School ended in a blur, although we had a staff meeting straight after closing and I had to try get my head to think about next term, difficult as I was feeling a little over it all, I won't lie. From school I went and did a shop for the trip to the Bvumba. On Thursday went with my mum and our close friend Veronique for a lovely late breakfast at The Bottom Drawer coffee shop. It is my favourite coffee spot in Harare and the breakfast was yummy, although I am now feeling cautious of fatty things since my latest blood tests show I have quite high cholesterol. This apparently is a side effect of my medication so I need to be a little careful.
Thursday night there was a bit of panic as the main car we were supposed to have travelled in to the Bvumba suddenly had a problem with the main axle. At the last minute we switched to Lucy's parents' car and made alternative plans for assembling. I had an interview first thing Friday morning and we met at Lucy's but only set off at 12 in the end. There were lots of police blocks along the way. Apparently they are looking for balding tyres mainly. We were lucky and didn't get stopped. We had got a letter from the lady whose cottage we stayed in as a back up in case the police wanted travel documents with COVID, but they waved us through - phew. Lucy did an amazing job there and back with the driving. There were some hairy moments with lorries overtaking lorries on blind rises and cars doing stupid moves.
Arriving in the Bvumba we stopped at Tony's Coffee Shop to ask how we could ensure there was white chocolate cheesecake (the reason for coming to the Bvumba!!) He said we needed to come fairly early on Saturday but he was doing take aways. We planned to go early but I had booked a guided hike Saturday morning to the Zebra Falls. Lucy opted to sleep in so it was only Reenie and I. Stuart our guide arrived promptly at 7 am but when he told us we were supposed to drive to the spot where the hike began it was a bit problematic as Lucy, our driver was asleep. In the ended we walked to the starting point, but that took us an hour and half. I must admit I did inwardly groan slightly to be told this was only where the hike was beginning. It had rained heavily the night before (it did every night we were there) and so the granite rock surfaces were incredibly slippery. I went head over apex at one point and luckily my bag cushioned my landing on my back and my head didn't hit the granite behind. We had to scale down a steep granite face part of the way and I was very nervous of slipping.
Stuart was excellent though and helped me get sure footing. He was also very knowledgeable about the birds and trees and history. We made it to the waterfall and had lovely mountain water to drink. On the way back I was seriously beginning to flag on the uphill and made the tentative suggestion that when we got back to the starting point, perhaps Stuart could go get Lucy and we could drive back. We ended up stopping not quite at the starting point and Stuart, who was extremely fit, sprinted off to go find Lucy. By now we had been walking for four hours. Lucy got a bit of a fright when Stuart appeared at the cottage and said we needed rescuing. She packed us food and set off with him leading the way on his motorbike while she followed in the car. There was a section though, that the car wasn't going to navigate easily, so Lucy hopped on his motorbike. They hadn't gone far when it skidded and they both fell off. Poor Lucy caught her leg on it. Undeterred though she and Stuart walked to where Reenie and I had walked a bit further to.
After those misadventures we had tea at Tony's and did get the white chocolate cheesecake. In the book Tony has written the recipe for it takes up four pages, so it is quite a culinary feat. There was a queue outside when we left of people wanting to go in for tea. On the way home we stopped at Hivu Nursery where you can also go horse riding, next time.
Our other big excitement for the weekend came about as Lucy was really keen to go in to Leopard Rock for drinks and to watch the sunset on the golf course. We hadn't thought about COVID though, and when we tried to go in on Friday when we arrived we were turned away at the boom by the security guard. Lucy tried to ask to speak to a manager but the security guard said if we weren't on the list of guests we couldn't enter. Lucy decided to email the hotel and low and behold in response we got an email from the owner of Leopard Rock himself who said to not hesitate to phone him. Lucy did so and he said we should just phone when we got to the boom, which we did and were admitted. We had drinks but there was a problem with getting change for US dollars. The bar lady said the owner was going to come down and see us and give us complimentary drinks. Well we ended up spending an enjoyable evening with him and he told us all sorts of stories of the history of Leopard Rock and it turned out he is an avid photographer and writes poetry. They have had two lions walk across the Leopard Rock golf course. I made the mistake though of mixing GnTs with red wine and when I had a cup of rooibos tea at the end of the evening with milk I suddenly felt decidedly unwell and had to run to the bathroom which was a little embarrassing. I've learnt my lesson to never do that again. Still feeling a little queasy today.
Back in Harare now and all set to au pair in Borrowdale Brooke again for the next four days. We will be doing craft with supplies from The Craft Company that the mum owns and going on some outings. Should be fun.
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