I just now got a call from David Hulme in Zimbabwe on the 9555 sat phone I talked Iridium into donating to the Borderline Walk. Dave has finished the Zambezi stretch of the Walk, ending at the border post of Kanyemba, which is at the confluence of the Luangwa and Zambezi Rivers. This is where the borders of Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique meet.

Now, he has turned due south and followed the Mozambique and Zimbabwean border down to where it makes a sharp right angle, as you can clearly see on any map.

David is presently with Buzz Charlton at Charlton McCallum Safaris' Pedzapasi camp. Before he left Kanyemba, he spent several days researching the legendary Vadoma tribe who have cleft feet with only two, or sometimes four, toes. Basically a big toe then a cleft and then a smaller toe(s). Photos will be in his next article for African Expedition Magazine.

All is well with him, and he is glad to be back in the bush again. His fellow traveler, Jephita Tumwi, has had to quit the project for personal reasons, but a new man named Felix is taking his place. I didn't get Felix's full name yet, but he has been with the Hulme family for 25 years in the lowveldt and is an accomplished bush man.

Dave is confident that Felix has the guts to finish up the expedition, but it is a huge sacrifice for any family man, and a lot of physical and mental wear and tear on anyone.

Dave told me that he expects to make it into the Eastern Highlands within the next 7-10 days if all goes as planned.

Anyhow, this is all that I know at the moment. He was in a place that was not too good for satellite transmission, but he will try to call me again in a few days from higher ground.

We are all praying for a safe journey for him and Felix as they press on with the Walk. There have been a few close calls in the Zambezi Valley, but so far they have walked unarmed in some of the wildest and ruggedest terrain in Southern Africa and emerged unscathed.

To my knowledge, no one has walked the length of the Zambezi River from Victoria Falls to Kanyemba, however David Hulme has the stories and the photos to prove he means what he says and he says what he means.

Go to this page for a full list of his articles and a link to his photo gallery.

http://www.africanxmag.com/the_bordeline_walk.htm

Cheers,

~Alan

Thanks for the update! I would love to join Dave for part of that walk! I can't wait to see pictures.

David's a true pioneer in his own right!

Thanks for the update.

I was just thinking about David and the BLW in the last few days. Thank you for the timely update.

Just got another sat phone update last night.

David is presently in Gonono which is about half way from Charlton McCallum Safaris' Pedzapasi camp and Mucumbura.

The next border post is called Nyanapanda and the next town of any substance is Nyanga, however it is still a few weeks away on foot.

All the latest camp coordinates did not go through, but as soon as we get them we will post them on Google Earth which is accessible at the link above.

Cheers,

~Alan Bunn

If it is the same Felix, he is a game scout on The Hammond portion of the SAVE,from which Zambezi Hunters conducts safaris. I met David there last October.

I was hunting with Buzz Charlton in Dande North on the 16th May when we came across Dave on the road heading for Kanyemba. He had been in Harare for a while to replenish his finances and to get over a bad bout of Malaria. He had got a lift back to Kanyemba to continue with his walk where he had left off, but the vehicle had broken down. He was miles from anywhere and was very surprised and no doubt releived to see our cruiser come around the corner. Buzz got the camp manager to give him a lift to Kanyemba so that he could collect his replacement guide and recommence his walk. It seemed a bit crazy to me that he was going to go back north only to then walk back to where we were, but it just shows that his trip is genuine and that he isnt taking any short cuts. I had been following his progress here on AR and you can imagine my amazement when I saw him on that road. Three days later we met him walking into camp to take up Buzz's offer of a bed on his way past. We had the pleasure of his company for two evenings at dinner and then he was on his way again. I found him to be great company and I thouroughly enjoyed listening to him and Buzz catching up on the gossip and reminiscing. When he heaved on that back pack and set off again I was full of admiration. What he has taken on is truely daunting and I wish him all the very best and a safe journey.

Pure raw adventure - blood & sweat with no rifle!

I wish I was 30 years younger & could be there with him.

R. Jolly,

Thank you for your first hand account, as well as all the assistance you and Buzz gave to David. His first call to me must have been while in camp with you. It is good to have an objective person offer up their observations on what is actually happening on the ground with the Borderline Walk.

Your comments about David's resolve to walk every step of the way are on the mark, and he wrote about it in his account of the Kariba Gorge. It was always his goal to make the entire trip on foot, even though we all knew it would not be possible, for logistical as well as personal reasons, to do the entire trek non-stop without any breaks or diversions.

However, there is a section of the Lower Zambezi where the river cuts a gorge through the mountains that is impassible on foot unless you are a trained mountaineer with proper professional equipment. Here is his description of the voyage to Salisbury Camp in a leaky mokoro, and his thoughts on cheating. As you can read for yourself, his rules are simple, but his rules are strict.

Here is a link to the entire article: http://www.africanxmag.com/kariba_gorge.htm

Cheers,

Alan



The Zambians said they had observed our attempt of the mountainside earlier and had thought we were either special-forces soldiers or mad. We laughed, assured them we were neither and enticed them the final few meters to shore with the offer of cigarettes. What else? After chatting a little about the impossibility of us continuing along the shoreline, the Zambians pocketed a pack of cigarettes and said they had to get upstream and get fishing for their wages. They said they’d return at dawn to further discuss our predicament. We thanked them and watched them paddle off into the night – less chattering now that there was so much puffing going on. As we drifted off to sleep that night, Jephita and I discussed our options or, more specifically, option. We knew it was unlikely we would cross the mountain anywhere near the river, even if we tried to go over the top, so to speak. We had had good visuals of what was above that afternoon, and decided it would simply be too taxing and too dangerous to tackle the mountain close to the river. We would have to work our way inland and seek out another, less radical approach. That would mean carrying all the water we could, which would not be much, fourteen liters tops. True to their word, Raymond Mwenda and his companion, Rasricky Hamoonge, were with us by dawn the following morning. Then we enjoyed a more lengthy and informative discussion than the previous evening, over a loaf of bread and some jam we had brought from Kariba, as well as quite a few cigarettes.

The Zambians assured us that although they never, ever went into Zimbabwe under any circumstances, they knew with absolute certainty that inland from this point was no better than on the river. They said that not one but many mountains would block our way and that our meager water supply would undoubtedly run out fast. But there was a plan – Salisbury fishing camp was only a few hundred meters downstream and they’d run us there and a little beyond, to a point where they would drop us on the far side of the mountain. At that place over the mountain, they said, there was a pass that would lead us inland a few kilometers, where we would find it easier to cross over the half-dozen similar mountains which still lay ahead, and work our way back to the river. They also said we might consider buying some of their fine, fresh wares whilst at Salisbury camp, and would be welcome to pay in either US dollars or cigarettes. Cigarettes would be preferable, of course, but a cash arrangement could be made…. I said that, as it happened, our fish supply was alarmingly low, and quickly loaded my backpack into the makoro.

We obviously had to make two runs over to Zambia and I went first. It was a fairly nerve-wracking border jump, crossing the Zambezi in that beat-up old makoro. It had definitely seen better days and leaked like a sieve – we had to bail as we went. Loaded as our vessel was, it lay very low and water continuously slopped in over the sides. Seated as I was, backside to base of boat with no elevation beneath, I could extend my arms in an almost straight line, dangle my hands and skim the water with my fingertips. There was not much tomfoolery though, I can assure you.

Between bailing with an inadequate plastic receptacle, I enjoyed good, close-up views of the Zimbabwe bank en route to Salisbury camp, and saw all I needed to convince me that it was indeed impossible to walk the shoreline. It was simply sheer rock-face or piles of huge boulders meeting water, for hundreds of meters. It would be madness to attempt it and someone would get killed. A lightly-loaded mountaineer could probably do it easily enough, but the Borderline walkers were certainly not going to try. Looking up was no more encouraging – the entire mountainside comprised jagged rock and extreme drop-offs.

I guess a decent overview of the mountain helped me to justify our ‘cheating’, although the truth is that I have never really felt the need to justify anything on Borderline. We take it as it comes and we do what we can under the circumstances. That mountain, at that point and as far as my eye could see, was truly an insurmountable object for us, and I will always try and avoid danger at all costs. Prevention is better than cure, as they say. Contrary to what some may believe, neither Jephita nor I are particularly gung-ho. Who are we going to justify our actions to anyway? It is only we who make the rules. And there are few rules pertaining to Borderline – simply that we walk around the country, sticking to the borderline as closely as possible. Crossing rivers by boat has obviously always been on the agenda, and that morning, as I was paddled down to Salisbury camp, I added ‘insurmountable objects may be rounded by boat’ to the rule list. But only by boat – thus far we have crossed fourteen rivers and rounded one insurmountable object by boat, and walked the rest of the way. We intend to keep it like that – foot or boat. We won’t get a helicopter ride over a mountain, for example. That would be taking the ‘cheating’ a little too far and actually cause it to become cheating.

Glad to hear that Dave is doing well, to bad jefta could not carry on. He has been with dave for quite a bit. My girlfriend and I were very happy to let Dave overnight at the Chikwenya Camp, where we manage and i guide when he was due to start off again after he had put things on hold for the rains. In his own words then, he told me he had put on a few pounds over the festive period but was ready to shed those. It amazed me that he is walking in a pair of what we call "rafters" in Zim, essentially sandals! Brilliant!!

Thanks! You feel as if you were there yourself!

zimguide,

Thank you for giving them your support at Chikwenya. Few people know how much a little bit of civilization, after weeks in the bushveldt, can lift your spirits and recharge your batteries. You are one of a select group of people who has made any contribution at all to the Borderline Walk... and I won't forget it.

Getting shed of Jephita is a really good thing. He was a liability and a constant source of problems. All the stops to sort out witchcraft, and God knows what other bullshit, were because of him. Jephita's final act was a act of betrayal, leaving Dave stranded at the border post of Kanyemba for two weeks without any money and without his cell phone.

Jephita took Dave's last $50 and his cell phone to go back to Harare to get some more money for supplies. Rather than telling him he wanted to quit, he just took off without a word. Two weeks later, Dave found out from someone else that Jephita had quit. Then, Dave had to tell the local store owner that he really was going to come back and settle up his bill! Establishing a line of credit on the Moz/Zim border is a pretty sketchy enterprise.

I can understand that six months of foot slogging through some of the toughest bushveldt in sub-Saharan Africa would quell a person's enthusiasm to keep moving forward with the project. Just looking at the gorges on Google Earth gives me vertigo, I can't imagine trekking up and down that terrain carrying a 5-60 pound backpack. But, it wasn't the quitting that sucked, it was the slinking away like a hyena without a word that sucked. Anyhow, I will just say good riddance and will leave the rest of my thoughts unspoken.

Yes, Dave's rafters! What a piece of work those are. I suppose you have seen the infamous self photo of his blistered and battered feet. LOL

I wanted to contact Courteney Boots for sponsorship with footwear, but Dave flatly refused and insisted on wearing rafters. I seem to remember they are an English brand called Strops but I think he has mentioned Merrills to me as well. Anyhow, he is a rafters man to the core.

So, now he is on track to the Eastern Highlands. We have recently updated the Google Earth page where you can see all of the campsite coordinates from the beginning at Victoria Falls straight through to a point on the Mozambique border due North of Muzabarani. These are the latest coordinates we have as of six days ago. Kudos to Iridium sat phones and Garmin GPS for giving us the technology to make this happen.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms...595&z=8&source=embed

Cheers,

~Alan Bunn

Thanks for keeping everyone up to scratch Alan, much appreciated. zimguide - hope you and Ashley are doing well, thanks again for taking care of us. Rob, it was great to meet you and many thanks also to you and Buzz and the rest of the crew. It was a pleasure sharing camp with you guys, lots of good humour. I will drop you a line asap. I heard your elephant went 54 pounds - fantastic. Congrats too on the last night leopard, what a way to round things off!

Well, as I should have come to expect by now, the walk has been beset by delays yet again. Firstly Jephita chucked in the towel, and then I was laid low for weeks by bouts of recurring malaria. I am still recovering from the latest attack. Very bad strain but I hope I've dealt with it for good now. I have reached as far as Mucumbura and will be heading out from there again soon. Larry - it is the same Felix you know who is taking over from Jephita. He has been working for my Dad for 20 years and is a sound,reliable guy with a heap of bush experience. Also more my age which is a bonus I reckon. Anyway, will post some kind of report and some pictures before I head out and when I'm feeling a bit better.

Cheers, and thanks to you all for the support and good wishes, as always, Dave