Is it time to go back to Zimbabwe?

The convoy of 10 Toyotas stop in a cloud of dust at Nyamapanda border post. We’re on our way back from Malawi to Zimbabwe. The plan is to visit Mana Pools, Hwange and Ghonarezhou National Parks.

Our group of 21 by now seasoned travellers get out of the vehicles. At this stage we are used to the African border-post routine. Immigration forms, passport checks, customs clearance, patience and off you go. Or not. This is Africa. But we should be fine; everything is in order. Registration papers for the vehicles, road tax forms. I mean really, we crossed into Zimbabwe going to Malawi a week ago.

One of the most irritating things at these border posts are the border aids, supposedly offering to help you get through quicker. They are just unemployed guys in civilian clothes promising you a quick turnaround, hoping to get a tip. My advice is to ignore them, but don’t be nasty to them. They are connected to the officials and sometimes they are official – possibly even a member of the Zimbabwean Republican Police dressed in a Bob Marley T-shirt.

Suddenly things change. Being a sizeable convoy, somebody smells a catch. For the first time ever, we’re asked for police clearance certificates for all our vehicles, something that wasn’t necessary a week ago when we came in. We don’t have it and at this stage can’t get it.

Suddenly there are loads of people involved. All the border aids, officials with all sorts of uniforms and authorities. They all talk to each other. They hardly talk to us. Confusion reigns: the waiting game has begun.

Out of the blue a superior officer arrives. He inspects our forms and decides that an additional amount of road tax will sort out the lack of police clearance forms. We pay the extra road tax. Lots of happy faces smile at us. Welcome to Zimbabwe. So get a police clearance for your vehicle before you go or a carnet de passage at the AA.They’re not supposed to be a requirement for Zimbabwe, but are a good idea.

The next thing we need is fuel, a scarce commodity in Zimbabwe. Just down the road from Nyamapanda is a filling station. Amazingly they have fuel, but no electricity, so they can’t pump diesel. They offer to siphon from containers.

‘Let’s just get enough to get us to Kotwa,’ says Gerhard Groenewald, the expedition leader. It’s a village a few kilometres down the road from the border. On our way up, we found fuel there. I whip out my camera and click away. Petrol being siphoned at a garage makes interesting pictures in Africa.

Arriving at Kotwa, we drive past the first fuel station to the one we know had fuel on the way up. Things change quickly in Zimbabwe. The second station is dry. What now? We have a long way ahead of us and a lot of dry vehicles. A local offers us what they call ‘smuggle’ diesel. It’s a totally legal operation. ‘Smuggle’ doesn’t make it illegal. It just refers to fuel in private possession being offered from containers at a standard price of US$1 a litre.

This offers an even better chance for idiosyncratic pictures from Africa and out comes my camera once again. As soon as I click the first shot of our proprietor siphoning diesel into one of the vehicles, a hand clamps down on my shoulder. I look around and there’s this small man looking very big in his ZRP uniform. He’s joined by another policeman in a Bob Marley T-shirt.

‘Why did you take that picture?’ Bob wants to know.

‘Em … well sir. I em … thought it an interesting scenario,’ I play for time while deleting the offending picture from my camera.

‘Wait! What are you doing?’ Bob wants to know.

‘Well sir, it seems that you don’t like the fact that I took it, so I thought if I delete it, the problem is solved.’

This, it seems, is a serious problem. Tampering with evidence. They confiscate one of our vehicles and take me off to the police station. Statement after statement follows. They want to ship my camera to Harare to be inspected to see if I’m not hiding the picture somewhere. While they do that, I’ll be kept in jail. I’m ordered to remove my shoes and shirt.

Meantime, Gerhard is waiting patiently for the right moment to talk to the station chief. That moment is just before I have to strip. That’s how it works in Africa. Let the troops have it out first and when seniority is needed, chief will talk to chief.

With a serious warning to stick to the beauty of the country for pictures, I’m released and get my camera back. Unfortunately ‘smuggle’ diesel pictures will not form a part of this story. My advice: always ask permission before taking any pictures. Oh yes, and carry as much spare fuel with you as you can – for a range of at least 1 000 kilometres.

Throughout the episode, the staff at the police station were very friendly. In fact, almost everybody in Zimbabwe is genuinely friendly, although sometimes the army can seem rather hostile.

Talking of which, if you have to travel via Harare, rather go through the city. It is an amazing experience and quicker than using the ring road, because there’s almost always an army blockade on the ring. They search virtually every foreign vehicle extensively for longer than it takes to clear downtown Harare. Just be careful, most of the traffic lights in Harare don’t work anymore.

Roads in Zimbabwe are, like nearly everything else, deteriorating, but are in a better shape than I imagined. You can still travel to many tourist spots like Vic Falls, Great Zimbabwe and Hwange in a normal sedan, but potholes, broken road surfaces and bad corrugations make it inadvisable. You don’t need a 4×4 for about 80 per cent of the country, but a sturdy SUV or pick-up is a good option.

Also, know your vehicle well and take emergency spares such as an extra spare tyre, puncture repair kit, compressor, fan belts, spare fuses, filters, engine oil, cable ties, duct tape, recovery rope and a decent toolkit. And the right attitude. It’s not that there’s no assistance anywhere, but don’t expect the mechanical assistance and dealership infrastructure you find in South Africa.

It’s also essential to have proper insurance that will supply you with a replacement vehicle and recover yours should it break down. We used Cross Country. With them you don’t have to get your vehicle to the nearest border post, they’ll come to you wherever you break down, even if it’s deep in the Zambezi Valley.

Less than a year ago, almost every shop or trading store was empty because of the immense rate of inflation on the Zim dollar. Now that they trade in US dollars and SA rands, the inflation rate between buying and selling is stable. There’s stock in the stores and all the goods are marked in US dollars. You can use rands, but be careful, the shopkeepers are opportunists. The exchange rate they offer dollars to rands is 1:10.

Now that the Zim dollar is obsolete, it has become a curio. On the way to Vic Falls, most of the stalls that used to sell wooden carved giraffes and other objects are standing empty. Whether it’s because there aren’t enough tourists or because the proprietors got the message that they were destroying their trees isn’t clear. Instead, some of them are now selling old Zim dollars as collectors’ items. The biggest note, $100-trillion, used to fetch about half a US dollar while still active. Now they sell them as mementos for up to US$10.

It’s sad to see the deterioration in the country. Zimbabwe has some of the best agricultural soil in Africa, but wherever you go, you see ranches standing empty. The timber from kraals is being used to build huts. Weeds have taken over from crops. Then you drive past one of Mrs Mugabe’s awesome milk farms…

Hwange was a shock. This flagship reserve of long ago has taken a beating. It used to be well developed and equipped, but a lack of budget means facilities are not what they used to be and poachers have hammered the game. Gonarezhou, however, is beautiful. It feels remote, but being only 260 kilometres from Pafuri, it’s the closest game park to South Africa and is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

The jewel is still Mana Pools, a World Heritage Site based on its wild beauty and species diversity. In fact, the poverty of the country has ensured that it’s now probably the wildest unspoilt piece of wilderness in Southern Africa. There’s no money for luxury lodges except those privately owned, but the campsite offers fresh water and the rather run-down ablutions still have hot showers. That’s it and they’ll ask you only US$8 a night to camp.

Mana is surrounded by a group of well-run hunting concessions, ensuring that poaching is not as bad in Mana as other places. While we were there, we had many daily and nightly visitors in the camp, from hyenas, hippos and honey badgers to elephants, lions and buffalo.

The most heart-warming thing of all is the dedication of the people working for wildlife and conservation. ey serve nature with total passion on an almost non-existant salary. And they’re wonderfully honest. I was taking pictures in a small village and my sunglasses fell off my head while I was looking through the lens without my noticing. A member of our group saw a Zimbabwean in a tattered T-shirt pick them up and come looking for me to return them.

‘Thank you,’ I said, taking the glasses, ‘how come you brought them back?’

‘They’re not mine,’ he said. I offered him US$5 but he didn’t want the money. ‘Giving something back to its owner should be done without expecting a reward,’ he said. ‘It’s not a reward. It’s a gift.’ He hesitated, took my hand with both his, then walked into the Chinzara General Store and bought himself a new T-shirt; not a Bob Marley, but a Lucky Dube.

My conclusion? It’s safe to travel in Zimbabwe, although it’s neither easy nor luxurious. But it’s worth it. As far as I’m concerned, despite the political turmoil, it’s probably still one of the greatest bush destinations in Africa.

Don’t be deterred: go.

Toyota Enviro Outreach
The Outreach is an annual expedition into Africa to offer aid to environmental and nature conservation initiatives. It takes along like-minded non-governmental organisations without the means to further this cause. Among those on board were:

• The Southern African Wildlife College, which visits ex-students to see how they function in the workplace and what can be done to further their capabilities.
• The Wildlife and Environment Society of Southern Africa, which conducts environmental educational events with villages neighbouring national parks on issues such as water quality and deforestation.
• Botanical experts from the University of Johannesburg to do bar-coding on trees, trying to control illegal exportation of wood.

Other organisations associated with the Toyota Outreach include Sanparks, WWF, Peace Parks Foundation and Game Rangers Association of Africa. For more information, visit www.toyotaoutreach.co.za.

Travel Advisor

Recommended camping places

Nyamepi Campsite, Mana Pools costs US$12 (about R120) a person (valid for seven days), US$5 (R50) for a vehicle (valid for seven days) and US$8 (R80) a day to camp.

Chipinda Pools Campsite, Gonarezhou, costs US$8 (R80) a person, US$4 (R40) a child; US$5 (R50) a vehicle, US$5 for a caravan and US$8 a day to camp.

Book for both with Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority’s central reservations office in Harare at tel +263-470-6077/8, e-mail reservations@zimparks.co.zw or web www.zimparks.com.

Travel tips
Take US dollars in cash and in small denominations. Although they accept South African rands, the exchange rate was 10:1 at time of going to press. Credit cards are not readily accepted.

Ensure you have enough fuel for at least 1 000 kilometres. Always fill up when you find a station with fuel, or ask the locals for fuel. You’ll pay US$1,30 for petrol and US$1,08 for diesel.

Never take photos of strategic places (border posts, fuel stations, bridges, dam walls). Always ask permission to photograph people or anything other than scenery or wildlife.

Make sure your vehicle papers are in order. Get a carnet de passage at the AA before departure.

Drinking water is not a problem in Zimbabwe, but take at least 10 litres of bottled water a person or a water filter pump.

Never offer to pay a bribe to get out of a sticky situation. If they ask, it’s up to you, but you can almost always get away without paying. Just exercise patience and smile irritatingly until they give up.