Zimbabwe by bus 1998

On Top of Pomongwe

In 1998 I wrote a diary of a three-week tour of Zimbabwe completed by the White, Fulton and Mandy families from Ardingly in West Sussex, UK. We were six adults, seven kids aged under 12 and one 18 month-old. 

On parts of the journey Netta, Vaughan and Nicky Johnstone joined us in the 16-seater 2.5 self drive Hi-ace. Over the Christmas period we covered some 2,500 kilometres.
The quotes in italics come directly from my diary & there are some contributions from others on the team...

CMR January 2013

Stephanie's art 

The Mandys and Johnstones were already in Zimbabwe as the Robertson parents had been involved in a car accident there at the end of October. It was a sad time as Jenny died on 4^th December in the Avenues Clinic as a result of the accident and an underlying condition from which she would never have recovered.

Lynda, Cheryl, Jackie- Harare airport

We decided to carry on with the journey as planned for our visitors - Jenny would have scoffed as us for changing it. So on 14 December we welcomed a slightly disheveled and apprehensive team of Poms  at Harare International Airport.None had set foot  in Africa before. 
Joan Hanly’s house at 10 St Luke’s Road, Rhodesville was the roost for Jackie, David, Alice & Lillie Fulton in the cottage, while the Whites - Lynda, Keith, Nick, Rebecca and Sam - were in "The Purple Room" 9aka Gan's lair or Mrs Dold's private quarters), my Dad in Joan’s room (she had moved out to son Stevie Weevie’s house) and Netta, Nicky and Vaughan in the spare room next to the dining room. 
Mandys x 5 were at Ian and Jan Robertson’s house in Chisipite.

Joan & Sophie by Pauline Battigelli

Strelitzia

The visitors were struck by Africa’s brightness, its brilliantly coloured flowers on lush green shrubbery and the smell of fresh hot damp earth. The rains came early this year – late November – so the patchwork fields seen from the air resembled West Sussex. I think initially the huge houses with swimming pools, large and often ferocious guard dogs, domestic helpers and vast gardens were quite alien, and some of the children kept awake the first few nights fearing the strange noises - mostly from insects, frogs and barking dogs. By the end of the trip the kids would seek the creatures rather than avoid them.

by Steffie

On the first afternoon “….the boys came back [from wherever they went- they were constantly disappearing] with the bus and took everyone to Jan’s house for a braai. Ian was in Chipinge…kids swam, women sat and the boys went out to get goodness knows what and left us and Gramps to do the braai yet again……..Jackie was mesmerised by the fly covered Shane (a large old dog) and the boerbull (MacD) which managed to somehow wipe its bum on her towel even though it was high up on a table. Plenty of ants were nipping her too. We watched the kids swim and chase flying ants on the tennis court. Shaunie loves chasing them and dives under the net, over and over again, and runs around in circles. Boys came back and cooked the meat; Bonnie (the cook) made lovely profiteroles.”

by Gregory

Next day after a few scares in the night from Africa’s nocturnal wildlife, we all, including Sandy and the Johnstones headed for Ballyvaughan Game Park just outside Harare in our bus. 

Gill and Bobby Welbourn joined us later. The park has “loads of caged animals in big enclosures, all rescued, bred in captivity or dangerous animals unsuitable for return to the wild.”

Guides Maynard and Israel took us around the park. “The lions stalked and pounced at the fence whenever Lillie or Shaun came in sight.”

(Greg with the hat) - Lillie 
looks unperturbed

The traditional people of Zimbabwe apparently watch the behaviour of impala herds to ascertain whether the rains of a particular year will be good or not. If there are going to be good rains the female impalas retain their unborn and continue with their pregnancy; if the year is going to be a drought year a female's body absorbs the foetus. 

Serene delicate looking creatures - impala

On a walk we saw “…serval cats, black backed and brown jackals, a leopard up a tree, a puff adder slithering in front of us on the path and zipping through the fence into the jackals’ cage – they sniffed and snapped at it but it carried on slithering. Could have been right under Gregory’s feet because he wandered off away from the main group as usual.”

Sandy, Jackie, Shaunie & David

Bobby at the back, Alice in the middle

We split into different groups then met where the elephants were. “Three elephants arrived with their handlers to take us for a ride - three people on each back. Steffi went twice as Gregory didn’t want to go, neither did Jackie and Sandy.... Great fun getting up and down as you have to hold tight as the slope is so high. The backbone of even an elephant when right up my Khyber Pass. Getting down was also hard – Robin had to be hauled off by a very strong guide.”

After that we had a barbecue lunch in a tree house overlooking a lake where “Jackie and Alice discovered they didn’t like long drops but when desperation strikes……”

Steffie & Robin

Some of us went canoeing as a storm approached. Robin was with Steffie, I was with Gregory, Netta was with Nicky and Vaughan, and there was a mix up in understanding instructions through the wind I guess - and we paddled to the wrong place. “The sky was getting blacker and blacker and you could see the grey streaks of rain leaving the clouds and falling to earth. When Maynard came and told us we had to go to the original side as no rescue vehicle could come that way, we had to get back in the canoe, the wind buffeting and howling and the water lapping at the sides. Gregory was so scared but he rowed like crazy. Because of the wind blowing against us we could only row with the right oar in. We moved across to the other side, missing the dead sticks in the water. As we approached the shallows covered in green water plants I looked for somewhere to get out. Very shaky and wobbly now as I was exhausted and nervous – lightning started to dart all around and the thunderclaps were alarming.

Greg's impression of his canoe trip

When Gregory said: “Isn’t that a crocodile?” I thought he was joking – but it was indeed. I bashed the water with my oar and it shot out of the shallows into the deeper water, its head and nostrils peering at us. Netta, Nicky and Vaughan finally made it to us and the guide had gone to shore only slightly ahead of us in a different bay – he too was nervous of the lightning….. Glad to join the group in the game park again.”
This is the story from David. "One small moment in time that I remember vividly was the BallyVaughan visit. If you remember we did shifts on the different events. Some went on the canoe ride in a millpond. Some went in a hurricane. I was with Lillie Fulton and we did not get mixed up with the instructions (unlike some). However the storm was determined to take us away from our destination. Poor Lillie was paddling away at the front and we were just being pulled away with the storm. I remember paddling the canoe backwards until we finally got to the shore close to our destination. I fell out of the canoe almost puking, just thankful that I hadn't killed myself and my little girl. Happy memories..... The elephant ride made up for it though."

Later on we  saw“loads of wildebeest, zebra (who hang around together as they eat different parts of the grass; one lot eat the top section, the others eat the lower section so there’s plenty for everyone.”

0500 on 16 December

Robin shows Sam & Greg how it's done in Africa

...and we set off early for Bulawayo via Beatrice. The journey was soon peppered with bursts of joyful songs from the children, learned at their Church of England school – it started off as a welcome distraction on the five-hour drive journey but I have to say Nick White’s “99 green bottles” remains firmly entrenched in my head today (2013).

 “Stopped on the side of the road for a pee which had Jackie in a state as she doesn't do public urination..... and she also didn’t like the possibility of a truck bearing down on her exposed naught. Lynda and I held a towel up to avoid prying eyes – but the Juggernaut sneaked up behind us.”

Plenty of curio stops along the way

It was take away pizzas for lunch in Bulawayo, the country’s second largest town and where I was born. It sits on the site of the kraal of the Ndebele King Lobengula who lived in the Matabeleland province when the first settlers arrived around the 1880s. We took the lunch to my aunt Molly Robertson’s house in Essex Road and met my other cousin Louise Williams and her three kids Jade, Tracey and Decklan.

Matobo Hills (previously called Matopos Hills)

We left around 3pm for the National Park rest camp in the Matobo Hills some 40 kilometres from Bulawayo. A bit dilapidated and not enough mozzie nets to go round, but comfy enough. The kids climbed the characteristic weathered granite rocks and boulders. Exfoliation of the granite created many peculiar shaped balancing rocks, some over 3000 million years old.

"Had chicken casserole for supper made by Bonnie. Lots and lots of bugs. Jackie and Alice beside themselves with the bugs. Lillie and the others playing tok-tok (black bugs) races and Lillie lining up the tok-toks on herself! Loads of butterflies, less lizards than when we visited last year, lots of birds, not so many monkeys but baboons instead”.

Tok-tok by my Mum 1996

17 December 1998

“Alice, Steffie, Robin, Rebecca and Lynda took a horseback safari through the bush – they saw a black mamba slithering across the road; also sable at close range. Lynda had the bruises of the stirrup straps to prove it.”

Never startle a rhinocerous

The rest of us went for a game drive in Matobo National Park which houses the country’s highest concentration of leopard and black eagle. Saw zebra, wildebeest, kudu, warthog, impala, klipspringer, yellow-billed kite and plenty of baboons. Other common residents are white rhinoceros, two “…at very close quarters in a mud puddle next to the road. Keith (driving) got so excited trying to line up a photo but his arm slipped onto the hooter and it went off – so did the rhino but didn’t come towards us.”

Wood carver at work Matopos

Cecil John Rhodes' grave

On to where Cecil John Rhodes, the founder of Rhodesia, is buried at a place called World’s View. “ Half-way up to Rhodes’ grave we watched a wood carver work on a piece of wood and Jackie bought it, as did Keith (another one).”
Bushman rock paintings are found here all over this area too, the most accessible at being at Pomongwe Cave and the clearest at Nswatungi. All date back some 40,000 years.  “Men went to get petrol and buns in town – we did the usual looking after children. They came back with more books and wood and charcoal. Another braai – it rained rather heavily and then the power went off so it was a bit chaotic and food so late no-one wanted to eat anyway. Steffie fell off a rock – it was dark - and screamed a lot. We watched two yellow-billed kites swoop down and one pinched chips, so David tried to entice it down with a raw sausage – it sat in the tree and watched us and didn’t take the meat.”

Next day we all climbed Pomongwe (it is the name of a type of melon) a huge gomo with 360 deg views from the top.

Keith & Lynda Matobo Hills

“Cool breeze on the top; orchids growing in puddles and lots of tadpoles which the kids collected and had a fine time – didn’t want to leave. A few yellow billed kites swooped down so we threw then biltong which they caught. Descent was harder for all – knees very wobbly. Jackie fell down a few feet and grazed her arm – not serious but she got a fright.”

Baboon thief
“Down at base we had a big breakfast….and a visit from a big baboon the size of 11 year-old Nicholas. It sat outside peering at us, I called Robin to come and scare it away with the kattie but when he came out of the kitchen the baboon sneaked around the side, zipped into the kitchen and swiped a loaf of bread off the counter. Pandemonium!...the warden came out with a rifle but the baboon was long gone. Two of his mates had to be shot recently.”

Dinner under the stars at Maleme Dam rest camp

Baboons can be dangerous to visitors so National Park’s staff has to shoot those like our friend when they become a nuisance. The warthogs by the Caravan Park are less threatening but can be rude – they may well wander into a tent and frighten an unsuspecting occupant.

Nswatungi Caves

Nswatugi Cave 

The ancient rock paintings at Nswatungi Caves on the way to Marula were a fabulous find, spectacularly clear and the cave and surroundings in good condition. “The road to the cave was precarious in parts and didn’t look that well used. We were the only people there. Nswatugi means the place of “the jumping” in local folk lore." 
"We drove to the main Bulawayo-Kezi road and headed for Figtree then Marula, with David driving. Very bad road from Marula to the farm – eroded by all the rains.”

The dusty curio laden bus took us to cousin Graham’s Garth Farm, which offered some of the party bush camp accommodation in thatched rondavels (round huts) near the Mangwe Memorial (by 2007 this part of the farm had been taken). Lying 27 corrugated kilometres from the village of Marula, the memorial was erected to honour those adventurers, miners and explorers who bashed their way through the inhospitable granite rock countryside around 1850, way before Rhodes’ pioneer column reached what is now Harare in 1890. Lee’s House, once a watering hole and (incidentally) place of ill repute is now a pile of bricks but its infamy lives on.

Garth's bush camp

by Greg

High on a steep hill the remote bush camp had only paraffin lamps for light and a campfire to cook supper on. The African night sounds and  the immeasurable silence impressed upon us all the stark reality of being alone in the wild, and we left David, Robin, Gregory, Nick and Keith behind to experience raw Africa. But before we left we "saw a scorpion in the one hut – Graham killed it. Absolutely HUGE and black.” 
The rest of us stayed the night at the farm house with its generator electricity and hot running water, although there were a few surprises there too – some dive-bombing beetles, a friendly gecko with diarrhoea, 11 labrador puppies, a dassie or rock hyrax called Cricket and a small sausage dog called Radio about to give birth.

“Returned to the farm for a restless sleep with Shaun and Steffie in my enormous bed – next door in Elisha’s room were Lynda, Sam, Becca, Lillie, Jackie and Alice, the latter two were close-on hysterical because  of the huge gecko in the stiflingly hot room – all windows jammed shut by Jackie to avoid bugs. Lynda, Sam and Rebecca didn’t mind the gecko which had pooed all down the wall, probably in terror itself. The black bug of mediocre description wedged on Jackie’s pillow sealed the doom of a restless night. Radio sneaked into my room when I was out attending to Ms Fultons, so when I settled down for the night, lights were off – I smelled something – a very strong puppy smell – a doggy smell. Turned on the light and unearthed Radio who I tried to pull out but she wouldn’t come – just bared her teeth. I eventually called Doris to remove the dog – puppies were imminent so I didn’t want her having them under the bed all night. I can never sleep at Garth Farm the first night. Shaun takes up half the bed as well.”

Ominous sign - a frog in the doorway 

Worth a mention here, is that Doris told us all to watch out for frogs in the rooms as invariably snakes follow after looking for them as fodder. This fellow to the right drawn by Greg, appeared in the doorway of the Fulton x 3 hellhole, blocking the entrance to the loo, which further terrified Ms Fultons x 2. It was a superb night, not!

20 December

Greg's instructions

The boys must have survived the night in the bush camp and got more sleep than we did, for they were up fishing and caught lots of bream. “Greg got 10 fish in total. Keith took the canoe down the dam and disappeared for a while – Lynda explained to all that she had a good insurance policy….later we went shooting at targets. The kids shot with a .22 and a pistol fired into a cardboard box. Lynda had a go too and it hit her nose on the kick-back. Not seriously.” (Great video somewhere!).

We ate the fish after gutting and scaling all back at the farm – this is where David was asking about pricky pears and – there’s a story in that, he can fill it in!!!
Prior to that we went on a nature ramble/tour of the farm by Graham Robertson. David was being an FT asking all sorts of questions, some relevant, some not, but when he asked what sort of tree "that over there was?" Graham replied: "It's a green tree with leaves." "Oh." said David, and he pondered on it for a while, then decided not to be an FT and ask any more questions.
“Finally we left the farm and Keith drove like a madman on those dirt roads to the tar at Marula, very narrowly missing a culvert. Phew”

Team kids plus Jade & Tracey Williams

Got to Bamff Lodge in Bulawayo eventually, whereupon the heavens opened and made it impossible for the children to see the yearly nativity display in Centenary Park, like any other town park, which has an illuminated water fountain as a centre piece. Not that the children had once mentioned the fact that Christmas was but five days away – they were too busy doing other things. Met Louise and Gareth Williams and their kids Tracey, Decklan and Jade for dinner at the New Orleans Restaurant - Mandys stayed at aunt Molly's.

Next installment - Chapter 2 - goodness knows when. xx