River Crossing

Reading Brian’s “Lets go for a drive” post yesterday prompted some memories of visits to my Mother-in-Law’s farm in Zimbabwe. It was the similarities with the crossing of the Mupfure River that caught my eye. Here’s that river crossing…

…And the view downstream from the bridge where the children swam or fished while watching the washing dry…

…I believe they were playing on the remains of a dam built by a local farmer to hold back water for his crops. There were many such temporary structures that sometimes failed during the rainy season and caused flood issues further down stream. Looking at google maps, I see that there are now some more permanent structures in place and modern circular cultivations can be seen in some of the fields around the Mupfure River. Time and farming methods have moved on.

The road across the river used to be the main route into the local town of Selous until a new road and bridge were built to carry ore from Ngeysi mine to the railhead. I don’t think the old bridge would have handled these…

Scans from colour prints taken over 20 years ago.