We made really good time and got to the border at about
noon. Once again getting out was not a problem. Besides Henry backing up into a
wall (there went another tail light) it was uneventful.
The
odd part was that
the immigration officials made us fill out a police report because they
were
concerned that if we filed a claim for the “accident” and it had not
been
reported appropriately, they would be held liable. I think that they are
becoming too Americanized with all of this fear of claims and lawsuits.
In the
end though, the Zambians I think were quite happy to see us go, and so
with a
minimum of formality, they passed us on to the Zimbabweans. I think that
one of the weirdest things we saw was how used to humans the baboons
have become. Here one is eating dead insects off the front bumper of a
car at the border. |
| Waiting on top of the dam wall |
As we drove down
the hill and over the dam wall it was an impressive sight. As we got to the far
side we were told that we could not go any further. The Chinese are repairing
the wall, expanding generating capacity and generally upgrading the hydro
facility. Turns out they are also blasting big tunnels and we got there 30
minutes before the blast, so we wandered around waiting. The blast was huge and
Allan got such a fright that he ran off the dam wall. I am not sure where he
thought he would take refuge from and major calamity of he was standing on top
of it. Anyway a few minutes later they allowed us to pass through the blast
site and on to the customs and immigration area.
The papers had allegedly been sent ahead of us to the
clearing agents so that the Zim customs folks wouldn’t hold us up. After all
why would they want to stop a convoy of vehicles that can only be used for
public service, and that were a donation so no one in the country was sending
funds out to pay for them, and that have no duties assessed on them? We
obviously if you cannot answer this question you are dumber than Zim Customs.
First we had to have a discussion with a UN worker about Ebola and describe its
symptoms. Then we had to have a purple ink splotch put on our thumbs after
which we were allowed to go into passport control. Now the passport and customs
office is in a tent which gets more than a little steamy inside in the 105
degree sunlight. The reason for this luxury is that the Chinese contractors
working on the dam demolished the old structure before building the new one. So
it is an atmosphere where everyone is jovial and compassionate and helpful.
Right! We all made it through this part and were met by both the mayor of
Harare and the mayor of Kariba.
It soon became obvious that they weren’t accepting the truck
papers. Something was wrong and it appeared that we were not going to be able
to solve it even with the politicians on our side. Eventually at 6 pm Peter
yelled at them, told them that they could keep the fire engines and sort it out
with the city of Harare. We were going home. We unpacked all of our stuff, climbed into four taxis
and the mayor’s car and drove down the hill to the local marina, formerly the
Rhodesian Riviera, where Peter has his boat and had also purloined a second one
for us to sleep on. Mayor Ben also joined us for the night of eating, drinking
making merry and for a few, sleeping on the deck. ( the smart ones among us
took staterooms).
We got up early the next morning and four of us hopped in a
speed boat to take a tour of the island where we had tied up in an effort to
find the buffaloes that had wandered down to the bank during the night. We were
zipping right along when all of a sudden there was a huge bump and thump and we
ground to a very sudden stop. In the middle of the lake we had hit a rocky outcrop
and run aground. Normally this is not a huge problem, you jump in the water,
push the boat free and start up again. But in this water there are a lot of
problems. Most of them are 4-10 feet in length are very mean looking and have
huge teeth. Undeterred Andrew jumped in and I figured that just getting my
weight of the boat would help, so I followed after looking very carefully for
any sign of Mr. Croc in the area. We pushed free and made it back to the mothership,
and had a great breakfast in the early morning light. The entire time we had been
eating and joyriding, Peter had been on the phone and by 1030 rumor had it that
7 of the trucks had been cleared. So we called a fleet of taxis and headed back
to the border. ( And no, Uber does not work there). We hung around for another
couple of hours and finally were given the green light to head out.
The road up from there to Harare is horrendous, just as bad
as the Zambian tracks, with lots of steep hills and tight turns exacerbated
by 30 ton trucks hurtling round the bends towards you. If one of them were to
hit anything it would be a disaster but somehow we managed to steer clear. Suddenly
Peter pulled over and the other four trucks following him followed suit. He
climbed down and came muttering and cursing along the side of the road that
Johnny was breaking pieces off his truck. What and where and how was not
divulged. About 15 minutes later the other trucks showed up. Turns out the
water tender that Johnny was driving had started breaking from the roads. It
has a big pump ( oops, had a big pump) on the back behind the water tanks, and
all of the bouncing on the potholes of the last week had taken a toll. The entire pump and its connecting pipes had
broken loose from the water tanks, beaten down the side panel of the truck bed and apparently became
a 300 lb. bowling ball bouncing down the road at 50 mph. right in front of Sel. The guys picked it
up, loaded it into another truck and caught up with us. It really wasn’t Johnny’s
fault but sometimes the habit of blaming him dies hard.
We arrived in Harare at about 7 that night and pulled into
Peter’s driveway with lights and sirens on. Lots of fun. Then it was an amazing
dinner arranged by Cleo Raft and Taki and a few others and off to our hotels
for a good night’s sleep. For the first time in 2 weeks we almost all had our own
rooms but Henry and Jarrett still like spooning so they shared.
Our Bed and breakfast was outstanding, beautiful rooms with
working TV, and a great breakfast. We spent the day hanging out and ironing our
uniforms for the big handing over ceremony and cocktail party that evening.