{"id":1995,"date":"2021-07-01T14:46:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T12:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pamarah.com\/?p=1995"},"modified":"2021-07-05T09:31:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T07:31:27","slug":"chapter-1-checks-and-balances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pamarah.com\/blog\/chapter-1-checks-and-balances\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 1: Checks and Balances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My dream destination. Dreamy sigh. Dwelling on this catchy little phrase, a hundred images flood my mind and fuel my imagination. Exotic locations in far-flung places, perhaps a luxury flight or two in a fast jet to get there \u2013 we all have our dreams, don\u2019t we? They are, however, all too often somewhere \u2018out there\u2019 \u2013 balancing on a ledge, or tucked away on a shelf that\u2019s too high to reach…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The destination – where dreams are made of.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But, what if, when you dare to dream enough, you could turn your destination into your destiny? What if you could live out your days in your dream destination, breathing in its air daily, hearing its sounds, seeing its beauty, embracing its people, becoming a part of its culture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it was for the Scott-Riddell family, when our whimsical dreaming turned into a rather surprising call for action. We weighed all the balances and ticked all the checks (as any family with an aviation background like ours would naturally do), and unanimously decided on a complete change to our \u2018normal\u2019 suburban life that was going to turn all our lives around\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during a short camping holiday in August 2016, which took us to the small tourist town of Victoria Falls in the north-western part of Zimbabwe. Where, besides the obvious main attraction of the magnificent Falls itself and the surrounding vast expanse of bush, we experienced the feeling that we were simultaneously on the edge of nowhere, but also everywhere all at once. There were three attractive lures that made this dream destination of ours more and more appealing as a place where we could call home: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. A regular, dependable supply of water from the nearby Zambezi River.<\/li>
  2. Very few power cuts (compared to the almost daily cuts we experienced at home in Harare). <\/li>
  3. Easy access to hard cash (every Zimbabwean\u2019s daily challenge). <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    Zimbabweans will take hard cash in any shape or form and will go to great lengths to find it.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Fast forward and our dream became a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    By the river, my dream becomes my reality.
    <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    By December 2016, we had moved 1 dog, 2 cats and the kitchen sink, all of our worldly possessions and a half-built aeroplane (that\u2019s a story for another time!) to Victoria Falls. One of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World was to become our new home, and the beginning of our Pamarah adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \n
    \"\"
    Please don’t leave me behind!
    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \n
    \"\"
    Checked in
    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \n
    \"\"
    Don’t forget the kitchen sink<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    Plane journeys are usually done in sectors not pieces…


    <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My dream destination. Dreamy sigh. Dwelling on this catchy little phrase, a hundred images flood my mind and fuel my imagination. Exotic locations in far-flung places, perhaps a luxury flight or two in a fast jet to get there \u2013 we all have our dreams, don\u2019t we? They are, however, all too often somewhere \u2018out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[16,17,25,19,26,31,33,24,20,29,27,15,23,28,30,21,18,22,34,32],"yoast_head":"\nChapter 1: Checks And Balances | Pamarah Lodge Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Scott-Riddell family's dreams became a reality when they moved to Victoria Falls in 2016 to begin a new adventure - Pamarah Lodge.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pamarah.com\/blog\/chapter-1-checks-and-balances\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chapter 1: Checks And Balances | Pamarah Lodge Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Scott-Riddell family's dreams became a reality when they moved to Victoria Falls in 2016 to begin a new adventure - 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