No sign of common sense?

First of all - a confession! Yesterdays blog elicited a certain amount of comment - and I was accused of being somewhat economical with the truth. I have to hang my head in shame and admit that I was not entirely truthful with my story. So - here's the truth....

There is no such thing as an 'African Giant tortoise'!

Well done those readers who caught me out on that. It was, indeed, a Galapagos tortoise that Courtney managed to deflate so alarmingly! Everything else contained in the blog was pretty much almost true!

So - today.

One of the beauties of travelling on Zimbabwe's roads is the scope and diversity of signs which accost the unsuspecting motorist, and on a rainy drive there is lots to keep you entertained. Some are road signs, and some are just advertising signs, right out in the middle of nowhere....

It does seem that a little economy was also taken here with the truth because the inhabitant of the trailer was not white, had hardly any meat on his bones - never mind muscle, spoke in more than monosyllabic grunts, and didn't blow his hapless customers away with an anti-aircraft gun and then reduce their vehicle to a ball of flame. At least not in the two minutes that we watched him!

Then this sign - what could it be warning of? Hills ahead? Men hiding in a trench ahead? A python just ate the Seven Dwarfs ahead?

Of course - this sign was an admission by the Roads Department that the road ahead would be slightly bumpy - which was a real understatement! Rather like the Blackpool Roller Coaster - the entire population of our car were soon all crying 'wheeeeee' as we went down the one side of the bumps, and 'oooooh' as we went up the other side! If there is a sign in Zim warning of a bumpy road - pay attention to it!

We then came across this rather strange sign - with a warning triangle, a pedestrian and a cow.

All three of these are standard Zim roadside signs, but there are never more than 2 on a pole at a time. What did this combo mean? What dire dangers were lurking ahead of us that needed such a warning?

So what did the sign mean? The triangle on Zimbabwean signs means 'warning'.

The suggestions of my three daughters were:-

1) Warning - man milking cow ahead
2) Warning - man carrying cow on his head, ahead
3) Warning - someone has stolen the other pole - thieves ahead

My own rather pathetic interpretation was

4) Warning - a fool of a pedestrian will drive his cows in front of your car and try to cause an accident, ahead.

Quite incredibly, not much more than a kilometre later............

Silly fool!

But - we will certainly pay more attention to the signs in future!

Have a great day!