Newsletter

ALTERNATIVE ROUTE, HARARE TO BEIT BRIDGE
Andrew Ashton, who toured with us in August, returned to South Africa from Harare via Chinhoyi, Chegutu, Kadoma, Kwe Kwe, Mvuma and Masvingo, which showed up on his GPS as being a suitable alternative route to avoid much of the notorious A4 from Beit Bridge to Harare. His comments are: "Timewise, much the same (as the direct route). The Kwekwe-Mvuma stretch starts out as tar, rapidly diminishing to poor single-lane tar for about 15-20km and then dirt – gradually getting quite tatty, with some low level bridges. It could be challenging in the wet, but no real problem in the dry – just corrugations. There was no cell phone reception, and we saw about four vehicles over the whole route. Probably not to be recommended for single vehicles."

Our thanks to Andrew for this information. We have also noted that many visitors are now avoiding the Beit Bridge-Harare route altogether, preferring to enter Zimbabwe via Plumtree or other border posts.

Sally and I know it well, having spent many years working on Mavuradonha projects during our conservation careers, and it occupies a very special place in our own hearts. Mavuradonha can be a 'hard sell' if you don't know the place, because it does not have the concentrations of wildlife that can be seen at places like Mana or Hwange.

To my mind, though, this is more than compensated for by the area's amazing 'wilderness quality'. It is rugged country; it is not criss-crossed by game-viewing tracks and dotted with lodges and campsites; and you have to leave your car in camp and get out there either on your own flat feet, or on horseback, which is a major activity at Kopje Tops.

James and Janine undertake riding safaris of several days through the Mavuradonha, but can also

RADIOS
We continue to get enquiries from self-drive visitors, usually from South Africa, asking us about the implications of using their mobile radios in Zimbabwe. As I had to visit the regulating agency - POTRAZ - recently to renew ZIM4x4's own radio and frequency licences, I took the opportunity to ask their technical staff about the possible issue of temporary licences to visitors.

It sounded simple enough, on the surface. Just apply for a temporary licence. he said; it'll cost US$12 per set per annum, or pro rata for three or six months. However, a little more enqniry revealed that it's not as easy as that, by a long way. Firstly, you need to download a four-megabyte form from the POTRAZ website at http://www.potraz.gov.zw/files/PMR_APPLICATION_FORMS.pdf. This is four pages long, and you may well need your friendly local radio fundi to help you complete it. Somehow, you then need to get the completed form, plus such items as certified copies of your national ID, to POTRAZ, along with the necessary fee.

Then, it seems. they will post the licence to you (if approved) but - having had experience of the postal service between Zimbabwe and South Africa - I would't hold my breath while waiting for the thing to actually arrive. However, they were unable to give any guidance in respect of frequencies, so it seems there is no guarantee that they will approve the particular frequency you operate on.

So it isn't just a matter of pitching up at the border and filling in a form. Maybe we need a 'willing volunteer' to try the process out, and applications are invited for this honour. I'll be happy to deliver the completed form to POTRAZ, plus the required US$3 for a quarter's licensing for one set. Meanwhile, remember our earlier advice: using unlicensed radios in Zimbabwe is an offence, and although quite a few visitors do it, there is some risk involved.

Though the access track is not technically difficult, there are a couple of steep low-range sections, with loose rock, where I felt the Suzuki might simply not have the weight to maintain traction while hauling the caravan. I need not have worried.

Although the towbar grounded several times, the Suzuki - very ably driven by Johan and Jeanette - coped as well as any of the Hiluxes and Cruisers on the tour, with both power and traction to spare. Not for nothing, I realised, has this feisty little car gained acclaim throughout the world.

Meanwhile, on a later tour, Karin and Andrew and their friends were driving well-equipped Toyota 76 series Cruisers hired in Johannesburg. I would rate these among my top three production 'bush cars' (along with the Hilux and Land Rover Defender).

ROUTES & STOPOVERS
Our observation concerning Beit Bridge and routes between there and Harare drew the following comment from Paul Murray, an old friend of ZIM4x4 who also out together the excellent Bradt Guide to Zimbabwe:

"We always use Martin’s Drift (Groblers Brug), where border formalities are usually very quick and efficient, then head up to Francistown and into Bulawayo via Plumtree (usually quite quick, although it can get very busy. Alternatively, we head up to the Kasane/Kazangula (getting increasingly cramped and busy due increased truck traffic) for Vic Falls. The rebuilt Nata Lodge is excellent for accommmodation but take your own food as the evening catering is as ever, fairly dire.

"The Nata-Kasane relief road is now pretty broken for a good proportion of its length and a sedan once again needs to be driven with great caution in places. Pick-ups and 4x4s present no problems but the new potholes demand careful driving. The new road is apparently scheduled for completion in 2012 but looking at progress so far, I’d estimate that’ll be December!

"Incidentally, I place regular updates to my book covering all of Zim (including the above subject) on the Bradt website and as the book is largely aimed at self drivers, your readers, customers and contacts may find it useful. So if you feel it’s appropriate I’d be happy for you to mention it - www.bradtguides.com. Click on destination updates on the home page menu."

On the Beit Bridge-Harare road, most know of the Lion and Elephant (http://www.lionandelephant.com/) some 75km north of Beit Bridge, but for those wishing to travel further up the road we have had good reports of two facilities in the Masvingo-Great Zimbabwe area.

One is the Pa-Nyanda Lodge, which is on the Beit Bridge-Masvingo road about 11km south of Masvingo. Closer to the Great Zimbabwe, the Norma Jeanes Lodge (formerly Inn on Great Zimbabwe) is said to be good. They have a website at http://www.normajeanslakeview.com/ and it is very close to both Lake Mutirikwi (Kyle) and the Great Zimbabwe itself. It is 37km from the main road, and useful if you want to visit the Great Zimbabwe; otherwise, Pa-Nyanda would be more convenient.

And in the Harare area, we've found Kuimba Shiri Bird Park, on Lake Chivero, to be an excellent rendez-vous, stopover and departure point, as well as an attraction in its own right. The only bird park in Zimbabwe, Kuimba Shiri maintains a wide range of orphaned, injured and abandoned birds, and boasts the first free flying bird display in Africa. Their birds of prey are flown daily at 16:00hrs - something that is well worth seeing - and they can also do sundowner or game-viewing boat trips on Lake Chivero. Kuimba Shiri is located at S17 52 11.2 E30 48 10.5 and has a camping ground; basic but pleasant self-catering chalets; and a restaurant that serves excellent meals at very reasonable cost. You can see more information on http://www.kuimbashiri.co.zw/ or contact them via birdpark@mweb.co.zw .

ROAD CONDITIONS
We have had some pleasant surprises during 2011, as Zimbabwe slowly drags itself out of the economic morass. The Binga-Karoi gravel, for example, was graded - and quite well, too - along much of its length. So was the notorious Mana Pools 'top road" from the Chirundu tar to the Nyakasikana Gate, although it has recently reverted to its usual horrible state (but not as badly as three or four years ago, when it routinely took us 2.5hrs to do the 31km of iron-hard corrugations, rocks, holes and general nastiness).

There has also been quite a bit of rehab on main tar roads in our neck of the woods, with repair gangs becoming a pleasingly common occurrence. The downside is a growing incidence of wandering cows, goats, and - at weekends - drunks, all of which make it advisable to keep speeds below 100kph, even on an apparently open and deserted stretch; these walking hazards can appear from nowhere, and we've seen the nasty results of more than one high-speed collision with a cow.

Overall, we've also been pleasantly surprised by the improved attitude of police at roadblocks. There are still a few unreconstructed thugs and louts around, but they seem to be a declining breed. We usually also manage to get our convoys waved through, by stopping at the barriers ourselves, pointing out the vehicles behind us, and asking that they should be treated as valuable visitors to Zimbabwe.

We're into the wet season now, of course, so gravel and dirt road conditions can change very rapidly. A winch isn't a kind of talisman, giving supernatural immunity. It won't get you out backwards, for a start; and it won't get you out forwards very easily, either, across half a km of rainsoaked but treeless black cottonsoil.

The best advice we can give in these circumstances

is "keep your options open". As a trained pilot it's second nature to me to ask the big "what if..." questions. As in aviation - have a plan if things get difficult. Find an alternative, or turn back, if necessary, before the situation becomes unmanageable.

Note, also, the picture at left. Although its been repaired since, the maintenance of bridges in remote areas isn't always what it could be, and undermining of bridge approaches by floodwater is often invisible from the driving seat. Everything looks fine until it actually collapses, and you don't want to be on it when it does. If in doubt - get out and have a good look beneath the bridge and its approaches.

Always travel in company if at all possible, not solo. Carry a "survival kit" - reserve fuel, food and drinking water. Remember that most really bad situations are the result of multiple errors of decisionmaking, snowballing towards disaster. Prevention is far better than cure, and avoidance is the name of the game

BEIT BRIDGE BORDER POST - IMPROVEMENTS TO COME?
Despite repeated assurances that 'something will be done', the Beit Bridge border post continues to be a blot on the Zimbabwean tourist landscape, doing its level best to harass visitors into declaring that never again will they expose themselves to such inefficiency and corruption.

Now, though, there are some grounds to hope that, at last, the walls of this stronghold of sleaze may be breached. Clive Stockil, of the Save Valley Conservancy, is widely known throughout the region as one of Zimbabwe's leading and most influential tourism and conservation gurus. He has recently been appointed to the board of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, and has stated that one of his personal goals is to get Beit Bridge cleaned up. To help achieve this, he is asking anyone who has a bad experience at Beit Bridge to document it in letter form, and email it to him at clives@senuko.com. This will help him to provide a body of first-hand information and evidence to those government ministers whose brief includes the management and administration of the border post.

Clive is also well-known to the writer of this newsletter, both because of his conservation activities and because he runs a similar operation to ZIM4x4 within the Gonarezhou National Park and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which neatly complements our own activities in the Zambezi Region. His achievements are legendary, and we can safely say that the time you spend in writing to him about Beit Bridge experiences will not be wasted.

The lodge is situated on the exceptionally lovely Gache Gache River, one of Lake Kariba's 'rias', or drowned rivers, and offers a variety of activities including game-viewing - on foot and by vehicle - and fishing. The routes to the lodge - either from Kariba, or from Karoi - are extremely wild and scenic. We went in from Harare via Karoi and the 90km of gravel 'back roads' down the Zambezi escarpment (seven hours), and out to Kariba (two hours).

Although the camp is situated in a so-called 'communal land', in fact it sits within an extensive wildlife area controlled and maintained by the lodge, and owner Ray Townsend has been instrumental in helping the Parks Authority to control both wildlife and fish poaching in the area. The effect has been a

steady growth in wildlife populations. We noted some excellent sightings of elephant and kudu; lion spoor was plentiful, although we did't manage a sighting; and there was one of the highest densities of bushbuck I've ever seen. Added to which, the Gache Gache River itself has some amazing waterbird areas, with huge concentrations of species such as white-faced duck.

One of the highlights of our visit was the 'bush dinner' set up for us by Ray and his staff, beside the river some 3km upstream of the lodge in an exceptionally lovely stand of huge riverine woodland. We arrived by boat in the last of the twilight, to find tables already set up; and returned via the lodge's game-viewing tracks some time towards midnight.

Gache Gache Lodge keeps talking about setting up a self-catering facility for self-drive visitors, but hasn't quite done it yet. All the same, it's worth checking with them; meanwhile, if you'd like a respite from days and nights of camping, their rates for fully-serviced accommodation are extremely reasonable. Have a look at http://www.gachegachelodge.com/ or contact Bernie Styles on bernie@chapungusafaris.co.zw .

The term 'safari' originates from the Arabic safara, 'to travel', subsequently coming to mean 'a journey' in Swahili, and we've taken to using it because - of all the forms of travel available to visitors to Zimbabwe - we believe ours is one of the closest to this original meaning of the word.

We've guided our safari participants many thousands of kilometres through some of the wildest terrain in the Zambezi Valley and northern Zimbabwe; spent many days exploring areas such as Mana Pools, the Matusadona and the Mavuradonha; photographed spectacular wildlife and scenery; sailed and boated on Lake Kariba; caught tigerfish and bream and cooked them for supper; and a host of other things.

And we use the term 'participants' because - apart from occasional nights in lodges - mostly we camp, and our safaris are 'participatory'. They aren't us-and-them, guides-and-client affairs; we're all in it together, from sharing camp and cooking duties, planning the day's activities and getting the braai fires going, to getting the books amd binos out and identifying the puzzling little brown birds, obscure mongooses and anonymous little antelopes that crop up on every safari. But our 'product' seems to work very well, as reflected by the number of repeat and word-of-mouth bookings we're getting.

We've had Touaregs and Hiluxes, Discos and Defenders, Pajeros and Prados, plus of course our own 78 and 80 Series Cruisers, and the sum total of en route problems has been a few broken trailer fittings, a couple of blown shock absorbers, one leaking tank interconnector pipe and some batteries flattened by the demands of vehicle 'fridges in the Zambezi Valley heat. We've had to give an occasional bit of coaching in respect of rock-crawling and sand (no, that's not a good time to change gear, Fred!) but overall the drivers have been capable, careful and competent.

As for the future: Sally and I are constantly evaluating new venues and new routes (the Mavuradonha and the Gache Gache area of Lake Kariba (see above) being two prime examples in 2011), with more possibilities up our sleeves for 2012. Generally, though, we're looking more at refinement and improvement rather than at dramatic changes in our modus operandi.

The crystal ball is a bit cloudy as regards minor events such as elections. Political desires are evenly divided between having them as soon as possible (i.e. in 2012) or delaying them until 2013 or later. We suspect that the latter view will prevail, but we can't be totally certain.

So we're applying the usual philosophy in such cases:

press on, and deal with it all as and when it comes. The bush is, after all, the very best place to be at such times.

And the bush, we must stress, is what we're all about. Self-drive wilderness safaris, with the emphasis on wilderness. We determine our schedules to the nearest day, not minute; we manage our days by nature's clock, not by our watches. We've had many spectacular and varied wildlife sightings, but our tour participants have also taken great pleasure through just being in some of the finest wilderness southern Africa has to offer.

In short, we try to help our safari participants not just to 'sightsee' and pass on, but to savour the wilderness experience in all its aspects and depth. Remember you can keep up with us between newsletters by going to our Facebook page on http://www.facebook.com/zim4x4, and our occasional blog, ZAMBEZI WANDERINGS, on http://zim4x4.blogspot.com/ .

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