Beit Bridge Clearing Agents???

[morganharris]

Hey Guys

Last time I went through Beit Bridge I used what they call a clearing agent, paid the guy R1500, he walked me straight to the counters, got all paperwork filled in and stamped, got through to the Zim side, same story. Only took me like 25min total.

Problem is this guys number no longer works. His name was Patrick.

Anyone got another good clearing agents number

I leave for Zim on the 13th already

[OOOOMS]

Where in Zim are you going to? why not go through Bots and then into Zim?

[morganharris]

Im headed to Bulawayo, then Gokwe.

Thing is I am in Bloemfontein, BFN to Bulawayo seems to shortest via Beit Bridge at just over 1200km.

Would going through Bots not take longer as there are two borders to cross? I went through Plumtree once, 17hours in line.

[OOOOMS]

1) Bloem to Bul via Beitbridge = 1263km
2) Bloem to Bul via Martins Drift / Plumtree = 1335km

I would never in a life pay R1500.00 to get through any border post. Via Martins or even Zanzibar (S22 34.412 E28 28.080) water permitting, should not take longer than 1 hour.

[morganharris]

What about going through Plumtree then, if i go through Martins Drift I will have to go through Plumtree, this was horrible experience last time I was there (ok, it was 2008), not sure if things have changed.

But why not Beit Bridge, I heard they cleaned up there nice...

[OOOOMS]

What about going through Plumtree then, if i go through Martins Drift I will have to go through Plumtree, this was horrible experience last time I was there (ok, it was 2008), not sure if things have changed.

But why not Beit Bridge, I heard they cleaned up there nice...

We went through Plumtree in Oct 2011, no problems, not busy (holiday season) just the normal arrogance.(1 hour)

Yes I have heard they are / or trying to clean up Beitbridge, but me thinks is will take a few years

[Racing snake]

We went through Martin's drift and Plumbtree in August 2011. Absolutely no problems what so ever. I would not even consider Beit bridge.

[thirstytraveller]

we came back through Beitbridge on the 6th of January 2012 - took us just over 2 hours for everything and we spent about 45 mins waiting for our turn to go over the bridge as there were so many trucks going through. R1500 for a runner is ridiculous! How many in your group going? Gget each person to stand in a different queue - you will get stuff done a lot quicker that way! Another tip is to send one person to the front of the queue to see what is going on - sometimes you dont even need to be in that damn queue. Borders in africa are all about patience and being polite! And avoid getting any help if at all possible - they usually make more hassle than they solve!