Rode in the rain for an hour and it was chilly , got into Tete and saw a Shoprite which I had to visit just to look at the food , was unbelievable what you can buy. Arrived to early , so pushed on to Harare for the night. Had no problems , did not ride in police convoy and Renamo wasn't around thankfully.
Crooked into Zimbabwe, only used a Carnet and no other fees. Except the 3 clowns in the tent from Interpol did not want me to proceed cause I did not have a police clearance for my bike. I was done with them and we went round and round , common sense does not work with these buffoons and I was so irate with them they finally just said " You can go now." No bribes from me. Every 25 km. they have police blocks, it's unreal. Arrived in Harare in the dark and found the campsite, same one from 5 years ago. ($10 to camp) Took 10hrs and was 563 km. To late for dinner, but had a lekker cup of tea and 2 Ouma rusks , what more do you really need ?
Left Harare this morning drove through town and all is peaceful, just another day , no police or army army around at all. Got caught doing 117 km in an 80km zone , so was a $20 fine , but explained to the officer I didn't have any money, cause the ATMs here have no money. He could not understand how I could not have any money , so he let me go. Three police blocks down , I thought he was waving me through so I passed him and realized he wanted me to stop. So I turned around and came back , and they became unglued with me, that I did not follow a police command and must now pay a fine. So went through the whole process again , but these two guys were adamant and they told me to go to Pick n Pay and I can get money there and come back and pay them, I told them that would not work and finally they let me go. Was stopped several more times just for my license , which is an old expired one but none of them have picked up on it yet. Got to Masking and then went to the ruins and stayed at Norma Jean's Lakeview Resort which is one of the finest campsites thus far in every way ($13) . The place is like a botanical garden and the ablutions are spotless, like a 5 star hotel's. She even sent the waiter down to me with some bread and custard pudding , once again am blown away by the kindness of all the people I meet.
But she said this is high season and there is no one here , the South Africans have stopped coming according to her because of the police harassment and the border issues.
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