Very low water greeted us and the gang of paddlers at Molloys - the rendezvous and put-in for this 5-day trip, which is the second part of Laurie's source to sea project. Sadly, Laurie was laid up with a cracked pelvis (cycling accident) and I was in a leg-brace with a torn knee ligament (water-skiing).
Alan W, Sheryl W and I had driven down on the Zim side of the river to see the party off and camp with them for the first night. After correcting Laurie's waypoint for Molloy's with a quick radio call from Tom we met the crew on the river and waded across to join them on the Moz side of the river. They had driven in via Nyamapanda and Mutare the previous day and had been allocated two armed escorts, whose instructions had been to follow the paddlers along the banks of the river. It was politely suggested that the cars needed guarding, which these fellows agreed was a much more valuable use of their time.
The paddlers set off at 3pm for a short 10km paddle to "Camp 0". Ken and Cephas commenced the car shuffle back to Guro, and the three Zim supporters set off by dirt road and bush track to camp 0, which was set on the Moz/Zim border where the Gairezi leaves the border and goes into Moz. At 5:30 we received a radio call from Tom that they had decided to make camp for the night, and a check of their coordinates showed they were still 4km's away.
So Alan, Sheryl and I enjoyed a lovely evening by the campfire and left early the next morning to be back in Harare in time for meetings. We took the scenic route back via a long dirt road to Mutoko, and noticed that the Ruenya, Chivake and Sahavanhove rivers were flowing much stronger than the Gairezi, which bodes well for the paddlers.
More news to follow.
