In July and August of 2001, I drove from Bulawayo to Cape Town and back in a friend’s old 1960s Landrover. I had worked previously in Zimbabwe as a teacher and had several very good friends in Bulawayo. Mike Barry, pictured, was the son of John and Severine Barry and had spent all his life in Bulawayo. One of the family’s workers, Maurice, also pictured, was unwell with a heart condition and I was asked if I could help take him down to the family’s farm at Tulbagh, about 100 miles north of Cape Town, where apparently he could get better treatment. We left Bulawayo and headed out towards Plumtree on the Botswana border. But not before spending several days trying to get the old Landrover roadworthy. I had been told by the owner that it was serviceable but this was far from the truth. It would not start, had a flat spare, almost bald tyres, brake lights that did not work as well as poor brakes. The rear fuel tank was faulty, the fuel pump was on the blink, the electrics were decidedly dodgy and you could see the road through a big hole in the floor. The windscreen wipers did not work either.
Once we got the worst of the problems fixed, It took several days to drive down to Tulbagh and we ran out of diesel a few times. The fuel gauges did not work and we did not realise at the time but fuel was draining from the rear tank. We slept in the vehicle on the way down. Here we see Maurice and Mike about to pull our Landrover out of the mud on their farm in the hills surrounding Tulbagh. The farm had extensive vineyards and a beautiful old farmhouse in the Cape Dutch style. The little town of Tulbagh had some fine cafes where you could sample the delights of milk tart, an Afrikaans speciality.
My friend Rachel, wife of Mike, was from England, She had been a VSO volunteer at the same time as me in Bulawayo. They were trying to make a success of a bed and breakfast business they were running.
I heard later that Maurice died some weeks after we left Tulbagh for Cape Town.