I moved off at first light having made a better plan with my girth system using some leather strips to make a buckle of sorts that I could get a purchase on to tighten the girth better.
Tsedeq’s back leg, just above the hoof, was a little raw from getting caught in the reeds. He wasn’t at all lame but I decided not to ride him for a few days.
My next major obstacle was the Odzi River. I knew I had to head towards the main road to find the old low level bridge. There was no way I wanted another swim!
On the other side I went to the Odzi Club. The swimming pool was a dirty puddle and the roofs around it and on the squash courts were burnt. I went around to where the tennis courts had been and found thorn trees with the girth of an elephant’s leg.
Odzi Club: the derelict swimming pool
Odzi Club: remains of the tennis courts
It started to drizzle so I put Tsedeq’s poncho over the saddle and pack and moved on with a poncho over me. Nightfall was close and I decided to keep moving until the drizzle stopped so that I could set up camp without everything getting wet again.
The ground was all burnt and we hadn’t found grazing for several hours. I saw some grazing and headed off the path I was following.
I was going through more jambanjad farms. Shortly afterwards four people appeared out of the darkness.
“Come to our house,” they invited me. I didn’t feel sure about them but was eventually prevailed upon to come into where they had their goats and four cows.
One of them went into one of the huts and came out with some feed for Tsedeq.
“I need your help,” he said. “I am a poor man. I need a job.”
“I can only pray,” I said. “I don’t have a job for you. I wish I did.”
I said that I needed to keep moving and I headed on through the darkness and drizzle.
After another hour I was exhausted and I put up my tarpaulin, thankful that I had brought it. I had to use my torch for almost the first time on the trek.
It was sandy soil but still rock hard and I was thankful I had listened to my son’s advice and got some substantial pegs.
I ate almost the last scraps of biltong (dried meat) with a bit of bread I had bought in a tuck shop.
The rain came down very heavily through parts of the night and only tailed off towards morning. I remained reasonably dry despite everything still being damp.
Tsedeq with a broken down tobacco barn in the background
(Left) My make-shift tent; (Right) Marsh-infused dried dates!
In the morning I packed up at first light and headed over the hills above the Mutare River ̶ on the opposite side of Christmas Pass where the original old Mutare used to be before the railway was built.
I fell in with a couple of gold panners who took me up a very steep and winding path deep into the hills. They had come from far away to try to find work. There are diggings and little informal mines all through the hills - and especially in the river beds. This is how millions of people survive in modern Zimbabwe. The gold price is high and it makes it worth their while to go digging. The authorities are all in on it and they take their cut for allowing the illegal mining sector to operate. It’s controlled from the very top. The ruling party would have collapsed long ago if it wasn’t for the gold.
I had to remain vigilant. Among the makorokozas (illegal gold miners) there is the usual crime and vice that has always come in gold rush communities. Murder is common. But I have little that anyone wants. My shirt is a mass of repaired rips. My wallet has US$43 in it - mostly in old, very dirty and tattered one dollar bills. My food supply is now almost non-existent. My shoes have very few miles left in them - but enough to get me through the last stretch to the eastern border.
After crossing the railway line I headed through the bush on cattle paths. I eventually came to a stretch of tarmac in the middle of the bush. It was clearly the old Grand Reef Airport runway.
Tsedeq next to the railway line
Every Rhodesian soldier knew of Grand Reef. During the bush war the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) operated from here. Soldiers were sometimes involved with a number of contacts in a single day. It was strange to burst in upon this former hive of military activity and not even find a fence. Tsedeq stopped to graze a few pieces of grass on the runway and we moved on silently - disappearing without a trace, almost as the great soldiers of the 1970s had vanished 43 years ago. In military circles they are still considered some of the most effective soldiers that have ever operated in modern warfare.
Tsedeq grazing some scattered grass on the old Grand Reef runway
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