Maleme Dam picnic spot near Bulawayo. The water is low and the dam is waiting for the rains to fill it up.
One bright Sunday morning, a group of us were heading for Maleme Dam for the day. Close to the dam on the dirt road, wide enough for only one car, we halted to let a huge python cross in front of us. Its head was in the grass on one side of the road and its tail in the grass on the other. We couldn’t see how long it was, but its body was the thickness of a man’s thigh. We waited for over a minute for it to cross in the direction of the dam and the picnic sites. Our group were all teens, and our minds soon switched to other things. Looking back, I can only hope that no one’s child or pet dog went missing that day.