Harare, Discovery & South Africa

Dear all,

I’m setting off, to South Africa. Its 950 km and so it will be tough to do it in one go. I’m starting a little later than I planned, so its very unlikely I can do 12 hours of driving in one go as well as cross the border, since they always make a fuss there. Last night we had dinner at the deputy ambassador’s place. Barbara works at the embassy and she and Ralph have done a lot of road trips across southern Africa, so the ambassador, his wife and another couple wanted some tips on Namibia vs Botswana. End conclusion, go and do both!
On Thursday on the plane to Harare, we were joined by the first lady Grace Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Apparently she lives a very extravagant lifestyle and many people were surprised she hadn’t appropriated the airplane for herself. It was still impressive, as she was precipitated by half a dozen secret agents who tried to unobtrusively to insert themselves into the general populace of the plane. Funniest thing was that every sentence uttered by the pilot or the staff began with: Dear honorable first lady Grace of Mugabe, Government officials and ladies and gentlemen… Of course she didn’t have to go through customs either, so while they were sending me from one counter to the other, being deliberately obscure I’m sure, the first lady was out the backdoor and into her black Mercedes with 20 escort cars in a jiffy.
Luckily Conrad (Ralph’s assistant) was waiting for me with the Landrover Discovery to take me to Ralph and Barbara’s home. It is absolutely beautiful, with a big garden, 2 baby rabbits, 2 dogs and 2 rats, a pool, lots of plants and flowers, a main house and a guest cottage which is completely self sufficient and very nice! I find myself wishing they lived closer to my fieldwork…

Barbara and Ralph are good friends of my father’s, I met them before as well, 14 years ago. They have been very helpful, friendly and hospitable, they are truly dear people. They live here together with their daughter. My dad keeps his Landrover Defender and the Discovery here, and Ralph has helped me a great deal with kitting out the car and giving me a crash course on how to fix it and how to check if everything works properly and what to do when and if things go wrong (which of course more often than not is: call a garage and pay attention so they don’t screw you over just because you’re a girl).
I’ve got the route down, I know where I can stay overnight, I know what to do when the car has troubles, I know not to pull over no matter what… I don’t know how to open the passenger or driver’s door from the inside and I do have some troubles with remembering to drive left and/or not hitting any bushes with my left side of the car, but well, everything takes getting used to.
The discovery (which they call P.G.B.D Pierre Gerard’s Bloody Discovery, after the guy who sold it) has a definite character. Like I said, doors that won’t open, sometimes it overheats, sometimes it leaks, its moldy, the steering wheel locks and stops the car starting and the tires need changing, but its been through a lot (my dad’s maniacal off road adventure driving) and its trusty. So I hope she’ll start liking me and become less temperamentful, but time will tell. We found a slight tear on the outer tire, so we’re putting on the spare tire, then hopefully I’m ready to go.

I’ll post some pictures later to show the house here and the Discovery. And I found a baby chameleon in the garden, which was so cute!
Anyway, wish me a good trip, I’ll let you know when I arrive safely either Sunday or Monday. Love you all and thinking of you!
Cheers!