Harare

Saddened by the unexpected loss of my diamond we drove quietly towards our campsite for the evening – a dairy farm owned by a lady called Debbie who welcomed overlanders to stay in her home without charging anything.

As soon as we arrived she made us feel better. Her warm, smiling face and unquestioning welcome was just what we needed.

Her house and garden were beautiful and the farm was pristine

She ran a small tea shop where we cheered ourselves up with cake and lemonade.

Once we´d eaten she invited us into the house to chat. After a short time we heard the distant rumble of thunder and Debbie´s mood changed in an instant. She has lived a remarkable life, bullet holes in the walls of her house testify to the horrors of the 15 year civil war before independence when, as a child, her family were driven from their home by guns and bombs. They returned a few years later and Debbie and her husband eventually took over the farm, somehow managing to keep hold of it during the farm invasions. Her husband was then hit by lighting in the doorway to the house but survived only to leave her 15 years ago when life on a farm in Zimbabwe became too much for him. She has stayed and rebuilt the business on her own against massive odds and is still fighting constant threats to take her land from her. She is one of the bravest and most tenacious people we have ever met, the only sign of her turbulent past being a terror of thunder storms which remind her of the guns and the bombs.

We sat with her and tried to take her mind off things as the thunder and lightening swirled around us and she jumped every time, hid under a blanket and became obviously distressed. Our hearts went out to her, what this woman had been through we could only imagine.

Once the storm had passed she regained her composure and two other guests joined us. We spent a fascinating evening talking about life in Zimbabwe, her family history and a great deal more, including her talent for interesting art!

We stayed two nights with Debbie and her hospitality showed no bounds. She tried to cook for us both nights but we didn´t want to take advantage of her kindness. In the end she compromised and just served us delicious nibbles!

But as ever, there was no water the next morning and the storms took out the power. It was a constant battle for her, as it is for many people in this country.

On our second day we drove to the nearby Troutbeck hotel, quite a posh affair which Debbie told us would let us use their wifi for as long as we wanted if we just bought a cup of tea.

It was quite a smart place with lovely views over their grounds

We felt guilty just ordering tea so investigated the wider menu. It was only 9:30am when we arrived so we initially asked about their buffet breakfast. But at $30 a head we quickly changed our minds! In the end I ordered a toasted sandwich for $17 and we each had a pot of tea – possibly the most expensive wifi we´ve used to date.

The staff were very relaxed, they served our food, gave us the wifi password and left us to it.

Back at the farm we had quiche and another toastie for lunch helped down by hot chocolate and vanilla milkshake. Life on a dairy farm was good but my waistline was showing distinct signs of growing! Unfortunately there was a full length mirror opposite the bath and I groaned as I saw myself for the first time in a while and realised that the cake and chocolate needed to stop.

That evening a new couple arrived and Debbie lit a fire in the living room where we all piled into more nibbles and a glass of wine. I was so relaxed and comfortable I started dozing in front of the fire until James took me to bed.

The next morning, as we were packing up to leave, one of the family members sized Henry up and wondered whether a life on the road could be for her…

Debbie gave us a tour of the farm and the old farmhouse, we bought fresh cream and milk tart and hugged her goodbye. She is a lady who leaves a lasting impression and who deserves some peace in her life after so much turmoil. We still think of her often as she somehow encapsulates everything that is Zimbabwe.

Our next stop was the capital city, Harare, which is supposed to be a beautiful city and very safe.

The journey there took us out of the Eastern Highlands and as we drove the views were gorgeous as always

The greenness of the countryside and the pristine villages never failing to impress

But the beauty and peace of the countryside disappeared rapidly as we approached the chaotic capital city!

Although the suburbs still had a bit of wildlife to enjoy

As well as the now-familiar, beautiful tree-lined avenues – although here the Jacaranda trees had given way to the stunning Flamboyount or ´Flame´ trees…

It is hard for overlanders to find anywhere to stay with their trucks in Harare, there aren´t many campsites in the city. We had found a place called The Gallery on IOverlander which only had one review but it was glowing. When we arrived the place was amazing – it was an antique shop, boutique hotel and small restaurant all in one

We loved it!

And Henry settled in to the front garden very comfortably

The owner, Jessie, was another tenacious single woman battling against the difficulties of life in Zimbabwe. She only switched the pump to the borehole on at certain times of the day as electricity was too expensive to run it all the time just so the toilets would flush on demand. With that and the regular power outages it meant the toilets had to be flushed using buckets much of the time.

She had only just started offering her garden to overlanders to camp in and was not very clued up on what campers needed – as she kept apologising to us for! But we loved everything about the place. Jessie herself was brilliant and helped us with everything from making a doctor´s appointment to the best supermarkets, where not to go in the city and even did my astrology chart (I am both balanced and strong apparently!!).

We had a lovely dinner with her that evening and slept soundly with the sounds of the city all around us

Once a year the Diplomatic Wives hold a bizarre in the city showcasing the food and culture of various countries around the world. We were lucky enough to find that the bizarre was being held the day after we arrived and was only a short drive from where we were staying.

It was a very unusual morning but a lot of fun!

There were stalls from dozens of different countries. We started gravitating towards Namibia but pulled ourselves away. We tried food from India, Sweden, Pakistan, Turkey and no doubt many others I have forgotten.

We spoke to the Indian Ambassador and found that we could get 12 month visas when we get to that part of the world.

We found stalls selling sculptures and artwork that I would have loved to buy had we got a home to put it in!

And we watched a display of fashion by the Indian Diplomatic Wives

As well as music by the Malaysian Wives

The whole thing put a smile on our faces.

We ended up staying in Harare for six nights – we always seem to get stuck in capital cities, normally because either Henry or one of us needs attention!

This time we needed to book Henry in for some work at Landrover as there had been a safety recall. When we went to speak to them they initially said it was a six week lead time but when we asked them to call Landrover in Zambia to book us in there instead they decided they would use someone else´s parts and booked us in for two days time. Then they said it would take three days to carry out the work but when we pointed out we would be waiting and sleeping in the Landrover the timescale came down to two hours!

Whilst we waited for our appointment James took the opportunity to change the inner seal on one of the wheels

But other than that we made as much of our cultural visit to the capital as we could.

We started at the Shona Art Gallery which had some fabulous sculptures arranged around a beautiful garden

Most were for sale and I was wishing all over again that we had a farm in Namibia to put some of the more impressive pieces

As well as a couple of very cute ones…

James fell for the African Queen and we very nearly bought her

But my Mum doesn´t have to worry about storing any more pieces of Africa in her house, we saw sense in the end and decided against it.

We paid a visit to the Tanzanian embassy and spoke to a very helpful lady about multiple entry visas as part of our planning for flying back to the UK for Christmas.

We found a very helpful Landrover parts supplier who was fascinated by our travels and gave us lots of advice but sadly couldn´t supply the parts we needed. They did, however, guide us to a nearby welding place where we managed to get our split brake shields welded

They did the work straight away, it was a great job and they didn´t want paying for it! When does that ever happen??

We visited the Patrick Mavros silver gallery

It was very posh, and very expensive!

The black mamba was incredible but at $12,000 a little out of our price range…

And afterwards we treated ourselves to our first Chinese meal for many, many months at the Chinese Garden. It was good food and quite reasonable by Zimbabwe standards but one chicken dish was full of bones, a rather African way to serve meat, not entirely suited to the western palate.

We also went to see the National Heroes Acre dedicated to those who fought and died for independence

We were surprised to see a British grave there as well as two or three Indian graves – people who fought for peace and equality in Zimbabwe.

The whole place was very interesting but quite run down

We had a guide who brought the history to life for us

And we were fascinated to see the Robert Mugabe mausoleum and read all about what a fantastic president he had been and how much he had done for the country.

As we walked back down the steps I asked our guide whether he had been a good president. ´Oh yes´ she said ´he was very good´. But something about her flat tone and the fact she looked down at her feet made me wonder…..

We ate again with Jessie the night before our appointment with Landrover and she was happy for me to drink our own wine at the table rather than buy hers. She even brought out a real glass wine glass for me which I told her was a luxury these days. After we had eaten she sat and chatted with us and when James went off to bed she talked to me about the death of her partner from COVID as well as the challenges she faces running a business in Zimbabwe. The evening finished off with her doing my astrology chart and declaring me a very unique person! I´m not so sure about that, compared with the people we were meeting over here I was beginning to feel very ordinary.

Before his trip to Landrover we took Henry for a wash. They seemed to be doing a good job but he was hard to see under all that foam for a while…

The journey back to Landrover took us through the mean streets of Harare. The traffic was madness and it was actually quite scarey. But we made it in one piece and sat waiting for six hours in their reception whilst Henry was fixed. This was a job that friends in the UK said took about 20 minutes over there.

But the staff were friendly and helpful. Our main contact walked me across the busy road at lunchtime to buy boiled eggs and junk food from a local café. And eventually Henry was good as new and ready to take home again.

We had done everything we needed to do in the city and were planning to leave the next day. We made avocado salad and bacon sandwiches for dinner and Jessie bought out a huge piece of chocolate cake for us to say goodbye.

She also called her doctor and made James an appointment for the following morning before we left. James had randomly had two tick bites in the last two weeks – one at the golf course campsite and one here in Jessie´s garden. In neither place had there been long grass nor had he been walking around in shorts or bare feet. It was strange but one of the bites had started to itch so we decided to get it checked out before we headed out into the middle of nowhere again.

So that morning we stocked up on fuel, food and cash and followed Jessie´s directions to the doctor. When we arrived we found an 82 year gentleman wearing his pyjamas and dressing gown but not his hearing aid. He had a glint in his eye and knew exactly what he was doing when it came to medicine. He wanted to talk about Landrovers rather than tick bites and his secretary had to bring his hearing aid in so he could hear all about Henry! But he double checked the dosage of Doxycycline required to combat a tick infection on his smart phone (!), confirmed that the amount we take daily for malaria was sufficient to ward of any unwanted problems and sent us on our way.

We drove out of Harare with smiles on our faces and headed west out of the madness and mayhem of the city wondering how many more wonderful people we were going to meet and looking forward to finding out what the rest of this country had in store for us….