I stood on a narrow strip of earth jutting out from the plateau, almost 200 meters above the Runde river. One slip – just one easy slip of my foot on a loose stone as I moved around my tripod to take a photographs to create a panorama – and I would plummet a 100 meters down to the foot of the forbidding Chilojo hills to be utterly broken on the sharp rocks far below.
of frustrating waiting in the slow moving queues, lifeless eyes of border officials and irritating runners (called fixers) wanting a bribe to take your passport to the front of the queue to be stamped by their profit-sharing partner.
I breathed deeply of the wild African air. It was alive with the smell of the bush and I smiled.
We were pleasantly surprised to come across someone who drove up through the Kruger Park, exited South Africa at Pafuri into Mozambique, crossed the Limpopo and entered Zimbabwe at the Sango border post.
Once again, I was on an annual pilgrimage with my friends to the last wild places of Africa. This year, it is Gonarezhou in Southern Zimbabwe.
We were going to do the same: in at Balule gate and never leaving the game reserves of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
We never considered coming here because of our extreme allergy to the Beit Bridge border post: hours
This is how we did it. Volume 4 Issue 6 AFRICAN EXPEDITION MAGAZINE | 27