I recently travelled up through Zimbabwe to fish Cahora Bassa for Tigers and I thought that I could share some info ...
We went into Zimbabwe via Biet Bridge and that's the only border where we had issues - avoid it at all costs if you can. The Biet Bridge guys have all these 'runners' that you can hire to smooth the way. It costs you R200 to hire them and then you haggle with them over the payments for "issues" in your paperwork, getting someone to work over a "shift change" and preventing customs from searching your car for 4 hours ... that normally costs between R100 to R200 per official, You will be lucky to get away with R500, or you can try and do it yourself and spend the 4 or 5 hours battling your way through. You will need to pay the R85 toll for Biet Bridge and all carbon emissions tax (engine size dependant) and road tax. Total around R550 (excluding the above incentive scheme).
Take all your original NATUS docs for your car (or the bank copies and letters of authorisation from your bank to take the car into Zim.) and get your 3rd party sorted out at the AA Travel experience shop before you go, it's quicker, easier and cheaper. Coming out of Zim at that border is no problem at all, took us 20 mins tops. All the other Zim borders are quiet and no problem, your only issue will be paying the Carbon Emission taxes and Road Taxes on entry. If you are going to be in Zim take US dollars with you in place of Rands, you can pay with either up there but they do the conversion at 10 to 1, R10 will get you $1's worth, a real rip off considering the current exchange rate at 7 to 1. I think I paid around $40 for the Carbon emissions and Road taxes, they are dependant on the size of your motor, I had a 3.2 L Diesel.
There are roughly set up toll roads at the major towns in Zim, they will cost you $1 US, take some single US Dollar bills with to pay for them or you will have a pile of $1 bills in change that you need gloves to handle, there are 4 Toll Roads between Biet Bridge and Harare. There is also the occasional Police road block, they are normally very polite, (as with most African officials, take your cap and sunglasses off when you speak to them and things go a lot smoother) The cops want to see your T.I.P. (temporary import permit) for your vehicle, if it's expired they will confiscate your vehicle on the spot - (The one cop said "if your TIP is expired, the next time you see your car it will have POLICE written on the side") - you shouldn't have a problem though, it's normally the local guys taking cars up there on a TIP to avoid the import duties.
There is plenty of diesel available in Harare and most big towns, price is around US$1.08 a litre and it seems to be OK, - I went through a good couple of hundred liters of it in my Pajero Sport and it went fine. Unleaded can be a problem as most of the cars up there use "Blend", which is a petrol/Ethanol mix which I suppose you could use as a last resort instead of unleaded, I wouldn't like to put in a modern engine .. Remember that the fuel stations are NOT open 24 hours, usually from 6am to 10pm or so.
The long-haul tar roads in Zim are still in pretty good shape considering the absolute lack of maintenance that they have had in the last 20 years but keep a look out for goats, donkeys, scotch carts, cattle etc. especially at night. Also watch out for the 80 and 60 Km limit signs, the Zim cops have new rader guns and like to operate them in these zones, be prepared for an 'Instant Fine' in US$.
Hope that this helps..
We went into Zimbabwe via Biet Bridge and that's the only border where we had issues - avoid it at all costs if you can. The Biet Bridge guys have all these 'runners' that you can hire to smooth the way. It costs you R200 to hire them and then you haggle with them over the payments for "issues" in your paperwork, getting someone to work over a "shift change" and preventing customs from searching your car for 4 hours ... that normally costs between R100 to R200 per official, You will be lucky to get away with R500, or you can try and do it yourself and spend the 4 or 5 hours battling your way through. You will need to pay the R85 toll for Biet Bridge and all carbon emissions tax (engine size dependant) and road tax. Total around R550 (excluding the above incentive scheme).
Take all your original NATUS docs for your car (or the bank copies and letters of authorisation from your bank to take the car into Zim.) and get your 3rd party sorted out at the AA Travel experience shop before you go, it's quicker, easier and cheaper. Coming out of Zim at that border is no problem at all, took us 20 mins tops. All the other Zim borders are quiet and no problem, your only issue will be paying the Carbon Emission taxes and Road Taxes on entry. If you are going to be in Zim take US dollars with you in place of Rands, you can pay with either up there but they do the conversion at 10 to 1, R10 will get you $1's worth, a real rip off considering the current exchange rate at 7 to 1. I think I paid around $40 for the Carbon emissions and Road taxes, they are dependant on the size of your motor, I had a 3.2 L Diesel.
There are roughly set up toll roads at the major towns in Zim, they will cost you $1 US, take some single US Dollar bills with to pay for them or you will have a pile of $1 bills in change that you need gloves to handle, there are 4 Toll Roads between Biet Bridge and Harare. There is also the occasional Police road block, they are normally very polite, (as with most African officials, take your cap and sunglasses off when you speak to them and things go a lot smoother) The cops want to see your T.I.P. (temporary import permit) for your vehicle, if it's expired they will confiscate your vehicle on the spot - (The one cop said "if your TIP is expired, the next time you see your car it will have POLICE written on the side") - you shouldn't have a problem though, it's normally the local guys taking cars up there on a TIP to avoid the import duties.
There is plenty of diesel available in Harare and most big towns, price is around US$1.08 a litre and it seems to be OK, - I went through a good couple of hundred liters of it in my Pajero Sport and it went fine. Unleaded can be a problem as most of the cars up there use "Blend", which is a petrol/Ethanol mix which I suppose you could use as a last resort instead of unleaded, I wouldn't like to put in a modern engine .. Remember that the fuel stations are NOT open 24 hours, usually from 6am to 10pm or so.
The long-haul tar roads in Zim are still in pretty good shape considering the absolute lack of maintenance that they have had in the last 20 years but keep a look out for goats, donkeys, scotch carts, cattle etc. especially at night. Also watch out for the 80 and 60 Km limit signs, the Zim cops have new rader guns and like to operate them in these zones, be prepared for an 'Instant Fine' in US$.
Hope that this helps..