROP THE CARDS OFF WITH
JANET AT SOLOMON'S SUPERMARKET.
TIDBITS
At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope
of new possibilities. --Jean Houston
Fact of the Day:
It turns out that laughter might just be the best medicine.
Especially for diabetes. New research in Japan shows that a chuckle
helps the body process blood sugar. A study of type 2 diabetes -- the
most common form of the disease -- found that laughter was linked to
lower blood sugar levels after a meal. [ more ]
Be The Change:
Promote good health and new possibilities: tell a joke to a fellow
office worker, student or neighbour.
Hyper inflation cases in history
May 12 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe said on Friday its April inflation
rate hit
a record 1,042.9 percent, the world's highest. Here are some details
about
hyper-inflation and some infamous instances in other countries:
* ARGENTINA:
After decades of being a case study in ruinous inflation,
Argentina
returned to single-digit yearly price rises in August 1993. Just four
years
previously hyper-inflation was tripling prices in a month.
President Carlos Menem recalled that when he took office
inflation was
running at around 5,000 percent a year. The austral, the currency at
the
time of his predecessor, had gone from being worth more than $1 to
690 per
dollar.
* BRAZIL:
Fleeing from hyper-inflation in March 1990, Brazil's new
government
introduced one of history's most draconian monetary reforms and froze
more
than 100 billion dollars of individuals' and companies' money.
Inflation
had reached a record monthly rate of nearly 73 percent the month
before.
In July 1994 President Itamar Franco and Economy Minister Rubens
Ricupero made a multibillion-dollar switch from the cruzeiro real to
the
dollar-backed real to drop monthly inflation from 47 percent to the low
single digits.
* GERMANY:
Inflation is still a dirty word in Germany, where in the 1920s a
wheelbarrow full of money was needed to pay for a loaf of bread.
The Weimar government, saddled with a $33 billion reparation bill
responded by printing money at a furious hyper-inflationary pace. In
1922,
the highest denomination was 50,000 mark. By 1923, The highest value
banknote issued by the Weimar government's Reichsbank had a face
value of
100 billion marks. During the worst times, one U.S. dollar was equal
to 80
billion marks.
* YUGOSLAVIA:
The economy of rump Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro,
collapsed following the disintegration of former Yugoslavia's single
market
in 1991. Like many inflations, however, Yugoslavia's had its origins
in a
budget deficit which was covered by printing money.
The country went through a period of hyper-inflation and
subsequent
currency reforms from 1989 to 1994. Yugoslavia suffered hyper-
inflation of
over one billion percent in 1993.
In December 1993, the cost of living rose 2,839 times from
November,
and over 6,000 billion times from early in the year.
On the foreign currency black market, the only one that counted
in rump
Yugoslavia, $1 fetched on one day 3,000 billion dinars, up from 1,100
billion the day before.
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