TRAVEL DIAIRIES- AN UNFORGETTABLE HOLIDAY BULAWAYO, HWANGE NATIONAL PARK AND VICTORIA FALLS 2002

The second holiday was in September 2002. Our white wedding was on 14 December and two weeks after that we were expecting our first child. We decided to travel to Bulawayo, Hwange and Victoria Falls before the wedding and the baby. The day of the travel, I got a lift to Murewa to meet my manager.

At the end of 2001 I had opened a shop in the village of Bokwe where my mum was born. When the neighbouring white commercial farmer in Virginia, Macheke was removed during land reform I had taken over the farm store at Paradise farm (known as Masvaisvai farm to locals). I now had two stores.

We boarded a Bulawayo bound bus in the afternoon behind Sheraton hotel. I grew up in Kwekwe in the 80s and most school holidays we would take the Tauya Bus to Harare and then Shiriyekutanga buses to Jekwa, Murewa. One of the Shiriyekutanga drivers was a relative sekuru January Nyawata. All the buses from Kwekwe to Harare charged $7 except Tauya which charged $6, incidentally I learnt my first big English word “Emergency” in Tauya coach & Shiriyekutanga buses around 1983 🙈.

We got to Gweru and the bus driver said hr was not proceeding to Bulawayo, we got cramped in a minibus tax. The conditions in the taxi were not favorable to a pregnant MaNyoni. We arrived in Bulawayo around midnight and hired a taxi to Holiday Inn. I love Bulawayo a lot. Every two years the insurance industry held an annual sporting weekend in Bulawayo and I never missed any one of those company paid holidays👌🏿. I will write a book about those Bulawayo trips one day.

Around mid morning we went to Renkini looking for buses to Hwange and we were directed I think to then New Nkulumane Complex. We boarded a Kukura Kurerwa Volvo bus. We were dropped off on the road leading to Hwange airport. We boarded the game view Toyota Landcruiser to our lodge. I never missed any one of those game drives👌🏿

Early one morning close to Hwange camp main gate, I saw a pack of wild dogs and within five seconds they were gone. Years later we visited Kruger National Park and I never saw as many animals as I did in Hwange. Our lodge was nearer a water hole and hundreds of elephants would come by👌🏿

On the second day one of the families from South Africa was going back,there were only 6 chalets, we drove with them to Hwange airport. The family had come with their own plane. A fun fact the runway at Hwange National Park at 4600m is one of the longest in the world nand I was told it can accommodate the NASA Space shuttle on the way back to earth.

After 4 days in Hwange in September 2002, we were dropped off at Cross Dete and got transport to Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls has the same effect on me like Durban, Phuket or Cape Town, I will never get bored of those places no matter how many times I visit them.

For the first two nights we stayed in a self-catering two bedroom at a flat at a place called Tshulu Tsha Nabe. For the last two nights we checked into The Kingdom Hotel. I have since stayed in dozens of hotels but Kingdom Hotel remains my best ever hotel👌🏿 Every time I visit Vic Falls I go to The Kingdom hotel.

After four nights in Victoria Falls we decided that we would come back come back the following year. In November 2002, I started a new job as a junior manager and the job came with a company car a Mazda 323. Even then there were fuel shortages in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Sun hotels in Victoria Falls had advertised that they were providing fuel.

We drove from Harare and stayed at Rainbow Hotel in Bulawayo. They were busy renovating Rainbow Bulawayo. It seems the hotel had double booked our room because later that night other people opened the door with their card and luckily we had blocked the door from inside with that metal blocker. There was fuel in Bulawayo and we refueled and drove to Victoria Falls. After spending six days in Victoria Falls we approached the hotel wanting to buy fuel and there was none. Luckily I had carried a 20 litre of petrol.

We managed to drive slowly from Victoria Falls back to Bulawayo. I estimate that we only had 27 to 30 litres. For that journey. We stayed at Rainbow Bulawayo again and got fuel back to Harare. When I became Bulawayo branch manager from 2006-2007 I was in charge of the agency in Victoria Falls and Hwange so I would drive to Victoria Falls.