Robs had decided to spend the night in the rooftop tent with Gray and I and she was the only one who was warm during the night. I had on winter pyjamas, a fleece top and a fleece sleeping bag, a down duvet over us and I still kept waking up because of the cold.
Thankfully, morning came but only gray had the courage to leave the tent before the sun was high in the sky. He checked the temperature in the car and it was 0°c. Not helping matters, the water in the shower was only luke warm. As the sun warmed us, helped on by hot coffee, we were able to function. The highlight of the morning was watching some woodpeckers build – rather peck out – a nest in the tree in our camp area.
Eventually we were on the road, for an easy 160km journey into Bulawayo. Bulawayo is a very busy town and filled with people who don’t seem to be doing anything. It is neat and clean and the shops are busy. There are a number of old buildings, obviously dating back to the colonial era – they are in great condition and are still in use as government departments, the post office, the National Gallery and so on.
We (Doris) easily located our accommodation for the night – The Bulawayo Club. Being members of Jo’burg Country Club, we have reciprocity in a number of Clubs around South Africa and other parts of Africa. This has been a bonus and we have enjoyed evenings in a few of places, particularly enjoying the Kimberly Club. I so love these old buildings, filled with pictures of pompous old men, war heroes and royalty. The huge old rooms, with wooden floors, smelling of polish and decorated with antiques from a bygone era, make one feel part of history. The wide ornate staircases led us to our comfortable rooms on the 2nd floor.
From there we set off to explore the town. Gray deciding we needed a local experience led us to the Take-away food court area for lunch. I would rather have had a real local experience and found a rural hut, serving pap and goat meat. As a ‘real treat’ he got us ice cream cones and set off down some dirty alley way, hoping the dust swirling around and landing on our cones didn’t contain anything life threatening, in the form of germs and bacteria. We already had concerns of having contracted botulism from our lunch. Eventually we landed up at a beautiful old building – the National Art gallery, obviously it was closed on a Monday, but we still went in and had a look around their art shop. From there we wondered around some curio shops and then headed back to the Bulawayo Club to investigate all the old rooms, it really is like a museum and it was wonderful to soak up some colonial culture.
We found the smartest we could find in our cases (not easy to find anything after so long in the bush) and dined in the old dining room. It was a wonderful evening.
Atrium
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