The travel to Zimbabwe meant the beginning of the tour to the interior of Africa, from that moment we would begin to travel the continent, by land country by country.
We knew that to travel the 1,000km from Petroria, South Africa to Harare, Zimbabwe by bus, we were expecting a long trip, considering that we have to cross a border, so we were prepared and were not surprised of the 22 hours that the trip lasted, but it caught our attention the 7 hours we were at the border for nothing. Although it was a busy weekend with a lot of movement, we arrived at the border at 9 pm, after an hour and a half all the passengers had their passports sealed and without problems, quite fast considering that we were 45 People, nationals, foreigners, some had to do the visa.
But from this moment began an endless loss of time. First we had to take out of the bus all the luggage and each passenger stayed standing next to the bus with their bags open. After 2 hours the customs inspectors appeared whom, lighting up with the cell phone checked the luggage. Once finished the control we had to accommodate again all the luggage in the car that the bus have behind to carry it.
After this it was already 1 am and although we thought we were ready to continue was not so, instead of getting on the bus we had to walk to the end of the border, the bus came later and we were there standing for two hours, it was a bit of cold so some of the people asked to let enter the bus to the old people at least. Eventually a migration officer arrived and lined up to get on the bus with the passport open on the sheet where we had the entry stamp to Zimbabwe, this man supposedly controlled we all are legally admitted, but instead of looking at the passport while we went up to the bus was looking to the side. In this way we spent 7 hours of supposed controls at the border.
Finally we arrived in Harare around 4pm, as soon as we got off the bus we felt the heat of the city. We went directly to the theater, in the gardens of the city, a large park where besides the theater is the national gallery.
Daves and Tajnia welcome us in Harare. Daves together with his team organized the shows of Mandragora Circus in his theatre, we did set up and rehearsed with the technician a day before and then came the presentations that the public, children, youth and adults, and we also enjoyed a lot.
From Zimbabwe, among other things, call out attention the amount of giant trees, everywhere, in the city, in the neighborhoods, in the parks.
The journey through Zimbabwe continued to the city of Bulawayo, in the south of the country, 8 hours by bus. Mzitho and George welcome us there. The first day they taken us to tour the city, we went to a neighborhood where there is a market of handmade tools. Also market for handicrafts, traditional medicines and fruits and vegetables.
Walking between the streets of the neighborhood ended up in a sort of square where, because it was Saturday morning was full of men sitting by groups in different parts drinking “Beer” (actually a local drink, fermented of barley with very acid taste)
After getting our drink we sat next to a group of gentlemen, chosen at random, who immediately accepted our company. We started to chat and also they chatted with our friends in their local language. The conclusion they drew is that at the end of the count they already knew each other before, because one lived close to where the other was born and another was related to a relative and so this is in Africa “we are all from the same family” they told us.
We presented 3 show in 2 different places in Bulawayo, every day more and more people were arriving to the shows.
We went to see Victoria Falls, on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. From the small and tourist town of Victoria Falls we juts walked to the National Park where the falls are.
And was time to follow the travel through Africa, it already felt normal to be the only “whites” on the bus, to see how people carry their luggage or whatever in their heads without problems, as everything is sold on the streets, the smiles and feeling that we are all one family.