En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Tell us about your recent trip. Please add some photographs.
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En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

En so…. ry ons deur Zim

So…. here we go again… what an awesome privilege to have been able to do this again, and to write this again…. PATIENCE is the watch word again… have been back for a week, some only came back on Friday…, hectic schedules, etc, etc, etc… and some 14 000 pic’s to work through…

This trip actually was born 4 years ago, during the Serengeti trip. I think it was Hannes, who irritated everyone with: “Ek will nog Zim toe gaan…” I, for one, certainly did NOT want to go to Zim, and, quite a couple of the others also did not want to go, although they probably weren’t as (openly subtly) vocal as I was about it…

So Zim was put on a back burner, and the Botswana trip was born, and Bots happened two years ago in 2014. That’s another story, one of which the story has not been finished yet….

So during Bots, Hannes insisted, and Dewald agreed, and Zim was born. (I was still not that enthusiastic, and I know some others as well…) But still it happened…

About a year ago, the final route was fixed: It was to be Hwange, Chizarira, Matusadona, Kariba, Mana Pools, Troutbeck, Chiredzi, Gonarezhou… Not everybody would be able to do everything, but that will come later.

The cast was:

The Originals:

Bil Dewald Hattingh (Organiser Extraordinaire, route scout, guide, GPS wiz, situation planner, off-road racer, and, like the official at Kariba called him: “THE Man with the Hat”) and his family: wife Lisa and sons Dewald (15) and Leon (13), driving their 70 Series Toyota Land Cruiser, towing an Echo Kavango caravan;

Bil Jan Hattingh and Alta, with a Toyota Hilux DC 4.0 V6, (loaded beyond with everything possibly necessary to fix anything that could possibly go wrong) towing their Echo Kavango caravan;

The Brands: Hannes from Canada with wife Louize, and sons Berin (he turned 20 during the trip) and Bennett (17), again driving a rented 70 Series Land Cruiser, and towing a rented Jurgens Explorer;

Yours truly, with Swamb’s (Ansie) and daughter Liné (21) and son Hennard (17), again driving Forest (Toyota Fortuner 4.0 V6), and towing our Imagine Comfortvan (Gump).

Joining us:

Friends Jannie and Tersia du Toit from Oudtshoorn, with their Pajero towing Konkoksie (an off road trailer more resembling a Pandora’s Box…) Tersia and my better half has been friends since Grade 1, some nearly 50 years ago- so Tersia basically grew up as one of Swamb’s family. They were joined later by their daughter, Liekie, and her beau, Eduan. (To be referred to later as the Older Du Toit’s)

Friends from Barberton, Marnus and Lizette von Wielligh, driving a Toyota Prado GX and towing a Jurgens Explorer.

Friends Ferdi and Annica Ollewage from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, and their three sons, Jacques, Adrian and Theo, driving a rented 70 Series Land Cruiser, and towing a rented Jurgens Explorer. Jacques and Theo came over with Hannes and Louize, and took their vehicle and caravan to Hwange, where Ferdi, Annica and Adrian joined us after flying in to Vic Falls.

Jannie and Tersia’s eldest Jannes, and Julene du Toit, driving a 2.5 turbo Isuzu 2x4 and towing Hannes’ Echo Chobe. (Hannes had decided to “upgrade…”) (To be referred to later as the Young Du Toit’s)

The Older Du Toit’s, the Von Wielligh’s and the Ollewages were also part of the Botswana trip two years ago- the two Young Du Toit’s were the only newbies.
Last edited by warthog on Wed Jul 27, 2016 10:43 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

We were in Mana Pools joined by cousin Philip Vosloo and wife Salome, driving a 90 Series Cruiser and towing a rented Echo Namib.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by ROOFER »

:shock2: :frustrated: we waiting for that t/report :cooldude:
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by Mud Dog »

Lekker Hennie! looking forward to the TR - if it's anything like the Serengeti one it will be an awesome read! :thumbup:
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

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Lekker man. Bring baie pics
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by Dirka »

I'm glad you did this trip Hennie.
Zim is still on my to-do list.
I was told to stay away due to lot of problems with officials.
I'll be following your report accordingly. :thumbup:
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

This trip was not close to anything as long and epic as Serengeti, so do not expect anything like that. This was a lekker nice trip with a couple quite rough patches, but we want to tell people about Zimbabwe as it is now from an off-road/camping tourist’s perspective.

Die Older Du Toit’s left Oudtshoorn on 22 June for the trek north.
Jannie & Ters 1 (Medium).jpg
They were joined by the Juniors from Senekal in the Free State. They headed for Bela Bela.
Jannes & Jules 1 (Medium).jpg
The first lot of Canadians also left Canada on 22 June, and arrived in Pretoria on the 24th. (They had a few so long in Frankfurt on their way over...)
IMG-20160623-WA0007 (Small).jpg
We left on the 24th for Pretoria, and our friends Marnus and Lizette on the Saturday.
Marais' (Medium).jpg
Marnus.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

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We all met up in Pretoria at Jan and Dewald’s places.
The Canadians were supposed to receive their Cruisers on Saturday morning, and then drive to Benoni to fetch the Explorers. The vehicles duly arrived. These vehicles were booked, and paid for about a year ago. Both Hannes and Ferdi at numerous times made sure the rental company knew what the requirements were- they were towing, needed Brad Harris connections for power in the Explorers, Hannes did not want two rooftop tents, only one, and the like.

Ferdi’s Cruiser was fairly new, and appeared to be in good nick. Two years ago, he ordered a Cruiser from the same company also with the requirement to tow. When he hooked his trailer the morning we left, he complained that the caravans’ lights weren’t working. We did not have time to check it there, and eventually discovered in Botswana that there was no electrical wiring of any kind AT ALL to the plug on the Cruiser- nothing!! Jan and Dewald wired it in the bush…

This time, it was BOTH Cruisers. Despite all the preparations, numerous emails, telephone calls, to make sure the rental company knew they were towing, neither Cruiser had even a tow-bar, not to mention electrical od Brad Harris connections!!! Hannes’ also had two rooftop tents, and spare wheel brackets at the rear which he specifically said he did NOT want, for they kept falling off, and, and… So they had to take the Cruisers back.

Dewald and I had to drive through to Benoni to fetch the Explorers. These we also discovered later had a number of issues - for instance, Hannes’ Explorer’ battery did not charge from the Brad Harris from the Cruiser- we found later that the fuse was laying shattered in the battery compartment- it obviously was not checked… The Cruisers eventually arrived late Saturday afternoon. It was however not the last from the Cruisers…

But eventually, everything was packed, and we had our now almost traditional Saturday-before-the-trip dinner at Tony’s in Pretoria. While we watched the rugby, some of the others left, and we left after the rugby. When I arrived with Jan at the restaurant, I was accused of having forgotten my son… for the record, you can only forget something you know. I didn’t know that he was supposed to go with me…
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

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We left Pretoria early Sunday, June 26, 2016. Hannes and Louize went to OR Tambo first to pick up their youngest who only arrived then. The rest of us met up with the Du Toit’s at Mokopane- after a few “dom donners” missed the turn-off on the N1…
Convoy 1 (Medium).jpg
This is what a near 50 year old friendship look like…
50 year friendship.jpg
We took it easy to the border (awaiting for the Brands) and entered into Botswana with ease. While we were at the border, we heard Hannes and Louise on the radio, they had nearly caught up with us. We waited for them just inside Botswana.
Brands daag op (Medium).jpg
Hannes immediately called Jan and Dewald- something was not right on the Cruiser. Turned out that the tow hitch was mounted to a single bar sticking out about half a metre from the mounting on the Cruiser. This obviously caused a see-saw effect on the mounting on the Cruiser, and it had become very loose… One of the four bolts was already missing, and another one could hardly be tightened any more.
Klaar moelikgeit (Medium).jpg
But it was also time...
Wyn 1 (Medium).jpg
After some road side repairs, we moved on. When we put in petrol, it's serious...
Petrol 1 (Medium).jpg
And we were on our way: First stop: Nata Lodge
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by Family_Dog »

Hennie - gripping stuff! Like reading an adventure book :)


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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

The drive from the border to Nata Lodge was fairly uneventful, just long.
IMG_0033 (Small).jpg
We had to stop numerous times to check on Hannes’ Cruiser’s towbar, every time to tighten the nuts, until approximately 75 km from Nata Jan said that it can’t be tightened anymore, now it was just taking it easy, hoping and praying that it didn’t break off… Road was typical Africa, narrow, busy, bumpy… and it was dark… did I ever mention that I hate driving in Africa after dark?

We arrived at Nata at about 20h15. Some had driven ahead and arrived about an hour before us. The Swambo’s went to order dinner at the restaurant while the men went to make camp. Camp was basic, just the necessary. The two advance Ollewages, Jacques and Theo did not even bother to unhook their Explorer from the Cruiser, nor did they put the Explorer’s roof up… just crawled in and slept. Huge kudo’s to Jacques- being Canadian, he drove from the wrong side of a completely strange vehicle, with a manual gearbox and the lever on the wrong side, on the wrong side of the road, towing a rather large off-road caravan on some bad roads after dark in Africa!!

Monday brought necessary repairs to Hannes’ Cruiser.
IMG_0023 (Small).jpg
They had decided to drastically shorten the length of the mount of the towbar, and to then weld the mount to the bracket on the Cruiser, as their was simply no way to use bolts again- after all, not even high tensile steel had survived the previous day. The very friendly staff at Nata allowed Jan and Dewald to use their workshop where they made short work of the job- Africa style.
IMG_0025 (Small).jpg
During the wait Jannes superglued the Explorer’s water tank gauge which had also fallen out back into place.
Jannes sort tenk (Medium).jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

We left fairly early for the border. 200 km tar to Pandamatenga Border Post and another 60 odd km to the campsite. Crossing from Botswana was fairly simple, but into Zimbabwe was typical Zimbabwe... forms, waiting for very slow computer to print receipts, and then having to wait for the lone single policeman (of Zambian birth) to inspect each and every vehicle and caravan. There was no problems, it just takes very long when you're in a 16-vehicle convoy, and there are other travellers as well. It must have taken at least two hours, if not more. Again, an eventful ride to...
IMG_0527 (Small).jpg
IMG_0536 (Small).jpg
The campsite is still fairly good, although with a bit of a desolate feel.
IMG_0278 (Small).jpg
IMG_0308 (Small).jpg
Bathrooms is bit rundown, but we had hot water from a donkey every day. The people are just so friendly and helpful, and so very happy to see tourists. This was Lilian, who was in charge of our campsite, wood, washing, dishes, everything...
IMG_0617 (Small).jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by GI Jane »

Yes, I remember the staff at the camping places, and the locals in Zim, were the nicest people. Also sadly campsite conditions seriously rundown. Clean but in need of repairs. Thanks for the report, a great read so far, good for planning the next trip there..
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by Dowe Koos »

Hallo Hennie, ek gaan jou thread beslis volg, spesifiek oor Zimbabwe. Wil sien wat jou ervaring daar was. Het paar stories gehoor oor Zimbabwe en ek gaan volgende jaar Junie Malawi toe waarvan Zimbabwe deel is daarvan. Dus sal ek baie by jou kan leer. Groete tot dan.
Ecc 1:9 Wat gewees het, dit sal daar weer wees; en wat gebeur het, dit sal weer gebeur, en daar is glad niks nuuts onder die son nie.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

The photo's I will post is mostly Hannes' (he knows what he's doing, and he simply takes the most wildlife pic's) but there will also be photo's from Tersia, Jannie, Annica, Liné, Eduan, Jan, Dewald and Lizette. (In the resizing and posting process I unfortunately can't keep track of which is which- but they will know.)

Hwange, as the rest of the north of Zimbabwe, was very dry. Although, according to the locals and guides, there is still plenty water around for the animals, probably the reason why we did not see that much on drives. Don't misunderstand, we saw plenty, but it was fairly localised at specific points.

Hwange is a beautiful place...
Bo'jane.jpg
Mopanie.jpg
Pad.jpg
There are plenty of elephant...
Ollies.jpg
Dewald and family saw this on the way to Sinamatella...
Buffels.jpg
And there are some monstrously large crocodiles...
Krok1.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

On the way to main camp, is a beautiful waterhole with a viewpoint. Quite a lot of time was spent here...
Viewpoint1.jpg
Ollie1.jpg
Ollie2.jpg
Ollie3.jpg
Ollie4.jpg
Seekoei gaap.jpg
Seekoei&voels.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

On their first visit to the waterhole, they saw quite a disturbing site. They were told by a guide at the hide that an impala was chased by wild dogs into the water, where it apparently drowned. The impala was then thrown around by a hippo, but after a while quite a number of hippo's joined in....
Mauling1.jpg
Mauling2.jpg
Mauling3.jpg
Mauling4.jpg
Mauling5.jpg
Some pretty amazing pictures there...
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

Zebras1.jpg
Wyn.jpg
Kos2.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by GI Jane »

thanks.... awesome photos and report so far...
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

Some more pics from Hwange... like I said, a beautiful place.
Mooi.jpg
Sysie.jpg
Koedoes.jpg
There were lots of elephant, but none aggressive, all calm and just being allies...
Ollie.jpg
Ollietjie.jpg
Some places the grass were really long...
Gras.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

But just to remind you that this is not a zoo, and there are seriously dangerous animals around... we heard lion and hyena every single night we were there...
Gun.jpg
The reason why these were so jittery and skittish...
Jittery.jpg
In Serengeti Hannes drove everyone crazy with his desperation to get a pic of a hippo yawning.... I think there must be at least 40 pics on this trip of yawning hippo's.... yawn...
Gaap.jpg
We were in Hwange for 5 nights. On the day before we left, Hannes and Jannie drove to Vic Falls to fetch the rest of the Ollewages, Ferdi, Annica and Adrian, and Jannie's "enigste ooilam", Liekie and Eduan, who flew in. Jannes was absolutely overjoyed to see Eduan...

On the way they had the usual roadworks...
Padwerke.jpg
And they were just in time for the fire... THIS is what these trips are about...
Kampvuur.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

There was a fairly constant "geskrop" to get everything working properly, especially on the rental stuff...

Hannes' caravan came with solar panels, but they did not want to work. I bought solar panels for Ferdi, but not a regulator, as I thought the Explorers would have them built in... so we tried to run both caravans' batteries of Ferdi's panels with Hannes' regulator. Did not really work, so the gennies were quite busy in daytime...
Luckily we were the only people in camp most of the time.

Couple to that Ferdi's Explorer's kitchen tap was seized solid, and Hannes' geyser never worked... lots of frustration. Marnus was a huge blessing with his Explorer, as he knew how everything was supposed to work, but still...

NOTE: when taking a rental, make sure they start everything up when you fetch it, batteries, solar's, Brad Harrison plug, geysers, taps, the whole toot. Don't let them just show you where it is, let them make it work.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by GI Jane »

Thanks Hennie... loving the report...
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

We left Hwange on Saturday, July 2. The plan was to drive out of the park via Main Camp to Hwage town, but some scouting by Dewald and Marnus showed that it simply was not worth it. There was very little to see, the road was not that good, and towing it would have taken a long time.

So we left early, backtracked as we came in, and turned right on the tar road to Hwange. Some in the group needed some shopping… after we turned onto tar, we encountered our first of the very notorious ZRP roadblocks. The warning came over the radio, and if I remember correctly, I was the only who was pulled over… The lady cop checked the normal, license, TIP, triangles, fire extinguishers and the usual. All fine, and she waved me on. The good spirits did not last… just a few km’s further a number of our group were pulled over and fined for the registration plate lights on either the vehicle or caravan not working… obviously the ZRP has found a new thing to fine… I will save my thoughts and further comments on the police, roadblocks and the like for the end.

After some shopping at TM in Hwange, we headed north. Destination:
Chizarira.jpg
On the way there Jan & Alta mentioned a beautiful lodge they visited a number of years ago (I won’t say how many years….) After some brief discussion, we decided as we were quite early and not that far to go, to stop for a beer. We took the turnoff just after another police stop…
Mlibizi.jpg
Eight vehicles towing pulled in.
DSC00007 (Small).JPG
The place was still being operated, sprinklers going, place still fairly neat.
DSC00008 (Small).JPG
DSC00009 (Small).JPG
We all pulled into the bar on the waterside, but there were only 5 beers in the fridge and some cold drinks. Standard cost for Zim all over: US$1 each…
DSC00010 (Small).JPG
You could see this was a prime place once, but sad looking now, not destroyed or run-down, just sad. The barman echoed what we heard countless times in Zimbabwe: Question: Why you still here? Answer: Looking after the place until it gets better. It will get better. (That belief humbled me…)
DSC00013 (Small).JPG
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

After we emptied the bar (not often I can say that) we drove back to the tar road. After some serious practise in a Church Parking area in Canada somewhere before they came over, finally, after eight years and three and a half trips towing through Africa, Hannes finally managed to reverse his caravan out on his own.... I can still hear him brag about that the evening before we left Mana Pools at the end...

The drive was rather uneventful, apart from the occasional roadblock....
Vehs & bridge.jpg
Vehs in convoy.jpg
Just after we turned onto gravel, Liza called over the radio, "Hennie, stamper links". I have been collecting those maize "stampers" the locals use to ground maize from each country we've been to, Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi. But not one from Zim. So we pulled over at a roadside stand selling mostly drums. After some drum playing, I got my stamper, and Tersia also got one.
Drums.jpg
We loaded them on Jannie's Pajero, where they looked like his twin turbo's. (They were however confiscated coming back on the SA side of Beitbridge by a Dept Agriculture official who was obviously looking for a bribe)
Last edited by warthog on Fri Jul 29, 2016 8:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

This was still on the tar.
Tree plus.jpg
The gravel road to Chizarira was fairly good up unto the gate. We did spend some time in Hwange town and Mlibisi causing us to arrive at Chizarira fairly late afternoon.
Gate.jpg
The sights were beautiful, but the road turned interesting fairly quickly after that...
IMG_0578 (Small).jpg
There was some sandy parts...

[
Road5.jpg
Road sand.jpg
And some rocky parts...
Road4.jpg
But whatever it was, it had Jannes, in his 2.5 diesel turbo Isuzu 2x4's attention the whole way...
Road3.jpg
Road2.jpg
Road1.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

Dewald had booked both Mucheni View and Mucheni Gorge campsites in Chizarira, as the authorities do not want more than four vehicles per site. We decided to go check first if we couldn't fit all in one site. The last 12 km from the gate is not easy, it took us two hours to do, some places LR (except Jannes- he didn't have 4x4...)

We drove past Mucheni Gorge (T4A have them switched around) to go check on the Mucheni View campsite. After some juggling, everybody squeezed in there. (Not possible at the Mucheni Gorge site). It was after dark, so we couldn't see much of the view.

There is a thatch roof over a patio-type area, and the boys decided to pitch their tent right on the concrete under the thatch... this was where they woke up...
Tent with view.jpg
Suffice to say, it made a few mothers extremely nervous so they promptly had to move the tent back.

The view is just mind-bogling, gobsmackingly awesome....
View3.jpg
View1.jpg
Last edited by warthog on Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

I think easily more that 100 pic's were taken from this site, but there is not a single one that I could find that could do justice to the absolutely stunning view from Mucheni View, there is simply no words, no picture...
View2.jpg
We spend a lot of time here....
Patio with a view.jpg
On the edge....
View.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

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The next morning: our own personal Solar City. That was only about half of the solar's... Dewald's fell over here in a gust of wind and shattered.... he stuck it full of duct-tape, nursed it back into life, and used it until Mana Pools where cousin Philip brought him a new one and he donated the shattered one to the camp guard.
Solar city.jpg
When we stopped the previous evening, Hannes called us over. His Explorer's battery had not charged (again) at all during the drive from the Brad Harrison. After some looking around, I found the inline fuse in the battery compartment removed and shattered in the compartment... Marnus had a spare one, but it did not want to work, so... the Hattingh Bro's (Jan and Dewald) promptly built a new one... just like that, in the bush, in the middle of Africa...
Making a fuse.jpg
The campsite had no facilities apart from a long drop, but I must say, it was by far the nicest long drop I've ever been to. (the red triangle upright means danger-occupied)
Longdrop.jpg
The late afternoon view was spectacular... again, I simply have no words to even attempt to describe the awesomeness of His creation...
IMG_0628 (Small).jpg
Last edited by warthog on Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

It was The Canadians' turn to do supper.... NOU gaan ons braai!
Nou braai ons.jpg
What an awesome privilege to enjoy God's grace with family and friends and wonderful food in such a stunning place...
View & fire.jpg
View  & fire.jpg
And again, this is what it is all about...
Campfire.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

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Awesome stuff, Hennie! :thumbup:
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by ChrisF »

WOW !!

What a nice read !!

Thank you for sharing this with us.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

We were to leave this beautiful place at 05h00. Destination:
Matusadona.jpg
As much as I hated going down that mountain in the dark, we knew that it was to be probably the toughest and longest day of the trip. It was only about 200 km, but the first 12 km took us 2 hours coming up to Mucheni View and about a week before we left I read on the community forum that the last 67 km into Tashinga camp in Matusadona was extremely bad, in actual fact, the writer - a tour operator from Botswana - said he would not recommend taking trailers on that road. We had caravans… seven of them…

The first 12 km went “smoothly”…. and the views on the way were spectacular…
Light in clouds.jpg
Pad familie.jpg
Groentetuin.jpg
And the epitome of Africa...
Baobab2.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

There are literally 100’s of schools, and children walking to and from school are everywhere. I now understand why Zimbabwe is the most educated country in Africa. Some schools are in buildings, and some are just under some thatch...
Skool1.jpg
Louize took the opportunity to spread some goodwill- pens and stationery all the way from Canada…
Skool2.jpg
Skool3.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

The road was to be all that we read about and some more... This was even before the entry into Matusadona, a promise of what was to come...
Pad1.jpg
Pad2 (2).jpg
We waited at the try into Matusadona while Dewald went to complete the necessary. While we waited Marnus and myself chatted to a hunter who came past to get his permits. H confirmed that the road was very bad, but ..." if you careful and go pole-pole, then no problem..." I thought about the speed limit imposed at the entrance...
Speedzone.jpg
Bennett nearly got left behind...
Tashinga2.jpg
A few km's into the park the road forked. The road to the right was nowhere on T4A or any map or Google...
Waarheen nou.jpg
Dewald and I walked both roads a few hundred metres to see if we can see which is the "most travelled", but with no luck. Because the fork to the right was not shown anywhere, we decided to take the left fork...
Stof.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

The condition of the signboard was an indication of what was to come...
Tashinga1.jpg
The road was just bad, up and down dry riverbeds what felt like hundreds of times...

Down...
Pad5 (2).jpg
Pad5.jpg
And up...
Pad7.jpg
Down...
Pad6.jpg
And up...
Pad2.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

In some places the road simply was no more, and a detour had been hacked out of the bush around it. This would have been no problem just driving with a 4x4, but towing off road caravans proved quite a challenge...
Ompad1.jpg


Hannes had some really good practise reversing that Cruiser + Explorer train around the trees avoiding the ditch...
Ompad3.jpg
Ompad2.jpg
Ompad4.jpg
Ompad5.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

At one spot you cross a rather wide expanse of dry riverbed through loose sand ad stones. To get out of the river was one of the more difficult spots...
Rivierbed1.jpg
Rivierbed2.jpg
When you can see the whole of the roof of the caravan in front of you clearly, it's time to engage low range 1st...
Rivierbed3.jpg
Some more....
Pad9.jpg
Pad8.jpg
Pad4.jpg
Pad3.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by ChrisF »

pretty sure there were some "tired" people ... but THIS is the stuff you remember when all other stories fade away in the distant past ...

LEKKER TRIP !!
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

But it was above all, also beautiful...
thumb_IMG_1568_1024 (Small).jpg
Pad3 (2).jpg
Pad.jpg
Pad1 (2).jpg
And if it at any point sound as though I was complaining about the road: Not true. To go where we go, to see what we see the road is part of the journey. And to be able to drive that road, without any mishap or damage, is part of the satisfaction of being where we were...

I need to make special mention of Jannes here... to have done that with a 2x4 and diff-lock was something special, and surely something to brag about.

And then we were there: 201 km: 12 hours.
Sunset4.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by Mud Dog »

:thumbup:

I was half expecting to read about the welded tow bar packing up! :D:
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

It's coming Andy, it's coming...
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by GI Jane »

Wow... trip looks amazing so far. Well done to the people doing it with a 4x2, never mind those brave people pulling tailers and caravans... eish... Hwange and Mana on my to do list... Thanks Hennie... a riveting post...
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by Mars »

Fantastic report so far. Thanks!!!
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

As you might have gathered by now, this is not nearly the trip that Serengeti was, much less drama, but no less fun...

Tashinga Camp in Matusadona National park is a truly awesome place, again, a term I use too often, but it really is... It's far, the road is really difficult, and I don't think there are that many crazy people who've gone there towing caravans and trailers...

It's situated on a finger of land jutting into Lake Kariba, clean ablutions, hot water from a donkey, and fairly safe... and there was Forgets, the lady who was in charge of our campsite. Another Zimbabwean jewel for whom nothing was too much trouble... When I realised that I would not make it to Kariba on the fuel I had, Forgets did not forget to organise me 20l of petrol...
Forgets.jpg
On that point: I forgot something. When Hannes met us at the Botswana border and we discovered his towbar problem, we also discovered that he somehow lost the wheel on his Explorer's nose... everything was there, but the wheel was missing. This caused much trouble for everyone else, because every time we stopped and had to get Hannes' Explorer of, we had to borrow Marnus's nose wheel first..., and it caused a lot of heartache to Hannes, as he apparently could not bear resting his head on a thick, specially cut and shaped Mopanie branch instead of a wheel...

So at Hwange he whispered some words to Lilian.... and lo and behold, the day before we left she arrived with a complete new(-ish) nose wheel for his Explorer! I am loathe now searching for other people's trip reports on Zimbabwe, 'cause I'm scared of finding that one from a Swedish/Danish tourist complaining when they woke up one morning and found their caravan's nose wheel missing...

So we'll rather concentrate on this trip.... There was not a lot of game, the youngsters did a few game drives but did not see anything apart from the usual suspects, so we spend some quality time in the bush... some pic's- please pass over if you're not interested.

This was our "lounge"...
Sitkamer.jpg
Sitkamer2.jpg
And the view from our lounge.
Sitkamer uitsig.jpg
There were sundowners on the beach every evening...
Sundowners.jpg
Sundowner2.jpg
Sundowner snacks.jpg
Last edited by warthog on Wed Aug 03, 2016 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

Some time was spent catching up on washing...
Wastyd.jpg
Jan tried to sort out his (non-existing) problem with his solar panel not charging...
Jan.jpg
The youngsters tried to rid themselves of excess energy with beach touch rugby...
Beach rugby.jpg
Some just sat around, drank wine and tried to take decent pictures...
Ellies.jpg
Ellies2.jpg
Ellies4.jpg
And somewhere, around a cup of coffee one morning, the route of the next trip in 2018 was born...
Nuwe trip.jpg
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

Some just simply sat around...
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Tashinga is one of the most beautiful places I've been to...ja-ja, I know, I've said it before... in this trip report, but really...
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The sunsets were out of this world...
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Even after dark....
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But yet again, this trip was all about this...
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by Mud Dog »

:thumbup:

Keep it coming! :D:
When your road comes to an end ...... you need a HILUX!.

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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by ChrisF »

For years we have been bombarded about bad press regarding the roadblocks and corrupt officials in Zim. To the point where I, and maybe one or two more people, dont even plan a Zim trip ...


Hennie and now you come and show us these pictures ....

WOW !! such a scenic country !!!!!!

dankie dat jy dit met ons deel
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

Chris, maybe this is now the right time to answer that… I wanted to keep this to the end (maybe I’m worried all will stop reading if I say this now) but now that you mentioned it…

The police and officials are what they are. From the young punk guarding the gate on the Zim side at Pandamatenga who leaned into my car through my window saying “So you have nothing for me?” to the s..thead robber policeman who stopped me 100 km from Beit and fined me first $80 and then came down to $40 for “Driving during the day with both headlights and park lights on”, yes, some of them are corrupt.

The roadblocks are everywhere, BUT, we were waved through 7 out of 10 roadblocks without stopping, at one we were greeted with a huge smile by a policeman in perfect Afrikaans: "Goeiedag meneer, en hoe gaan dit?" and he made a point of greeting each vehicle in our convoy in that manner, at another one very late in the day I was told: “Sir, tourists must not drive after dark in Zimbabwe, so GO and rush on so you can catch up with your friends.” Yes, some of us were fined unnecessarily, for nonsense like the number plate lights, my head- and park lights, and Jannie who was fined for his fire extinguisher “not being in the green”.

I have not been as cross in more than 30 years as I was after the head- and park light incident. I literally tore up the ticket and chucked the pieces into the policeman’s face, climbed back into Forest and just drove off. I don’t think I said a word for about an hour after. Jannie and Jannes both enquired over the radio what happened and if I was ok, but I just abruptly cut them of. My family in my car was completely quiet. And after I got my breathing under control I realised: I had a choice. Was I going to allow one common robber policeman and his cronies, 15 minutes and $40 to spoil an absolutely unexpectedly awesome three week experience in some of the most beautiful places I have ever been to? That would be really stupid.

Dewald and the rest who carried on east were told by the owner at Troutbeck that the police now have specific orders not to harass tourists. At one road block where we were stopped on our way back, a lady from a passing car travelling in the opposite direction shouted to the police stopping us: “Treat them well, they are our tourists!” (We will be able to provide you with a list of do’s and don’t’s for tourists plus telephone numbers of the Police and Tourism Industries (I think) in Zim who you can call when being harassed.)

We (me in particular) read up a lot on the net about Zim and the pooh there before we left, and what really stuck in my head was how Zim’s officials and police’s conduct just took over people’s experience of Zim. Yes, they are probably going to get under your skin, but maybe if you expect it, plan for it and budget for it like toll fees, or road tax, and just not then allow it to spoil you’re trip, you’ll be fine.

Zim is an awesome, awesome place. I had just today a casual talk with a long-standing client about the trip, and he asked: “So between Zim and Bots, where would you go back to?” And I had not a moment’s hesitation in answering: “Zim. Tomorrow.”

(EDIT: I must add: this is my opinion, but I have not heard anything to the contrary from any of my travelling companions.)
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by ChrisF »

Hennie dankie.

GOOD to hear BOTH sides of the "cops".


In our Namibia trips we have mostly experienced GREAT service from all officials.


Our first attempted bride/blackmail - SA side of the Vioolsdrif from SAPD : "Meneer jou bakkie is te vuil, dit sal R200 wees."

On a quiet morning at Sendelingsdrif a Namib official tried his luck .... ALL my papers were in order, but he wanted to inspect the vehicle. Walking towards the vehicle: "That will be $N100". Still dont know what "that" was. By the time he finished his inspection I had to pay over $N200 ... Ever so politely I asked: "Can we please go to the office as would need a receipt for this fine." "Ag man, RY!"


If you travel Africa you WILL encounter this sooner rather than later.

I am just very glad to hear that there are officials actively working to stop tourist harassment.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by ROOFER »

Thanks for sharing Hennie !!
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by Dowe Koos »

Hallo Hennie, het jou thread geniet en mooi fotos wat jy geneem het. Soos ek al gesê het, beplan ek volgende jaar 'n trip Malawi toe waarvan Zimbabwe die begin punt is. Ek sou ook dieselfde voel soos jy oor onregverdige boetes wat vir my meer van 'n "bribe" is. 'n Vragie - indien hulle jou nie 'n kwitansie kan gee nie, dan betaal jy nie. Het so iets daar gebeur met jou. Onthou nog, toe ek in Mosambiek was, het hulle my afgetrek, gevra vir my papiere en kamtig 'n fout gekry. Het geweet hulle soek "bribe" maar het geweier om saam te speel. Een probleem egter was dat ek nie my papiere kon kry nie en het seker maklik so vir 45 minute daar gestaan. Engels was uit, ek kon nie Portugees praat nie en hulle kon nie Afrikaans praat nie. Later haal ek 'n kaart uit van Maputo en kyk rond vir woorde wat ek kon gebruik om met hulle te kan kommunikeer, toe sien ek magistraat in Portugees en wys toe vir hulle die woord en sê dat ons soontoe moet gaan. Dadelik gee hulle my papiere terug en sê ek moet ry. Maar in elke geval, jy was dapper om daardie boete op te skeur en dit in die ou se gesig te gooi. Sou graag daardie gesig wou sien. Ek weet nie wat ek sou gemaak het as ek in jou skoene was nie. Groete daar.
Ecc 1:9 Wat gewees het, dit sal daar weer wees; en wat gebeur het, dit sal weer gebeur, en daar is glad niks nuuts onder die son nie.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

Dowe Koos, hulle sê dapper en stupid is twee kante van die dieselfde munt, hang net af watter kant val bo, en daai was 'n baie stupid ding om te doen... die rower en sy trawante het net vir my gelag, en ek dink dis wat my nog meer in die rooi gedruk het...

Maar ons gaan nie langer vir hulle aandag gee nie, Zim is baie, baie meer as net 'n paar skelm polisiemanne.

O ja, en min van die foto's is myne,,, meeste is ander s'n.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by ChrisF »

OFF TOPIC :
Hennie gebruik jy iets soos Lightroom met jou fotos ?

Ek het laas die hele groep se fotos gekry, elkeen ge-import en toe gewatermerk met die naam van persoon/couple. Die hele groep is toe saam op een CD geskryf.

Maak dit moontlik om later tred te hou met wie het wat afgeneem.

Ek het die watermerk baie lig gemaak, so jy moet baie mooi kyk om dit te sien, maar tog moontlik as jy dan nou regtig wil weet.

Die ander opsie is om die fotos te "re-name" en die fotgraaf se naam in te sluit in die naam - dan bly die foto skoon.



NIE dat ons omgee nie !!!! Net BAIe bly oor al die mooi fotos wat jy met ons deel !! :)
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

Chris, ek gebruik niks...(behalwe rooiwyn en Jack Daniels of Baines...) Dis meer as genoeg effort om tussen gewone lewe die storie te skryf, meer as 10 000 foto's deur te gaan, die beteres uit te haal, te re-folder, re-size, in plek te kry, te post, ens ens...

Sover ek weet is almal gemaklik hiermee, elkeen het 'n joppie, byv Dewald reel en organise, Jan doen meganies logistiek, Hannes neem foto's (en breek goed) Marnus en Ferdie laaik losmaak, Jannie is die medic, Jannes ry die 2x4 en moan, en ek skryf die storie ens ens ens, en ek gaan nie eers probeer om te noem wat die vrouens doen nie....

So here we go- (I was subtly poohed on as to whether my petrol ran out...)

So yet, again, we had to leave another jewel, a peaceful, beautiful place on Lake Kariba. There has been quite a discussion as to the most special place on this trip. Quite a number chose Mucheni View in Chizarera, some said Mana, a few said the boat trip on Kariba, for me, Tashinga was the most special, I don’t really know why… (maybe... my late father’s birthday was 6 July, so every second year I get to spend that day somewhere special… 2009 it was the day we came down Van Zyl’s Pass, 2012 it was the day we drove into Serengeti, two years ago we were in Moremi, this time, we were in Tashinga, maybe …)

We left Tashinga, again, at 05h00. Our destination was not that far, Kariba Town. Forgets told us that they go to Kariba Town twice a month, but by ferry as it was only 45 km across the lake as the crow flies. But we were going by road, also not far, only some 285 km, of which the first 65 took us 7 hours plus coming in… Other campers we met previously at Chizarira and again at Tashinga actually enquired about taking that ferry (they weren’t even towing…) and some in our group would confess considering the possibility… However… Dewald realised that the fork to the right we found coming in was actually a “shortcut”, so that was the plan…
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

The road was…. awesome. Same as we came in. Went through that same wide dry river bed, only this time it was going down, not up- and before daybreak.
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Then we turned left on the “shortcut”… it started okay, but then we heard Dewald, Jannes and Jan ahead talking on the radio about a reaaallly bad “driffie”… Jan told us at the back not to worry as “… hy het hom platgeskraap vir ons…”

In our bunch Marnus went through first, then Hannes… who very nearly got stuck. After he went through we removed some serious big klippe. Jannie was in front of me, and when he was pointed down the wrong line he got his the Pajero and the trailer stuck. Marnus, Eduan and Bennett crawled in underneath the Pajero to remove and move some klippe, and Jannie carefully drove the Pajero and trailer out.
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I was last, and having been able to see Marnus, Hannes and Jannie go through, I decided on a different line, got Eduan to move some stones into place, and eased Forest and Gump through - almost always easier when you’re last…
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The shortcut proved to be the better road, apart from that one really difficult, and 2-3 other somewhat onerous spots, the rest was fairly easy - some places we could almost do 60km/h. We managed to shave about an hour and a half from our time going in.
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

The rest of the road was really lekker. We all knew that the worst was over, and that we've made it, with caravans... all in one piece.
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We stopped at the Chiroti Urban shop on the way...
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for some cold refreshments...
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We had to drive into Karoi, as I had serious fuel concerns - in 4x4 Forest sucks fuel sirrias… (Forgets managed to get me 20 litre from a nearby lodge - at a premium…). At Karoi Hannes realised that some of the welds on his Cruiser made at Nata had torn loose due to the Tashinga road- but we would fix that at Kariba.

Kariba. Everyone was looking forward to Kariba...
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

I remembered somethings...

The drive via Karoi to Kariba, was uneventful, apart from the now customary roadblocks. Just before the turnoff to Kariba, I was pulled over at a roadblock. The robber asked for my driver’s license and said he was going to check around. I saw him bend down behind Forest, and thought he was checking my registration plate lights. He came back, and told me to please follow him as there was a problem. I knew both lights were working, and followed him. (I only later realised that he couldn’t have been checking lights, as they were not on…) Behind Forest he showed me the caravan’s “deadman’s cable” resting on top of the towhitch, not hooked over the towball…

I knew, and he knew that I knew that he had moved it, as, apart from being absolutely sure that I hooked it over (part of my 1-2-3-4 hooking routine) there was simply no way that I could have driven five and half hours on that road out of Tashinga with that cable merely laying on top of the towbar - no way. So I sighed, shrugged my shoulders, smiled, fetched money, asked for a receipt, paid the $15, crumpled up the receipt and stuffed it into the robber’s shirt pocket…

And that is REALLY the last about Zim's robbers...
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Re: En so... Ry ons deur Zimbabwe

Post by warthog »

We reached camp some 15km short of Kariba… place called Nauz… It is right on the shore of lake Kariba, and you are reminded of this right as you drive in and often in camp...
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To camp on green grass after 2 weeks of dust, was nice... (Some of the ladies wil probably say "oh my word!!") It is a real nice place, clean ablutions, hot water… according to info there was supposed to be a restaurant as well… we hoped… unfortunately not so, closed down, so we had to look after ourselves for supper, which meant braai. But there is a shop with the necessary basics, plus petrol and diesel.
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It is also a storage place for plenty of beautiful old caravans- people obviously leave their caravans there permanently and use it as a holiday place.
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Some more permanently than others...
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We were quite concerned about safe parking for the caravans while we were on the houseboat- plenty of food in freezers, power, whether it would be safe to use solar’s… so at Nauz Dewald spoke to owner, Jan, who agreed for us to leave our caravans parked there, on 220v power for the freezers… a huge relief (and when we got back, he didn’t want payment!!) Plus, when we returned, Jan and Dewald had 220V to re-inforce the tow hitch welds on Hannes' Cruiser... So if you want an awesome campsite with true warm hospitality near Lake Kariba, Nauz is the place.

THANK YOU JAN!!!
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