Friday 13 December
I think Mlibizi is probably a beautiful place to be in the winter! We really enjoyed our stay there, but it was very warm and very humid for us in December. With temperatures hovering just below 40C and high humidity everything was a bit 'damp'. John found the conditions very similar to those he had experienced in Nigeria. As we were coming back from the trip on the Lake we saw two men filleting some large fish. We stopped to speak to them and a white guy appeared from one of the chalets and told us he had caught them that morning. He asked if we would like some fish and, of course, we said yes. He told the men to give us some, we had four beautiful fillets, they were from a very large Tilapia. We cooked them on the braai with some potatoes we were given my the Campsite Manager. I don't know what the local Tonga people eat. Obviously they fish, but it was not possible to buy and fruit or vegetables from the small shop, and there were no roadside vendors or any evidence of agriculture. The shop stocked large numbers of biscuits, sweets and sweet drinks and large bags of mealie for sadza, but corn meal and fish stew is not really a well balanced diet.
It finally rained on the Wednesday night, but nothing like the rain that everyone there is hoping for after a prolonged drought. There was a bit of thunder and lightening, but no storm, more a persistent and constant light rain. It meant that we woke up to a wet tent and we packed up in a light drizzle. We stuffed everything n the car and moved on. Soon after we started our journey back to the main road the rain became heavier and more persistent. We drove through areas of localised flooding, I just hope it was raining that hard in Mlibizi. We took more notice of our surrounding on the way back, as we knew where we where headed for and the road was familiar. It is beautiful countryside with valleys and canyons.
As we turned southwards on the A8 from the Dete Crossroads the rain became even heavier and we knew that once again we would not be able to put a tent up. Any hopes or intentions of returning to Tuskers for another one or even two nights were dashed, so with no other options for accommodation we continued towards Bulawayo. We stopped at a Lodge on the road in, just before Bulawayo. We had an 'executive' room, which was very comfortable, quite like a small flat, but was yet another example of a different attitude and concept of completion. I'm struggling with vocabulary here, how can I describe a well constructed building with a large and spacious bedroom, beautifully tiled floor, king size bed, leading into a nice bathroom. However on examination the bed appeared to be a four poster, with a frame around it and one curtain. Why? Overhead was a single size round mosquito net, (for a king-size bed). On low tables there were ornate bedside lamps, however there were no electric sockets to plug them into. In the kitchen the cupboard doors didn't shut, we wedged them with bits of cardboard. There was a kettle, but no plug on it. The only light switch for the kitchen was by a back door, which was firmly locked, we didn't have a key to it and it was obvious it hadn't been opened in a long time. The paintwork was very poor quality, emulsion just rubbing off the walls, light switches hadn't been fitted properly, there was just no attention to detail and a good end product. It fitted with a conversation we had with a white Zimbabwean, born and bred here for many generations, who is having problems ruining his own business, bidding for contracts and getting work. He is constantly undercut by black-run companies who cut corners, use shoddy materials, don't finish things off properly, so they don't work effectively and the government then has to spend more money making constant repairs than it would have cost them in the first place if they had accepted a realistic tender from a 'white' man.
We slept reasonably well, if a little uncomfortably, as the mattress still had it's manufacturers plastic cover on it. There had been more rain in the night so we were pleased to have chosen the Lodge. After breakfast we made our way through Bulawayo and further south to Matopos National Park Area. We are pitched on a campsite adjacent to a very up-market private lodge, $125 per person per night, way above our budget. The campsite is very good as at the moment we are the only people here. It caters for overlanders so it is a big site, set in Mopane scrub. When we arrived the guy on attendance advised us not to pitch near the central facilities as the overlanders can be 'very noisy'. Fortunately there are none expected tonight and just a small group of 5 tomorrow. We have an electric point nearby and a fire pit so it is looking very good. the weather has been very kind to us and I am amazed at how quickly we have dried out. It was showery rain when we arrived here this morning. We took a wet tent out of the car and in our haste to get it up we got poles muddled up, put the wrong ones in and ended up with an even wetter tent. The rain stopped, there is some sun through the cloud cover, we have opened up all the tent vents and within half an hour it was dry. John has a fire going in the fire-pit and life is good.
Tomorrow we hope for nice weather as we want to spend the day in the National Park, it is of historical rather than wild-life interest which suits us fine. Evidently there is evidence of human population going back 100,000 years.
Saturday 14 December
Yesterday evening and last night here was great. We had a blazing fire in the fire pit, then cooked potatoes and the beautiful piece of rump steak we had got from the people at Mlibizi before we left. Unfortunately the heavy clouds continued to pile in and we had to retreat inside the tent awning when the rain started. It was quite cosy, we haven't needed to sit inside the tent before. There is a central covered area here we could have used, but it meant a dash in the rain so we stayed put. Obviously with no-one else on the campsite it was a quiet and peaceful night and we woke up to clear skies and lots of sun this morning.
We have spent the day in the Matobos National Park. The scenery is stunning, large, large slabs of granite, grey, dark and ominous, jutting out of the surrounding forest and scrub. Then there are the kopjes, lumps of granite, boulders, perched precariously on top of each other, defying gravity as thy hang there. The surrounding softer rock has been eroded away over millennia, leaving the harder, weather and time resistant rock to remain in its current forms. We went to Cecil Rhodes grave, no big deal but 'The view of the World' from the top of the rocks was truly amazing. We went around the Park and looked at a couple of excellent examples of rock paintings, similar to the ones we have seen in Swaziland and South Africa. The ones found here are some of the oldest to have been discovered. The whole Matopos area is riddled with caves and it has never been fully explored or mapped, even though it has produced some of the most ancient artifacts to be discovered. The instructions to visitors are that they should only go to the known sites. However if they should stumble upon any others , not documented, they are to be reported immediately.
I'm writing this sitting around the fire pit after lovely meal of baked potatoes and sausages, the spicy Afrikaaner type we had in South Africa. Dusk is fast approaching, black clouds have been piling up on the horizon for hour, they are now a dusky shade of red as they catch the rays of the dying sun. Occasionally a streak of lightening flashes through them and low rumbles of thunder can be heard. A full or nearly full moon is flitting in and out through the wisps of cloud breaking way. I think that, like last night, there will soon be a short, sharp downpour. I certainly hope it is short and sharp as we will be packing the tent up in the morning, ready for our return to South Africa. What a wonderful ending to our trip into Zimbabwe, our last night camping here, and in such a magical and mystic spot. The only noise, over the thunder, is the Cicadas. It is a privilege to be here, in this place which human kind has inhabited for more than 100,000 years
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