Masvingo

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General information about Masvingo.

Masvingo (means: shelter) is a little town (40.000 people) nearby the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. It isn’t much of a town but you can find every shops or bank that you will need. There is also an Internet café. From this town you can go easily to the ruins or to the Mutirikwe (Kule) recreation park. In the streets there is a lot of heavy traffic.

The trip to Masvingo was confortable in our Mazda 3232 sedan. The car was almost new and had only 17.000 km on his km counter, a safe feeling. The roads were better than we expected. We could drive almost everywhere 100-120 km/h. The highways have 2 lanes instead of the 4 that we have in Europe. There is no hard shoulder and the road is in use by cars, cyclists, pedestrians, monkeys and the cows graze along the road. Because of that you have to stay alert. In Masvingo we stayed in the Chevron hotel. Two other backpackers hotels didn’t exist anymore. It wasn’t a top hotel but it was clean and the people were very friendly. At 7 oçlock the lights fell out in our part of town. This wasn’t the first time: in no time they placed candles in the corridor. Later that evening (still no electricity) we had a dinner with candlelight. The waiter (a very black man, only teeth and eyes visible) told us that the cook had problems in the dark: it was a mess in the kitchen. This waiter advised us a terrific white Zimbabwean wine. It was a big surprise when we got the bill: the wine cost only 2 US$. That in a restaurant with a perfect service!
After Masvingo we drove to Kyle View Chalets, near Lake Kyle. It was a trip of 40 km. The last day in Masvingo it was very warm (>35 degrees) but when we arrived at Kyle View Chalets it rained and it was cold. According to the news it was max. 15 degrees. We would camp here, but because of the circumstances we rented a chalet. That evening I felt a little bit ill. Diarrhoea and maybe a fever. In the chalet there was no heater so it was cold, outside and inside. At the reception they made a fire but that had no use because they let the doors and windows open, and the receptionist complaining about the temperature…
The day after I felt a bit better and we drove around the Lake Kyle. The first part was tarred road but after that it was all gravel and not well kept. After we passed the bad road we saw the warning sign: scenic dry weather route only; it was still raining….
	On the north shore of the lake we saw our first game. In a little game park we saw giraffes, kudu’s, monkeys and other antilopes. It was nice animals so close by.

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