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4 December 1998

The Kingsmill's Trans-Africa Overland Trip, Part 7: Zimbabwe

Geoff Kingsmill
2006-04-25 21:02:30

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surrender our fruit, which we had just purchased. This was to protect us from the elephants, said to have a big fettish for oranges and would go to any length to get them. The funny thing is that this rule did not exist in any of the other National Parks we have visited. Guess these elephants do have a long memory for oranges. Just a few minutes before our campsite we saw two male lions sitting under a tree beside the road. From our campsite we could see the hippos, crocodiles, elephants and Cape buffalo's bathing in the water. The wet season had not reached Mana Pools so things were very dry and would have looked better after rain.

We met an Austrian couple who had shipped their 60 Series Toyota Landcruiser to South Africa and are driving through to Europe on a similar route to us. Late in the afternoon, after they had gone for a walk, we heard their horn going off only to discover baboons had invaded their car. They had managed to open the car door and were busy eating their fresh food and bread. They caused a real mess. Fortunately they scattered as I approached yelling and waving a big stick. Baboons are more afraid of men then women. Gunther and Uli were not impressed.

From here we headed South through Harare to Nyanga NP in the Eastern Highlands. This is a magical place and reminded us of Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and the Lakes District in the UK. The mountains and scenery are stunning and very different to any of the countryside we've seen so far in Africa. We camped in a pine forest where there were nice hot showers. We drove to Troutbeck which has a lot of private resorts with golf courses and drove to Worlds view which should have given us extensive views of Mozambique and Zimbabwe if the mountain had not been covered in clouds.

The next night we were the only campers at Mtarazi Falls. These falls drop 780 metres over a sheer escarpment, which gave us a great view over the Honde Valley. The area here is full of ...