Flamboyants of Kwekwe Leaving Kwekwe finally is always bittersweet: saying goodbye to the farm and the people and the magnificent flamboyants which welcome the traveler and burn with colour, but knowing that we are homeward bound. We left early, with coffee in the flasks, enjoying the relatively smooth tar through Chegutu and Chinhoyi and Karoi towards our destination in Magunje, past huge empty grain silos. Along the way we pulled over for a coffee refill at Saucy Sue's a ve

The mornings start early and loudly in Zimbabwe, awakening with the sound of profuse bird calls. The Heuglin’s Robin is one of the iconic birds of the country. Although it struts around, black head and white brow, proudly sporting a bright breast as red as the African soil, she is not related at all to the gentle English robin. This robin is a show off with a range of melodic songs to entrance and astound any listener. She can also easily become habituated to selected people,

The road to Gokwe from Kwekwe is very welcome tar after so much dirt road driving. It twists through a landscape pockmarked with informal mining activity; diggings and scratchings in the red earth, leaving mounds like an abandoned cemetery of dreams in the veld. Chinese vehicles and trucks weave around the tracks, evidence of their growing presence. Gokwe is a growing hub of market trading. Houses are springing up, adding pressure to the school places in the town. The main se

The rocky road from Gokwe tumbles down the steep escarpment into the Sessami valley, twisting and turning like a river. Leaving the black “cotton” soils of the high ground, it falls into the brown sands of the valley which stretches out into the distant shimmering horizons towards the Chizara hills and the great Zambezi river. The iconic baobab trees have appeared, sporting their fresh green leaves and bright red flowers. Unexpectedly, a small herd of zebras appear, actually

The first borehole fitted with a solar powered pump by Tzaba is at the church of the Good Shepherd outside Bulawayo. The project began with the intention of using existing boreholes, rather than drilling new ones. We would identify potential candidates through discussions with the various dioceses and Ardez (Anglican Relief and Development in Zimbabwe), carry out a form of pump testing, and install the appropriate equipment and tank as required. In early 2022 we commenced thi

The modern philosopher, Alain de Botton wrote a beguiling book entitled:The Art of Travel. It was welcomed as an honest and entertaining book for armchair travellers. It opens with the sentence: “It is hard to say when exactly winter has arrived.”  In Zimbabwe, November is the month when it is hard to say when the rainy season has started. The crisp blue morning sky can rapidly fill with cumulo-nimbus clouds offering a promise of rain, so desperately needed. But by lunch time

The four girls, dressed smartly in their school uniforms, were chatting gaily as they strolled homeward, carefully trying to keep the red dust off their newly shined shoes. While perhaps in the West they would each be holding the ubiquitous mobile phone in hand, these girls were carrying something much more valuable. Each had a 20 litre bucket of water perfectly balanced on their heads, but even this didn’t hinder their laughing chatter.  They were clearly keen to join their

The road north out of Chivhu quickly lost the tar and turned to gravel interspersed with protrusions of granite and quartzite which required sudden avoidance tactics. Behind one of the granite boulders skulked three police, including one woman, waiting to ambush another Honda Fit overloaded with passengers. It would seem that they are falling back into their old ways of funding their salaries by slapping pointless fines onto drivers…in one case, for not displaying a road lice

The small village of Sunrise nestles at the foot of a towering goma  (hill) clothed with mountain acacia and outcrops of craggy dolerite. We arrived late morning on Saturday after the 2 hour drive from Gweru across the dry semi desert landscape with white dust of the Somabula Flats - which turn to almost impassable mud with the rains. This October, however, has yet to deliver any meaningful showers, although clouds keep building with promise of things to come, keeping hopes a

The crested Barbet ­­­­ The cool of the Zimbabwe evening after the hot day was settling in through the msasa trees, where the scruffy...

I need to tell the story of the small community at St Thomas, Magunje before I finish. We arrived at around midday after a challenging...

Water in Zimbabwe, borehole drilling and Tzaba

Today we drove out on the Enterprise Road, past the most ghastly mansions and hideous displays of wealth I’ve seen to Chikawaka and...

We left the chaotic Harare traffic on the road to Zambia, heading via Banket, Lions Den, Chinoyi and Karoi. Our destination was the...

The rocky track to descend the escarpment into the valley twists and turns downwards through dense green jungle speckled with yellow and...

The new Holy Cross Secondary School at Gokwe The large market town of Gokwe is located at the top of the Zambezi Valley escarpment, about...

On the road... The Secondary School we were visiting lies almost at the heart of the country of Zimbabwe, some 20km north of Chivhu. As...

It is probably a good time to talk about traveling in Zimbabwe. The simple matter of getting into a car to get from A to B. And since I...

Fr Moffat and Fr Dumisa showing where the vegetable garden was. Rangemore is located at the edge of Bulawayo, on wild velt where lions...