nrstein@hotmail.com

Egypt website

Diary of a trip to Harare and Kariba

7-14 April 1999

Wednesday 7 April - Kitwe to Harare

There had been much discussion about where to go during the Easter holidays and for some weeks, there had been talk of heading north, and eventually reaching Lake Tanganyika. However, we had heard reports of violence against some westerners because of rebels coming south from the Congo war. So, my colleague Ruth (Teacher of German) and I decided that we would instead head south to Zimbabwe and to visit Harare and Kariba. We had nothing booked and thought it might be a bit of an adventure to chance our arm with travel and accommodation.

We left our flats at Mzuri Court, Kitwe at 5.30am to try to get a bus to the main bus stop in town. During the day, there are dozens of minibuses going to and from the town centre, but it was very quiet at this time in the morning. After a while, a minibus came along going the other way and we flagged it down. There were no other passengers on board, but still it zoomed past. After a few minutes it came back and the driver said he would take us to town for 5,000 Kwacha (£1.25), the normal fare being K500. Having little choice, we agreed and settled on K3,000. There was a large, modern-looking coach waiting at the bus stop bound for Lusaka. We paid the fare and were on our way by 6.05am.

On arrival in Lusaka, we got off the bus and, being the only white people on board, we were immediately surrounded by taxi drivers. We got a lift to the bus station for the buses for Harare and once there, were again surrounded by people offering to take us to the right bus. The Inter City bus terminal at Lusaka was, to say the least, squalid! There was a bus to Harare waiting and by 10.30 we were on board. We waited for a while and then we were on the road again.

At about 1pm, we reached the Zambia/Zimbabwe border at Chirundu. Being part of a bus load of people, the formalities took some time on both the Zambia and Zimbabwe sides. The Zimbabwean customs officers were keen to look in everyone's bags - although not very interested in us. Clearly, they think that white people with rucksacks are less likely to be smuggling. After over an hour of formalities we were again on our way across the Zambezi and travelling through the Zimbabwean countryside.

We arrived at the Roadport bus station in Harare at around 7.30pm and took a taxi to the George Hotel, where I had stayed in December and crossed the road to the small shopping and entertainment area called the Avondale Centre for a pizza before wearily going to bed.

Thursday 8 April - Town and Country

We decided to spend the morning exploring the shopping opportunities in Harare. It was quite a shock after Zambia to be back in the world of commerce again. The city is steeped in the legacy of British colonialism in terms of architecture and ambience, although a number of newer buildings and a grid-iron road system give it an American feel as well. Some street names have been changed (Baker Avenue is now Nelson Mandela Avenue and Cecil Square is now African Unity Square), although many remain from Rhodesia days (King George Avenue, Cambridge Road).

After a coffee in the Meikles department store, we headed along Robert Mugabe Road to the National Museum. There were displays about the various flora and fauna of Zimbabwe as well as a history of the indigenous people of the country.

We had lunch at the Ramambo Lodge restaurant which was an African-style place with stone sculptures all around and décor reminiscent of a safari lodge.

After lunch, we headed to the north of the city towards the National Botanical Gardens. On the way, we passed a building which was behind large gates and high walls. There was a plaque outside, so we started to cross the road to read it. As we crossed, a man in an army uniform followed us brandishing a rifle. He warned us not to go any further (we didn't argue!) and we explained what we were doing. He told us that this was the back of Zimbabwe House, the residence of President Mugabe, and that we were not to approach it. The road which runs along the front of the house is closed to all traffic every night between 6pm and 6am, and the guards have instructions to shoot anyone who enters between those times!

As we continued along the road, it opened out with a golf course on one side and fields on the other. After about fifteen minutes walking, we reached the gardens and had tea on the lawn - very civilised! As we wandered around the huge gardens with numerous examples of plant life, presumably gathered from various parts of the British Empire, we had a feeling of late summer, and realised that in the Southern Hemisphere that was exactly what it was. It was the first time we had seen Autumn sunshine in April!

We returned to the hotel and later crossed to another Italian restaurant in the Avondale Centre, accompanied by a live band. Then we took the opportunity of going to the cinema (the only cinema in Kitwe is a health hazard and only shows kick-boxing films) and went to see Saving Private Ryan.

Friday 9 April - A view of Harare

Ruth wanted to buy a modem card for her laptop computer, and we discovered that there was a computer shop in the Avondale area close to the hotel. We ended up walking for about a mile to get to it, only to be told that the didn't have any! We went back into the city and wandered around the shops again, looking for a camping light for a colleague. We had decided to hire a car for the day on Saturday, so we searched out a car hire company. We organised the details and then walked back to African Unity Square to find a taxi. On the way, we went into the Anglican Cathedral. The Dean, whom I had seen when I visited in December, remembered me and asked about Zambia. I asked him whether I could play the organ, and he said that would be no problem and showed me the keys. After a quarter of an hour of noise-making, we wandered out and got a taxi.

This time, we headed towards to west of the city to the Kopje. At over 5,000 feet above sea level (although only a couple of hundred feet above the city), this is the highest point in Harare and has a great view over the city and surrounding countryside. There is a monument at the top of the hill and plaques giving distances to various places around the country. Interestingly, these have not been changed since colonial days, and include an arrow pointing confusingly towards Zimbabwe - this is an area now known as Great Zimbabwe - and another pointing to the last resting place of Cecil Rhodes. We had read that the Eternal Flame of Independence was to be found on top of the Kopje. Unfortunately, although we could see whether the flame was supposed to burn, there was no flame - we were told that it was too expensive to run!

We walked back down into the city and found ourselves in the middle of the Friday evening rush hour, which although not on the scale of a London rush hour was rather a shock. We ate at a Greek restaurant unoriginally called Acropolis before returning to the cinema to see You've Got Mail.

Saturday 10 April - Around the city

The car hire people arrived with our car at around 9am and we decided firstly to head off east of the city to Dombashawa, where we had read there were ancient rock paintings and balancing rocks. On arrival, we browsed around the panels detailing the history of the area. The area is basically a large rocky plateau, covered in red and green lichen. We then started to wander up the hill and obviously looked lost because a man in uniform who we'd seen at the payment kiosk came and asked us whether we would like him to show us around. He turned out to be a policeman named Maxwell, and he explained about the people who have been living in the area for thousands of years and showed us rock paintings ranging from 4,000 to 13,000 years old. Balancing rocks seem to be a feature of Zimbabwe, and the one we saw here was extraordinary - we were sure it was going to fall over at any moment, but were assured that it had been standing precariously for centuries.

We returned to the hotel where we had lunch in the attached pub named the Freckle and Phart! We then headed west of Harare to the Lion and Cheetah park. On the way, we passed a cavalcade of police vehicles and a large limousine travelling in the opposite direction - it can only have been the President, Robert Mugabe. Here, there are very large areas fenced off where various animals are kept. It was rather like a safari park that one might find in Britain, although the enclosures were much bigger. We saw a group of four lions lazing in the afternoon sun and in another area, various kinds of antelope and elephants. In the central area of the park, there were smaller enclosures, rather like a zoo, where there were more lions, a cheetah, monkeys, hyenas, etc. We thought, however, rather uncomfortable about these animals living in cages in the middle of Africa. At the refreshment area, we met a couple from Cairo who told me a little about the place where I'll be living from August. All seemed very exciting!

We carried on a little further along the road to "Snake World". Our guide explained about the various habitats and dangers of the snakes on view. We even had a python put around our necks!

By the time we left, it was getting dark and we decided to go to the Westgate Centre, a new out-of-town shopping and entertainment area, to see whether there were any films on there which we hadn't seen. By the time we got there, the shops were shut but it was certainly very impressive - better than most shopping centres in Britain, with columns and attractive walkways. As it turned out, there were no films showing that we wanted to see, so we returned to Avondale and went to dinner at the very smart Italian restaurant across the road, La Dolce Vita.

Sunday 11 April - Harare to Kariba

After handing back the car, we returned to the Roadport bus station by taxi. After only about ten minutes, the bus to Kariba arrived and we were on our way again. The conductor ensured us that the bus went straight to Kariba without stopping, but it soon became clear that this was not going to be the case. After about an hour, we stopped at a small village called Great Dyke(!) and were told that there was a problem with the brakes and that we would have to wait for the engineer to come from Harare. After 1½ hours, we were back on the road, but it stopped dozens of time to let people on and off. Eight hours after leaving Harare, we arrived in Kariba. We had originally planned to stay at the Cutty Sark Hotel, but we had passed it several kilometres before. We got into a taxi and went to the Kariba Breezes Hotel, which was rather closer. After dinner in the lakeside restaurant (including crocodile cocktail for my starter and crocodile steak for Ruth's main course), we went wearily to bed.

Monday 12 April - Around Kariba

After breakfast under palm trees, looking out over the massive expanse of the mighty Lake Kariba, we decided to go and investigate the reason for this huge mass of water, namely the Kariba Dam. The Dam forms a border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, so there are customs and immigration points on either side - a road runs across its top. We took a taxi to the border and handed in our passports before walking down to the Dam wall. This huge structure holds back the third largest man-made lake in the world - it has the same area as Wales and stretches a distance roughly equivalent to that between London and Liverpool. Its raison d'être is, of course, to produce electricity and it produces enough power for the whole of Zambia and most of Zimbabwe. The wall was finished in 1958, but it was not until 1963 that the water had risen to its present level. During construction, the work was hampered by two devastating floods and locals were convinced that the river-god Nyami-Nyami was responsible because he was angry about the work. On the opposite side of the dam, the Zambezi River flows away hundreds of feet below.

After collecting our passports, we walked back along the road and into the Lake View Inn, which (not surprisingly!) has a fantastic outlook onto the lake. After a drink there, we walked further along the road (by this time it was late morning and the temperature was soaring) in an attempt to find a post office. This turned out to be something of a wild goose chase as a number of dubious directions lead us everywhere except to the post office. We eventually found it, I sent my postcard and we then took a taxi back to the hotel for lunch and a lazy afternoon by the pool. It may seem ironic to swim in a pool when next to such a vast volume of fresh water, but hippos, crocodiles and Bilharzia put paid to any idea of swimming in the lake. We also booked up a four-in-one safari for the next day.

Tuesday 13 April - Four in One

After breakfast, we headed for the offices of the River Horse safari company in the hotel complex. There we were met by Shadwell, our guide for the day. Only Ruth and I made up the party for our drive, walk, canoe and motor-boat trip. We boarded a large Land Cruiser and were soon on dirt roads looking into the bush. We saw several zebras and impala antelope as well as plenty of evidence of devastation caused by elephants.

We stopped at a small camping area where Shadwell said we were to pick up a scout. I wondered what this was for, and soon realised when a man with a revolved slung over his shoulder joined us in preparation for our walk. All of a sudden, the idea of a gentle stroll in the countryside took on a whole new dimension! Shadwell (who also had a hand-gun) warned us to stay close together and not to run away if any animals became aggressive - the guns were there primarily to scare off any potentially dangerous creatures. This certainly made us more vigilant on the walk. We again saw plenty of evidence of elephants as well as more impala and zebras. Shadwell explained about the various plants and showed us footprints of various animals. At one point we came across the rather gruesome sight of the ravaged body of a young buffalo - its skin was mostly intact but its flesh had been plundered.

After a couple of hours walking, we returned to the camp and got back into the vehicle. We drove several miles before arriving by an inlet by the lake. Shadwell got a small table and stools and started preparing lunch. We noticed that the driver had disappeared and when we asked Shadwell he said "Oh, he's just checking around for lions". We asked what the strange sounds comng from the water were and Shadwell replied simply "Hippos". So we ate our "Out of Africa" lunch with a slight sense of unease.

We boarded our canoe for the next leg of the trip, very aware of the hippos basking in the water nearby. Despite being vegetarian, hippos kill more people than any other animal because they are very protective of their young. For this reason, and because of the dangers of crocodiles, Shadwell said that we would canoe some distance away from the shore. For the first part of the trip we let the current carry us very gently along. It was incredibly peaceful - there was no sign of human life anywhere to be seen. Rather eerily, we drifted through petrified Mapani trees which once grew before the lake was formed. We saw little animal life on the shoreline, with the exception of a few monkeys, but there were plenty of birds of various varieties to enjoy. On the way back, we had to paddle against the current, which was very gentle. As we approached the inlet again, Shadwell made us aware that there could be hippos under the surface.

We were relieved to get into the motor-boat and it was from now that the real treats of the day revealed themselves. We saw many hippos and were rather more relaxed in their company with the security of the boat's speed. We saw a great number of zebras and even hippos out of the water - a rare sight in the daytime. One of the biggest highlights was being within a few metres of two elephants drinking at the edge of the lake. Later, we stopped in a bay and watched a water turtle, crocodiles, fish-eagles and other assorted birdlife. Added to the exhilaration of speeding along the lake, it was the highlight of a great day.

At dinner, some of the Gap students who help out at school joined us -they were in Kariba as part of a trip which included Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. So we were able to recount the adventures of the day.

Wednesday 14 April - Home with the bananas