The cucumber incident
Posted on in Travel.
Today I am in Zimbabwe, visiting Victoria falls. Hard to believe, I found wifi in the back of a curio shop.
Well the story of the day….
It started well: sun shining, and on my way to Victoria falls. The border crossing was easy, save a long wait. I immediately noticed something different in Zimbabwe: no animals on the roads. They must be fenced in and hidden in the bush…I missed them!
Until now I knew you could not carry any meat across veterinary check points. Well I had e bright idea to take a cucumber with me as a snack. The first vet checkpoint showed up, and I was asked “any meat or vegetables?”….well I remembered back to everyone saying”don’t declare anything”, but being on a bus I thought I should declare it. “a cucumber” I said. Well that was the wrong answer. I was off the bus and in a small shack with an armed guard. He pulled out a 3 page form and started me writing.. Why did I have a cucumber?, where did I buy it?, how long was it?…and on and on. By now the bus had left, leaving me alone. After about an hour of paperwork, I was told the cucumber would have to go into quarantine, and I would not get it far at least 2 days.
I asked if there were any other options. The officer said ” just throw it into that pile and you can go”…..,,I did.
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