14 February 2025
By JonRichfield - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15471587
Day 414 January 2020 in Mozambique ⋅ 🌧 23 °C

I left the top off my tent last night expecting, it not to rain. However, I wake up at 1:30-ish this morning with rain pitter pattering thought the mesh of my tent onto my bare skin. Shite, it’s raining, I think to myself. I put my shoes on, put my head torch on full beam and venture out to pull the tarp onto my tent, conscious that I need to look out for snakes or scorpions. Luckily, I see none but I’m sure they are around. I decide to go back to bed. As I’m standing there about to do so, I feel something scurrying up up leg. I direct my head torch light down to have a squint, expecting a gecko or maybe a moth. Instead, I see a huge spider scampering up my leg. It’s a big bugger. I have wondered, a few times, how I might respond to a big spider on my body; I thought I might freak out, as I don’t like spiders. As it was, I just brushed it away with hardly a thought. I heard it hit the ground; it made a loud noise. I think it was a camel spider but didn’t go after it to check. Another Rubicon crossed.

Food on the Road (Click on any image to enlarge gallery)

Awoke this morning at 5am, yes, 5am, to take my tent down and load it, and my night bag, back on the truck and help prepare breakfast. I have beans on toast and fresh coffee. Not bad for wild camping., eh? Then the fuss and bother of packing everything back on the truck again in readiness for our departure.

Mozambique/Zimbabwe Border Post

Off at 6:30am for the road to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. After a few hours, we arrive at the Frontier. This one is a bit more militarised than any of the other borders we passed through. Lots of fences and barriers. We go through the usual rigmarole of exiting one country and then walking to the immigration section of the other. We’re old hands at this now. I get a double entry visa for Zimbabwe as I intend to go to Zambia while at Victoria Falls in a week or so and it will save a good few dollars as well as saving me the hassle of queuing up to get a new visa.

Scenes on the road to Harare (Click on any image to enlarge gallery)

The road to Harare from the frontier is very interesting. Initially it is scrubland; like the Africa I had imagined with lots of small villages, hamlets really, of thatched round huts and some square brick ones. Later on, the scenery is quite spectacular with lots of huge rock formations. When we get near Harare there are more and more large farms and houses, undoubtedly owned by cronies of the insanely corrupt regime here in what once was the breadbasket of Africa and is now a nightmare country. Yet, the people smile and wave at us as we pass.

Small World Hostel (Click on any image to enlarge gallery)

We get to our campsite. Its called Small World Hostel and has camping, dorms and rooms. I upgrade to share a room with another fellow traveller, Scott. Its only US$6 per night. We unload our stuff from the truck which will be going away to a workshop for servicing. Our room is basic but grand.

Another new country on my trip through Africa.

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