Day 2
We woke after a cold night eager to get up and going. Folding our tents and packing our bags took some time and were still tasks that we would get a lot of practice in and get a lot quicker at.
We had a quick chat with the other guests and started our 500kms for the day at about 9:00. The plan was to get through Zimbabwe as quickly as possible and we stuck to the highway. There are a lot of police and traffic officers in the 80 zones, so we tried our best to keep to their speed limits. Most of the signs cancelling the slower zones are gone however and it is always a gamble to decide when it must be time to get back to 120. The road itself was quiet, but the burnt out carcasses of busses and trucks littered the fields next to the road leaving an ominous feeling.
Passing through Harare over lunch time on a Friday can be intimidating, but the people are very friendly and everyone in traffic is keen to strike up a conversation. We stopped at a Steers and had the King Steer burger special at $10 (R105) each!
Exiting Harare to the north, things become quiet and mountainous. We passed a couple of commercial farms with irrigation systems and Sunflower, Mielies, Bananas, Tabaco, Cotton and Soybeans on their fields. We had no idea yet of where we were going to set up camp tonight. We started searching for a potential camp site and some coke for the KWV we were carrying with us. Friday afternoon was slowly turning into Friday night and the locals were getting louder and cheerier at each town. The coke truck hasn’t been doing its rounds and most shebeens and shops couldn’t help us. Finally we found some mix at a village shebeen.
From the village we headed towards the town, Mount Darwin, searching for possible camp sites. While looking for a camp site, we missed our turn and came across a great little gravel road, our first for the trip, nearly 1 000kms from home already. Sadly we quickly realized our mistake and had to turn around to head back towards Mount Darwin.
10 kms short of the town Dawie turned from the main road into a private road, towards a mountain he had spotted as a possible site on Google earth back home. The idea was to ask the locals for permission to camp there and then just leave early the next morning, without intruding or bothering anyone.
Road towards our intended camp site
Passing a village, we stopped and asked to speak to the man in charge. A very neatly dressed man came to talk to us in very limited English. After explaining to him that we were just tourists looking for a flat piece of land to pitch our tents for 10 hours and then leave again, he insisted we phone the owner of the land. Half an hour later, with the sun starting to pack his things to go home, the owner arrived with a bunch of his mates. Everyone was clearly very jittery and we didn’t feel very welcome. They asked to see our driver’s licenses and passports to prove we weren’t “election observers”. Eventually he agreed to us camping on his land for the night. He offered to organise some firewood for us and him and his mates walked behind a hut. We could hear a long discussion and as the last light came rolling over the mountains in the west, they returned with their minds changed. We were to report to the local police station immediately as they could not “guarantee our safety there”. So there we were, nowhere to camp and the last light of day already making its way across Botswana.
With few options left, we took off to town in search of a place to spend the night, or the police station, whichever came first.
Mount Darwin is not really the type of town Zimbabwe would use to sell post cards or travel books and we could not find any camp sites. At the police station a very friendly constable directed us towards the town “lodge” where he said we could safely spend the night, only 500 meters from there. In retrospect, we’d rather just have camped on the police’s grass. The “lodge” was owned by a very shady young man who immediately saw his chance to make some profit out of desperate travellers. He insisted we rent a chalet each as 2 men couldn’t share one with only one bed. After Dawie’s persistent declining of his offer, he caved and charged us $35 for the use of their chalet. The “chalet” was on the brink of collapse and we had no intention of using the provided bed. The cold water shower was slippery with algae (well I hope it was algae) and we decided to skip the use of their facilities and sleep on our camping gear on the floor.
Luckily the coke and KWV were still at hand and allowed us to be asleep quite early.
Costs for the day:
Camping: R175
Coke: R10 (1l)
Fuel: R380 (26l)
Distance travelled so far: 1355.8km
ot:
