The campsite dog was waiting for us to get up I am sure as no sooner that Alison put her legs out to get down the ladder, he was there at the bottom. He must have been starving. I gave him the end slices of the bread we were eating laced with a bit of milk and that went down very quickly.

After my showers I had a chat with one of the girls working at Backpackers Paradise and she confirmed that for the last five months or so all transactions for purchases were done in USD or Rand. She and all the staff were paid in USD and apparently all the Government employees were also paid in USD. Where Zimbabwe got all the USD to pay it employees God only knows! As to the Zimbabwe Dollar was concerned it did not exist anymore.

Alison had read about Khami Ruins a Unesco Heritage sight in Bulawayo and we decided to go and have a look. After several wrong turnings and many stoppages to ask the direction we finally found Khami Ruins next to Khami Prison, not quite next but not far off. After paying USD20 we felt we had been conned again and this time by Zimbabweans, as all that remained were some walls most of them reenacted by volunteers. We needn’t have paid as the same walls could be seen outside the main entrance to the ruins but we didn’t know it then.

We headed back towards Bulawayo to find the road to Beit Bridge and after a few heated exchanges of words between Alison and I we found it. Fortunately Adrian was around to help calm things down and this time he was on my side to my surprise. The road once again was in good shape and we made progress rapidly. One would notice travelling along these roads that every few kms one could see burnt out wreckage of cars. I was wondering if they were victims of the political supporters’ wrath after the last elections.

Alison put a couple of postcards in the last post box before the border and someone shouted that he hoped the cards would be collected by the post workers. We cleared the Zimbabwe border in less than half hour but were held up on the way to the South African border by traffic. The police checked our passports and after that walked across to me and asked if I had anything from Malaysia for him! That really got to Alison and from then on she didn’t stop complaining about Africans until I got so fed up I had to tell her off while queuing to get through immigration. The lady doing the Carnet didn’t know too much either and we had to wait for some time to get it stamped. By 1900hrs we were clear of the border which took us a total of 2 hours which wasn’t bad considering we were told that it may take all day!

We got to the town of Messina a few kms on and started looking for a place to camp for the night. Two places with clear signs indicating Caravan Park said that they didn’t do camping anymore but obviously didn’t bother to get the signs taken away. The final straw was when the owner of Bushman Inn, a guest house told Alison that we would not find anyone allowing us to camp in Messina. I decided to drive on as a matter of principle and although Alison obviously didn’t agree, she didn’t say directly and I got annoyed!!

We got into Louis Trichard at almost 2200hrs and started looking for the Municipal Caravan Park but found instead Camp Africa. The campsite was probably in the middle of a jungle (as we never got to it) with no guards at the entrance. It was quite eerie and before even Alison could say anything I decided to turn back out. We then went back to the original plan looking for the Municipal Caravan Park and after finding the road had to go up and down three times before spotting the sign while the actual Board was hidden behind a tree. What a relief as otherwise we could have been spending the night in Tuah parked outside the Nissan dealer. We didn’t waste too much time to put the tent up as Adrian was asleep and after a cup of coffee (to calm my nerves) I too went to bed and by this time it was way past midnight.