And the magic number is 53…that’s the number of police roadblocks on our trip to Zimbabwe!

We knew we’d face some roadblocks on our trip. It’s part of the reason we didn’t go to Zimbabwe last July. But things seemed to be a bit more stable this year, so we figured we’d give it a try. At least the rioting and protesting in the cities had settled down. I tried to prepare in advance for what we might need at these roadblocks by asking for advice on Facebook. I got lots of advice. Stories of people being fined because their tires were dirty…because they had a bag and water bottle on the back seat of their vehicle. We did everything we could in advance to be ready – red reflector tape on the back bumper, white reflector tape on the front bumper, two reflective triangles (the good ones with reflects on both sides), a reflective vest (to wear in case of breakdowns), up-to-date fire extinguisher, etc. We were as ready as we could be.

While the police seem worried if our lights work, this bus load totally OK!

I decided to keep a count of the stops and, no kidding, we had 53 stops in what amounted to 3 full days of driving (1 ½ day on the drive from the border of Botswana to Mana Pools area and another 1 ½ days back). To be fair the vast majority of the stops were benign with the officers very polite and courteous. We discovered that a good approach was after they introduced themselves (“My name is Constable XXX from XXX”) we would introduce ourselves. Paul, “My name is Paul and I am from Maun, Botswana and this is my lovely wife Kristy who lives in the United States but is here visiting me and we have come to see your lovely country.” These pleasantries seemed to disarm them a bit and often after that they wished us well and sent us on our way. In terms of all the preparations we did, we were asked to see our triangles once, they checked our lights 3 or 4 times and asked to see Paul’s license a few times. Besides that, it was a piece of cake, except for Gweru…

Flower on a Zambezi Teak Tree

Gweru is a city near the center of Zimbabwe. It is the administrative capital of the Midlands Province, one of the ten provinces in Zimbabwe. But besides these Wikipedia based facts, it was the only place we had trouble while traveling. We received a total of three tickets, one on the way in, two on the way out all in Gweru…twice for supposedly going through the same red traffic light! The second time this happened was a bit troubling as the officers took our TIP (“temporary import permit” that allows you to drive your vehicle in a foreign country) and Paul’s license. They insisted that we had committed a very serious offense and would need to stay overnight and go to court the next day and then they took Paul’s license to “make a copy of it”. You must understand that we are in the middle of the street in a busy African city with no copy machine in sight! Paul says, “No, no, no. I’ll go with you” and leaves me in the vehicle. The cop left behind with me immediately says, “Well, if you pay the fine, you will not need to go to court.” The scam is clear. Paul eventually returns after refusing to pay for his own copy (they’ve walked past the police station to a private copying business). We pay our fine and not 10 minutes later are pulled over again for failing to stop at a stop sign. No sense in arguing (although we do a little when I can’t even see the stop sign they are referring to from where they’ve pulled us over). While we’re paying our fine another driver from Botswana gets pulled over and exits his vehicle screaming about how they pulled him over last week at the same spot and he KNOWS he stopped. Scam #2!

We are mildly indigent for a while until I mention that we probably have no right to feel outraged about the (relatively minor, we paid a total of $60 in fines) injustice we have faced when so many people in Zimbabwe have face grave injustices for years. One example of this is a white Zimbabwean man we met who had recently lost the family farm that had been a thriving business and in his family for generations. Due to racial politics, many whites have lost their land and livelihood. Compared to them, we have no right to feel outraged.

Paul, I and our (armed) guide at the top of the mountain

Besides our police escapades we had a nice trip up to the Mana Pools area of Zimbabwe right on the Zambezi River overlooking the mountains of Zambia. Much of our time was spent in the Sapi concession area recently acquired by a local safari company Paul works with in Maun. We met the concession managers in Kariba and followed them in to the area so we could do some mapping. While we originally thought they would get us in and we’d be on our own, they graciously hosted us for almost a week. We climbed a mountain to get an overview of the area following elephant trails up the steep inclines. We joined them on a boat trip (Paul even caught a fish!) to look at the 41 km (~25.5 miles) of river front property they’ve recently acquired where we saw plenty of hippos and crocodiles. And we enjoyed many meals and sundowners with them around their fire in their remote campsite.

Paul caught a fish 

Hippos on an island in the river

Hippos in the river (not so happy to see us)

Cape Buffalo (checkout those horns!)

Large crocodile on the river bank (~7 feet long)

Views from our camp

Zimbabwe is a beautiful country with stunning landscapes and amazing birdlife. Going from the flatness of Botswana to the rolling hills of Zimbabwe is a striking contrast. I spent many mornings with my binoculars and bird book enjoying the view. Huge baobab trees abound! Unfortunately, due to desperation (or greed) many of the animals have been hunted or poached. The area we were in is being converted from a hunting area to a photographic safari area but it may take some years for the animals to calm down. Just about everything we saw ran for their lives the minute they heard our vehicle. After seeing the graveyard of small elephant skulls lining one of the tracks we were on, it is no wonder that the elephants are particularly twitchy and enraged when they hear us coming!

Sunset from camp

Huge Baobab Tree

Road around Baobab tree

Zebra mom and baby

Ellie coated in mud doing a butt rub

A little more to the left...

Small elephant skulls from past hunting

I am hopeful that with time and an end to hunting they will calm down and relax and our two nights in Mana Pools National Park suggests it is possible. Just 20 km (~12.5 miles) away separated by an invisible boundary the animals were very calm. We spent one evening at sundown enjoying watching elephants reach for leaves on high branches and eat sticks with tremendous dexterity. I think they also enjoyed watching us given how close this little one came to our vehicle. (Hope these videos work. Someone let me know if they do!)

Civet (not our picture)

One of the highlights of the trip was our night visits by a pair of civets. I had never seen a civet before and unfortunately didn’t get a picture because they often came late at night to see if there were any interesting leftovers from dinner. The best I can describe them is that they are maybe 2-3 times the size of a raccoon with a similar mask (making them look like night time bandits) and their fur appears to have been designed by a small child – a few spots, some strips, a busy tail, and ears that looks slightly too small for their head. Super cute! I’ve included a picture from the internet so you can see what they look like. 

Chinhoyi Caves

Overall, after 3,210 km (~2,000 miles) of driving we left our Zimbabwe trip grateful for the efforts in Botswana to preserve their wildlife. It made us realize how spoiled we are to have such amazing wildlife in such great abundance here. After a brief stop at Chinhoyi Caves we made our way back to Botswana to see more animals driving on the main road (which goes through the Nxai Pan National Park), with the exception of hippos and crocodiles (which were in such high numbers on the water ways it made me wonder how advisable the canoe trips Mana Pools is famous for are), than we saw on our entire trip to Zimbabwe. If we could give any advice to the police of Zimbabwe we’d recommend not chasing off their tourists by unnecessary roadblocks and scam fines or we’ll be like elephants in former hunting areas and run away as fast as we can!

Kids selling ground nuts