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Zimbabwe Diary

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Zimbabwe Diary Zimbabwe Diary Dates: 27th October 2009 to 13th November 2009 17 Days Zimbabwe miles = 2084 miles (3333 km) Trip miles = 22336 miles (35738 km) Day 260 - Tuesday 27th October CONTINUED South Africa to Zimbabwe Over the Limpopo River into Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean side was frenetic but not too bad. Got our visas without problem, US$55 each and handed over R920 to Isaac our helper for the insurance, road fund tax and carbon tax and also got the carnet stamped up. That was all sorted although the papers we got back didn’t seem to add up to R920 but didn’t realise that until we were back on the road. Nearly finished. Just a form to hand into Customs telling them what funds we had with us and the value of the vehicle contents. That put the official into a flat spin as he couldn’t grasp the fact we had brought most of the items from England and it was all old personal effects. He wanted us to pay a deposit that we could reclaim when we left Zimbabwe but I declined his kind offer. Isaac got us to fill in another form each and advised reducing the values but that didn’t work either. The official instructed us to go and get the vehicle inspected to value the contents. This was going to be interesting! Isaac and his mate reckoned they would talk to the vehicle inspector and arrange for us to give him a little something to wave us through. When they told me the inspector wanted R2000 (£150) I told the inspector I wasn’t paying that and he could go ahead and inspect the vehicle if he wanted to. He opened the rear passenger door to start the inspection. Out fell a loaf of bread; he stared at it but I just picked it up and put it back in the vehicle and shut the door. And that was the limit of the inspection! He signed off the custom form. Drove to the exit gate but failed to spot the official lounging at the side so had to reverse back and hand him our customs forms. Got another grilling on where we were going and what were we carrying but he got bored of my travel tales and was more interested in the sand mats and waffle boards on our bonnet. Once explained what they were for he waved us on. One more barrier to go; hand in the gate pass to another official and tell her where we were going; we just put Hwange National Park down on every form for place of residence in Zimbabwe. This worked and we were out. Just over two hours in total, even though it felt much longer, so not too bad. Stopped outside to settle up with Isaac who still wouldn’t tell me how much he wanted for his troubles. We offered him R100 but he was affronted at this expecting much more for him and his team. We finally settled on R400; bloody expensive but a necessary evil in our case. With hindsight, we were completely whizzed by our mate Isaac and I won’t be using him again! We drove 80 km up the Harare road passing the first of many ‘official’ tolls charging US$1 or R10 for cars. These seem to have sprung up all over the place as a way of generating money for government coffers. Stopped off at the Lion and Elephant Lodge Motel to camp on the, now dry, Bubye River; US$5 for the two of us, so very cheap. We planned to check out the restaurant for dinner to get a feel of what is on offer and costs. We did in fact dine. Eland steak for me and pork chop for Judi, plus a bottle of wine. They only had a choice of one red and one white which made choosing much simpler; we went for the Stellenbosch Simonsig Shiraz at R80 which we thought wasn’t bad. The food was very good and reasonably cheap so our stay in Zimbabwe shouldn’t be too arduous, hopefully. Finished the meal with a local brandy, several actually, that went down very well. 1 Day 262 - Wednesday 28th October Bubye Bridge to Mushandike Sanctuary On the road fairly early and continued on up the Harare road, stopping at another toll; this time US$1 or R8 as opposed to R10 at the last one. Having read a little about the Great Zimbabwe Ruins decided to call in there on the way up north. In the middle of nowhere, thinking I was well out of any speed limits I went through a speed check and although I was slightly over the what turned out to be a 60 kph limit fortunately for me the chap who had just overtaken me was pulled over and was being processed, thus ignoring me. At another police check we were waved through without stopping. Called in at a garage just before we turned off onto the Ruins road to test out fuel availability; no problems and at US$1.05 per litre (£0.63) not the most expensive country by a long way. Had there been a problem we would have stayed within our range allowing enough to exit into Botswana. The Ruins were quite impressive and was the capital of the Shona people between the 11th and 15th Century. On independence in 1980 Rhodesia took the name Zimbabwe after the Ruins; it means ‘great stone building’. Hired a guide called Champion who gave us some fascinating facts on our tour, he knew his stuff. We haven’t done much cultural visiting so far so that will do for Zimbabwe! Drove around the nearby Lake Muturikwi then back into Masvingo on the A4 Harare Road taking the A9 west to a campsite on the Mushandike Sanctuary Dam. Got stopped in a police check and handed over international driving licence and insurance. All in order and waved on. All very pleasant and upfront but do hope I’m not going to get stopped on a daily basis! At the entrance to the Sanctuary they wanted US$4 total to get in but for rand they wanted 40; R10 to the dollar whereas the garage had been 9 to 1, one toll 10 to 1 and another toll 8 to 1 and to get into the ruins 8 to 1. The argument being that it is easier for people to have effectively one to one when working in two currencies but it does mean an extra 25% if paying in rand at 10 to 1 rather than 8 to 1. I paid in dollars as I objected to being ripped off! Travel note: take US dollars to Zimbabwe in preference to rand and don’t even consider, at this time, relying on the ATMs that are few and far between. Settled down for sundowners overlooking the lake having stoked up the donkey boiler for hot showers later but still hadn’t seen anyone to pay our camping fees as yet. There was only one log on the fire so used some of my own and scouted for smaller twigs. I then noticed the wood pile in a locked compound. I managed to get my hand under the chain-linked fencing and pulled some wood through when the guard caught me in the act; someone is coming to light the fire he said! He did turn up later and I managed to have a tepid shower and Judi a very hot one, but then I had been using the cold tap! In many countries so far it is often a guessing game which tap is which; the cold and hot can be left or right, they can both be red or both blue or no colour and because often it takes ages to get the hot to run you’ve had your cold shower before it finally runs hot. I ended up paying the chap the camp fees, US$10, in rand at 10 to 1 as we can’t afford to drain our dollars this early on. Day 263 - Thursday 29th October Mushandike Sanctuary to Chinhoyi There was nothing much to explore in the Sanctuary and we weren’t at all sure who or what was finding sanctuary here so we were on the road by 8 a.m. Gave a lad walking out of the park a lift, with him standing on the side step to the gate; it must have been a good ten kilometre walk. At the gate I noticed a flag at half-mast and asked the official who was dead. ‘A senator of Zimbabwe’, ‘Oh’ says I, ‘not the President?’ 2 ‘No’ he replied with a grin, ‘Pity’ says I. Judi told me off as, as she said, he may report me! Gave another lad a lift up to the tar and then drove back to Masvingo before heading north to Harare on the A4. Soon stopped at the first of five police checks that morning: waved on through at three after they eyed me up; produced carnet at one; and driver’s licence at the other. We decided that the best chance of getting internet was to make for a large hotel in Harare where we could lunch, fire the update off, check messages and do some banking. It seems unlikely we will get a Zimbabwe SIM card as they wanted US$30 for one that won’t work in our MTN phone and the coverage seems very scant in any case; we’ll rely on the satellite phone for emergencies and can receive internet texts on it.
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