Zimbabwe / South Africa Border Crossing

“Fifty-five US dollars for your Visa”, the border guard grumbled. Abby handed him a $50 and a $5 dollar note. I only had three $20 notes, which I handed over. The guard then tried to tell us he had no change to give, though after a while he eventually pulled out a bundle of notes of all sizes - 10s 20s - and of course the $5 Abby had just handed him. Welcome to Zimbabwe.

We got through immigration with no real hassles (our hosts later that evening told us of some guests who were held there for eight hours). I was a bit alarmed when we did actually get through the gates as about six or seven men appeared from out of nowhere and ran towards the jeep shouting and waving their hands madly in the air. It turned out they were trying to get us to exchange our foreign currency with them.

On first impression Zimbabwe seems easier to take than South Africa. It’s not so ‘in your face’ with the rich and poor living side by side. The rural areas seem very rudimentary with a prevalence of subsistence farming, yet it seems far more preferable to the people crammed into the ramshackle townships that seemed to accompany every city in South Africa (out of sight most of the time but there all the same).

We managed to go on a tour of the great Zimbabwe monument (this is where Zimbabwe took its name from when it changed from Rhodesia in 1979). The monument is impressive, 12th century stonework ruins scattered around a natural fortified outcropping of rock. Well worth a visit if you’re in the area.