Josephine Amelia (elizabeth) Carruthers nee Bradfield (Lizzy) 1864-1944
Lizzy's Walk
Mazabuka to Sinoia in Twenty one days
"When 'Peace' was proclaimed I (Jack CARRUTHERS) completed, certain work in
North Western Rhodesia for a Bulawayo Syndicate, having secured, two Limestone areas near
the Railway for Cement manufacture. The general strata up near the Kafue river is a
Crystalline Limestone of various colour and high percentage. On my return journey I
visited and re-pegged my Kariba coal Measures situated across the Zambesi Valley at
Chi-Lala, November 1916. I went on to Mazabuka, where my wife joined me, having travelled
up by train. She had decided, to walk through directly to Sinoia, two hundred and sixty
two miles, then by train to Salisbury."
" Lizzy had made no preparations for her long tramp, so we travelled slowly the sixty
miles to my coal camp, situated off the north escarpment in the valley. I was breaking
camp for the season so had fifty carriers to accompany us back. Each one allotted his own
task. Our route followed, down along the Losito river, I made to a native kraal each
night for shelter. The country, generally, along this stretch is dense and over run with
big game. On passing along below Mount Gwembi, Mr WILLIAMS, the N.C. sent along a runner
to intercept us with a box of fruit and vegetables, which was most acceptable. At
Shipangurra's kraal, we found green mealies plentiful, a fertile spot on the Losito
river, where elephants drink. By this time, my wife's feet had hardened to her daily
walk. She found by wearing two pairs of stockings, it gave comfort to her feet and made
walking easy. The crossing of the Zambesi in a dug-out caused her some excitement, once
across the river, she had f!
orgotten the risk, and found pleasure in her experience and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
Along the south bank we passed through fields of green mealies, we bartered with calico
for sweet potatoes and tomatoes. At Umzema, I pitched my tent close to the river edge.
At this point a half mile wide. No one can imagine the quiet stillness of this silent
flowing river as it glides along. The only noise, a bellow of a hippo or the splash of a
duck."
"Back in 1902 I had a camp on the off side of the Zambezi, now carried away by the
river wearing westward, leaving silted lands along the east bank, where the natives grow
all kinds of cereals, all the year round. The made use of the islands in the river during
the dry season. It was a moonlight night, we had retired early. My wife woke me,
'Jack, look at the shadow on the tent.' As I peered out I saw a big Eland looking
with curiosity into our camp. At daylight the boys woke my wife, to look at the elephants
drinking not a hundred yards off. From here we had a long dry trek to a small kraal and
were camping near the water hole for the night, when the native women came down to warn us
not to stay there. We had hardly got fixed up near their kraal, when we could hear the
breaking of trees and the passing herd of elephants making for the Zambesi to drink. It
was hot travelling through the day in the Valley. I always sent my boys ahead with the
necessary tent and mat's fo!
r my wife's comfort. A hole dug in the ground with a waterproof sheet made a useful
bath, and the big shady trees lent comfort during the mid-day camp. On one occasion the
birds of great variety were so numerous, sheltering in the shade, they disturbed our
day's rest, so we had to move to a quieter spot. The south escarpment is an easy
outlet to the Lomagundi high veldt some nine miles distant. Half way up the mountain I
dug a hole and opened up some good water, that spot has served travellers to the valley
ever since and has since been marked with a beacon. Our first meeting with white folk was
near Urungwe, the N.C. Quarters and Railway Survey camp, some fifty miles from Zambesi
River. Here the main road ends from Sinoia, a distance of a hundred and fifteen miles.
The only experience we had on this long trip was at Karoie river. I had shot a buck at
dusk and went on to camp at a small spruit, the boys went back the mile to fetch the meat,
only to find that two lions!
had already taken possession of the sable. On their return along the spruit they
gathered up a lot of fresh fish, which bad been washed up on the spot. The cold caused by
the hail the previous night had cramped them and the flooding water washed them out on to
the bank. Our last night out was at my old camp on the Angwa . The last day we walked
some eighteen miles to Dingly Dell, Mrs C. feeling exceptionally fit after her twenty one
days walk from Mazabuka to Sinoia."
The rail bridge over the falls was completed in 1905, continuing to Kalomo and on to
Broken Hill the following year. Zeederberg coaches could travel on the new road through
Willies Poort, Pitersburg to Messina could now be done in only two days. Arthur BOTTON was
offered a job with Doel Zeederberg's firm of wagon makers which he accepted and
seemed to offer more attractive prospects than his job with F. ISSELS. Zeederberg was
contemplating the expansion of his coach service at which time was only between Bulawayo
and Belingwe. He planned to extend the service to embrace Gwelo, Selukwe, Salisbury and
other centres further a'field. Zeederberg's workshops were situated near the
B.S.A. Police Camp and the eventual site of the Bulawayo Railway Station.
"Ah many years have flown
and many old friends gone,
In memory will last,
There's many a road and rail
that marks there weary trail
A record of the past,
Their destiny had run
there days work done with the setting sun,
After many weary miles,
like men they shared the strain,
in bleaching sun and rain,
in Africa's lonely wilds.
They come from lands afar
with Rhodes their guiding star,
And his wish to satisfy.
They were fine men the crew
all the pioneers I knew,
their work does testify,
If fortune some denied
with honest hearts they tried
and nobly did there best,
At the last trumpet sound,
at there post they'll be,
Now let them rest."
Jack Carruthers-1913