We left early this morning, or so I thought at least. At 6.45 we were out of the gate, to look at this
A beautiful beach we will perhaps visit later. For now we are going to Malawi! And to get there, we have to cross Renamo-country. A month and a half ago they shot some people on this highway and announcd the road closed. The government retaliated by burning one of their camps and declared the road open. But not as usual. Traffic is guided in two daily convoys, the one at Save river bridge leaving at 09.00 and 13.00. We were going to make the 09.00 one, and it would be a one hour drive someone had said. Kind tip: do not believe someone, he's almost never right. It took us two whole hours. It was further away than I had expected and the road was badly potholed for a few kilometres.
At a little after nine we were in the back of the convoy. I spent the better half of the 100 km stretch overtaking the lorries until we had reached the head of the convoy. I named this stretch "the Gun Run" because that's what the road between Zimbabwe and Malawi was called some 20 years ago. Then there were landmines, people fighting and cars being shot at. Actually, this journey was quite relaxed, some soldiers were standing around at some points, also being relaxed and even greeting us. The road is relatively well maintaind here, so we only had to swarwe a couple of times to evade the deepest potholes. And after Muxungue, we were on our own again.
In the convoy we met Thomas Adler and friends - yes , all the way from Holland - in their Land Rover
The road after Muxungue gets better and better, until you reach Inchompe. The last 50 Km to Chimoio were ok, but I still had to look out for sudden cracks and bumps, making it a tiresome ride. Eventually we arrived in Chimoio though, were I had prebooked (by phone +258 82 555 7310) the Pink Papaya backpacker's only double. They have a single and a dorm for 8 too.
It's all pink, even the fence
And these are the pink papayas
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