The Zimbabwe Grand Tour can now be yours – for R400 000 per person

A tourism company is charging at least R395 000 per person to relive the Grand Tour: One for the Road experience.Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond explored the beautiful side of Zimbabwe’s tourism landscape in their last show.Road infrastructure to the country’s prime tourist destination – Victoria Falls – is, however, a big disappointment.

You can now experience a recreation of the Grand Tour: One for the Road route across Zimbabwe – minus Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond – if you have about R400 000 (per person) to spare.

After five seasons, the “last ever Grand Tour adventure” premiered on Amazon Prime last week.

Against advice, says Amazon, the team once behind the Top Gear TV show, headed to Zimbabwe for a “stunning road trip through beautiful and sometimes challenging landscapes”.

Now, Mavros Safaris, a Zimbabwean tourism company, which was the official logistics partner for the episode, is offering places for teams of up to four to drive across the country for 20 weeks, at a price of a little under US$21 000.

In a statement on the company’s website, Mavros said its version of Grand Tour, “will traverse rugged terrain, encounter abundant wildlife, and be captivated by tales shared around the campfire”. 

“From remote glamping sites deep in the wilderness to luxurious boats cruising serene waters and opulent safari lodges, every twist of the road unveils a new chapter of exploration.”

The four drivers on the tour will have two professional guides on two off-road vehicles, with radios, satellite phones and mobile coverage.

Like any good TV production, there’s emergency medical evacuation available too.

Zimbabwe in the spotlight

The Grand Tour episode was a rare bit of positive publicity for a country more commonly associated with internecine political fighting, human rights violations, and a failing economy.

Wellington Guta, a Zimbabwean expatriate based in the United Kingdom, watched the show at his local bar – and for once missed home.

“I kept telling people about the different places the trio drove past… I realised that, damn, I missed home. At that moment, I was a proud Zimbabwean,” he said.

For Guta, the route is all familiar, having worked in the telecoms sector as an engineer servicing mobile network boosters.

READ | Zimbabwe to cull 200 elephants amid food shortages

In 2007, with Robert Mugabe in charge, Top Gear, aired on BBC2, was prevented from filming in Zimbabwe because the BBC was banned.

The show instead did a Botswana Special Edition, which aired on 4 November 2007.

Clarkson spoke glowingly of Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe is a place where every view changes completely, one moment you could be in a setting that resembles Sri Lanka, and the next, you feel like you’ve been transported to Ireland,” he said.

In a post on X, the UK’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Peter Vowles, said everyone was impressed by the “incredible footage of this wonderful country.”

Two faces of one country

The Grand Tour started in Honde Valley, Manicaland province, which shares a border with Mozambique. 

It is the country’s most mountainous region, but where Zimbabwean tea, coffee, pineapples, lychees, avocados and macadamia nuts thrive. 

In that region, Nestle’s Nespresso arm buys nearly all of Zimbabwe’s top-end coffee crops from small farmers.

For Brian Mushererwa, a Manicaland local, the region is a tourist destination on its own that should be promoted.

“This is the most beautiful part of Zimbabwe. I don’t understand why there are no direct flights here for people to easily access the region. The coffee plantations are a pure beauty, and the sunrise and the weather, which reminded Clarkson of Scotland, are just amazing,” he said.

Clarkson enjoyed the drive from Honde Valley, but then the crew went further and the roads became a nightmare.

“My profound thanks to the people and government of Zimbabwe for helping to make a very special Grand Tour special, very special. We absolutely adored everything about your country. Apart from the potholes, maybe,” he posted after they ended filming last year.

Since then, the potholes have become even worse, particularly on the Bulawayo to Victoria Falls road, which leads to Zimbabwe’s prime tourist destination.

Last week, for the umpteenth time, Zimbabwe’s deputy minister of tourism, Tongani Mnangagwa, said the government was going to rehabilitate the road.

A tourism operator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Grand Tour exposed the country’s contrasts.

“There’s no one story about Zimbabwe. We were shown the good roads in the eastern parts of the country and the bad infrastructure in the west.

“In most cases, it’s always ruling party propaganda on the left and, on the right, eternal doomsayers. But the truth is somewhere in the middle,” he said.

In 2022, the tourism sector contributed 4.25% of the country’s GDP and 1.56% of total employment.

Figures from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, show that, in 2022, more than a million tourists visited Zimbabwe as the country rebounded from the Covid-19 setback.

About 66% of visitors came from Africa, the bulk from South Africa, 10% came from the Americas, 17% from Europe, and 5% from Asia.

The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

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