An overdue update
Welcome to a MUCH overdue update from this international nomad, who's wandered....wandered.....wandered......since that last post in distant October. In early November I had an urgent call from my family in South Africa to help take care of my younger brother. So up I packed and trotted down South for a couple of months. He's doing much better now!! (and much thanks to friends, colleagues, everyone for much-needed support!)
Was quite an adventure, that started with a 3-day drive with my dad, from Harare to Cape Town. If you want to clear your head and destress, I'd recommend a 2,700 kilometre drive to anyone!! Especially in southern Africa. On the Zim side there was hardly any traffic (one of the side-effects of an ongoing fuel-crisis) and on the SA side you felt so relieved that you no longer had to dodge oversized pot-holes, driving was a pleasure! I had heard such nightmare stories about...
- the border (Beit Bridge)
- the roads (that was true!)
- the taxi drivers (on the SA side...they have quite a reputation!)
- the danger of hijacking
that it was quite a relief to make it to Cape Town in one piece, albeit slightly exhausted. Actually, just remembered....it was [i]supposed[/i]to be a 3-day drive, but Dad and I being the crazy drivers we are turned it into a 2-day drive and got to Cape Town at 2am after an 18+hour day of driving!
The few months in-between I'll gloss over, as I basically spent time at home caring for my brother, and enjoying Christmas with family!
The drive back to Zim, I undertook alone. To all intents and purposes, a CRAZY thing to do, but one that turned out...alright?! (OK, OK, I admit, I did take a slight detour through Mberengwe!!)
The drive from Cape Town to Johannesburg went smoothly enough, with my little Opel flying across the plains of southern Africa....even the border went relatively smoothly and I was readmitted to Zim, despite STILL not having a work permit!
But it was the northern side of the border I had some problems. Of course, as I approached Zim I cranked up my Oliver Mtukudzi tape and really felt the groove of returning to Zim. This side of the border there were no road signs...and somehow I only noticed one road going north. That was my first wrong move! I was expecting to stop at a place called "Lion and Elephant" motel for lunch, but after an hour of driving north of the border, I still didn't see it -- and that was when I started paying attention to the road signs....yea....I was on my way to Bulawayo instead of Harare (completely wrong direction!!!) And although I'd brought 20litres of extra petrol with me, there was no way I'd make it to Bulawayo and THEN to Harare on the petrol I had -- and no, there was no petrol available anywhere.
But you know what they say about us southern Africans...we're good at "making a plan". Or in my case, not so good!
I looked on my nifty new roadmap and discovered there was a road that cut across from West Nicholson to Masvingo, which would get me back in the right direction for Harare, without too much of a detour. And the road looked like it wouldn't be more than 100kms. Great! No problem!
WRONG!!!
It turned out to be a dirt track.....yes, 96 kms of dirt road! Well, at 4 p.m. that didn't seem like such a bad thing. But after an hour of driving at an average of 30km/hour, with a torrential downpour washing what was left of the road away and not having seen a single other vehicle it was suddenly a very BAD idea! Oh, and did I mention there was no cellphone reception at all??!!! Yea......gotta love rural Zim!
Somehow -- and I give God a LOT of credit for this -- I got to a little place called Mberengwe in one piece, and the car was miraculously still going too (despite being rattled far beyond what any car should have to endure.....and one incident that involved lots of mud, and ditch and pitch-darkness...!) By the time I got to Mberengwe it was after 9p.m. and that is far too late to be on the road. But my adrenaline was pumping after my cross-country rattle&ride, so decided to plunge ahead into the darkness and attempt the remaining 4 hours to Harare. At 2 a.m. I finally made it to Arundel and with relief lowered myself into a hot bath and finally took a deep breath......it was New Years Eve and 2006 was almost, thankfully, over.
Was quite an adventure, that started with a 3-day drive with my dad, from Harare to Cape Town. If you want to clear your head and destress, I'd recommend a 2,700 kilometre drive to anyone!! Especially in southern Africa. On the Zim side there was hardly any traffic (one of the side-effects of an ongoing fuel-crisis) and on the SA side you felt so relieved that you no longer had to dodge oversized pot-holes, driving was a pleasure! I had heard such nightmare stories about...
- the border (Beit Bridge)
- the roads (that was true!)
- the taxi drivers (on the SA side...they have quite a reputation!)
- the danger of hijacking
that it was quite a relief to make it to Cape Town in one piece, albeit slightly exhausted. Actually, just remembered....it was [i]supposed[/i]to be a 3-day drive, but Dad and I being the crazy drivers we are turned it into a 2-day drive and got to Cape Town at 2am after an 18+hour day of driving!
The few months in-between I'll gloss over, as I basically spent time at home caring for my brother, and enjoying Christmas with family!
The drive back to Zim, I undertook alone. To all intents and purposes, a CRAZY thing to do, but one that turned out...alright?! (OK, OK, I admit, I did take a slight detour through Mberengwe!!)
The drive from Cape Town to Johannesburg went smoothly enough, with my little Opel flying across the plains of southern Africa....even the border went relatively smoothly and I was readmitted to Zim, despite STILL not having a work permit!
But it was the northern side of the border I had some problems. Of course, as I approached Zim I cranked up my Oliver Mtukudzi tape and really felt the groove of returning to Zim. This side of the border there were no road signs...and somehow I only noticed one road going north. That was my first wrong move! I was expecting to stop at a place called "Lion and Elephant" motel for lunch, but after an hour of driving north of the border, I still didn't see it -- and that was when I started paying attention to the road signs....yea....I was on my way to Bulawayo instead of Harare (completely wrong direction!!!) And although I'd brought 20litres of extra petrol with me, there was no way I'd make it to Bulawayo and THEN to Harare on the petrol I had -- and no, there was no petrol available anywhere.
But you know what they say about us southern Africans...we're good at "making a plan". Or in my case, not so good!
I looked on my nifty new roadmap and discovered there was a road that cut across from West Nicholson to Masvingo, which would get me back in the right direction for Harare, without too much of a detour. And the road looked like it wouldn't be more than 100kms. Great! No problem!
WRONG!!!
It turned out to be a dirt track.....yes, 96 kms of dirt road! Well, at 4 p.m. that didn't seem like such a bad thing. But after an hour of driving at an average of 30km/hour, with a torrential downpour washing what was left of the road away and not having seen a single other vehicle it was suddenly a very BAD idea! Oh, and did I mention there was no cellphone reception at all??!!! Yea......gotta love rural Zim!
Somehow -- and I give God a LOT of credit for this -- I got to a little place called Mberengwe in one piece, and the car was miraculously still going too (despite being rattled far beyond what any car should have to endure.....and one incident that involved lots of mud, and ditch and pitch-darkness...!) By the time I got to Mberengwe it was after 9p.m. and that is far too late to be on the road. But my adrenaline was pumping after my cross-country rattle&ride, so decided to plunge ahead into the darkness and attempt the remaining 4 hours to Harare. At 2 a.m. I finally made it to Arundel and with relief lowered myself into a hot bath and finally took a deep breath......it was New Years Eve and 2006 was almost, thankfully, over.
posted by VN at 12:20 PM
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