The honeymoon

    Last time I stopped after the wedding. When we left the church we went to a restaurant in town before proceeding to the hotel in the Matopo Hills where Mel had reserved the honeymoon suite. When we arrived they told us, "Oh, a newly-married couple came in earlier and we assumed they were you and we gave them the suite, but we have another very nice room we can give you." What could we do? We accepted the substitute. Both of us were absolutely exhausted from the pre-wedding arrangements and  the next morning as we went to the car to go to set up the camp-site where we planned to spend a week,  I promptly passed clean-out (I fainted) right  beside the car. Being a first aider Mel knew what to do, and we went on our way. Let me explain something to you before I proceed We really did not have the money to afford a fancy honeymoon, so we decided, since Mel was an experienced Boy Scout camper, to spend a week in the gorgeous Matopo Hills, an area
about 15 miles from Bulawayo. We pitched camp at Mleme Dam, a place where the church often had its youth camps. We spent a couple of nights and ran out of bread so we found a tiny African shop and bought some stale bread. When we got back to our camp we found the bread was so stale we could not eat it. Anyway, that night, we were already in our cots when we heard stealthy footsteps just outside, so Mel called out,"Who's there?" Slience, Then the steps started again. Mel picked up the axe and yelled, "I'm coming after you!" As he got to the tent entrance I called, "Honey, be careful'" and Mel felt the hairs on the back of his head stand straight up. He still went out and saw a half-starved village-dog. He threw the old bread to him and some scraps of food -- but even the mutt was unable to use the bread.
   The next night we heard, in the hill directly behind us, a leopard attack a baboon. That was enough for us. We packed up the next day and went back to town where we sought refuge at my parent's house until the sub-tenant of our rented flat (apartment) was due to vacate. Mom gave us the large spare room upstairs for the next few days. So ended our exciting honeymoon!