Eminently Eve
I can say with certainty that I’ve had over 90% good experiences travelling here in Zimbabwe. However, I’ve had some unpleasant experiences too and I believe it’s only fair that I share them with you as there are lessons that were drawn from them which may be useful to you too. The bad experiences include those that were caused by service providers and those that were self caused. The common denominator is however that a lesson was learnt in all of them. So here goes…
1. Getting served food at a well known hotel which ended up causing serious food poisoning.
We almost always opt for a self catering holiday, however, if there are restaurants nearby then we eat out at least one meal per day. On this particular getaway, it was a secluded self catering accommodation so there weren’t any restaurants within the vicinity to eat out. It was only on the last day on our way home when we decided to stop at a certain hotel along the way for a mid morning snack. We both ordered chicken mayo sandwiches and rooibos tea and within the next few hours we would live to regret that decision.
We had terrible food poisoning which caused severe diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever among other symptoms. The experience was so bad that to date I do not at all eat chicken mayo sandwiches or anything with chicken that has been mashed up or mixed with other things e.g. chicken salad.
We had been to this hotel and we had had food there quite a number of times without any problems. I did however later on learnt that this hotel was going through financial hardships. A number of senior employees including chefs had been retrenched and so everything was basically falling apart. While I understand their desperation to keep the restaurant running, I just wish they had taken human health into account and just closed it until they could operate at optimal levels again.
The lesson I learnt though is to ALWAYS do my research and not rely on past experiences to make present decisions. Food is so fragile because of it being perishable and as such when a hotel or restaurant is facing financial difficulties or just not being run by qualified personnel, shortcuts with health implications are bound to be taken and the end result is exactly what we experienced.
2. Stubbornly driving into a muddy swamp, ending up getting stuck for hours before getting help because of poor network coverage in the bush
It is general knowledge that when going for a game drive during the rainy season, a 4 wheel drive with really high ground clearance is the only advisable vehicle to use and indeed we had just that. However, we overestimated the abilities of our vehicle while underestimating how muddy & damp the environment we were driving into was.
This was no one’s fault but only ours because we felt lazy to get out of the vehicle to assess the environment before driving over it. While contemplating on what to do before driving into our trap, we also knew the other choice we had was to reverse but the next turn was quite a distance which in-turn would cause us to waste so much more time. Why go through all that hassle when we were already so close right??… WRONG!
We encouraged each other & drove into that larger puddle (muddier & deeper than we had anticipated) and of course we got stuck.
The tools we travelled with then could not help at all because of the gravity of the situation. We picked up our phones to try & get help but of course we had no signal. We ended up negotiating with a passerby to phone a certain number when they got to where the signal could be picked up. Many hours later, help came & after additional draining hours we got out of this mud trap.
The lessons learnt were therefore to not be overzealous, & take unnecessary risks. It is also important to physically assess the environment before driving and finally to invest in bigger and better tools to help us should we find ourselves in a similar situation but more likely from factors out of our control.
3. Forgetting medication and only realising while already at the destination, far from pharmacies or other medical establishments.
This was an honest mistake to forget this particular medication. Part of the reason is that, it is not something I need every single day, however when I need it then I do otherwise the worst can end up happening.
What saved me on this day was that we always travel with our first aid kit and in there are other pain medications which can manage the pain to a certain extent. We ended up cutting our trip short though because I had to get the proper medication to avoid causing any further damage.
The lesson learnt is to always be calm when packing and not let the excitement of travelling mess with my concentration ability when packing. I also now make a categorised list of everything I need and start packing at least 3 days before the trip to make sure that I do not forget anything due to packing in a hurry.
4. Getting lost & driving for 5 hours instead of 1 hour 30 minutes because of relying too much on Google Maps
In this digital era, who would ever think that an application as sophisticated as google maps can lead you in the complete opposite direction of where exactly you are planning to go. Especially when you have used it over and over again & was consistently reliable.
The lucky and fortunate thing is that we were going to spend time in nature and nature has this power to soothe and relax you. So while the extra 3 & ½ hours were painful, the pain during the drive was not as bad as we were just looking forward to the magic of nature.
The pain was heavily felt after getting back home and now realising how off budget we had gone because of the extra fuel we had used. Something that saved us too was that we always travel with way more fuel than we need to avoid getting stuck should what happened to us this time happens.
The lesson I learnt though was to not only rely on the digital map but also the physical map so that if the directions start to differ we can catch it earlier instead of hundreds of kilometers later. It was also a reminder that travelling with extra fuel than needed is definitely a good idea.
5. Paying double the fee because of ignorance & also service providers withholding information.
Oh this was really painful!
So the set up at this destination is one where the accommodation is in one section which has some activities. However, there are 2 other sections where other activities are offered which are in their own premises, a bit of a distance away from the accommodation. So the package we had paid for is one where if you stay in their accommodation then you can visit one of the sections without paying any extra entry fee & only paying half in the second section. Luckily we knew of the free entry section so we did not pay anything there though we had to bring it up, go backwards & forwards until calls were made & it was “clarified”.
We were however not aware of the half price at the second section and of course the receptionist did not bring it up even though he knew we were staying at their accommodation. So of course we ended up paying the full entry fees which would have been okay had they accepted the local currency or warned us prior our booking that they do not accept it at one of the sections. So we had to not only pay the full fees but also pay it in US$ cash, cash which was meant for the purchase of fuel.
The lesson I learnt is not to be too trusting of service providers & to make sure that I fully understand packages on offer and not be rushed into making payments before I understand everything.
Have you ever had unpleasant experiences during some of your trips? Do share them below or on my feed posts on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn including the lessons you learnt from them.
Remember to always have a little intimacy in your life & as always I’m talking about Intimacy With Nature.
