We headed for the border crossing at Chirundu, and arrived at a huge, brand-new facility housing the Zimbabwean immigration and customs offices at 5:45 p.m The border closes at 6 p.m., reopening at 6 a.m. each day. Two people ran into the building with us, also hoping to make the crossing before closing time. One immigration officer was still at her station, reading a newspaper. She was pleasant but firm in refusing to process any more passports for the day. One of the two people who came in with us, a woman, was ahead of us in line; we listened to her argue for a few minutes; then we all gave up and walked down the long, winding ramp back to the parking lot.

It was a very short drive downhill to the Chirundu Valley Motel. We were fortunate that the "U.S. dollars only" policy was in effect, since we had deliberately spent nearly every Zim dollar in our possession in preparation for leaving the country. The next day we realized why the immigration officer didn't want to process anyone as late as 5:45; on the Zambian side of the border the procedures would have required at least an hour, and because we were bringing a Botswana-registered vehicle into the country, we were at the border post for nearly two hours.