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Published: August 8th 2011
Dear All
Greetings from Zimbabwe! Wow, I actually made it – to be honest, I had a few doubts about whether I’d be able to get a visa across the border, but that was really easy, the border guard very welcoming, and this really is such a fantastic country! Although most sources said so before I arrived, it’s something you really have to see with your own eyes to believe – Zimbabwe is safe, welcoming and stunning! I’m glad I’m exploring it now, I feel like some kind of pioneer, as I’m sure in a few years this place will be just teeming with tourists again.
Last I wrote I was back in the dump of a city, Tete – stayed there one more night. As expected, not much to report from that dire town (did I mention I didn’t like it too much…?!). Although the journey back from Lake Cahora Bassa was pretty remarkable – a flipping tough one. The fantastic Jonny and Gilda dropped me off in the town of Songo, 17km up from the fantastic Tiger Lodge, from where I took an open-backed jeep to the next town. Being sat in the back of a truck
Golf Course
Leopard Rock Hotel, Bvumbagoing downhill at 50mph with about 20 other people for an hour wasn’t too bad, it was the next minibus which took me the final 140km back to Tete which was just a nightmare. There wasn’t much room, so I ended up sitting in the space between the driver and the passenger seat – normally there’s a mini-seat here, but not in this case – just an uncomfortable plastic box, which I managed to park my butt on but with my head bent forwards as I was too high up for the roof of the minibus. This was a relatively fortunate position, as they’d really crammed them in in the back. For a minibus designed for 15 people, there were 24 of us, with luggage also crammed in somehow, for nearly 3 hours. It was murder, and not a great experience to be honest.
Still, at least it took me back to Tete, and the next morning on to my next destination – the Zimbabwean border. Alas, I had decided not to go south onto Chimoio and see more of Mozambique, as this would have involved a 3am rise to catch a 4am bus for 7 hours. Since I
had just forked out $60 again for a room for the night, I was not about to take advantage of just half of what I paid for…! So for this sole reason, I guess along with the fact I’m no early riser, I decided just to head straight to Zimbabwe – and glad I did. As I mentioned, this is a great place!
My first two days I spent in Harare, the capital, after forking out a whopping $55 for a visa – all other countries only pay $30, but us Brits have to shell out a bit more... Will save comment on that one till later. However, the guard’s style was fantastic, saying when I told him my nationality that “oh, you get the special price…!”, which was said with a smile and was really quite funny.
Harare was a very pleasant surprise – a superb capital city – very tidy, orderly, quiet and developed. It’s certainly the first big city I’ve come across on my trip, with skyscrapers, modern hotels and great restaurants to boot. My full day there was spent just wandering around the city, taking in the wonders of modern civilization and rubbing my
Teatime!
Tony's Coffee Shoppe eyes constantly to remind myself that I’m not dreaming and this really is Zimbabwe. I’m sure the city also has some shadier spots, but staying in the upmarket northern suburb of Avondale, and walking around the city centre, I didn’t see this and instead saw street after street of order and tidiness. Perhaps this is just me after 3 weeks on the African dusty road, any reasonably tidy city would seem like New York, but it still made a positive impression.
While at the Small World Backpackers Lodge there, "the only backpackers hostel to have survived the economic meltdown", more on that later, I met a lovely lady called Nyasha who runs the place’s sister lodge high up in the Bvumba Mountains, in the highland region east of the country, funnily known as the Eastern Highlands. Through Nyasha I booked my next two nights, which were just superb.
On Saturday morning I boarded a private car, shared with 6 other passengers but extremely comfortable compared to numerous minibuses and open-backed jeeps I’ve mostly travelled in, 250km south-east of the capital to a town called Mutare, where I was met by Nyasha and taken up to the beautiful lodge
Tete
Downtown she runs up in the mountains – the Small World Vumba Lodge. This place was straight out of an Agatha Christie novel – a mini-manor house built in the middle of the forests high up in the mountains overlooking a beautiful green valley not unlike the highlands of Scotland. I was the only guest there for 2 nights, with a roaring fireplace (as it got exceptionally cold at night with no central heating whatsoever) and antique furniture, it was just wonderful! I must admit, the first night was a bit spooky, and the second too for that matter, but it was still great.
My full day there I hitched a ride in the local form of transport, again an open-backed jeep but instead of a “matola”, referred to as a “kombi” here. This took me 17km further uphill towards the stunningly situated Leopard Rock Hotel, a colonial gem once the favourite haunt of the Royal Family, including the Queen Mother and Princess Diana. It still seems to hold its old colonial feel, with around 5 different lounges each centred around a fireplace, and a great old fashioned bar room. There was also a golf course, supposedly the second most
Tete
Overlooking the Zambezi and Samora Machel Bridge difficult one in the world, and a fantastic South African chef called Greg who cooked me up my best meal so far in Africa – a roast beef dinner, complete with Yorkshire puds, roast potatoes and gravy, and polished off with a perfectly crisp glass of Chardonnay. This was overlooking the golf course, which itself overlooked the stunning mountains and valley, and for a mere $12 – pure class, and a bargain too! After lunch, met with a great English/Zimbabwean couple who were also doing the rounds of the mountains, who were able to take me along to the nearby Botanical Gardens, and the famed Tony’s Coffee Shoppe. This place is apparently an institution amongst Zimbabweans, and is famed country-wide for its hot chocolates and cakes. This was certainly true, after I ordered Tony’s White Chocolate Cheesecake – it was huge, and I felt positively sick but satisfied for at least 2 hours afterwards. Apparently one guy had one of his hot chocolates, and they had to call an ambulance as he fainted from the sugar rush – I can well believe this, as I felt on a dizzy sugar high for quite a while afterwards.
After another evening
Me
Harare Gardens in front of the roaring fire, and another spooky night in the lodge, I caught my most recent transport in the form of a 5-hour minibus ride to here, my current destination of Masvingo. A small city in the middle of Zimbabwe, famed for its nearby ruins of Great Zimbabwe – more on that after I visit it tomorrow.
Indeed, I’m having a super time here in Zimbabwe since arriving. I will certainly save my political comments until I leave the country, for reasons which should be obvious, but I can certainly focus on the positives for now. Despite having undergone pure economic turmoil over the last 10 years, with the world’s lowest life expectancy for women at 34, Africa’s highest AIDS infection rates estimated at 25% of the population, hyper-inflation in the region of a sextillion percent in ten years, and a cholera outbreak in 2008 which killed 4000 people, this country shows none of this right now. It’s apparently all thanks to the dollarization of the economy following the formation of the coalition government with Morgan Tsvangirai at the end of 2008, which has stabilized inflation, allowed imports which re-filled the supermarket shelves again, and generally improved
The Eastgate Centre, Harare
An amazing feat of engineering, the shopping centre requires no central heating or air conditioning thanks to these numerous chimneys based on the same principals used by termites to keep their mounds cool in the summer and warm in the winter! daily life considerably. Although still Africa, this really does seem a much more developed country than its neighbours. Streets are tidy, ordered and peaceful – Masvingo itself, along with other towns I've passed through, feels more like a US frontier town from the 19th Century, with wide streets, shop stores with colonnades on the pavement, and numerous colonial buildings.
And tourism is practically non-existent here! So far I have met only 4 other travelers, all in my hostel in Harare, and all of them solo male travelers like myself, and no-one else. Guidebooks are quite minimal with information, I guess because not many guidebook writers have been through these parts. Thus, travelling here really does feel more like exploration, finding hotels and transport routes not even hinted at in the books. And the people, for the most part, are just so friendly and welcoming (some of them do seem to give me the eyeball though...)
Thus, I do feel that in a few years time, Zimbabwe’s tourism industry will just take off. I definitely recommend it! By the way, the title of this blog entry doesn't refer to the nearby ruins which I'll be visiting tomorrow, but to
my current sentiments for this country...!
Anyway, better go as this Internet café’s closing shortly, and I really do need to upload some photos…!
Take care y’all, and speak soon
Alex
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