Zimbabwe - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 275

massive outcrops of rocks that looked like mountains with immense individual boulders
that dwarfed me. At a road side eatery, I spent my last money on a soft drink and sat with
a truck driver to chat. I asked him if I could buy some Zimbabwean dollars from him but
said he didn't have that many. Instead, he bought me another three Cokes as we continued
our lengthy conversation.
I thanked him and bid him farewell as I left to continue to the next town called
Ngundu. There was a Catholic Mission there and as I waited for the rector I met two cyc-
lists, Eric Van de Zande and his girlfriend. What a small world it was. In their travels of
South Africa, they met Erik Lee Schoen (Broken Wheels), the American I cycled with in
GuineaandCôted'Ivoire.Theysaidhewasdoingwellandwasingoodspirits.Beforethey
left, I bought some Zimbabwe dollars from them and said good-bye as they headed off to
Zambia.
The church's catechist, Britto Dzingai arrived and he welcomed me to stay. I took a
shower and quickly changed. Then I ate dinner with him and took him out for dessert and
drinksafterwards.WhenIreturnedtomyroom,Ihoppedintomysleepingbagforarestful
night. It turned out to be a rough night for sleeping. The mosquitoes were out in full force
andsomeofthelittlebastardsmanagedtogetundermynet.So,needlesstosay,thesunrise
was a beautiful thing to see.
Aftereatingsomecakeforbreakfast,Ipushedoff.Thefirst15kilometreswereper-
haps the most beautiful that I have seen in Zimbabwe. I cycled through huge expanses of
meadows surrounded by mountains in the distance…truly a Kodak moment. As soon as I
passed the Runde River near the village of Lundi, I entered ranch country. I paused at the
rivertotakeintheviewofthesunreflectedofftheriverandthemountains…stupidbroken
camera. Anyway, from this point onward, every subsequent river I passed was dry. I really
wondered how the local people in the area coped.
I arrived in Rutenga, a main railway hub, and bought some cheese, yoghurt, cake
and popcorn. I relaxed for a bit before pressing on to Mwenezi. When I arrived in the vil-
lage of Bubi, I was going to set up camp across from the Lion and Elephant Hotel but
decided to move on instead. I kept cycling until sunset and stopped 43 kilometres before
Beitbridge. Eric and his girlfriend recommended that I stay at the school off the main road
just like they did the previous night.
The Matshiloni School was easy to find and when I arrived at the main gate, a sign
outside read that it was built through CIDA funding (Canada's aid agency.) I was meant to
stay there. I was welcomed by a few schoolteachers and was given permission to sleep in
one of their classrooms. As I was preparing my air mattress and sleeping bag on top of the
students' desks, I looked around the room. The way it was set up and decorated reminded
me so much of a typical classroom in Toronto, it was full of colour with many pictures and
diagrams posted on the wall.