Day 43 – Checkpoint Charlie

Blog, Photos — By Buspass on November 3, 2012 11:06 am

Coffee in Harare….not at all bad!

Breakfast in the centre of Harare kicked off the day with our bikes attracting the usual level of interest. And a splendid breakfast it was too. We then headed North towards the Zambezi for nearly 400k. Great roads, sweeping bends, big copper trucks trucking in the opposite direction down from Zambia.

The only fly in the ointment were the police checkpoints. Whilst not particularly sinister they did sport the odd ‘bent copper’! Dollars was their only language and we had to sprinkle a little around here and there. Sad but in a way we accepted it as a way for them to earn a crust. So we would dip into our wallet then speed off and get things out of our system with a few high speed bends!!

We eventually hit the Zambezi where we were collected by boat and taken 40k downstream. We had some fabulous wildlife viewing, at one stage just a few metres from a big bull elephant with gleaming white tusks pulling reeds at the waters edge.
Mana Pools National Park is light years ahead of Gorongosa. It has been cherished and has a perfect blend of wildlife. Tomorrow more viewing and the day after the canoe trip begins!! J