Travelling through Zimbabwe I

The Great Zimbabwe Ruins (nach denen das Land auch benannt ist)

Mercy und ich, den Namen des anderen Maedchens habe ich leider vergessen...

So, as I've already mentionned, Mercy, the sweet girl from the reception in Masvingo offered to come with me to the ruins. So when I came to the reception early in the morning (around 7:30), she said, that she would come with me but that she would like to go home first, have a shower and get changed. But that this would be only 20 minutes. So I said ok, lets say 9 o'clock, I'll be ready... And at nine o'clock she wasn't there yet, but only half an hour later we could leave for the bus stop. Everybody who knows me well would know that I would never complain about half an hour! So at the bus stop, we got on an empty minibus, which is always ambivalent, because although you can choose the best seats, it means that you are going to wait until the bus is full, and this usually takes one hour or maybe two. While sitting there I found out, that we are on the bus to go to her place, so that she can do what she wanted to do... I was getting worried, because I still wanted to go further the same day to make it up to Mutare at the Mozambician border. I tried to convince her, that we go to the ruins first, and she agreed. On the way to the other bus stop (other direction, other bus stop) we met one of her friends (Blessing, mind the names!) and after an extensive conversation (I WAS GETTING WORRIED) he offered, that for a bit of petrol, around 12 US, he could take us there with his car (and back). I agreed, because it seemed to be a quicker option. But first we had to go to his brothers business, because it was actually his car... His brother wasn't there (obviously) and neither was his car. But thank God everybody has mobiles here, so he called him, and he said that he would be back in 30 minutes... (European minutes he said). Well, I took the opportunity to go back to the hotel to fetch some money... when I came back, the car was almost there and eventually one hour later we could leave. We went to the petrol station first, to take petrol. Makes sense. Then we went to some lovely township, or should I call it a suburb, and I found out, that we were going to Mercy's place. Fair enough! She got changed there and I had a lovely conversation with Blessing. When she came back, looking fresh and crisp, we hit the road again, it was getting really hot by that time, and we went to the petrol station again, because Mercy needed to change some money (rand into zim dollars). After that, we ended up in some campus (the technical college) and when I dared to ask, I was told that we are picking up Blessing's wife's younger sister. Fair enough, she wanted to join us for the outing... And then we went to the ruins, and we arrived there around 12:30. I had been ready at 8 o'clock, but it took eventually 4 and a half hours to get there. That was a long story... and I could tell you the way back as well (lots of stops, turn arounds, changing of cars, because other friends contacted us and picked us up, more stops and turn arounds, we hardly made it before sunset. But it was fun!!! Why I am telling you that? Because this is how travelling works here. You need time, and above all, don't rush people, don't push them. They will do anything you want, but at their speed and in their time. I love it. At some point I just decided that I will continue my trip the next day and then everything was fine. Oh yes, and the ruins where beautiful and impressive. They are actually medieval ruins of fortresses that the so-called Bantu people built at that time. They do look similar to the ruins of our medieval castles. Again, unfortunately no pictures... but you can google it, if you want.