Donkey dodging no-man s land at Beit Bridge MzansiBride

Winona Griggs

Surviving the Wild Ride at Beit Bridge

Notorious for its never-ending lines, understaffed booths, and utter chaos, the Beit Bridge border post is enough to make anyone’s heart skip a beat. But fear not, my friends! I’ve discovered the secret to navigating this madness: simply throw them off their game by claiming, “No, we don’t have a vehicle. We’ll be crossing on our trusty bicycles!”

Feeling a mix of pity, horror, and a whole lot of confusion, the officials swiftly ushered us through. And just like that, we found ourselves on the other side of the border, leaving South Africa behind and entering the incredible land of Zimbabwe. The whole process took us a mere 30 minutes. Can you believe it? I’m here to share my wisdom on how to conquer the Beit Bridge border crossing in under an hour.

I was driving along a road called Beit Bridge to the Bubye River, and a local Zimbabwean aptly called it ‘donkey dodging no-man’s land.’ It was scorching hot, dry, and filled with dust. The sparse grassland was covered in garbage and animals, mostly donkeys. Some of them were clearly not skilled at avoiding trucks. Determined, I pushed myself to cover the slow but steady 90km journey to the Bubye River. Finally, we reached our destination for the day – the Lion and Elephant Motel, where we relaxed in the swimming pool.

The Lion and Elephant Motel has been a popular pitstop on the Harare-Johannesburg road for years. From the restaurant veranda, you can watch baboons and bush bucks. It’s a gentle reminder that even in this part of Africa, wildness is just around the corner.

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As I made my way north of the Bubye, the scenery began to change. The surrounding bush looked less damaged and untidy. It was a Monday, and the issue of avoiding trucks on the road became more challenging. I decided to stop at Rutenga ‘Growth Point’ to find a cold Coca-Cola and calm my nerves.

‘Growth Point’ is a term used in Zimbabwe to describe a small cluster of shops and maybe a petrol station that seem to have popped up out of nowhere. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of actual growth in these places, aside from the growing number of unemployed people sitting under the shade of trees.

Zimbabwe has an unemployment rate of over 80%, so it has become quite common to find people taking it easy under trees. Many of them are eager to strike up a conversation with passing cyclists like myself, who they see as wandering travelers.

So I’m on this road trip, right? My friends and I are trying to go north, but we ended up heading southeast instead. We were hoping to stay at a farmer’s place, but turns out he’s actually 80 km back! Totally bummed about it. But lucky for us, a hunting operator showed up and gave us some complicated directions to his campsite, which was about 30 km further north. It took us three hours and a little detour, but we finally made it to Ashley and Jan Kotze’s gate. We were hoping they could give us better directions, but they were so nice to us. Ashley even let us stay the night because she felt safer with more people around. She fed us a delicious meal, and we slept like logs. We were so knocked out that we didn’t even hear the dog barking when a sheep got stolen! Oops.

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The road from Runde to Musvingo was absolutely stunning. You see, Zimbabwe is famous for these amazing granite rock formations, and they start popping up everywhere. The landscape changes too, from Mopane veldt to these beautiful Brachystegia trees in the Miombo woodland. Our legs were feeling the burn from all the climbing, but at least we had more time to appreciate the scenery. On our first day, we managed to bike over 100 km and arrived at Bondofoli mission station, along the old Musvingo road. Father Rudolph welcomed us with open arms and let us camp in their grounds. The mission has been around for almost 50 years and provides important services to the community. They have a primary school, a church, and even a teachers’ college that students from all over Zimbabwe attend. We had a chance to meet Sister Helen, a German Nun who’s been living at the mission for two decades. She had this funny way of speaking that mixed German and Zimbabwean cultures. It cracked us up when she reacted to our story with an enthusiastic “Eish, eish eish, how!” We also had some interesting conversations with the Zimbabwean priests about education in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and it was sad to hear that they often felt unwelcome and scared in South Africa just because of their Zimbabwean number plates.

Wednesday was a perfect day. It was sunny, and the temperature quickly warmed up. Our bike ride took us through a series of short, steep hills, and our legs were tired from yesterday’s ride. After cycling for forty kilometers, we were exhausted when we arrived at The Great Zimbabwe Hotel. It was a beautiful hotel, but we felt a bit out of place in our cycling clothes. We enjoyed a swim in the pool and had a simple lunch of boiled eggs, baked beans, and leftover bread on the patio. The staff at the hotel were friendly and made us feel welcome. We felt refreshed and ready to continue our journey when we left the hotel and rolled downhill to our campsite.

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In the remaining hours of the day, we explored the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. It was an incredible experience. The ruins are fascinating, and there is a small museum where we learned about the history and culture surrounding the stone structures. The ruins themselves were built without any mortar, and they are the largest pre-colonial structures in sub-Saharan Africa. Walking through the narrow stone passages felt eerie and awe-inspiring. As we watched the sun set from the Hill Complex, we could feel the ancient spirit of these sacred places. We heard distant singing from the valley below, imagining it was the same sound that echoed through the ruins hundreds of years ago. This world heritage site holds immense historical and cultural significance for the Shona people and for Zimbabwe as a whole.

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Surviving the Wild Ride at Beit Bridge

Notorious for its never-ending lines, understaffed booths, and utter chaos, the Beit Bridge border post is enough to make anyone’s heart skip a beat. But fear not, my friends! I’ve discovered the secret to navigating this madness: simply throw them off their game by claiming, “No, we don’t have a vehicle. We’ll be crossing on our trusty bicycles!”

Feeling a mix of pity, horror, and a whole lot of confusion, the officials swiftly ushered us through. And just like that, we found ourselves on the other side of the border, leaving South Africa behind and entering the incredible land of Zimbabwe. The whole process took us a mere 30 minutes. Can you believe it? I’m here to share my wisdom on how to conquer the Beit Bridge border crossing in under an hour.

I was driving along a road called Beit Bridge to the Bubye River, and a local Zimbabwean aptly called it ‘donkey dodging no-man’s land.’ It was scorching hot, dry, and filled with dust. The sparse grassland was covered in garbage and animals, mostly donkeys. Some of them were clearly not skilled at avoiding trucks. Determined, I pushed myself to cover the slow but steady 90km journey to the Bubye River. Finally, we reached our destination for the day – the Lion and Elephant Motel, where we relaxed in the swimming pool.

The Lion and Elephant Motel has been a popular pitstop on the Harare-Johannesburg road for years. From the restaurant veranda, you can watch baboons and bush bucks. It’s a gentle reminder that even in this part of Africa, wildness is just around the corner.

READ  Latest Prices of Xbox Series X in South Africa

As I made my way north of the Bubye, the scenery began to change. The surrounding bush looked less damaged and untidy. It was a Monday, and the issue of avoiding trucks on the road became more challenging. I decided to stop at Rutenga ‘Growth Point’ to find a cold Coca-Cola and calm my nerves.

‘Growth Point’ is a term used in Zimbabwe to describe a small cluster of shops and maybe a petrol station that seem to have popped up out of nowhere. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of actual growth in these places, aside from the growing number of unemployed people sitting under the shade of trees.

Zimbabwe has an unemployment rate of over 80%, so it has become quite common to find people taking it easy under trees. Many of them are eager to strike up a conversation with passing cyclists like myself, who they see as wandering travelers.

So I’m on this road trip, right? My friends and I are trying to go north, but we ended up heading southeast instead. We were hoping to stay at a farmer’s place, but turns out he’s actually 80 km back! Totally bummed about it. But lucky for us, a hunting operator showed up and gave us some complicated directions to his campsite, which was about 30 km further north. It took us three hours and a little detour, but we finally made it to Ashley and Jan Kotze’s gate. We were hoping they could give us better directions, but they were so nice to us. Ashley even let us stay the night because she felt safer with more people around. She fed us a delicious meal, and we slept like logs. We were so knocked out that we didn’t even hear the dog barking when a sheep got stolen! Oops.

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The road from Runde to Musvingo was absolutely stunning. You see, Zimbabwe is famous for these amazing granite rock formations, and they start popping up everywhere. The landscape changes too, from Mopane veldt to these beautiful Brachystegia trees in the Miombo woodland. Our legs were feeling the burn from all the climbing, but at least we had more time to appreciate the scenery. On our first day, we managed to bike over 100 km and arrived at Bondofoli mission station, along the old Musvingo road. Father Rudolph welcomed us with open arms and let us camp in their grounds. The mission has been around for almost 50 years and provides important services to the community. They have a primary school, a church, and even a teachers’ college that students from all over Zimbabwe attend. We had a chance to meet Sister Helen, a German Nun who’s been living at the mission for two decades. She had this funny way of speaking that mixed German and Zimbabwean cultures. It cracked us up when she reacted to our story with an enthusiastic “Eish, eish eish, how!” We also had some interesting conversations with the Zimbabwean priests about education in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and it was sad to hear that they often felt unwelcome and scared in South Africa just because of their Zimbabwean number plates.

Wednesday was a perfect day. It was sunny, and the temperature quickly warmed up. Our bike ride took us through a series of short, steep hills, and our legs were tired from yesterday’s ride. After cycling for forty kilometers, we were exhausted when we arrived at The Great Zimbabwe Hotel. It was a beautiful hotel, but we felt a bit out of place in our cycling clothes. We enjoyed a swim in the pool and had a simple lunch of boiled eggs, baked beans, and leftover bread on the patio. The staff at the hotel were friendly and made us feel welcome. We felt refreshed and ready to continue our journey when we left the hotel and rolled downhill to our campsite.

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In the remaining hours of the day, we explored the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. It was an incredible experience. The ruins are fascinating, and there is a small museum where we learned about the history and culture surrounding the stone structures. The ruins themselves were built without any mortar, and they are the largest pre-colonial structures in sub-Saharan Africa. Walking through the narrow stone passages felt eerie and awe-inspiring. As we watched the sun set from the Hill Complex, we could feel the ancient spirit of these sacred places. We heard distant singing from the valley below, imagining it was the same sound that echoed through the ruins hundreds of years ago. This world heritage site holds immense historical and cultural significance for the Shona people and for Zimbabwe as a whole.

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