My Dad had organised a rental car for us in advance from Finland. From what he had understood, the car would come at quite a cost as we would be dropping it off at Victoria Falls from where the agency would pick it up and charge us an extortionate fee of 150USD for the pleasure. However, having your own – or in this case rented – wheels in Zimbabwe is by far the easiest way to get around for someone with time constraints but not enough cash to fly. More importantly, we were not going to risk facing the consequences of not getting to Cape Town in time for my mother's liking. This is why I found myself making coffee for the whole Europcar office in Harare in the morning while Dad was sorting out the paperwork. I managed to come up with some absolute bland mud water, as often happens to me if I don't know the particular machine I'm using, and the manager of the office decided to make a new pot after tasting it. At least I got a cup of actual coffee and he had a good laugh out of my intended philanthropy. My Dad being my Dad, he'd insisted we take the TomTom as well (even if T pointed out this was unnecessary as there are about four main roads in the whole country and the chances of getting lost are therefore quite minimal), so after only minor circling around in the outskirts of Harare we got on the road south towards Masvingo and the Great Zimbabwe National Monument.
My parents have never been to Africa and probably would never had made it here if it wasn't for our adventure. This is reflected well in their take on travelling around here. Before coming over, my mother had come up with only two things she wanted to see on their trip: Victoria Falls and Cape Town. This was why they flew to Harare in the first place, to gain easier access to the falls. As the distance between the two desired locations is over 2000km as the crow flies, we sure had some road to cover. Both me and T had tried to get her to read about Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to get some other ideas as well but she had been so busy at work right up until the trip that we were still stuck with the same mantra. Dad at least had read about the national parks of Zimbabwe and some sights in the Western Cape so we had something to elaborate on. As T had been to Zimbabwe before, he had some ideas which we used in order for my parents to get more out of their trip. Great Zimbabwe was one of these ideas.
The trip down to Masvingo and onwards to the ruins surprised us all in how few vehicles there were on the road. Apart from some large trucks, we hardly saw anyone ahead or behind us at any point. Once we got to Masvingo we started seeing some life around us again, nothing much worth mentioning in itself, though. As we had left Harare after 10am, we made it to the ruins quite late in the afternoon but still managed to get a tour around the site. What surprised us even more was that there were no other visitors at the site either, apart from one young couple from Zimbabwe who were sitting up on the top of one of the Hill Complex. Great Zimbabwe was impressive and we got to enjoy our tour in peace. We'd heard before that it's the kind of place where you can just walk around and sit to admire the surroundings and the historical value of the monument, and this is exactly how we found it as well. We decided to stay in the bungalows next to the monument for the night rather than drive back to Masvingo. The electricity was off and we had not brought any food supplies, so we headed to the nearby hotel for an African buffet and some expensive drinks before turning in.
T's got the guide cornered
The Hill Complex
The great enclosure. It was, as its name promised, great.
We presumed that Great Zim didn't look exactly like this back in the days
The conical tower. It was, as its name promised, conical
Officer: Sister, you know we have to fine you for speeding.
M: Yes, Mister Officer. That's all very well. How much is that?
Officer: It'll be 20 US dollars.
M: Great. Could you write me the ticket and I'll pay it wherever necessary, in the next town with a police station, or however it works here.
Officer: That's not how it works. You give the money to us in cash right here.
M: Oh, is that so. Well, as it happens I don't have enough cash to pay you that right here. Could you just write the ticket for me and I promise I'll pay it later.
Officer: We can't do that.
M: How do you mean you cannot do that? If you can fine me you can surely write me a ticket as well?
Officer: No, in fact we can't. We can fine you, but we're not allowed to write you a ticket because you have a foreign license, you see. You will get a receipt for your payment, however.
M: Aaahha. Well that's all good but completely useless for me. Besides, I told you I don't have the money. I'm telling you, just write the ticket and you can even escort me to the next town if you don't believe me. I go and get the cash and then we go to the police and pay the ticket.
Officer: Listen, Sister. We're not going to escort you anywhere. You go ask your friends for the money if you don't have any. You admit that you were speeding? In that case you must pay the fine.
M: Listen, Officer. Yes, I admit that I was speeding. And exactly because I am the driver, I am responsible for the ticket. My friends have nothing to do with it and I won't make them pay for my mistakes. So, how do you suggest we proceed?
Officer: Well then you have to pay us.
M: I told you I don't have the money.
Etc. etc. etc.... After repeating this for a good while we finally reached a consensus:
Officer: Sister, why don't you just say that you are very sorry and that you won't do it again?
M: Oh, well because where I come from there is no way you can worm your way out of ticket like that and I respect you enough not to try.
Officer (smiling): Why don't you give it a try this once?
M (looking bemused): OK then. I'm very sorry for speeding, Officer. I promise I will drive slower from now on.
Officer: See now, it wasn't all that hard, was it? (hands back the license) Have a nice day and drive safe.
T attempted not to antagonise the Zimbabwean police by not openly taking a picture of them attempting to elicit bribes as a proud mother looks on
We arrived at Vic Falls late in the evening after making a small detour to one of the safari lodges close to Hwange NP for some sundowners. My Mom was thrilled to have seen her first herd of buffaloes and a couple of elephants by the pond right nearby. We decided to make a trip inside the park the next day, and I sensed my parents were slowly starting to get into the Africa mentality. After all, my Dad was already nearly comfortable driving in the dark even if he had earlier sworn he would not have any of it where he doesn't know his way around.
The next day we got up early and I drove us to the park (paying attention to the speedometer this time). We drove far into the park before any sightings of animals but were eventually rewarded with Mom starting the spotting with finding some kudu in the bushes. All the expected ones (elephants, giraffes, impala, warthogs, baboons) soon followed with quite a few different birds and sightings of jackals and sable antelopes. At sunset we drove to one of the pans to see hippos and crocodiles as well and also welcomed a herd of about 25 elephants coming to splash around, which got my Dad working with his snapshots for real.
The Jackal, not starring Bruce Willis
Anyone seen enough impala yet?
Siamese giraffes
No introduction required
On our way back to the gates at 5:45pm, 15 minutes to closing time, we burst a tire while Dad hit one of the all too many potholes he'd been hitting throughout the day. Brilliant. Out we got into the fading light of the evening with our torches and noticed that the hub cap was tied to the tire with cable ties. None of us were carrying a knife or sharp enough object of any sort to cut them off and actually get to the bolts. Could we be spending the night with lions? Luckily a 4x4 soon appeared from behind us, it was the group we'd seen at the pan earlier. South African as they were, of course they carried knives! Dad got to work, and we arrived at the gate together with the South Africans at around 6.30pm to find someone still there to open it for us. What's best, on our way there we spotted what we later confirmed to near certainty to be the African wild dog. It was not too bad a place and time to get a puncture, then.
We're in wheel big trouble now! (apologies)
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