Day 3: 18 December 1996

On 18 December 1996, they woke me up at 5 o clock in the morning, ... unbelievable for a holiday morning. I immediately jumped out of the bed, took a shower, packed and went to the room where the breakfast was served where I had the first confrontation with the total group. 8 quiet girls ... that was the first impression ... 3 couples ...even more quiet ... were feeding each other. I had the impression they were informed about the fact, the next weeks ... luxurious covered breakfast tables was only a fact of dreaming. I was sitting to a very pleasant woman, and we were joking immediately to each other ... even if we were saying only a few sentences to each other . After this first contact, everybody installed his luggage next to the enormous truck, which had more the outlook of an aquarium, and the first comments to each other could start ... ‘what a luggage you have ... ...and you an Australian accent ... oh, you are Australian , me too, you are South African ? ... and you want to do such a trip even if you life here ?’ some gibberish Danish words, broken English, a typical English accent of a Dutch speaking girl, ..., than again some silent moments, which Dylan could fill with asking us the 400$ for the food kit. Each of us received a locker in the truck, where we put our luggage for the rest of the trip, we had then of course the fully responsibility of the key. I had immediately problems to put my luggage in that locker, I didn’t took al lot, only 12 kilos, but the way it was packed looked like 30 kilos ... my sleeping back and mat where rolled up like I was hidden a secret lover in an enormous pocket ... a pity it wasn’t true... However at 6 o clock we left the gate of the Drifters Inn Hotel, Dylan put the music on ... Paul Simon with Grace land ... a more beautiful song he couldn’t find to start this trip. We immediately took the road northwards up to Zimbabwe. After half an hour we were driving already in an amazing landscape. We first passed some quarters, with typical British houses and gardens, afterwards we drove into a landscape with huge plains with at our east side more rough than at the Westside, where the plains were covered with low bushes alternating with extensive grasslands. The weather was overcast. At 8h15 we already passed Pretoria, the soils red colored and I saw already a lot of exploitations and very near some slums. Our next big city that we should pass would be Pietersburg.

At that moment, I have to say, I wasn’t really interested in the group, my only occupation was observing the landscape, following our position on the maps and writing down my impressions. They only thing I could say from the group, that it consisted out of 3 couples, 2 Australian couples, 1 Danish couple, 2 Australian friends, and a South African woman who was sitting next to me at the last seat of the truck. Dylan keep in though with us trough the microphone, the information we get, was that we had to cover a 700 km that day, at 3 o clock we had to arrive at approximately 80 km of our destination of that day ... and the music played again. I was observing, and the woman next to me liked my interests, so we observed together, tried to find the names of the mountains we passed, looked it up on the maps, took notes, ..., a friendship was born.

We passed Waterberhge and the Strydpoortberg and drove through the Springbok flats. The bushes became denser and denser and Annelise did her first snooze. We arrived at our first border post - South-Africa-Zimbabwe in Naboomsprint. Was A quasi identical aquarium is parked next to us, chock-ful with waving prisoners , they probably thought we also were prisoners. Once we crossed the border , we saw Kranzkop, a very huge isolated stone, were one a enormous battle took place. It was one of the battles between the Boers and the black ones ... It was Annelise who informed me about all the historical parts ... of the things she still remembered. The part we drove through was once the North Transvaal but this name is now changed into the Northern Province and is also called the Great North. Once in Naboomspruit we had our first ‘Pi-Stop’ ... We had to look for our self to the best place to go, fortunately it was for the first time in a small municipality, so we had the occasion to ask in a shop our to enter in a restaurant to ask if we could use their toilet. From this stop we took the occasion to buy some yohourt, chocolate. In the mean time Dylan went shopping for us. ...There was a strong wind, the umbrella’s , which are used there against the sun, in contrast with our use, against the rain, were flying all around. It was 9h30 , already very hot, and everybody was feasting sweets. We continued and crossed the Potgeetersrus, a very chique villa environment, were each villa is surrounded by a very save fence. I thought I saw some hochbacks, but my geology, or better physical geography seemed to be far away . 11h40, we drove into St Pietersburg, the main town of the North Province. Here we saw especially Citrus vegetation or plantations and avocado. This place is also known for its hunting environment. The Americans come sometimes especially to here only for hunting, to shoot the "Bokies" , They give a lot if dollars to bring their trophy back to America. During the second part of our drive today we had to stop a few times, because the awning was always blowing away and then the accident for which we had to make an enormous detour. Annelise told me that during the beginning of this Christmas Period already 100 deaths felt in car accidents. A next strange view was the car which was driving next to us, with on his roof 2 death cases. The entills appearing more and more and are really huge. Annelise told me there are 9 official languages in South Africa, and when she is listening to the television in the morning the news is distributed in 11 languages. Imagine in Belgium.

The view is superb, here and there you see black men, then and entill, yellow flowers and in the bushes a lot of Doornboom, with very long nails appear and sometimes a huge isolated granite rock. All this with a background of a blue sky.

We crossed that moment the Capricone, even if we couldn’t see this, if felt strange. We had a view on the South Pans Berghe and saw the imposing Aloes, which were located in the middle of the yellow ‘koolzaadbloemen fields. At the border between the high fields and the mountains, we could detect the sugar bushes, which can only find back in the mountains. The Sugarbosberghen were beautiful, covered by strong valleys which separate the enormous granite mountains. We drove through the Hendrik Verwoerd Tunnel, who was once the president and introduced the Apartheid in South Africa. The man was later killed in the Parliament by a Greece immigrant who is still alive, but lives in the Prison and is already very old.

The nature became very wild, some ‘puinwaaiers’ and dry rivers are defining the landscape. It is a very dry area, which can be seen also by the amount of erosion, due to the strong rain showers. The temperature is rising and all the windows of the truck were open. We started with a kind of game, to put your head out of the window and wave to the drivers mirror , so Dylan could wave back. It was Annelise who just put her head outside, but was still looking to me, I saw the other truck coming closer, So I cried to put her head inside, she just asked ‘Why’ …so fortunately I could pull her inside and saved her from a beheading … So I knew already the driving style from those South Africans. That midday we saw the first baobabs, just at the border of the "Sand River". This river really deserved its name, as only sand could be detected in its bed.

At 14h40 we had our first lunch and pi-stop. We found a small shop in which I bought a melon and asked to go to the toilet, who knows it was maybe once of the latest civilsated toilets for a long period. At the border of the sidewalks we installed our self in a corner away from the sun to eat our lunch, it was the only shadow corner we could found. After buying some beers for the rest of the day, we all jumped into the bus to continue our trip. At 15h20 that noon we arrived at the border of Zimbabwe.

To cross the border was easy. We first received a stamp to leave South Africa, and after crossing the river Limpopo, which forms a physical barrier between those two countries, we should arrive at the border of Zimbabwe. The bridge itself looked really depressive. Barbed wire, control posts … I never saw the Berlin wall, but it must be something identical to this. Dylan warned us, that this border post of South Africa was still ok, that it would be much more worse at the border with Zimbabwe. And yes 500 meter further a very high group of black people were waiting to enter Zimbabwe. All the offices were over-occupied. First we had to fill a white paper and a green paper. If we gave the green one we ‘ve got a stamp again … what we had to do with the white one was never clear for me, one thing was sure, we had to do something with it. But it seems that this procedure took normally a long time, that Dylan whispered to us to leave the office and to enter to the truck as quick as possible, so we obeyed him and went all as quick as possible back to the truck, without filling in the white paper. The barrier went open , the guards waved and we slowly entered Zimbabwe … without the white paper. The moment Dylan screamed loud through the microphone ‘Welcome to Zimbabwe’ we all shout of joy loud, like fools. After all, Dylan told us that the total border crossing went very quick, he had already worse stories at that crossing.

The air in the truck was very hot, everybody was puffing with the heat. At that moment I realized I didn’t take pictures so far. The only reason was the not safety areas. The places where we stopped were really too unsafe to take pictures. Another 70 km and we would arrive at our first destination … our first camp site.

My first impressions of Zimbabwe were that the Southern part is covered with a lot of bushes and a lot of small villages all along the road , which is in a really good condition … sometimes better than the Belgian roads. The huts are always located in small groups , 10 or 20 huts together separated by bushes over a 1 to 2 km. So if you drive quick you really have the impression that there are a lot of small villages. Along the road the local people exhibited their carved work with the hope tourists like us stop and buy. Next to them in the bushes, donkeys and goats were grazing , waiting to be killed for dinner. After observing the whole day, we arrived at 17h00 in Bubi village at the Bubye river, where we had to install our first camp ‘Lion and Elephant’ . After some good instructions of Dylan about how to put the tent and how to bring it down again, how to install chairs and the movable kitchen … we could start with this for the first time. Unbelievable it took us only 1 minute to put the tent up. Annelise immediately laid some flowers at the entrance of our tent, to give it a more attractive view. Our luggage could stay in the lockers, just for safety. Dylan was clever enough to keep the swimming pool secret until all the tents were installed. So after changing some money we all jumped into the water … which was unfortunately too warm, anyway it felt good. 

Gezellig in de zwemkom

It was a good environment to do a first talk with each other. I spoke with Robert and Sharyn; Pauline, Dylan , Annelise and Helena , well I think I spoke to everybody. Robert introduced himself as a piano teacher and his wife Sharyn as a computer specialist , well we had immediately some good points to share. After a first Zambezi on the terrace of the Swimming Pool, we met each other at the tents again . The total camp environment was already totally installed and we could start at our first evening meeting, concerning who is who and who does what , why you are interested in a long journey in Africa. Of course after this first introduction I wasn’t able to keep all the names in mind. Catherine and Liz, two Australian girls of 24 and 23 years old. Then there was Joe and Chris also two Australian teachers, who liked to travel together. Charlotte and Henning a Danish couple and their friend Helena, were our 3 blond Danish guys. Than we had John and Terra a very sympathy Australian couple and Robert and Sharyn the other nice couple. The Swiss girl: Delphine , who lived in fact already a few years in South Africa was really social minded. Pauline, the Netherlands girl wanted to amuse herself for a 5 weeks and wanted just to be away from the Netherlands. Annelise , a South African woman, who became my best friend during this journey. A British girl: Ann was not with us during the first day, but would join us in one of the following days. And of course we had our very nice guide, Dylan. After the introduction we went to the restaurant where a long table was reserved for us. I took chicken with herbs and French fries and baked avocados and baked carrots…. And of course the Zimbabwe beer with a dish of lemon. It was already a very good atmosphere and Dylan warned us already for a few things, for the snakes, the scorpions … that you don’t have to ask polite to a scorpion to leave your legs, but that you push it immediately away from your body in case. The first day was really good, I enjoyed it a lot. The next morning would be Roberts 30^th birthday so I promised to bring him a breakfast … if I would be earlier awake than him …

The first evening around the camp fire

So after this perfect day we went to our tent , where the bougainvilleas were still waiting for us. The couples were of course all installed in their tent, when Annelise and I tried to install our self also. We first took our sleeping back, which was hanging at the aquarium, you never know …high enough away from all the scorpions, snakes and spiders. Fortunately we didn’t had any problems with mosquitoes so far.

Next day: Day 4: 19 December 1996
Previous day: Day 2: 17 December 1996
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