The Last Resort: Drifters Backpackers Lodge

En route back to Harare from a lovely visit to Zimbabwe's Chimanimani Mountains, we stopped at Drifters.

(This is the view from the Rogers' home.)

Drifters is a backpackers' lodge, the focal point of the Douglas Rogers memoir The Last Resort.

Rogers writes of his parents' experiences running Drifters as white Zimbabweans during the more tumultuous years of Zimbabwe history and how they adapt and fight to survive in the land they love.

Isn't it a lovely spot, tucked away near to Mutare?

The Last Resort is one of the better memoirs I've read on Zimbabwe.  It takes a heavy topic, the violence of the 2008 elections, the land grabs and harassment of white Zimbabweans, and the daily struggle for all Zimbabweans to survive during its astronomically failed economy, and touches it both with humor and insight.

The bar which plays a prominent role in the memoir.

Would certainly recommend the memoir and it was so interesting to see Drifters after having read it.

These buildings had been erected by construction crews working on the roads nearby.  They were already months over their stay and the Rogers suspected no payment was in sight.

It was interesting to meet Lyn and Ros Rogers and to see how humorously their son had captured them in the book.

Romeo---read the book to learn who he is!---opened this nearby butchery, Romeo's Meat Market.

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