On The Right Road

Zimbabwe is a compact country. Most of the major geographical features which make roads difficult to build or use are on the borders - Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, the Eastern Districts, Lake Kariba and the Zambezi escarpment.

These are some of the areas that tourists want to go to, however, and so there are some places that you can't realistically get to by road.

By and large there's a good network of well-maintained, all-weather, 22ft matt roads, linking all the major centres and most of the tourist destinations. The more remote centres and much of the national parks are served by gravel roads, which are also well looked after, though they can suffer from bone-jarring corrugations and may be impassable in the rains.

The Automobile Association should have information, giving facts and figures - and problems, regarding driving to, and around, the main cities, Victoria Falls, Lake Kariba, the various national parks, the eastern districts and other areas of interest.

Car hire is not cheap, and often an all-inclusive rate is only available for rentals of five or six days or more. There's also the question of an Excess (after payment of collision/damage waivers) and whether the terms of rental allow driving on dirt roads.

A car is not necesarily an advantage. Many lodges throughout the country offer excursions as part of their standard tariff - for example, in Hwange or Matobo Hills. Your car sits there doing nothing, or if you use it you lose the advantage of local know-how.

If staying at non-city hotels or if camping then you need your own transport. In some areas, such as the eastern districts, the assumption seems to be that you will have your own transport.

The major advantage of a vehicle, here as anywhere, is flexibility. You can do what you want rather than being dependent on someone else. You can, within reason, go where you want and stay as long as you need. You're not tied to schedules.

And you see the countryside, not just those bits where your tours might pass through to and from the airport. You're not tied to spending annoying, fruitless hours going to airports, and waiting for planes or baggage to arrive.

You can experience sunset from The Peak at Kariba, drive through the pastel delights of the early msasa trees, and savour the unfolding panorama of the bush as tiny thatched villages, cattle-speckled fields and majestic granite kopjies roll past. There are groups of women sitting knitting under shady trees, children walking to school, warthogs grazing on the verge, remote stores and sudden tantalising vistas.

There are also speeding buses, belching clouds of obscuring polluting smoke, kamikaze cyclists, presidential motorcades, narrow bridges and animals who never know which way to move.

Some tips for driving in Zimbabwe are:

1. Elephants always, always, have right of way.

2. If among elephants, don't try and force your way through. They don't take kindly to hooting.

3. A motorcade headed by wailing motorbikes, means STOP. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

4. Cattle and kudu on the side of the road will never do what you expect (hope?) them to do.

5. Strip roads are a fiendish device designed to test your ability to cope with skidding in front of an approaching truck.

6. Speed limits are there to be seen and ignored - by too many drivers, especially buses. If you meet one of these, make way for them as they hurtle on to their appointment with destiny.

7. Road blocks are a fact of life. Accept them and be patient, polite and helpful.

8. Enjoy the country. There's great scenery, not much traffic and there is time to savour.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Four: Summer 1998. Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)