Who is Chirundu

There are now two bridges that cross the Zambezi river from Chirundu in Zimbabwe, to Chirundu in Zambia is known the new one is known as the Chirundu Bridge, which replaced the original Otto Beit Bridge.

Chirundu Bridge
The new bridge was built between 1999 and 2003, is 400m long and it's structure is known as a Cantilever bridge, hollow box, haunched and is called the Chirundu Bridge. It is a two-lane, three-span continuous prestressed concrete box girder bridge.

Otto Beit Bridge
The original bridge to cross the Zambezi river at Chirundu is known as the Otto Beit Bridge. It was built during 1938 and 1939 by the Cleveland Bridge Company with financing from the Beit Trust, which funded most of central and southern Africa's colonial era bridges including the Beit Bridge across the Limpopo River, the Kafue Bridge, and the Luangwa Bridge.

Incredibly The Otto Beit Bridge was the first modern suspension bridge to be built outside the USA built with parallel wire cables. Not as long as the new bridge, it has a span of 382 m.

Because it was built over 20 years before the Kariba Dam, upstream they had to take into account the annual Zambezi flood, which is the reason for the single span, that the new bridge did not need.

The Otto Beit Bridge cost £186,000 to build and was opened on 24th May 1939 by the widow of Otto Beit, Lady Lillian Beit.

The new bridge was constructed mainly because the old bridge could only take a single lane of traffic on the great north road between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

I have had the nick name "Chirundu" for as long as I care to remember now.

I was born and raised in Zimbabwe and no I was not born in or lived in the town of Chirundu (more that later) Currently I live, like many Zimbabweans in the UK, but still return home as often as I can.

You could say that I have had a pretty varied professional life so far:

Here in the UK I work on Search Engine optimisation, that is helping websites rank well on Search engines as well as Web development, design and web marketing.

I am a qualified level 1 field guide (Safari guide) and in the past I have worked as a safari guide in South Africa as well as helped to Manage a lodge on Welgevonden Game Reserve in the northern province of South Africa.

I enjoy sport, especially Rugby, Cricket and Cycling and have represented Zimbabwe at both Senior an Junior level in Cycling. Possibly the highlight was going to the Junior World Cycling Championships in Colorado USA in 1991 (Wow that was a while back!) where I took part in both the Road race and the team time trial events.

I enjoy photography, especially bird and wildlife photography.

Travel is another very important part of my life and I guess you would say I have travelled a lot! Some of my favourite countries include: Zimbabwe, Swaziland, South Africa, Kenya, The Gambia, Greece, Spain and Malta. I guess they all have one thing in common, they all tend to be warm countries! Don't get me wrong I enjoy many things about cold countries like the UK, but they just don't seem to make it into my top 5!

Why did I get the nickname "chirundu?" I guess it started when I first came to England and because of how homesick I was as well as wanting to keep in touch with most of my friends who had also left Zimbabwe, I set up a social networking website site for Zimbabweans.

Because one of my favourite places on earth is the Zambezi river and I have often gone fishing and camping along the Zambezi river, often near Chirundu, I thought I would name the site after what I missed most.

My first choice for a domain name would have been Zambezi.com, but it was taken and so it was to become Chirundu.com, Zimbabwean Social networking site and the place for Homesick Africans

And since then it has just stuck.

I currently work full time for a company, but also have a few personal ongoing projects that help to pay the bills as well as for a few beers on the weekends. Below are a few of the better ones:

Chirundu.com The Zimbabwean Social Networking Site

I started this, I think back in 1998 way before anyone had even heard of facebook - unfortunately Mark Zuckerberg now has over a billion dollars and I don't ;-)

Still this is a great way to keep in touch with other Zimbabweans and at the last check we had over 30 000 members

The Best Binoculars & Binocular Reviews

This is a pretty new site of mine and it came about because whilst looking for binoculars that I needed when working as a Safari guide, I noticed that there were very few places you could find honest and unbiased reviews on what were the best binoculars for any particular use. Years later when I returned to the UK nothing had changed, except I now know an have used binoculars a lot more and so The Best Binoculars & Binocular Reviews Website was born

Safari Holiday Guide

The Safari Holiday Guide was the first site that I developed with an affiliate and seo perspective (rather than a designer and developers)

Because it was the first and I started it quite a few years back now, there are plenty of things that i would like to change on it, and I will eventually get round to those things that I know I can improve on.

Still there is plenty of information on Safari holidays in Africa almost all are written from my point of view and are place I have been to

The Beach Holiday Guide

Other than the African bush and it's wildlife, my second favourite place to visit are beaches and so because of one very valuable lesson I once learnt about Affiliate marketing was to try and write about the thing that interest you, I created The beach holiday guide.

Like the Safari Holiday Guide, the aim of this site is to write from my point of view and either recommend places that I have been to or slate them!

Still plenty of work to do on this website though ... another new years resolution!

I have a pretty varied musical taste and I like music from pop to the blues and pretty much everything in between, but deep down my favourite genre of music is Hard Rock:

So here is a quick Q&A on my music:

Records I couldn't live without?
* The Cult - Electric
* Deep Purple - Made In Japan
* Jethro Tull - Aqualung
* Iron Maiden - Live After Death
* Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
* Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
* AC/DC - Who Made Who

A song you wish you'd written?
All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

First record you bought?
Live After Death - Iron Maiden

A band that makes you laugh?
Flight of the Conchords

A record which sounds better in the dark?
AC/DC - Night Prowler

Album for a long car journey?
Guns 'N Roses - Use Your Illusion I & II