Day 5: Tuesday 4th February: Camp Africa to Great Zimbabwe Ruins (near Masvingo). End Odo 2366

Today is the official start of the trip and we mosey down the mountain to take photos with the local news hack then set off to (the notorious) Beitbridge Border Post with Zimbabwe. It takes about an hour and half to reach the border and then an hour and a half to get through (which is apparently quite good) - only one s***ty official who initially gives us only 3 (or 7) days in country when we ask for 30. We have him change 2 of the passports (Dave's and Karlien's) but Brian, Sue, Lyn and I write a 1 in front of the 7 days (which is what the official did anyway) and we go on. The Zimbabwe side of the border post itself is much worse than the RSA side (and that's no pretty picture).

On the way to Norma Jean's camp site down the road from The Ruins we go through several road blocks and Brian gets a US$40 fine for now having the white and red stickers on his bumpers. The Toll roads are still 1 dirty dollar and we go through 2 today. The countryside is very green and the granite outcrops spectacular, but it looks like there's no power today anywhere. As usual we see lots of schools and school-kids - they may be poor but they're getting an education.

The weather's still "iffy" but I managed a few km on the bike around Lake Kyle this evening.