Jan van Eden
bio - biography Stories of our life in the foreign
1969 Travels from Zambia
1969 Honeymoon - Rhodesia, Mozambique, Malawi

Victoria
falls - july 1969
After our marriage on the 20th of July 1969 we
left on honeymoon in our Morris Mini on a trip that led us through Zambia,
Rhodesia, Mozambique, and back to Kalulushi through Malawi. First stop at
the impressive Victoria falls we stayed in the Victoria Falls Hotel on the
Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) side. Those days the hotel was a little bit run
down and preserved its colonial style, also it was “whites only”. We got a
luxury suite with an old fashioned double bed with an ornamented copper
heading, but as we were just married we didn't like the
squeaking noise
and we decided to put the
mattress on the ground next to the bed. We enjoyed our night and in the
morning they served us a coffee which was customary. With a faint knock on
the door the formally dressed black waiter entered with his serving tray to
the surprise of Pepa who hastily covered her naked body with a sheet. In the
meantime the look in the eyes of our waiter expressed even more surprise,
finding us lying beside the bed. Never mind we were treated with all
respect. I still recall these black servants in their formal dress with
white topped black shoes. At the dinner the night before they asked “Coffee
or tea”, and making our choice “sorry sir no coffee today” and this repeated
the same way during breakfast next morning.

Whites
only in Rhodesia
under the government of Ian Smith, 1969
Continuing our journey with Pepa
driving, she nearly drove into a small herd of elephants and on braking
abruptly on the red colored gravel road, the car swirled a complete turn
around, but fortunately the Morris Mini, with its wheels on the outside
corners, showed its remarkable stability and road holding. We carried on
enjoying the beautiful landscape and seeing the occasional wildlife on our
way to Beira on the coast of Mozambique. From there we went northwards in
the direction of Malawi through areas contested by the independence movement
Frelimo. Many roads we traveled on had worn out tracks from heavy vehicles
with a high bump in the middle and with our Mini we had to negotiate these
tracks with wheels on one side on top and the other side in a lower track,
which made us hang pretty
crooked. I planned our
trip on the best road map I could find, but in the war-torn country it
happened to be unreliable and at one point we could not cross a river
because they had blown the bridge. We had spare petrol in a jerrycan, but
even so we were at half our resource and had to decide either to return the
same way or take a risky road ahead of us. The tracks seemed totally
abandoned, maybe, because of the risk of landmines. These mines were
designed and aimed at heavy vehicles and I think our Mini would not be
affected in any case. We carried on and after hours without seeing a soul,
we came across a camp
with improvised huts made of zinc corrugated iron
manned by an undefined group of soldiers who were very surprised, but who
received us very generously. Darkness was setting in and we accepted their
invitation to stay the night. We had a sober meal with half a dozen men on a
kitchen table illuminated by a single running lamp, which you had to take
with you to go to the toilet (a latrine). We slept in our clothes on some
camping beds in an adjacent room. Next morning they
accompanied us to a wide river (probably the Zambezi river) where an
abandoned railroad track went to the other side.
They loaded our Morris Mini on an open rail car and with us inside, we got
over.

Black
Chida at the Dick Whiskey store, Liwonde Bridge (Malawi)

Letter
of Black Chida, Liwonde Bridge (Malawi)
From here the Malawi border was not very far and once in Malawi we
found a petrol supply. It was a relief to be in an organized country. Malawi
(the former British
protectorate Nyasaland)
was independent since 1964 and had a guided economy with Banda as president.
We made a stop at Liwonde Bridge, which is at the southern outlet of the
Malawi lake, where we made some photographs of the open air workshop of a
shoemaker. We asked for his address to send him the photographs by mail. Color
photos that, by the way, I developed myself in my dark room at home. After
our mailing he replied
with a letter that I have kept as a dear treasure. Thanking me for the
pictures, he says “I didn't believe that there are some white man who are so
kind as you are...”. The address was c/o Dick Whiskey Store, Liwonde Bridge,
Malawi, and because of
this we have a check on where we had been during
our honeymoon.
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