In 2018 to drive from Beira in Mozambique to Penhalonga on the border with Zimbabwe, would take about 5 hours despite it being 315km. The road is not good and you can’t expect to travel at 100km per hour. Imagine what it would have been like 127 years ago (1891), when there was no road at all. The only option was to walk, forging through dense wild-life ridden bush, untamed disease, carrying supplies to not only last for the duration of the walk but also to last when arriving at the destination. This was the lot of the first nurses to enter what is now Zimbabwe – they were Rose Blennerhassett, Lucy Sleeman and Aimee Welby.
Rose Blennerhassett kept a detailed journal of the journey and after she and Lucy survived and left the region in 1893, it was published in a book entitled Adventures in Mashonaland. Nurse Welby also survived but didn’t contribute to the book.
They didn’t walk alone. They had hired hands (who could speak no English and kept going missing) to carry supplies and they had a doctor and a prospector with them. It didn’t make the experience any easier. The rough paths were narrow and the grass on either side was tall. They had been given a rough map of where to go and where to stop. They made for the local villages and their helpers erected temporary ‘lean-tos’ in which they spent the night. The roar of lions was not far off. Crocodiles were common in the Pungwe River which snakes through the area. Baths were carefully taken in the shallows with a close lookout for the scaly residents. When they had to cross the river, it was either in a shallow dug out or on the shoulders of their hired men. The sun was hot, water at times scarce, but on they went.
I’m not quite half way through the book. It’s a fascinating read.
Today has been relatively quiet. I’ve worked some and read. Work should pick up in the days ahead. It just was quite slow today.
#695 of my 1000 thanks is for Words with Friends – it’s a game I play when I’m not working. It’s similar to Scrabble, I so enjoy it.
Proverbs 9:11
Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life.
That sounds good!
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
Helga xx 🙂
Gym: I overdid it a bit today. I wasn’t intending to do the Grid. I first did a fitness test which I haven’t done in a while. It said my fitness was “good” which is an improvement. I then ran another 2km. By then it was time for the Grid and I decided to go and do it. I just didn’t realise how tired I was from the run. Heart rate after was about 150!