North to Masvingo, Zimbabwe…

In view of the problems I have had with my shock absorber, I decided to carry a spare set with me… Yeah, all 8 kgs of the darn things… I had my original BMW shocks sent up from Uvongo, and waited until they arrived on Monday, before setting off for Masvingo in Zimbabwe…

Spare shocks, wrapped and ready to load... Now where to put the buggers...

It had been a quiet and restful time in Pretoria, together with Debbie, I repacked the duffel bag to include the shocks, and then had to find place for the stuff that the shocks had displaced… Somehow it all got squeezed in, including a dozen energy bars… But now it was time to get back on the bike… I had “lost” a few days and needed to change my plans slightly, if I was going to make it to Ethiopia before my visa expired !!

I left Pretoria at about 6.30 am, filled up, and then hit the highway !! I rolled the power on and by 9.15 am, I was filling up in Polokwane, and by 12 noon, I was at the Zimbabwean border, filling up again…. Three times in one day !! But we were chewing up the miles, Dudes !! Today was one of those long days…. 12 hrs on the road…!! 800 kms in the bag at the end of it…

But where's the real thing....

The things I remember most about the 500 km ride to the border, were

Ahh... There you are, my beauty's...

seeing my first Baobab, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn again, (unplanned for !!) and, last, but not least, all the bloody tollgates on the N1… SIX OF THEM !! Give us bikers a break for heavens sake !! The debate about why we must pay the same as cars do will probably rage on forever, I suppose… Our Tollgate companies should adopt the same stance as those in South America and even in our northern neighbor, Zimbabwe, and make tolls FREE FOR MOTORCYCLES… If Mr. Mugabe does not to whack us with toll fees, then why can’t South Africa do the same !! Heavens to Betsy !! Enough already !! Bloodsuckers….!!! It costs R161.50 in tolls to get from Pretoria to the Zimbabwe border… The equivalent of a full tank for the Big Fella, and more importantly, nearly 400 kms of travel…

You're missing a finger, Boet !! It's your third crossing !!

If I had had more time, I would have taken the scenic route and stopped over in Musina for the night, but that was out of my hands… So NI North it had to be… We rolled over the Tropic of Capricorn, and only after I had taken the photo, did I realise that this was in fact our third crossing… First time was in Namibia, the second was in Botswana and now here again, north of Polokwane… The sun was blasting us as we made our way into Makhado, formerly Louis Trichardt… I recalled the days I spent up here, when I was responsible for the security of the new runway which was being built for the Northern Command… I had to take a detail of 40 guys up every month, who had been called up to do their “Camps”… While they lived in tents on the perimeter of the base, I managed to wangle my accommodation at the Clouds End Motel, halfway up the slopes of the Soutpansberg, on the road to Musina… You have to know how to organize…!! They did however mange to keep me busy, explaining to the local farmer how my troops has mistaken one of his prize bulls for a terrorist, and emptied half the magazine of his R5 rifle into the poor thing… The odd Impala was also caught “trespassing”, and like the bull, paid a heavy price…

Makhado lies tucked up against the southern slopes of the Soutpansberg mountains that run east to west, perpendicular to the N1. The road up, over, and through these mountains is a great ride, punctuated by a series of tunnels, and eventually runs down into the flat plains of the Northern Limpopo province on the far side…

I smell a name change coming...or a bit of demolition... Get Julius onto it... Quick !!

The Zimbabwe border crossing is a frigging nightmare, Dudes !! It took me three hours to get across it !! And that was with a so-called “assistant”… Never again !! I will rather ride up through Botswana and do the extra mileage…

Goodbye South Africa... Seriously...!!!

When I rolled up to the South African side, my GPS advised me that I would be in Masvingo at 3.05 pm… The fact that I had to ride like a bat out of hell, and got there at 6.10 pm, just as the full moon was rising, tells the story… If I had seen the Garmin Girl at the border after I finally crossed over, I would have throttled her… She really needs to get out more…maybe spend some time at the Beit Bridge border post, for example !!

After the organised chaos of collecting forms, standing in long queqes, reaching for my wallet on four occasions, and dripping sweat all over the place, I was ready to jump off a building…onto a Zim official’s head !! The last straw was when they wanted US$460.00 deposit to cover the cameras and laptop that I had been warned to declare, or risk confiscation thereof… I gave the official a long look and in the calmest of voices, said,

“Fuck that for a joke !! I’m going back to South Africa, and will rather ride all the way up through Botswana, and through Zambia, to avoid paying any more money to you guys !!”

“But you can claim it back when you leave Zimbabwe !” he replied…

“Yeah, right…!! But I’d like the money before I reach the ripe old age of 80, if you don’t mind ! I am writing for the BMW Motorrad website, and I will explain in detail, why Motorcyclists should NOT  come to Zimbabwe..” was my retort…

This seemed to have the desired effect, because he tore my declaration form up, passed me a new one, and said,

“Fill it in again, and this time write “Nothing to Declare”… I will speak with my friend at the gate, and he will let you through without searching your baggage…”

I thanked him, then made a hurried exit, jumped on the bike, gate pass, customs forms and other paperwork held between my teeth, jacket flying (I had forgotten to zip it up in my haste to get moving !) and then got the hell out of Dodge…with a capital “D”…

About 5 kms on the road to Masvingo and Harare, I saw a sign that said “Tollgate”… Bloody hell…!! When will it stop !!

Imagine my joy, when I rolled up to the “toll gate”, and found a few oil drums and a small tent on the side of the road,

Minister of Transport... See the toll cost for motorcycles...!! Take note...and make some changes down South...!!

and a sign that showed that motorcycles do not pay for tolls in Zimbabwe… I was waved through by the traffic officer, and at every subsequent “toll gate” after that… What a pleasure….!!

Sounds like an interesting place... Let's go !!

There are not many road signs in Zimbabwe… Maybe there are just not that many places to advise motorists about !! Most of them are made from concrete, as I was later told that all the metal ones have been stolen and sold for scrap…

We crossed over the Bubi River bridge, with the Lion and Elephant Lodge nestled on it’s northern bank… I considered stopping for a cold drink, but I still had 200 kms to go to get to Masvingo, and it was already 4.30 pm… I did not want to be on the road after dark in this area… In the first 60 kms, I had counted the carcasses of 9 donkeys, 8 cows, and the remains of two dogs, that had been flattened by trucks in the past few days… The small of rotting flesh filled my helmet for the first hour of my trip… Clearly the Zimbabwean livestock did not have as much road sense as their Botswana cousins, as I had seen only three carcasses during my 800 km dash across that country…

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about...!! A mother of a Baobab on the road to Masvingo...

Southern Zimbabwe reminded me of places in the Kruger Park… The vegetation is very similar, with the road very close to the bush on either side of it… After crossing the Runde River, the road wound between huge granite hills, their valleys clothed in thick bush… The scenery here was the best so far, and I enjoyed cranking the bike up and zipping around the long lazy bends… The tiredness that I had earlier felt seemed to slip away, as I enjoyed this section of the ride… Until I was stopped for speeding…

“You were doing 106 km/h in a 60 km zone, sah…” were the first words out of the traffic officer’s mouth…

“Really ?? I did not see any sign…!! I thought this was a 100 km/h zone..”

“Maybe you were going too fast with this machine to see the sign…” Mmmm… A clever one… That’s all I needed…

“Where are you going to..?” he asked…

“Egypt…” I said…

“Hau..!! With a motorbike !! It can’t be…!!”

I showed him the flag stickers of the countries I had already visited, gave him one of my business cards, and flashed him the biggest smile I could muster under the circumstances… A mini-bus taxi, zoomed past us while we stood there, and I told him that I thought that the taxi was also doing much more than 60 km/h… After giving me a long look, he said,

“Yes…and if you hurry, you will catch him before Masvingo…”

With a pat on my back, he walked back to his radar and zero-ed it, waving me on my way as he did so… I shouted a “Thank you!”, and got out of there as quickly as I could, catching the taxi a few kilometres later, and wagging my finger at the driver as I passed him… He just grinned and hooted… In fact, we were both grinning…

The sun had just gone down as I arrived on the outskirts of Masvingo, stopped at a filling station and got my phone out to call Mike Firth, who had agreed to put me up for the night… None of the networks I tried allowed me access… Seems my “roaming” was either been switched off, or the signal here was not all that good… I paid the petrol attendant a dollar to use his phone and within a short while, Mike rolled up to guide me to his house… A full moon had risen up over the town, as we rode into Mike’s driveway and began offloading my gear… Five dogs yapped and barked around us as we lugged it all into the house, where I met Moira, who had already run a bath for me… How thoughtful can you get…?

Big Fella squeezes himself in to get a safe night's sleep...

Mike insisted that we try and squeeze the Big Fella into the garage behind Moira’s Prado, and by removing the panniers, and a after a little dragging, we managed it. We sat down to a tasty dinner of spaghetti bolognaise (how did they know that I am a pasta lover ?) and then retired to the lounge to quaff a few beers… A great end to a long day… and in great company to boot !!

I had missed out on meeting John Rennie in Bulawayo, and would have joined Mike and Moira the day before, had it not been for the problems with my shock… But I was now back on track… It would be a three day, 2100 km haul to Malawi, but it had to be done… Peter and Carol would be waiting for me at Senga Bay… And there would no doubt be plenty of beers on ice there too…

I planned to visit the Great Zimbabwe ruins, and take a run down to the Kyle Dam,  (Moira had made the suggestion, and after describing the winding road to it, I was as keen as mustard…) And then it would be the 300 km run to Harare, where I would hopefully meet up with Gavin Rennie, brother of John…

There was another long day in the offing…

© GBWT 2010