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Zimbabwe was an unexpected highlight, lush landscape, historic sites like Great Zimbabwe or the Railway Museum in Bulawayo, the charming Matopo NP and the extremly friendly people made this a worthy cycling destination!
Sango (Mozambique border) – Boli – Rutenga – Great Zimbabwe – Masvingo- Zvishavane – Bulawayo – Matobo NP – Plumtree (Botswana border)
800 km cycled
Jan 13th – 28th, 2023
Visa requirements
We rocked up to the border at around 6:20am. It was 20 minutes after opening and there wasn’t an official in sight. The cleaning man made a few phone calls and by 7:30, there was some movement. By 8:30am, the visa man had arrived in his football kit, accepted our US dollars (30USD for Swiss; 55USD for Irish) and, with a twinkle in his eye, thanked us for sponsoring his lunch! Darina has still not figured out why the Irish are lumped with the former colonial power (British) as the only Europeans that have to pay a premium to enter. Could the Irish have beaten Zimbabwe in cricket?!
A pleasant surprise!
Our main reason for going to Zimbabwe was to see the Great Zimbabwe ruins, but the ride there was a trip in itself. The Gonarezhou National Park was our gateway to Zimbabwe, where despite lots of fresh elephant dung only one ellie appeared and wandered off into the bushes totally uninterested in our presence! The lions were (luckily) out of sight! 😝
That gave way to a “dusty” road in varying states of deterioration that offered lovely bush camp sites. Donkey carts were the main mode of transportation, and everyone wanted to stop for a chat.
The area was extremely poor and the farming methods very traditional. We met one destitute lad who had just been deported from South Africa where he had been working at a caravan park without a visa or passport. He is one of millions who dream of making their future elsewhere, and South Africa is the obvious go-to destination, where they can easily secure employment within a couple of weeks.
Then there was the busy main road linking the capital, Harare, to the South African border, where huge granite outcrops were a pleasant break from the dead flat terrain we’d had for the previous few weeks.
A place that deserves its name!
Dating back to 9th Century, the magnificent dry stone wall ruins of Great Zimbabwe are thought to have been a medieval royal city of some 10,000 inhabitants. Artifacts found on the site suggest it was a major trading centre, exchanging gold and ivory for glass beads and textiles with Tanzania and even China. The city’s decline and subsequent abandonment in the 15th Century was probably as a result of gold depletion and drought.
Great Zimbabwe is a UNESCO World Heritage site and, as far as the African continent goes, second only in size and significance to the Pyramids of Egypt! It was well worth the detour!
Cyclists have been low on the ground in recent weeks, so we were delighted to meet up with Bjorn and Karin (@tandem4travel) from Amsterdam, who are on a Southern Africa trip like us. Needless to say, we had lots to talk about!
The whole area is rich in minerals and we passed gold, asbestos and platinum mines. There were also numerous prospectors out trying their luck in the bushes panning for gold. These gold diggers are renowned for their low moral standards, and we were warned not to wild camp, as they “would kill for money”. Herbert, a local school principal, organised for us to camp at a private academy with a night watchman, where we would be safe.
An excuse for a scrub up!
Zimbabwe’s second biggest city, Bulawayo, boasts many remnants of better days. Wide tree-lined boulevards with bike lanes, spacious shady parks and colonial buildings give a glimpse into the grandeur of life back in the day. And today’s overgrown and crumbling remains do have a certain charm.
Established as a gentleman’s club in 1895, The Bulawayo Club gave us a great excuse to scrub up as we moved back in time and imagined how the other half lived. Beyond the mahogany-panelled walls, hunting trophies and historic paintings, this living museum served mashed potatoes instead of sadza (maize porridge) and our terrace was ample enough to dry out the tent! 😄
A photographer’s paradise
Being a landlocked country, Zimbabwe’s (formerly Rhodesia) mining and agriculture sectors were dependent on the railroad network leading to the ports of Beira in Mozambique and Cape Town in South Africa. The building of these lines wrought horrific human sacrifice with up to 60% of the men dying from malaria in the toughest years: 1892 and 1893.
The Railway Museum in Bulawayo documents this important chapter of history, and its exhibits dating back to 1897 showcase historical locomotives, wagons and coaches, making it a proper photographer’s paradise. It was definitely one of our Zimbabwe highlights.
Matobo NP has it all!
No trip to Zimbabwe is complete without a visit to the Matobo National Park. This low-key UNESCO World Heritage Site just south of Bulawayo has it all… And if you’re as lucky as we were, you’ll have the place to yourself! Huge granite outcrops and piles of rounded boulders rise majestically above the high grass, where zebras, wildebeest, antelopes and rhinos roam freely.
Cave paintings depicting hunting scenes date back to 320AD, and the park has the highest concentration of rock art in Southern Africa.
Controversial as it still is, you have to hand it to Cecil Rhodes (founder of Rhodesia) for choosing the spectacular World’s View in the park as his burial ground. He certainly won the lottery when this dying wish was granted!
And if coming face to face with two massive rhinos doesn’t hit the spot, cross the crocodile inhabited Maleme Dam for one last adrenaline rush!
We were heading on a backroad to a minor Botswana border when a pickup stopped and Lucien jumped out for a chat. He knew that the road was going to deteriorate into dirt and would probably be flooded after all the rain. So, he convinced us to have a rest day at his place before going back to the main road leading to the Plumtree border post the following day. Being South African, he couldn’t help himself! He actually runs an orphanage locally, and the kids showed us even more rock art that afternoon.
The go-to food in Zimbabwe is similar to that of neighbouring countries, except that pap (maize porridge) is called sadza here! A main course on a street stall costs 1.50USD and up to 10USD in posher joints.
US dollars and South African rand are widely acceptable, as the local Zimbabwe Dollar is no longer being printed. In any case, you’d need a huge wad of it to pay for a meal, even at a food stall! The government actually introduced 22 carat gold coins in 2022 in an effort to beat hyperinflation that hit 5 billion % in 2008. We didn’t come across any of these coins while we were there. ATMs and opportunities to swipe are sparce in the south, which made our first week in Zimbabwe quite interesting as we budgeted with our last few dollars.
Private rooms were available for 20USD and hotel rooms en suite cost from 40USD. Wild camping was an option and the National Parks offered campgrounds with basic facilities.
The verdict!
The Zimbabwe people are exceptionally welcoming, friendly and humble … and they speak impeccable English! They have it tough, and an underlying current of “we are struggling” is tangiable throughout. Many dream of greener pastures, and the longest queues we observed were outside remittance offices.
While we included Zimbabwe on our itinerary to see the Great Zimbabwe ruins, we ended up with all sorts of highlights that we hadn’t bargained on. It’s clear that Zimbabwe offers a great deal more to international tourists than it does to its own modest people.
And you were wondering about the scrub-up? Well, the Bulawayo Club worked wonders on Kurt’s appearance! Spot the difference?!
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