For those friends and family who have the time to read....heres the first missive about our trip. Its long but we did not get time to set up the blog...but hope this will do. December 13, 2014 Norma Jean’s Guest House, Masvingo on Lake Mutirikwe near Great Zimbabwe In spite of all the risks (and warnings) of travelling north to Zimbabwe during the December holidays: the heat, the rain, the mosquitoes and a busy border crossing, it all seems worth it, as I sit in our tent with a spectacular thunder storm pelting down, after a most fulfilling day of exploring Great Zimbabwe for 5 hours. Well, I can say that now. The kind people running Norma Jeans guest house on Lake Mutirikwe, Masvingo very kindly allowed us to pitch our tent in the communal boma after arriving in a thunder storm, after dark, and a 7 ½ hour border crossing at Beit Bridge. We seemingly are the only ones daring to brave the unpredictable summer weather, and I suspect we looked a sorry sight on arrival. We left Durban on December 10th, fired up with the usual excitement a camping holiday enlists in our little family. It felt a tad strange not having our travelling companions – the Lycetts and Gordons with us. There was no flurry of folk waving us off this time, but my mum was there – so I suppose that counted for something. We had to make a quick U-turn after the Shongweni Toll in Durban, as we had left all the car’s papers on the desk at home in our haste to make good time to Loskop in Mpumalanga, our first over nighter on the way to Zim. Probably a good thing too, as Donald noticed that the Landrover was not “firing” too well. We rushed home, grabbed the papers and headed to Pinetown to the Landy mechanic Don has come to know, who seemed very confident that it was the injector harness. So 3 hours later, a new harness installed, we left – 4 hours after schedule. This meant driving at night and then in the rain to boot. We arrived after 11pm at our camp site and thankfully an after-hours number on the gate meant we could wake up the cheerful young Erny, who kindly swopped our campsite for a chalet. Good decision, as it turned out all the mattresses and linen were wet, and our side gull wing had leaked too, which meant some of the clothes were wet too. I can hear you all groaning – but we managed to dry everything out by the time we had left in the morning – and we were still in good spirits. Don had booked us into the Tshipise Forever Resorts campsite for our next stop at Musina, which turns out to be quite fascinating – hot pools, and a massive campsite, 346 to be exact. Can you imagine that in the height of season (which is July) – figure that one out - 346 sites x at least 4 people per site! A well organised, picturesque site, but seriously big. We were blessed, however, with only about 10 camping sites take up, and fine ablutions we have yet to find, meant a comfortable stay with a posse of mongooses keeping us entertained. Friday was the big border crossing day. We had researched this quite well, and despite everyone’s warnings, had spoken to a number of people including a travel agent who sent us the new Zimbabwe Tourism facility details which entails a staff member meeting you on the Zim side and guiding you through the complex process when travelling with a vehicle. “Come after 8am” the Zim tourist lady told me on the phone a few weeks before, “they will be done processing the overnight buses and then you will get through ok.” Well when we arrived at the SA border post – it was chaos and mayhem, confusing queues, hundreds of people and buses loaded up for the holidays. “How bad can it be?’ we thought, “after all we have done some grim border crossings on our three month trip last year.” We spotted a family in transit, they looked like tourists, but were Zimbabweans on their way home, to whom we got chatting. Schalk and his wife Joan were such a delight as we managed to negotiate the chaos, always reminding us that we will eventually get there even though it may be slow. Nothing happened for a long while, the crowd began to get aggressive, and at one point one guy started trying to get the crowd moving “Amandla!” he yelled. “One or two repeated. “Amandla! You must say it.” He yelled. “People around us half-heartedly echoed his call to action. “Awethu!”. ‘Phansi corruption, Phansi.” People laughed and nodded their heads. Now didn’t seem the time to toyi toyi. Long queues, holidays calling and bus loads to process, it was not going to happen in a hurry if we all started mass action at this point. After a door was broken, a host of immigration officers in neon jackets were shipped in and in no time the crowd was made orderly, officials moaning and shouting at us all, and questioning why we were queuing where we were. Two hours later we were stamped and heading to the Zim side feeling that this was a synch. We had SMS’d Lawrance our Zim Tourism man who was going to be our saviour crossing over. We got through the immigration section in 20 minutes, and then Lawrance met us and took Don to the Temp Import queue for the vehicle, while I went back to the Landy with the kids to wait. Four hours later, a make shift loo in the car for the kids, no shade, no trees, a game of UNO, a game of Bingo (thanks Debs for the Christmas present!), Kindle playing and no sense of humour failure, we departed the border into Zim. Hallelujah! Our first police stop (there were 4 or 5 on the way to Masvingo) the policeman asked Don if I was his mum (oh well), two tolls, in the rain, in the dark, we managed to find our way to a glorious oasis Norma Jeans on Lake Mutirikwe. We settled in for the night under a boma (thank heavens) and were dry and comfortable. We awoke to a glorious view of the lake and headed off to Great Zimbabwe at 8am. Five hours of exploring this magnificent World Heritage Site, gives an indication of how fascinating the children found the ancient city. We hired a guide who took us to the Hilltop first, being early it meant we could get the most strenuous part of the tour done in cooler weather. Matthew and Jessica’s willingness to traipse up the hill to the King’s enclosure, ahead of us with the guide demonstrated how eager they were to explore the “city”. They particularly loved the part where the guide showed us how the king sat in his cave and called to his 200 wives in the valley below. As he called, we heard his voice echo across the valley, and another guide down below called back. The Great Enclosure, enthralled the kids most, this is the most photographically represented part of Great Zimbabwe. After the tour, which I might add was peppered with some very “interesting” and colourful historical embellishments, we sent the kids to explore on their own – how important they must have felt wandering around the ancient stones, dwarfed by the magnificence of where they were. And only after the noon day sun had really beaten down hard on us did we realise we had been doing this for 5 hours. So we beetled off, to Lake Mutirikwe’s dam wall, and a chapel built by the keeper of the dam wall for his daughter who tragically died in an accident in 1970. The storm clouds gathered from the west and we got home as the heavens opened. Exhausted, elated and filled to the brim with facts, we settled in for the afternoon, and evening. The frustrating border crossing of yesterday, the wet mattresses and clothes a thing of the past. Tomorrow, we head to Harare and then to meet my friend Nicky du Plessis’s Aunt Marge and family in Mana Pools. So rain gods, just a small request: rain on the parts that seriously need the rain, and avoid our tent!
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:44:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015