This is a guest post from Claire Le Hur who is cycling to China with her fiancé Stuart Block. The couple will start their journey in East Africa where they will follow new ‘silk roads’ charting the journey of key natural resources as part of an exciting new education project. Claire will be riding a bamboo bike, built by an African social enterprise and Stuart will ride a tandem, keeping the back seat free for those they meet en route. They will also be raising money and awareness for two great educational charities. Find out more about Claire’s big adventure here.
When Stu and I announced that we were going to spend a week cycling through Zimbabwe as part of the Beyond the bike challenge most people told us we were mad because it’s such a dangerous place. However of all the countries we’ve visited on our travels, I felt most safe here.
Zimbabwe has quite a history. It sunk to rock bottom a few years ago and it’s still trying to claw its way back. Eight years ago Mugabe had encouraged the invasions of white-run farms, which is how the catastrophic collapse of the Zimbabwean economy started. We met families – white and black – who are suffering after being thrown off their farms and a man who stood against Mugabe’s Zanu-PF in the recent elections and lost and had his business fined $500,000 to the detriment of everything. Many say he was lucky to get off this lightly.
During our visit we also visited some gold mines in Matebeleland, infamous in the early 1980s for becoming the dumping ground for thousands dissident Matabele, murdered by Mugabe’s 5th Brigade. Corpses are still being uncovered today. The big question is what will happen when Mugabe dies – which may not be that far off. Sadly most people we met – relatively well-educated adults – had given up hope of any positive change happening in the near future. For many Zimbabweans, the situation is so bad that they have left the country.
From Livingstone we got a lift to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, brimming with beautiful colonial architecture, including the Bulawayo Club where we stayed for our first night. Despite breaking our budget for the week, it was well worth it. Stepping back into the bygone era of Rhodesia was a surreal experience.
Lobby with grand staircase in the Bulawayo Club
It is still run as a gentleman’s club, and although ladies are now welcomed throughout, the dress code meant we were not allowed in the bar and could only have food and drinks outside. The staff were so kind and helpful and the wonderfully eccentric manager, Audrey, took very good care of us – especially when we had to barter to stay an extra night as Stu wasn’t feeling well. “OK my little cockroaches” she said, “I can do you a deal”.
Following this we were lucky enough to have a drink with the Zimbabwe’s ex-cricket captain, Heath Streak, and a tour of his academy which encourages more boys and girls to get into cricket, and sport in general. Local businesses support the academy and are often partnered with state schools to ensure that as many local children as possible have the chance to take advantage of Heath’s initiative.
Heath Streak
Then it was time to start cycling properly again and we decided rather than head down the tar we should take a little detour through the Matopos. Heath put us in touch with Terrence, a mountain biker who gave us a very scenic route to what he described as the most beautiful camping spot he’s ever seen. According to Terrence the road to the camp at Mtshabezi dam was “a good 50km” and although google maps showed it to be more like 90km we thought we’d give it a go anyway.
Experiencing harsh cycling conditions
Two of the hardest days of cycling followed – days that make me think we really do deserve all the generous sponsorship! The dirt road started with miles of washboard, which is extremely painful to cycle over, then we progressed to sand. There were many moments when we had to get off and push the bikes because the track got too steep to cycle up and down. Luckily the scenery was stunning and boasted all the strange rock formations the Matopos is famous for. When we arrived at the Dam, 20 minutes before dark, there was just time to put up the tent and have a quick swim.
Cycling to camp at Mtshabezi dam
The next day we tried to find the quickest way back to the tar road. Stu picked up Fred along the way, a displaced farm worker, who directed us to the main road from the back of our tandem, Thandie. We finally made the tar and then had a relatively easy 40km to meet our next host, Duncan, a vegetable farmer, whose hospitality was amazing. We also met Peter (Bobo) Gibbons, a real character, who lost his family farm and now runs a small gold mine. Bobo took us down his mine the next day, which was a real eye-opening experience although not one I’d like to repeat!
Our visit to Bobo’s mine
We then travelled to Mazunga, home to Blondie Leathem, famous for his anti-poaching work over the years, who manages the Bubye Valley Wildlife Conservancy, one the most successful parks in the country. Blondie was out trying to catch some rhino poachers but his wife, Katrina, gave us a really warm welcome.
Stu and Blondie riding Thandie
Later that afternoon we were lucky enough to go out for a drive in the park with Byron, a lion researcher, who had just finished his PhD at Oxford. As some of the lions are tagged it we were able to find them easily and even saw a newborn cub.
Watching lions
We caught up with Blondie later that evening who was frustrated that the poachers had got away. He said: “maybe they’d been warned about us, maybe they just lost their nerve, but at least they didn’t get anything”. After our time at Kafue (back in Zambia) it was very interesting to talk more about poaching and hunting… one of the strange paradoxes is that these conservancies need the hunters as they bring in all the money which keeps the animals alive and thriving. Without rich people who want to hunt this conservancy would not exist and so the hundreds of elephants, black rhinos and lions wouldn’t be protected.
Our final morning in Zimbabwe started wonderfully as we had breakfast with two baby black rhinos. Katrina looks after orphaned animals before releasing them back into the conservancy.
Feeding time for the baby rhinos
Zimbabwe is a beautiful country and home to so many lovely people – hard working, intelligent and friendly. It is tragic that this country is still the way it is. There is a shred of hope that things may get better but only if there are dramatic changes – and of course this will depend on how long Mugabe remains in power and what happens next…
