Horses of Mozambique on first safari

In the autumn magazine we told the story of how Patrick and Amanda Retzlaff had fled Robert Mugabe's muderous dictatorship in Zimbabwe to go to Mozambique, taking with them their own horses and a large number of others that had been abandoned when their owners left the country.With little money and relying on help from volunteers, like former groom Donna Walker, who has joined them from Burgess Hill, the couple is aiming to establish a riding centre and disabled rising at their centre

"In the early hours of Sunday morning the riders met. Their mission to ride from Selva's restaurant to Chicamba Dam--the Retzlaffs first tourism venture. As the sun peeped over the mountain top, the trees were bathed in that pinky glow which heralds an African dawn.

The horses snorted gently, snuffling each other in their eagerness to get going. I prepareda stirrup cup , a concoction of brandy, dark coffee and condensed milk.

Just the thing for an early morning start ,

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As they set off in a cloud of dust I hurried back to the kitchen at Casa Bella to get ready for the halfway stop.,in a cluster of gum trees at the edge of Chicamba Dam.

I, was going to set up the bar and a table of snacks to keep the riders sustained for the second part of their journey to the Caruso Hotel. My back up was a confirmed bachelor called Murray Dawson in his rattle trap of a Toyota Land Cruiser.

We packed the cooler boxes in Murray's car and he was issued with strict instructions to pick up tables and chairs at a pre-arranged spot."

For remainder of this story see West Sussex Gazette Horse World, November 29

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