Day 5 (Dec 05/585km) Bye to Zimbabwe and into Zambia

The day started with breakfast at the joint we had lunch the day before. After a not so inspiring meal we got up to search for a battery for Thendo’s bike as well as a GPS devise. As mentioned previously, the battery stopped working in Beit Bridge (but now works) and the GPS fell off the bike. To our disappointment both could not be found within the vicinity and we decided to get on the road.

Our friends from the previous day had given us directions out of Harare to the Chirundu border post. We unfortunately missed a crucial turn and wasted about an hour riding in the wrong direction to Mozambique and had to turn back.

Apparently this place sells the best Biltong in the world, we agree!

The road to Chirundu was good, bar yet another speeding fine. This time Tumi managed to plainly refuse to be given a fine. He convinced the police that because he was riding behind me, they did not catch him and in fact they did not stop him. We quickly learned a few tricks, including charming officers before they asked us for all manner of documents. Later Tumi learned another trick which has worked so far - he takes us to the head of the queue at a road block and when asked for papers (that’s if he stops) he simply refuses stating that we have a long way to go and getting off the bike to locate documents was such a laborious process that would hold up the queue behind us. Most of the time they just laugh it off and wish us a nice journey.

Approaching Chirundu, we rode through a beautiful mountain range and an escarpment called the Zambezi Escarpment which is actually a game park. We did not see any game except for a few sightings of elephant dung and too many carcasses of trucks that had fallen off the many sharp bends and cliffs. It was not until later in the evening at lodge near the border that we could fully comprehend the main causes of those accidents, when we shared a few drinks with two truck drivers. They had some truck war stories to tell.

We could not resist stopping for a quick pic at this beautiful escarpment. This is in the middle of a game park with wild animals including lions. The Locals say, "You dare not stop there".

At the Chirundu boarder we were delayed for over two hours due to us not possessing police clearance certificates for our bikes. Apparently we needed to have had our bikes physically inspected and cleared by SA Police before departing home. The police on both the Zimbabwe and Zambian side work as a “tight team”. They are all linked to Interpol but their network signal was apparently too low to call Interpol to confirm whether the bikes have been involved on any crime. Be that as it may, we managed to plead with them and they let us through just at the time the boarder had closed. At this point we were reluctant to ride the 140km stretch to Lusaka as there is a long mountain pass with trucks.

The Mighty Zambezi

Bridge over Zambezi in Chirundu

The lodge we stayed in was just ok and the dinner was descent enough. We were entertained by Vincent from Malawi - a well spoken 25 year old who started driving trucks when he was 15. From the stories he told us, we now have to say a little prayer each time we come across any of these long haule trucks on the road. We are seeing hundreds of them.

Today we went to bed early to get up at 05h00 the following morning.