Zim in ruins...

And so it continues....

The Great Zimbabwean ruins really is something worthwhile to see. We started early and spent 2 hours walking through these ancient buildings. They date back to the 13^th century and are proof of an ancient civilization that lived in this area. They are also where Zimbabwe’s name and emblem originate from.

The Great Zimbabwean Ruins Camp Site

The Zimbabwean Ruins

Ruins with a view

More of the ruins

Birchenough Bridge on the way to Nyanga

We decided to take the long drive to the eastern highlands and are so glad we did. This is definitely one of the highlights of our trip. The road changes all the way and offers spectacular scenery…it reminded us of Hogsback, just bigger. Lush green fields and forests with lakes full of trout.

On the way to Troutbeck

The plan was to camp and cook some veggies in the high lands. So we found a local farm store and were ecstatically excited as to the variety of veggies available. We bought potatoes, onions, butternut and a whole head of cabbage…..  Now we fitted right in… I could pack all the stuff but had to tie the cabbage on top of the luggage.

Veggie shopping in Nyanga

On our way in search of a camp spot we got caught in a rainstorm and ended up at the Troutbeck Inn. So despite the price and our plans to camp we checked in and had Trout instead of cabbage for dinner. The hotel was decorated in typical English style with Décor, Dress code and cigar and snooker rooms. A bit of a time travel experience but I could not understand how economically viable it is to continue such extravagant operations with such little through put...

The view from our room at Troutbeck Inn

Troutbeck Inn

The next morning we set off to find the World View of Zimbabwe. The motorbikes had to do some serious climbing up to 2200 meters above sea level. The last bit we had to climb to 2250m which presented us with one of the most spectacular views ever.

Just look at this view

Lily's growing wild near Nyanga

Like something out of a story book

World view of Zimbabwe

On top of the world

A visit to Cecil John Rhodes house, today a hotel, for some coffee was our last stop in Nyanga before we started heading south again. We took on the scenic drive towards Chimanimani. The road was extremely beautiful with many mountain passes and many twists and turns. On our arrival in Chimanimani the GPS got lost and took us onto a gravel mountain pass in search of the local National Park which is where we planned to camp.  It was 18:00 and was getting dark quite quickly. By now we had traveled so far east that the sun was setting a lot earlier than we were use to.

We had no choice but to turn back to town and search for some other accommodation.

We found the town again and stopped at the only hotel….by now it was dark. Luckily they had a camping site or should I say an excuse for camping... The hotel was very run down and by now we could see the local people’s attempts to try and maintain the remains of what’s left post brother Robert… By now the veggies and cabbage had traveled Zimbabwe for about 320km. We cooked up a storm and ate like Vegetarian Camping Kings.

We had not seen much of the town so we spent the morning exploring the local market. Here we saw how they cook for the locals and we were about to taste Sadsa, which is what the South Africans call mieliepap, but Mia was put off by the boiling cows head meat in the next pot, so no Sadsa.

At the market you could buy bags of dried Mopani Worms, African Sweets (little yellow berries from a tree) and dried spinach. We played it safe and bought apples, bread and Zappienax (cheap chips loaded with msg’s) for breakfast.

Chimanimani town centre

Chimanimani market

The bridal falls are one of the attractions that we wanted to see. The road to the falls was terrible. We initially walked, as the lady at the gate wanted to charge us an extra $16 US on top of the $16 already paid, to take the bikes in. After 2 tough km’s with full riding gear hot and terribly annoyed not hearing any waterfall we turned back to the gate and took one of the bikes in. I was so irritated and annoyed that any human in their right mind will encourage such a walk that the poor security did not even say a word about charging me the extra dollars. This again explains the thinking process of distance and time in Africa. I felt a bit like a softy, but hell did I enjoyed the ride in to the falls (almost forgot Mia was on the back). The falls were really worth the trouble, what a sight.

Bridal falls

On the western side of the town a huge mountain range acts as the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Somewhere in the mountain, in earlier times, a guerilla route existed between the two countries. We got caught in another unexpected thunderstorm and decided to give the National Park a skip and get out of the rain. We’d love to return to this area with more time to explore as it is very scenic and wild.

On the way to Chiredzi we passed many hectares of banana plantations. We underestimated the road and again arrived in Chiredzi very tired and very late. In town we were faced with a new problem. No accommodation… We met a couple (previous Rodesian farmers) who invited us for tea and directed us to where they thought we could find some accommodation. On their instructions we set off to a town called Triangle. Another 30km on we found the suggested local club house but this was fully booked hosting many people from all over who are all involved with some new project. So we were sent another 26km on gravel road through sugar plantations to a “Lodge” which promised cold beer and camping.

Banana Platations

This was our most dodgy experience yet. “Sika Lodge” is a run down few buildings with one running tap over a bucket, no ablutions, and a few locals and chickens hanging around. The only part of the promise they could keep was the cold beer….no drinking water but enough beer for everyone. It was dark and we were out of options so we set up camp.

Sugar plantations on the way to Sika Lodge

We did not sleep much…it was Friday night and we were staying at the local “shebeen”. The owner arrived at 2:00 am and called all employees to help off load crates of beer off his vehicle. They were clearly not very used to guests as loud conversations could be heard all around our tent. At 3:00am eventually it settled down and at 4:00am the cock (which was right next to our tent) started announcing daybreak. So we packed up really early and hit the road back to South Africa…we had had our true African experience.

Dodgy Sika Lodge

On the way we got our first fine for speeding, apparently we managed to reach 75km/hr 100m from a pull away, but the Police could not prove this as they had “deleted” the reading. Arguing would have gotten us nowhere so our last US Dollars were spent.

The last few kilometers of the road was spent thinking of how sad we are for Zimbabwe, it is a beautiful, beautiful country now truly in ruins. We will continue to hope with these people that things turn around. As one of the Zimbabweans we met rightfully said, not even evil can last forever.

Beit Bridge…..oh my word. We were directed to the immigration queue which was at least a couple of hundred people long. It was hot and we had had enough.

Our luck changed and Afrikaans worked its magic when another traveler helped us to the front and 15minutes later we were through. If it wasn’t for him we may still be there.

Beit Bridge in the queue

So tonight we are in Tshipise, which is a resort near Musina with a hot water spring. We are enjoying having internet, cell phone reception and running water. Watching the stormers beat the Bulls in the heart of the "Northern Transvaal" PRICE LESS!!!
Slowly we will make our way to Pretoria over the next two days. Our story will continue to Bloemfontein and then hopefully through Lesotho.