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Adventures with Kingsley Holgate - Extreme East 3 - The Africa We Love

Adventures with Kingsley Holgate - Extreme East 3 - The Africa We Love

Author: Kingsley Holgate
Date: 2018-07-20

Following the old Zimbabwe-Maputo railway line to Chicualacuala is a memory lane of past expeditions as we enter Gonarezhou ('place of elephants' in Shona) in South Eastern Zimbabwe. We're already putting the new Discos to the test, wading them across the sandy expanses of the Runde and Save Rivers to set up a base camp under the old Leadwood trees below the beautiful Chilojo Cliffs that glow golden-red at sunset.

Elephants are everywhere; massive baobabs are scarred by their tusks and the dry land crisscrossed by hundreds of well-worn elephant paths. It seems so timeless and at night, the sounds of the wild mingle with our laughter around the hardwood fire. This is the Africa we love - we could stay for days, but Ras Xaafun is calling and Ross is constantly searching for a cell phone signal to link to Bashir in Somalia.

We say pick up adventurer Graham Madsen in Harare, who's joining us for the stretch into Zambia. On the road to Kariba, we set up camp at the Chinhoyi Caves - haven't been there for years - first written about by Frederick Courtney Selous.

The resident baboons seem to delight in dislodging rocks from the overhang above as we descend the 150 stone steps to the deep-blue subterranean pools below. The once flourishing tourist town of Kariba feels dead as we shop for supplies with our remaining Zim Bonds and get sweets and matches as change.

We cross into Zambia over the Kariba dam wall; it's the 'suicide season' but despite temperatures in the mid-40's, it's great to be back in the Lower Zambezi National Park - on the river at sunset, elephants and grunting hippo, the campfire at night.

Next morning, we conduct eye-tests and hand out Rite to Sight reading glasses to elderly villagers on the banks of the Zambezi, then grind for hours up the rocky escarpment to join the Great East Road, which takes us to Lake Malawi and then onto Iringa in Tanzania, before dropping down through dust and corrugations to the banks of Tanzania's Great Ruaha River.