Entering Zimbabwe

 Today is the earliest day yet and probably the earliest ever for the girls... 3:30 am!!!  We were told the border entering into Zimbabwe can be a bit chaotic and some tours have sat 12 hours waiting to get through so we had to get an early start to beat the masses.  We broke camp and grabbed some food to jump back on the bus.  It was pretty quiet as no one was nearly awake yet.  Initially I was thinking he was overplaying the whole border crossing but oh, was I wrong!

The country side in Zimbabwe and crazy rock outcrops.

As we approached the border, the line ups started commercial trucks in one line and us with cars in the other.  Our driver, Jacob did some fancy manoeuvring to get us up to the South African immigration desk.  We all jumped off the bus with our passports and birth certificates for the girls to be herded into a line and told to face forward.... wow, a little power tripping going on!  A number of the immigration officers were just sitting around chatting and the supervisor was right in there telling stories and really not that interested in stamping any passports.  One guy was actually working while the other three were sitting around until finally a second decided they might find their stamp and start working.  We all cleared that side and we were off to no man’s land trying to get into Zimbabwe.  Half way there!

In rural Zimbabwe, this is the average home.

Getting over to the other side was complete chaos.  Once again Jacob found the perfect spot for the bus and we all shuffled off to try to get our tourist visas.  Once in line Brendan and Flow went up to see if they could fast track us through the line out the door and around the corner.  They came back with tourist cards and we all filed back onto the bus to fill out the information.  Once we had all the forms and money we headed back in just to be told to head back to the bus.  Brendan collected all the passports, forms and money to present them to the agent and was told to go back to the bus and relax and they’d be done in a while!  He hung around keeping an eye on our stuff only to find out half an hour later she hadn’t even started processing them.  We found out pretty quick that you do what you’re told or things will go much slower than you want!  Hanging out in the bus waiting for our visas, we watch bus after bus get searched, ripping all the gear out of the bus and trailer to be left to repack.  After a few hours, Brendan was presented with two thirds of the passports and told the rest were coming.  So here we are, no Canadian’s got their passports back and we’re in no man’s land. 

Great Zimbabwe, the king's residence.

The other piece to this story is that Canadians have to pay $75US per person for visas into Zimbabwe while everyone else, including Americans only have to pay $30 to $55.  Apparently a Canadian minister made some comments about the politics in Zimbabwe and since then we now have to pay way more than anyone else to visit the country!  So wondering if we would see our passports, another half hour Brendan popped out of the office with the rest of passports!  On to the next hurdle.

So the final gauntlet was the search area.  We made our way to the green zone and just kept weaving through the vehicles.  It’s incredible for a busy crossing like this has one lane of traffic and people park and get pulled over everywhere.  You couldn’t even call it organized chaos!  Finally, we made it to the gate and up it went and we were clear!  A cheer went up in the bus and off we were, it only took 3 hours.

The crazy thick stone walls and pillar of Great Zimbabwe.

The rest of the day was travel

The view from our tent on our first day in Zimbabwe.

with a stop at Great Zimbabwe where the old kings (eight in all) lived and ruled from 1200 to around 1600.  The palace was all made of huge stone wall that were 6 meters wide at the bottom and tapered to 3 meters at the top.  There were thousands of tonnes of rock moved and dry stacked, it was quite impressive.  The king lived at the top of the hill while all his 200 plus wives lived at the base of the hill and serviced their king as needed.  That, combined with his 1000 children was a sign of the king’s power and leadership.... and sex drive!  Once the tour was done, we packed up to head to our next campsite which overlooked a manmade lake with an incredible view of the African landscape.  Showers, food and a few beers and we were all pretty tired from the full day and early start.