We had a couple of days until our son would arrive in Harare, therefore we did a little tour around town to visit some rock art and a botanical garden, before we had to be back to the city. Our first destination was the Ngomakurira Rock Art, which lies in an amazing area of granite rocks north-east of the city.
From the parking we hiked up and into a valley, where a huge overhanging wall preserved some really spectacular rock paintings from the bushmen.
Some people painted over the old rock art, what a shame! Luckily most of the beautiful paintings were still recognisable.
We took the direct route from Ngomakurira to Ewanrigg Botanical Garden, which was a scenic drive on gravel road with only few washed out sections, much better than a tar road with uncountable potholes.
We had read, that the Aloes would be in flower at the moment, so we decided to visit the botanical garden and camp there. It turned out that the camping area was great, and the botanical garden was nice, but could use some more love and care (equals funds).
We drove back to town the next day, doing some shopping, which gave us a real shock when we saw the prices in the supermarkets. It turned out, the government dictates an exchange rate from Zim bonds to US$, which is unrealistic, increasing the prices immensely. From now on, we went only to general dealers in small villages, where the price was reasonable or bought what was on offer along the road: tomatoes, onions, potatoes, fantastic avocados, apples, one time even a big box of blueberries for 2 dollars.
We spoke to a butcheress, who not only sold us great boerewors but also told us, that even the locals avoid the supermarkets and instead have different sources to get what they need.
Harare is an interesting mix of modern city and old infrastructure. Especially the robots (traffic lights) fascinated us. We were never sure, if they did work or not. Sometimes only one colour worked, or only one side, sometimes the lights just hanged there, doing nothing.
We also visited POTRAZ, to get the HAM radio license for Edi, who will activate Zimbabwe on the satellite QO-100 for the community.
In Harare, we spent the night at Grand View Lodge, which really lived up to our expectations concerning the view. The house was built in the 60s and reflects the style of that time.
The next 2 weeks we will be touring Zimbabwe with our son – more soon!