Having just returned from Zimbabwe on the 1 august it was quite a surprise to see that the leading story in Travel Africa Magazine was "Should we visit Zimbabwe". Having spent 19 days in Zimbabwe I was really looking forward to their conclusion..

Like all you people know, Zim is having a hard time and when I visited (with my girlfriend and 3 year old son, we are all danish) the situation had just gone a bit worse(again). This time it was the Mugabes "Green Bombers" who had tried their price reduction scheme.. NOT a big succes, even though the prizes were quite stabil in the the periode we were there. But the shelves were only half full(or empty) and there were no meat, maize, bread etc. And also the usual problems no petrol, diesel was a bit easier.

We spent 4 days in Gweru antelope park, 4 days on a houseboat on Lake Kariba, 5 days safari in Hwange and some days in Harare so we covered some good distances of the land. And we drove betweem the places. No flying..
I will write a full trip report later(if anyone are interested)but my conclusion is the same as Travel Africa Magazine.

Yes we should go!! I am glad we went. We had a good time. The infrastructure was still working(good roads, propably still the best in Africa after South Africa and maybe Namibia) and the people were friendly even though you could sense (and they would tell you) that they had a hard time. Everybody was looking forward to the elections, but most were still pesimitic about getting rid of Mugabe.
The landscape was some of the most breathtaking I have seen, the stars brighter and there were still huge amounts of wildlife around. Ecspecially elephants around Kariba and Hwange!! Having visited Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia(only Victoria Falls) and Botswana(only Chobe Riverfront)I feel Zim have so much to give the traveller.

I was a bit nervous before going about the police and even though we propably drove through 20-25 road blocks we had no problems. Most times we just passed through. A few times we were asked a couple of questions, but even the police were quite friendly( at least towards us) and the only bribe we payed was a apple juice to a thirsty officer

So I can understand that people don´t wanna support Mugabe, but I know at least some of my dollars ended up in the right pockets. So go if you have the opportunity, I hope you go and support the people.