Our rooms ended up being in a little house with two bedrooms and a lounge area. Stuart being a smoker had his own room and Nick and I bunked together. Dumping our gear, visiting the toilet, thankfully a proper one - not a hole in the ground. In fact Africa seems very civilized in that respect from my few visits, we headed down to dinner. The main building was a modest affair with a bar area where we settled first for some beers and gin & tonics which relaxed us after our acting sessions. For dinner it was Pork Chops with something on top.... or something else. In India I would never have chosen pork - ever - but here .... yummm..... clean air - open countryside.... and it was really very good. A bit over cooked but very nice after a long day of traveling. What did seem a bit bizzare was that while Rome burned or rather Harare was harassed plenty of people were dining out and listening to the local jazz band. A funky ol' dinner.
During the meal we found out that our Mule had made it through Harare airport at last - with boarding pass this time. Good news. The bad news being the camera they were carrying had been confiscated by customs. Bugger or rather BIG bugger or words to those effect. It really did hamper what we could do. Two Pakistani press cards where in with the stuff and these had been found. I could have sworn that I had taken everything out of the camera bag and now felt really bad at having lost the camera and put the Mule through the wringer, who was understandably upset at being given a hard time when coming back through customs. Thankfully the Bgan made it through, and we would get that in the morning. As a backup Nick had a little handicam in his bag so at least we would be able to to something and get it back to London.
Breathing a bit easier now, the day ended back in our lounge with a fire in the hearth crackling gently, whilst we chilled out with some duty free and tried to work out the next plan of action.
The next morning we had breakfast and waited for Randall to turn up to take us to our new home. Teddy House. We waited a bit more - tried to call with no luck and continued to wait. It became very apparent that all the white Zimbabweans we encountered knew who Stuart was. He had been based in South Africa for a few years and also the fact they all watch Sky News in any case meant that getting around wouldn't be easy. Finding somewhere safe to stay essential and most important. It turned out many of our conversations were based on how to leave it. Eventually Randall turned up but this time with James who would be our driver while we where there.
Hmm those press cards... mine ... errr.... no as it turns out. There were two cards for different two people that the Mule had luckily enough found before going through immigartion in the stuff they had been given. Not small ones either, A5 in size and not with my name and face on but who's could they be. Would that be Stuart then? Never couldn't be. Doh! God did I feel better.
It took an absolute age to pay - something to do with US$, Zim$, the internet and other stuff and it finally came to pass that everything was loaded into the car and we set off for Ted's House. My personal nickname for it. It does make sense but won't explain why. Arriving I think we were all very apprehensive at what we would find - namely would it be safe? Driving up the steel gate through a very similar type of area to the 'exclusive' compounds of Delhi, nestled in between lots of similar houses, tucked away from casual prying eyes down a number side streets away from main routes. The only people who should see us come and go would be those who lived and worked there. First impressions seemed to say it would be secure enough - though we really had no choice.
Once the gate rolled back, and we had parked inside we were confronted by Bubbles who didn't quite know what to make of us - apart from putting her tale between her legs and running away. So much for a vicious Rottweiler.
It didn't take long for her to warm to us as we sat out planning, talking eating drinking and just being around. Something she just didn't seem to be used to. In fact she took a huge shine to Nick - always bounding up when he came and sat outside - strange how love works!! At times though she was annoying. In hindsight I must say that smacking an untrained Rottweiler, in a country with little medical facilities, which we couldn't use, wouldn't have been the smartest of things to do. I did do it a couple of times though and still have all my limbs. Did Bubbles learn anything - probably not. Me - I don't like taking on Rotties!! But by the time we left she was very useful - barking whenever the gate opened and when she was not sure what was happening would position herself between us and whatever, usually the driveway - alert and protecting us.
Inside the house was clean, fully furnished, a bit green. Sky News available too which always makes things easier. Most noticeably was the supplies all over the place, behind doors, in cupboards, stacked all over the place. And all sorts of wierd stuff - tomato ketchup, toilet rolls, tins of tuna, pasta sauces.... Very much a sign of the fact that when something was in stock you horded it - bought in large supplies or imported it when you got a chance. The owner showed us around before they left. We would have the house to ourselves as they would stay with friends for the time being. One of the obvious signs of the shortages was the up keep - less than half the bulbs worked, not all the toilets or showers worked - but most importantly there was plenty of space for us to live and work - and with the gate closed it did feel safe.
Very quickly settling in we made the initial work space on the dining table, Stuart beavering away here, able to communicate to the outside world via the amazing thing that is 'The Bgan".
Apart from when we started the journey home, this middle bit of the trip seemed to all flow together with things happening on odd days - so it has become a bit of a blur... no real reference either not wanting to write things down in case we were picked up. According to Stuart we did keep ourselves busy - by the time we left he had used a fair chunk of his notebook on scripts. We must have been busy then - even if it didn't seem that way!
The second day Stuart and I went out for a drive to downtown Harare with James. Camera all prepared hidden in a bag between the seats - with Stuart in front we headed off. This is one of the those times when you know you are doing something wrong but no-one else does, even so you feel very self conscious - that big sign on your forehead shouting ' western spy dog' really isn't there. None the less it does make you think and watch what you are doing all the time. Downtown seemed to be fairly normal - lots of people - loads of queues - especially at the banks, mostly locals with very few whites around. Still we drove around and I tried to keep the camera as discreet as possible - not easy even with a small one. We didn't stay long as its not that big and driving round in circles would have made us stand out so we headed back, trying to remember the route to the house just in case we had to make it back by foot one day.
As we had flown in very light without all my gadgets and gizmo's to we had to revert to a very basic setup. This was Plan A in trying to create a good sound for Stuarts voice track still sounded a bit hollow. By the end we got to E or F.
Having edited a package based on what we had shot in town together with stuff already in London - we moved to the 'live' position which was outside my bedroom and secluded from all eye's and hopefully most ears. Garwen was using a very bushy green hedge as Emma's background somewhere in Bulawayo (southern Zimbabwe). Reluctant to do the same - it doesn't look very nice and we could have been next to each other so our little garden proved to be exactly top notch. A couple of walls and a tree. Not having any lights required a little ingenuity and the only way to light Stuart was to take the broken standard light from the lounge and use that - stealing a bulb from somewhere else. The foil - which was the last in the house - came a little later to maximize the light output. The tree behind him also had a torch on it just to give a little distinction between the two. In the end it worked very well.
In fact it is quite amazing what you can do with kit now. There has been a huge shift and reduction in size over the last four or five years. You could fit everything we had into a smallish rucksack (25/30l) - probably with space too. No tripod - which we had to hire from Randall & Hopkirk - but that would have been a bit obvious coming through the airport!! Of course I would have liked more - and spares too. 'We' did go through various stages of panic when we didn't have the right stuff, or it broke & had to make up work-a-rounds - but that's all part of the fun - & I love it.
As you can see from the satelitte photo of the house it is fairly secure with high walls that had the ubiquitous electric fence on the top. The gate had to be opened via a button on the intercom. Not that you could tell who was on the outside. What you did know was when it was opening as the low rumbling noise as it rolled on its steel wheels cut through everything. It meant that all of us, Bubbles included, would always turn and watch whoever / whatever came in before breathing again and resuming what we were doing. Very paranoic. During power cuts we had to open it manually - first you had to look, and ask who was on the other side and hope.... oh joy.
The patio was used day and night - a perfect sun trap and place to view the southern stars. Our concealed live spot was a real bonus actually, the "Real Secret Garden" ensuring the really large men at the CIO - Central Intelligence Organisation didn't have a clue where to find us.
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