Zimbabwe

What a relief! We arranged a 7.5 hr ferry ride from Matusadona to Kariba Town, arranged for the local crocodile farm to get crocodile feed from the mainland. The croc farm at Matusadona employs 400 people, the one at Kariba Town 1000. Meat and skin exported, this was the only sign of commerce we’ve seen in this part of Zim.

Thank goodness we have Ralph to reverse the car down rickety ferry ramps. His ability to reverse ranks up with ‘good teeth’ as a (initially sub-conscious) reason I chose him as a mate.

Inside information
Arnold the Senior Game Warden at Matusadona waited for the ferry with us at dawn.

“Anyone been eaten lately?” we couldn’t resist asking. Arnold told us a lion ate a careless ferry workman a couple of months ago. The rangers had to shoot the lioness and her cub, to the upset of the British lion researcher working there. A shoreline fishermen got his leg bitten off by a hippo. No instance of crocodiles attacked people. Any animal that has a violent interaction with a human has to be killed.

The National Parks are no longer run directly by the government, he told us, they’re parastatal and partly funded by donors, NGOs and park/camping fees. Obviously it’s not working, given the state of the road in and the infrastructure. Arnold said there is some poaching, the rangers have to patrol and deal with it. Shooting a poacher dead is called a “successful contact”.

Names
On the ferry we got chatting to locals. They had the most inspiring names, like, ever. Marvellous. (That was one). I made a toddler called Fallen cry. One guy, Bouf, had children named Praise, Pretend and Predominance. Why does that make me think of you Tiu de Haan! You need to visit this country!

Matusadona is one of Africa’s great parks – 1370 km² on the southern shore of Lake Kariba.
…and we seem to have it totally to ourselves.

Apart from the guy with the AK47 at the boom gate 40km inland, and the very lovely staff at the ranger’s office, we’ve seen nobody for 3 nights.

After 200km of sand road off the main Bulawayo-Vic Falls road, the the last section to Matusadona itself was a surprisingly difficult 67 km (took us 3 hrs) of eroded rocky sections and dry river beds.

But the reward, once we arrived – no other humans.

Staying still
The shoreline Ralph saw from a boat some 20 years ago was packed with game and elephants and lions, but now feels quite empty of animals. Just eight elephants, two bushbuck, 27 impalas and quite a few hippos and crocodiles. At least the chatting of hippos through the night is taking some attention away from my snoring.
But even small numbers of animals are exciting, the elephants have slowly made their way closer and closer to us (the animals are SO timid here compared to Botswana).

We are resting, reading, bird watching, sleeping, drawing, writing, washing, scrabbling, cooking and eating. It’s so beautiful here, and so rare for our little family to stay still…

A short film below.
It is shot with a GoPro so can’t get the animals (i.e. can only shoot very close scenes).

2016: Makgadigadi to Matusadona

A fine balance
We’re covered in a thin layer of diesel and Liquifruit, and burrs and Johnson’s baby Moisturiser. It feels sustainable but we were very happy to camp in Binga by a pool and lawn, the empty Kulizwe resort by Lake Kariba. No other guests. The girls revelled happily in the novelty of green grass, rather than dust.

The Light of Life
On the way to Matusadona, we stopped by a huge baobab at the start of a dusty drive. We got out and walked to a plain white building which was the “Light of Life Ministry” – in the middle of a Sunday service.

Pastor Simon (who founded the church many years ago and now has 1500 members across six churches) came out to greet us and guided us into the building, which was filled with about 150 people of all ages dressed in colourful Sunday best. They seemed arranged in size, age and colour order. Glorious technicolour. Everyone sang and clapped. Simon brought his eight children to meet us one by one, passing before us shaking clammy, sweaty, lovely hands. Simon’s eldest son translated into Themba the Pastor’s speech – blessing God and us and our journey. Bea nudged me (“moh-ohm!“) to stop crying.

Seeking the Prophet
Later we passed a man impeccably dressed in a dark blue velvet suit and hipster specs, needing a ride. We took him some way towards his destination, Bumi Hills (sadly not pronounced Bummi by anyone except me). With a lot of gesticulating, smiling, nodding and multiple choice questions from Ralph, we uncovered his story, we think. Husband, father of two young children, he is a brandy salesman from Harare, who’s job is under threat. So he was traveling from Harare by bus and foot, to reach the Prophet Severnos past Mola in the Bumi Hills, who would give him advice on what to do next, the power to make his own destiny.

After that we headed towards National Park Matusadona, pre-warned that the last 70km or so were dastardly. Which they were, three rocky, broken, hairy dastardly hours of driving to get to camp. Windows down to avoid Tsetse flies, quite unhappy and unsure of what we’d find at the end of the road.

Police state
We stopped at Hwange Town to restock at OK Bazaars. We drove around the town and saw some abandoned neighbourhoods, pretty houses shuttered up and broken down. At first we were nervous to shop on the busy main street, as we were so conspicuous.

Then, with a kind of morbid fascination we noticed about 20 police in the central area of the street, three of whom had full riot gear on. There did not seem to be there for any particular reason, just business as normal in a police state. No-one bothered us, smiled at us or interacted beyond what was essential. As Mandy in Panda had said, “Zimbabwe is safe. Anyone makes any trouble there and the police deal with it straightaway. Nothing tips over into violence because the police don’t let it“. The fact that Mandy spoke of this state of affairs sympathetically, compared to South Africa, is another dimension in the complicated equation of Africa.

The road to Binga
The drive from Hwange to Binga: Baobabs and red roads, perfect mud-hut villages, structures improvised from sticks and clay, like grown-up versions of Bea and Mila’s fairy houses, blue green hills and mountains, the locals walking along the roads backlit and in colourful clothes, pushing wheelbarrows or carrying water on their heads. The brutal fact is though that this is one of the very poorest areas in Zimbabwe. We realised these people must have been some of the 60,000 Batonga people relocated by the building of Kariba Dam in the late 1950’s. From subsistence village life by the abundant Zambezi River to being plonked in the middle of nowhere. No wonder Nyaminyami the God of the River is angry.

So we feel totally weird driving along in our huge loaded vehicle (how I hate the word vehicle). Immune and disembodied from our surroundings (“safe”) and yet feeling such a strong connection and even love for where we are on the planet. It’s hard to understand our own feelings. Timeless, hopeless, simple, guilty, angry, beautiful, nostalgic, patronising, perfect and terrible.

Whites
Last night we camped at “Touch of Africa” in Pandamatenga, run by South African Mandy and her Austrian husband Franz for the last 16 years. The extensive farmlands around Panda are owned by 55 families, 4 from Zimbabwe, 4 from Botswana, the rest South African.

Mrs. Moyo and Apollo
As the Speedometer and Odometer were not working we went to the Panda Garage to get them fixed before entering Zim. Apollo and Mrs. Moyo greeted us. I sponsored Mrs. Moyo’s granddaughter’s Big Walk in Gaborone. Apollo called Bushlore, the hire place in South Africa to get advice on how to fix the car. He left a message on the answer phone. “Hello, this is Apollo from Botswana. Please call me back“. Somehow everything worked out.

The border was an easy crossing. We were the first people who’d gone through in two or three days. The staff were so happy to welcome us to Zimbabwe. They had holes in their clothes.

Petty corruption
Two police roadblocks meant two $20 fines on the way to Hwange. One for a missing number plate light, one for a missing ‘weight of vehicle’ number. For each we were issued receipts of “Admission of Guilt” to avoid future fines for the same offence. So civilised. When the last policeman couldn’t find anything to fine us for, he asked us for some water.

The small corruption adds up and amongst Pastor Evan Mawarire’s 5 simple demands prompting the call for peaceful strikes this week #thisflag, is an end to the roadblock bribes which are crippling for the local taxi-drivers.

Hwange Game Park
Like everything, the Hwange infrastructure was completely neglected, faded bougainvillaea gardens and empty National Park blue-green rondavels. We didn’t see much game driving through, it felt like even the animals had abandoned this country.

But camping on the Sinimatella Hill we saw tiny trees, elephants and buffalo on the huge plain below and heard lions all night.

The campsite was full of Afrikaners with their homes balanced on their trailers and vehicles. So Zimbabwe is ticking along, somehow. Perhaps their best hope of recovery post-Mugabe, if there is one, is that there has been no serious civil disorder or destruction in the last 20 years.

Camped at Nata Bird Sanctuary at the Mgadigadi Salt Pans.

The days are punctuated by Ralph saying ‘ow’ as he familiarises himself with the Landcruiser. As per long-standing Lazar family tradition, Bea had her first driving lesson on the Salt Pans, very successful!

Ralph technical note: If the first car you learn to drive is a manual 4.2L diesel Landcruiser (which is really just a fancy tractor), then you can drive anything.

Dust and dry grass and the last of the Trans-continental nits, and wildebeest.

On the way to Hwange we were supposed to stay overnight at Elephant Sands but found it horrible. We cuddled a baby nag-aapie (JAMIE! LOOK!!!) but the place was so formulaic and unsympathetically laid out, and full of people (bah! humbug!). We watched some elephants in a watering hole with big willies, poo and wee. “I’ve never seen a willy scratch its underbelly before“. (Ralph).

We woke up absolutely frozen after camping at the rest camp on the border (Martin’s Drift) beside the Limpopo River.

The No Phones decision is already a complete epiphany. The girls have embraced it from the start as a kind of game, one of their imagined worlds with its own set of rules, to adhere to with complete dedication.

Great things happen when you’re not on your phone (and on top of a rooftent on top of a Landcruiser on top of Africa).

After getting lost in Pretoria yesterday, “Today’s goal is not to get lost at all” (Bea.) Still, we did get lost in Francistown due to roadworks and the car GPS not worrying about taking us into rough-looking areas, so us manually overriding it. We’re a bit nervous in towns and are trying to avoid them as much as possible. At Cape Union Mart we paid a trillion pula for warm gloves, socks, and thermal pants.

My goal was to have mint chocolate for breakfast. Done!

This part of the trip is a strange combination of these kind of very low-key expectations and small comforts, combined with a lot of driving through very poor, dry, uncharted (by us mom!) parts of Zimbabwe.

As ever, we’re intent on avoiding humans, finding birds and animals.

We saw some elephants and beautiful teeny steenbok by the side of the highway. They’re so shy – steenbok avoid predators by lying low in thick cover. They have glands between their hooves which leave a scent trail to mark their ranges. Will try not draw too much of an analogy there!

The promise of lions and a Mila-steenbok

BOTSWANA
Tuesday, 5 July – Kwanokeng/Martin’s Drift border crossing
Wednesday, 6 July – Nata Bird Sanctuary (Sowa Pan)
Thursday, 7 July – TOA lodge (Pandamatenga)

ZIMBABWE
Friday, 8 July Hwange – Sinamatella
Saturday, 9 July – Binga Rest Camp
Sunday, 10 July – Matusadona (Tashinga)
Monday, 11 July – Matusadona (Tashinga)
Tuesday, 12 July – Matusadona (Tashinga)
Wednesday, 13 July – Kariba Town – Caribbea Bay
Thursday, 14 July – Kariba Town – Caribbea Bay
Friday, 15 July – Mana Pools – BBC campsite
Saturday, 16 July – Mana Pools – BBC campsite
Sunday, 17 July – Mana Pools – BBC campsite
Monday, 18 July – Kariba Town – Caribbea Bay

ZAMBIA
Tuesday, 19 July – Livingstone
Wednesday, 20 July – Livingstone or Kasane

BOTSWANA
Thursday, 21 July 16 – Francistown

SOUTH AFRICA
Friday, 22 July 16 – Louis Trichardt area
Saturday, 23 July – Punda Maria Camp – Kruger
Sunday, 24 July – Mopane Camp – Kruger

MOZAMBIQUE
Monday, 25 July – San Martino – Bilene
Tuesday, 26 July – Tofo area
Wednesday, 27 July – Tofo area
Thursday, 28 July – Tofo area
Friday, 29 July – Tofo area
Saturday, 30 July – Tofo area
Sunday, 31 July – Tofo area
Monday, 1 August – Pomene
Tuesday, 2 August – Pomene
Wednesday, 3 August – Pomene
Thursday, 4 August – Pomene
Friday, 5 August – Pomene
Saturday, 6 August – Bilene/Xai-Xai area

SOUTH AFRICA
Sunday, 7 August – Nelspruit area
Monday, 8 August – JHB – fly out 10PM (VS602)