19th March 1997
Martin phoned us on 18 March from a small place called 'Mutare' which is a small village somewhere between Bulawayo and Harare in Zimbabwe. He should now be heading for Tanzania but with Martin and Ian who knows where they will finish up. I have sent the last card that we received from him, from Victoria Falls. Their comments on their visit there were that they were Fabulous. Martin said that as the rapids were too awash with water and not enough white water they decided not to bother with rafting down them. They decided to leave the bungie jumping and all that sort of thing until they get to Oz. At long last most of Martin's post is catching up with him, he picked up 12 letters and cards on his arrival in Harare. Unfortunately mail to the UK appears to be very slow in getting through especially to his Mum and Dad. A most interesting piece of news from them was that the two of them gave up BEER for lent, I am not sure if that meant all alcohol or just the beer.
Ken
PS. Guess who set off on a World Trek and forgot to take a MAP OF THE WORLD with him? Well done "Merton".
Martin phoned home 2.4.97 from DAR-ES-SALAAM - TANZANIA. They were planning to trek from there to "Mount Kilimanjaro" and "The Ougaragona Crator" in Tanzania but only to look he told his mum. From there it should be onto Kenya & Mount Kenya is due for another visit. They now plan to fly from Niarobi to India on 28th/29th of April. Being Merton Mann he is behind schedule.
[Postcard from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe]
Happy Mother's day mum. I hope that you have a lovely day. Hi dad. Well here I (we) am in Vic Falls & they're awesome - 1.7km of waterfall. You'll be pleased to know I resisted the temptation to white water raft (it was too safe because the water is so high - you either get good falls or good rapids), & also the temptation to bungie jump - I am going to do them all in Oz instead!!! Every-thing is going really well. I hope that you got the tape I sent last week. You can see a fairly big difference between Zimb. & S.A. in facilities & poverty & also the landscape - Zimb. is more beautiful & what you would imagine African landscape to be.
Lots of love, Martin