1981 - Family Trip #1 - Koningswinter/Drachenfels

Sunday 29 March 1981 -  Bad Godesburg

We all woke up early despite the fact that we lost an hour last night as the clocks moved from winter time to summer time. Since it was Jan's birthday, we had a cooked breakfast of ham and scrambled egg with "toast". Rather difficult, the latter, without a toaster or a grill and with very unusual bread. 

We finally set out just after ten and caught a bus down to the river. It was a beautiful Spring morning and we walked along the bank for about one and half kilometres, admiring the view. There were some beautiful (and very large houses - mainly embassies, being so close to Bonn - and clubs. There were a lot of Bonners about - just strolling like us or riding their bicycles along the cycle track which runs alongside the river right to Koblenz. I would love to try the ride sometime.

 

Koningswinter Castle

We caught an auto ferry, to Matt's delight, across the river to Koningswinter and, after strolling about the town, caught the rack and pinion train to the summit of Drachenfels. I was a bit disappointed to find that electricity had replaced steam as the motive power, although I do not know how the old puffing billy made the trip! An alternative route up is by donkey and we were hoping that Matt could have a ride down, but there were no mokes at the summit.

Rab and Jan stroll down the hill

The view from up there was magnificent although there was a bit of a haze, so we couldn't take photographs. There is a modern restaurant there as well as the ruins of an old castle, which was very interesting. We all walked down to the Schloss Drachenfel, half way down, which I would like to have looked around, but which the party decided was not worth Dm4 (R1.60) a head. Rab and Jan caught the train down, while Matt and I walked, which was very pleasant. We passed several donkeys coming up the hill, but none going down.

We met the girls at the bottom of the hill and decided to look for food, as it was after three and we had not eaten since breakfast, apart from an ice cream and some Bobby Pop - popcorn with a honey flavour. We found that all the reasonable restaurants were closed, so we decided to press on down to the river if we could get a ride on a riverboat. There was one boat operating, which didn't unfortunately go down to Bad Godesburg, but we went upstream to Roland's Arch. We had a beer and some salt sticks on the boat, which quieted our hunger and enjoyed the trip thoroughly.

Matt on the Rhine

Matt and I stayed on deck most of the time and managed to fight off all attempts to take over our spots. We all have a laugh about this German trait which Jan identified. Wherever you are, standing or sitting, it won't be long before a local comes along who wants that precise spot - and only that one will do! From the ferry we caught a tram heading down river and after de-tramming and having a stroll through a suburb of Koningswinter, caught another car ferry back to Bad Godesburg, found a bus leaving in five minutes, and so home.

Again the weary and infirm decided against eating out, so we had sausage and pea puree  with salads. After dinner (at 19.30) Matt and Jan and I went for a walk in the forest - Matt riding on Jan's landlord's bicycle, which he loved. we got back at 20.30, just as dusk was falling.

An excellent opening to our first overseas trip as a family.

1981 - Family Trip #1 - London/Bad Godesburg

 

I went to London on business and to attend a Management Course at Ashridge College near Birkhamstead. My journal for that part of the journey is business related, so this starts series starts at the end of that course ahead of meeting Matt and Rab in Germany.

We were still living in South Africa, waiting for the formalities to be completed before we moved to Zimbabwe. Exchange control regulations were such that we could not use credit cards outside South Afric and we were limited to a foreign exchange allowance of R10,000 each per annum. Most South Africans who travelled took their full allowance and deposited any unspent balance in  hard currency account, although this was illegal.  

The South African Rand and the Zimbabwe dollar were on a par. The rates against  US dollar and sterling were about R1.00:US$1.25 and about R1.00:£0.60p.

Saturday 28 March 1981 -  London/Bad Godesburg

Time rushed by at Ashridge and we had a lot of fun. I had to give the speech at the final dinner and everyone congratulated me afterwards, so I suppose it cannot have been too bad - at least it was short! Another course was finishing  on the same day as we were, so we had a combined dinner. I was glad I spoke first, because their speaker, who followed me, was very good indeed. We had a splendid PU after dinner, which finally broke up at about 03.30, with me and a chap called Bob Hancock assisting Malcolm Davies to the door of his room. After breakfast the next day - yesterday actually - I set off with John McNamara who had offered to take me to Heathrow since he didn't live far away at Gerrard's Cross.

It was a beautiful day and quite warm, so we drove with the sun roof open. It was the first really warm weather I had in England. Most of the time we were at Ashridge it was drizzling or over cast and it even snowed for two days - not heavily, but just enough to put down a thin layer, which melted quite quickly. There were a couple of days when it stopped raining when a bunch of us walked down to the local pub at Little Neasden and had lunch there which was a nice break. We also went for a walk of about 7 1/2 miles on the Sunday afternoon when we were confined to College for a working weekend. The weather didn't bother me, but I would have liked to see a bit more of the countryside, which was lovely and very English.

John took me back to his house to meet his wife, Marion. Their house was only built last year and was, I gather, rather expensive. The ceiling was so low that I could put my hand flat on it and the lights hit me about mid-forehead. Anyway, it was kind of him to give me a lift. After a cup of coffee, we went on to Heathrow and I got there about 12.00 - very early for my flight which only left at 14.05, but as there was a threat of union action, I didn't want to take any chances.

We got off almost on time - there was a bit of delay because only one runway was being used and we had to queue for about ten minutes. As we were right next to the runway, we had a very good view of the aircraft as they came in. I was on a British Airways Tri-Star, which was really scruffy on the outside and as tatty on the inside - makes you realise how clean SAA aircraft are. The departure lounge was a bit decrepit and I couldn't get a Coke or a fruit drink because they had run out! (I realise now, on reading this old entry that my poor view of British Airways has been there a long time.)

The flight was good and I had a nice view of the British and French coastlines as we crossed the Channel. It was lovely seeing Rab and Matt again. We took a taxi from the airport to Jan's house at Bad Godesburg. It is a lovely old place and has a marvellous view of the Rhine Valley. We had dinner at the local pub, just around the corner - typical German fare and delicious it was too. It was a lovely day yesterday and when we woke up this morning, it still looked promising, so after a nice Continental breakfast, we set off  for Bonn.

Matt meets the barrel organ

We started off by bus to Reinallee station on the tram line. We didn't have to wait long for the tram to start and, after cashing a  travellers cheque we set out for Rosenthals shop via all sorts of little shops on the way and an encounter with a barrel organ - a sure sign that Spring had arrived according to a passerby. We saw the organ grinder later in the morning, gazing with apparent admiration at a one-legged accordion player.

Matt with a propriety hand on the toy shop van

The weather remained mild all day and, apart from some minor disagreements as to purchases, we had a good time. We went to the toy shop, which Matt had already discovered - Poppet Koenigen - and I must say it was marvellous - better than Hamleys in London, but on a smaller scale. I tried out an Abby Dog from a sidewalk vendor and we also had some doughnuts (probably berliners as in "Ich bin ein Berliner" as JFK said to the amusement of the crowd) which were very nice. 

The family at Beethoven's House

We had lunch in an old pub near Beethoven's house and the meal was lovely - Matt and I shared a dish of marinated beef with potato dumplings (Reinische sauerbrauten mit kartoffelklosser) and Rab and Jan had a dish of beans and gammon with boiled potatoes. After lunch we wandered down to the river near Kennedy Bridge and caught a ferry across to the other bank, where we had an ice cream and a stroll and then just sat and watched the traffic on the river.

At the moment the river is flowing very strongly and is very high indeed - I reckon 10/15 feet above "normal", so the barges heading upstream were making rather heavy weather, whilst those going down were moving pretty rapidly. We were all a bit tired so we didn't go out for a meal - just had cold meat, cheese etc with some Pils. After supper, we sampled some liqueurs which I bought during the morning and decided that one - Cuja-Cuja, made from granadillas (passion fruit) - was well worth having.

Matt, Terry and Jan down by the river

1980 - ZIMBABWE Exploratory Visit - Back to Salisbury

Thursday December 11, 1980 –Vumba back to Harare

A lovely spot - with a grumpy man!

We woke up early as usual to find that it was a lovely day. We waited for the drum to summon us to breakfast, but never heard it, so eventually went down and had a very nice meal. We went for a stroll around the property after we had eaten and watch the beautiful little honeysuckers flitting amongst the fuchsias which made a beautiful background. We also greeted the geese which hadn’t actually got going – having a late sleep in. There were some very large granadilla (passion fruit) vines growing over one of the msasa trees and I hoped to pick a bit of the fruit, but unfortunately there was none that was ripe.

We left quite early as Eric had phoned to say that he wanted to see me when we get back to Salisbury – and indeed I want to see him to open discussions on the details of the proposed move, although most of these will be resolved with Mike Newman in Johannesburg.

We stopped off in Mutare on the way at the Jairos Jiri shop. This has been set up to help disabled people , especially those damaged by the war. We bought a covered basket to carry all the groceries we have bought which will also serve as a basket for Bunny. No one pays any attention to the speed limit so we did the journey in a little under two hours. (I see Google maps say it is about 260 km/155 miles and suggest a time of four hours twenty two minutes! Seems the road has deteriorated or the traffic volume has built up). There didn’t seem to be so many crows on the way – perhaps they saw us coming or perhaps the best meals had already been taken.

It was fine weather all the way although we could see some storms in the distance. We thought we might hit a massive storm by the time we got to Salisbury, but the weather headed North and it didn’t even rain.

I went in to the office to see Eric to start negotiations and Rab took the opportunity to have a snooze. Hope she doesn’t find the altitude a problem when we are here permanently. While I was there Rab spoke to Matt who had been having a good time but who seemed a bit  disappointed that we will be coming to live here.

Postscript

As is often the case with my journals I failed to cover the last day or two. There was always so much to do when we got home. Although we had made our decision to go up to Zimbabwe, it took a bit longer than that to deal with all the bureaucracy to do with getting work and residence permits. Files were lost and recovered and finally we set off on 29 July 1981.

Before we left on this next exciting stage of our lives, we shared the first of many overseas trips, the first of which was in April 1981 and which is the subject of the next journal, which follows this one.

We had quite an adventure on the way to Zimbabwe when the hotel where we were overnighting at in my home town, East London, caught fire. This event was captured well by Matt with one of his early cartoons and Rab had this to say in an extract from a letter to her pals back in Cape Town:

We were staying at the Holiday Inn in East London. I had not wanted to book in there because I knew from past experience that there were some very rough types who hung around there – bikies and the like, but Terry said it was easier to make a booking there because we were staying in another hotel in the Group in Johannesburg.

On Saturday night we got back to the hotel a little after midnight after a great night out with Terry’s cousins who live in East London. There were fewer skollies (rednecks/bogans) than there were last night but they were all blind drunk and the dregs of humanity, milling around the hotel entrance so we had to push our way into the building and into the lift. Matt and Terry got into bed while I took off my make-up so it would have been about 12.40 and we were all dozing off to sleep when there was  thundering of footsteps down the passage outside our room and then a banging and shouting which I took to be a fight in the corridor of our floor. With that I grabbed the phone and tried to call the front desk as I was darned if I would put up with these hooligans brawling outside our room, intending to call the police if the management would not do anything. No one answered the phone and Terry suggested that the people were likely to be drunk and that maybe it was a family brawl when we heard a woman’s voice shouting “Oh, my God, get the children out of here!”

There was more banging on doors and thumping noises when Matt suddenly sat up and turned on the bedside light and started to cry, saying “Mom, Mom, it’s a fire, it’s a fire!” Terry and I were both still convinced it was drunken hooligans fooling around at this stage but we thought we’d better investigate. Getting Matt up (still crying and shaking) and putting his track suit top over his pyjamas, I grabbed the first thing I could find – Terry’s anorak which I put over my nightie – it reached about eight inches above my knees. Then I grabbed my handbag and my jewellery which I had put in a Holiday Inn ashtray (kept as a souvenir). Terry was still half asleep as he pulled a pair of denim shorts over his shortie pyjamas and was ready to go when I asked him “What about the passports?”. He picked up his briefcase with all our documents in it (but left his wallet) and we opened the door into the corridor.

There was chaos out there. A young bloke was telling everyone to go for the Fire Escape. We scuttled off down the corridor, Matt  clutching his goldfish, Eric, in a bowl under his arm, still crying and shaking, with me babbling that it was all a hoax and I’d be writing to the MD of the Holiday Inn Group. Other people were carrying their suitcases which made me start to think that maybe there was a genuine fire but the fact that there had been no alarm and such a lack of organisation and control kept me wondering. Poor old Terry was even barefoot.

Matt's view of the Disaster!

When we got downstairs to the car park at the back of the building there was still nothing to see but Ter went over to the entrance to get the car and when Matt and I looked up at the rooms we saw huge clouds of smoke billowing out of the top of the building. By this stage Ter had driven over to pick us up and hadn’t seen the smoke. I’m sure he thought I was exaggerating when I said “Let’s get out of here.” As we drove around the side of the building, we saw the Fire Engines and the entire reception, lounge and dining room areas a blazing inferno. I got the shivers and my teeth started chattering as we drove across the road to park and watch the developments. After we had been there about half an hour, Ter decided we had better find another hotel for the rest of the night, which we did, booking in at the Kings which used to be a very nice, even posh, hotel but which was now even worse than the Holiday Inn – depressing, tatty rooms – just dreadful. After we had checked in we went back to watch the fire, but Terry, thinking of the long drive ahead, suggested we try to get some sleep so we went back to the Kings. As we arrived there we could hear the glass windows exploding back at the Holiday Inn. When we got into bed I really started to shiver and shake and my heart was pounding like mad but we finally got to sleep for a few hours, waking at about 06.00.

We had a coffee and then Ter went over to the Inn to try and retrieve our luggage – I had visions of spending Sunday in a nightie, sandals and Ter’s anorak with no bra or make-up! The firemen let him into the building as fortunately the fire had not spread to the accommodation so that was a bit of luck. He brought back what he could manage and then we all went over to pick up the rest of our goods. Just as well as the weather had turned a lot cooler so I hate to think how I would’ve felt in just my nightie The entire place was awash with water and all the doors had been jemmied open – I suppose to make sure that they were vacated. When chatting to the firemen who had been on duty all night they said they thought the fire had started in one of the bars, which didn’t really surprise me. I suppose this experience is just part of life’s rich pageant.

1980 - ZIMBABWE Exploratory Visit - Inyanga and Vumba

Thursday December 11, 1980 – Inyanga and the Vumba

We were up bright and early as we intended leaving soon after 07.00 for Inyanga and the Vumba. We were first in for breakfast soon after 06.30 and did get away soon after 07.00 despite a small delay at the cashier as they took a bit of time to sort out the account.

It was overcast and drizzling but we made our way through Salisbury’s morning rush hour without too much trouble and were soon belting along the open road. (Duncan McBean had warned us about the rush hour, but it was only two or three blocks long – not quite what we were used to in Cape Town). There was very little traffic  outside of the city limits and the car went well. the countryside was lovely and green and there were lots of fat cattle to be seen – but not much else, apart from the massive anthills that are a feature of the countryside (actually built by termites rather than ants they can be up to 25 feet high) and many crows snacking off the road kill from the previous night.

We turned off the main road to Umtali (now Mutare) at Rusape and made for Inyanga. After calling at the Warden’s office to check on the state of the roads, we went to Mare Dam. We had stayed there soon after the dam was built and the chalets were still there. Rab rather liked the look of them. There are boats for hire and a number of people were rowing about the lake and fishing – the rivers are stocked with trout.

 

Mare Dam, Inyanga - a peaceful spot with happy memories

High on the hill above Mare Dam is one of the many ‘forts’ that, together with the so-called ‘slave-pits’ dot the Inyanga countryside. These structures are dry stone, as are the terraces on some of the hills, but there is no verbal history as to who built them, when – or why in the case of the ‘slave pits' in particular. 

Part of the 'fort' above the dam.

The forts have what appear to be embrasures suitable for firearms, which is odd, given their apparent age. The occur throughout this region, all within sight of each other on hilltops, so presumably served some messaging function. The current theory on the ‘slave-pits’ is that the animals – goats and small cattle were herded into these pits with the owners living in a hut built over the pit.

From the fort we headed for Inyanga Village to get a drink and then went on to Troutbeck Inn, one of the hotels in the region. I didn’t think much of it, but Rab thought it was quite nice. There have been many changes since I was last in Inyanga especially the roads which are now all tarred. Most were dirt when we used to come up here – making for difficult driving in the wet season. Having said that, we decided to head for Umtali along the Scenic Drive, which is still a dirt road, although it is in good condition. The views were terrific and although it continued to rain on and off, we still saw a good deal of the countryside.

We got to Umtali just before 13.00 and filled up the car. We had a brief look around and saw plenty of old military vehicles – there was a lot of fighting in this area during the war as it is close to Mozambique – but not much else so we pushed on to the Vumba and Leopard Rock Hotel. The hotel was a pleasant  surprise for us. 

 

First sight of Leopard Rock Hotel

As we rounded a bend at the bottom of a valley there it was, looking like a French Chateau – almost. The hotel was built during and after World War II by Italian prisoners of war. It is laid out in an unusual way – somewhat higgledy piggledy – but has some unusual and beautiful woodwork, including some inlaid ebony. Don’t know how they managed to work that – it is such hard wood.

Rab relaxes in the hotel lounge

The children’s playroom looked a lot of fun with a slide out of a castle and incorporating a very large boulder with a cave to hide in – and so on. The grounds are beautiful and there are flowers everywhere. The views are great too – looking across to the mountains which are the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. 

 

The view from the hotel across to the border

Many of the windows of the hotel still have grenade screens on them and there are still some unpatched bullet holes from the night attacks launched during the war, a stark reminder of how dangerous it was here at that time.

Rab and the 'friendly' geese

After we had unpacked we had a stroll around and visited the geese in their pond. Rab was a bit wary of them, but they were very friendly.

In the fullness of time, a beaten drum summoned us to dinner, which was excellent and which included guinea fowl. With nothing much to do in the evening we had an early night. It was pretty nippy but we unearthed a heater which warmed up the room for Rab. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret stayed here during the Royal Visit in 1953 and we think we might have got their suite – it is certainly a very posh one. 

 

We have decided that the move to Zimbabwe is on.

1980 - ZIMBABWE Exploratory Visit - Last day in Salisbury

Wednesday December 10, 1980 – Salisbury

Woke up early as usual and phoned Matt. We got through quickly, so he was still asleep. He still sounds happy having been to miniature golf and Smokey II yesterday.

Rab on left with Ros (seated) about 1960

The weather was very overcast and it rained most of the day today. We visited Marilyn Hartley, the sister of Ros a good friend of Rab’s who travelled with her in Europe. She has a lovely house in Highlands – and two yapping fox terriers plus a house servant whose name was Cigarette. After coffee with her we popped in at the local supermarket – this one called TM. They were by coincidence having a special on tambala nuts so we bought four kilos, surely enough to last us for a long, long time. (it is difficult to understand this apparent obsession with tambala nuts from this distance. They were very big, very tasty, but heck, when all was said and done they were just peanuts!) We also bought some local marmalade for Matt.

I had to hurry back to the hotel because I was down to take some of the staff to the Christmas Party which was to be held at the Royal Salisbury Golf Club, while Rab had lunch with Deirdre. The party was happy and good fun, although there were some aspects that concerned me somewhat. The concept of multi-racial parties was in its infancy and the black staff had been given no background information about the food which would be on the buffet or how to eat it. There was a deal of sniggering among the whites at some of the inappropriate choices. (This event came back to me some years later when Rab and I ordered a meal in Singapore and could not identify the dishes or how we were to eat them.)The staff gave Eric a beer mug and a parrot for his present on the basis that since he now had a boat, he needed a parrot – “Every sailor needs a parrot”. Not a live one of course but one made of wool and material. As I left the Club I saw the ‘lawnmowers’ on the polo field, which had created a bit of laughter during the lunch. A flock of between twenty and thirty sheep who keep the grass short enough. They started using the sheep instead of a lawnmower when petrol rationing was introduced during the War.

I got back from the lunch at about 15.00 and after getting some funds from the office for our trip tomorrow – we are going to stay at Leopard Rock – we went to visit Mrs McMillan. Ros’ mother. She lives in a block of flats and is on the fourth floor. The passage to get to her flat gave me the willies because it was only guarded by a low railing and as it was wet polished concrete, I could just imagine myself slipping and crashing over the railing. Her flat was full of paintings, all her own work, which seemed to us to reflect colours that did no occur in nature.

Leaving her to her art we went on to the McBeans for dinner and had a lovely evening catching up on family news. We also watched the Dave Allen Show – banned in South Africa for blasphemy - on TV with them which we thoroughly enjoyed  and then headed back to the hotel to pack.

1980 - ZIMBABWE Exploratory Visit - Salisbury#4

Tuesday December 9, 1980 – Salisbury

It looked as if it might rain when we woke up this morning and sure enough it did, but not the heavy thunderstorms which I remember from my youth. Just a heavy shower every now and then.

After breakfast I went around to the Tourist Association to pick up some maps of Inyanga and the Vumba so we could find our way around and then we set off to find the Company House which it has been suggested might be suitable for us to live in if we come up here. We had a bit of trouble getting the address out of  Eric and when we found the place it was not surprising. It is in Rhodesville and only just off Samora Machel Road East – not a very nice area at all. It is not suitable at all and we will have to try to find another one if we come up here.

We were a little early for our appointment at St John’s so stopped off at the Chisipite Shopping Centre. We had a chat with a very nice butcher about the price of meat, which seems much cheaper than at home and bought some stamps for a pal of ours who collects them. Rab saw an enormous moth – about nine inches across – with big “eyes” on the wings, similar to ones we had seen on a recent TV programme. It was still alive otherwise we would have picked it up to show Matt. (This reminded me of the occasion when my folks were entertaining an English business visitor. One of these moths flew into the lounge and landed on the wall near to him. He was really scared and my Mom offered to take his place, an offer he accepted with alacrity. This merely reinforced in my Mom’s mind what cowards the English were (apart from my Dad of course). If the moth was so dangerous how could he allow a woman to move into the danger zone?)

 

St John's School, Salisbury

The principal of St John’s – Mr Bowden – could not have been nicer. The school is very small – only twenty five in a class and although he could not promise anything, he would do his best. He knows Dauncy well (Dauncy was the headmaster at Matt’s school in Cape Town.). We felt much better after seeing him and then went on to Highlands School. Once again Mr Yates – call me Percy – was so friendly. He talked the hind leg off a donkey and said he would be only to pleased to take Matt, although he would have very stiff competition as his Standard 3A class was a very bright bunch. (Matt did attend Highlands School when we moved to Salisbury and was very unhappy there, but not because he couldn’t cope. In fact he found that he was ahead of the class in most subjects.)

With the question of schooling settled for the moment, we went back to town to have a look at a place called The Market which had all manner of interesting things in it – all the work of Africans. Rab wouldn’t let me buy anything because she says we have enough junk already. Boo Hoo! (This was to be a recurring theme over the years of our travels. I would spot something I thought would be an attractive souvenir, but there was never room  for that. On the other hand, there might be room for Rab’s choice. This resulted in some  subterfuge where I would casually draw her attention to an item and walk away. I knew her taste, I knew she’d buy the item.)

There was a restaurant called Bombay Duck nearby and we picked up a couple of takeaway curries and dashed back to the car between showers. We ate in the car and as it seemed to have stopped raining, we fed the parking meter and went to explore more shops and prices.  We had misjudged the rain so I had to nip back to get the car to pick up Rab. She had only been to the hairdresser to have her hair done this morning and certainly didn’t want to get it wet. We had managed to buy some bits and pieces for various people but had less luck in getting lottery tickets for the January draw for the ladies at work because they will not be on sale until Friday.

Our next stop was the Customs Department to find out about bringing our cars, our household goods and our small zoo into the country. They confirmed that there would be no problems and no quarantine for the animals. (At that stage we had two Siamese cats, two spaniels, a rabbit and a goldfish) and so back to the hotel for coffee and pigs ears (Palmiers: Schweineohren: Oreilles de Cochon) with cream – a rest for Rab and writing up this journal for me.

In the evening Frank Cross and his wife Monica came to the hotel and we had a few drinks with them. After they left we went along to the Pink Panther for a steak. Rab was a bit worried about eating there because the décor was somewhat tatty, but the food was excellent. We got back to the hotel early to watch TV but Rab fell asleep again, which was probably the best thing to do because one of the shows “The Nurses” was made in 1982 and was dreadful.

1980 - ZIMBABWE Exploratory Visit - Salisbury#3

Monday December 8, 1980 - Salisbury

I woke up at about 04.30 this morning worrying about what we should do – come up here? Stay in Cape Town, knowing that if we chose the latter option the pressure would come to move to Johannesburg? Was Salisbury a better option than Johannesburg? Round and round for about an hour, finally getting back to sleep at about 05.30.

When the coffee arrived the day was bright and sunny, but it clouded over and although still warm, there was not much sign of the sun. Before we had our breakfast, we phoned Matt who sounded very chirpy and seemed to be kept quite busy.

I popped into the office to collect some money and to sort out our bookings. (It was illegal to take Zimbabwe dollars out of the country and credit cards were unknown so we had to obtain funds locally.) Although we had initially thought of going to Victoria Falls, as both of us had been there as children and had good memories of the wonderful sight that the Falls make, we were told that this was the wrong time of the year. With all the water pouring over from the heavy rains, the mist would be so thick we wouldn’t be able to see anything. So we decided to drive up to Vumba and Inyanga instead. (This area of Zimbabwe is about 500 feet higher than Salisbury/Harare and afforded a cool relief during the hot season before the rains.)

After leaving the office we had a look at a couple more shops including Meikles and Sanders. We both thought they were better shops than Barbour’s and Meikles even had some toys. Not many, but more than Barbour’s. Matchbox cars are $2.05 each. We bought a couple of things there – presents for the Crones and Catherine. After dropping off our purchases, we picked up the car and went to deliver the parcel we had brought to Mrs Howard – she lives in a row of flats called Seven Dwarfs. (Neither Rab nor I have any idea who Mrs Howard was – I only left this piece in because of the name of the residences!) She had a funny little dog called Anneline who everyone called Bitsa because she was made up of “bits of this and bits of that” – a real Heinz 57.

Leaving Mrs Howard and Bitsa we went out to St Georges again, but couldn’t see anyone as they were all at lunch. We went down to Hartman House (the Junior School  to St Georges) but it certainly was not as nice looking as St John’s. To kill a bit of time until the School Secretary  came back from lunch we drove out to Borrowdale Shopping Centre but found all the shops closed for lunch. An estate agent was open and we spoke to them about house prices. They seem very low – one house with a swimming pool and a tennis court was sold recently for $30,000.

From there we went on to the National Botanic Gardens where different plants from the various parts of Zimbabwe grow in separated areas. Rab didn’t feel much like too much walking and it was pretty hot but it would be interesting to spend a bit more time out there some time.

Some of the abandoned military vehicles we saw all over the country

Back we went to St Georges and finally saw the Secretary, Brother McArdle who was very rude and indifferent despite my being an ‘old boy’. I walked out of his office in the end because he just could not care less about enrolling Matt. So we headed for town via the Salisbury gardens so that I could show Rab the miniature Victoria Falls there, as she will not be seeing the genuine thing on this trip. I cannot recall the scale to which it is constructed, probably 1:100 but we used to love watching it when we were kids. It is about thirty foot across and ten foot high and sprays blow out a fine mist from the bottom of the Falls so that rainbows are formed in the same way they are at the proper Falls.

We had a toasted sandwich and an iced coffee but didn’t look around the gardens because Rab was feeling tired and wanted to get her feet up. The altitude was getting her, I think.

I spent some time in the afternoon phoning some of Dad’s old pals, at his behest. Apparently one of them – Brian Hewitson – had recently made the front page of the Sunday newspaper. He had built a dolls house for his granddaughters which had taken him five years to complete. It even included a fridge and stove. Ronnie Watson was leaving the following day for Inyanga where he has a cottage and he invited us to pop in and see him if we were in the area.

I had to go back to the office to meet up with Eric as we were having drinks with the Chairman, Brian Stringer, at the Salisbury Club. He eventually turned up (he was notoriously bad in his time keeping) and we had quite a pleasant time. He suggested Highlands School as a possibility when I told him about our initial problems in finding a place for Matt. His son is leaving this year at the end of Standard 5 and he said that despite it being a Government School, the standards were very high. We decided to see the Headmaster, Mr Yates on our way back from St John’s.

Back at the hotel, I found Rab watching “Eight Is Enough” and since she wasn’t too keen on going out, we had a meal in the room. Most impressive it was. The waiter wheeled in a large trolley with all the food and then unfolded the side wings to make a nice round table. Despite the television being in black and white, we enjoyed the programmes – at least I did as Rab kept nodding off to sleep. We saw “The Sword Of Justice” and since it was in English at least we could understand what was going on. (At this time in South Africa, the transmissions alternated nightly between English language and Afrikaans language) The news was manly about the Tekere trial and included an interview with him. He is really a nasty bit of work. The last programme, during which Rab was fast asleep was the Bob Newhart Show, which was very good.