MUSINA, South Africa – Driving up to the Zimbabwe border, on the N1 highway, is a lesson in Trailer Packing 101. Vehicles of all shapes, sizes and roadworthiness are slowly pulling rickety trailers laden with goods.

Traffic lines up at the South African border town of Musina with Zimbabwe.

 At this time of the year, the exodus up north is a hair-raising journey during which you dodge some of the most outrageous examples of cars, buses and trucks I have ever seen on a road. Most look as if they are being held together with bits of tape and string.

But despite their flimsy, collapsing appearance these modes of transport will help to sustain many Zimbabweans this Christmas.

Loaded on the roofs and stuffed into the trailers are boxes of groceries, bags of clothes and even beds and door frames.

I asked one driver at the border post, whose car had a two-meter high bundle of goods perched precariously on the trailer, if there was a kitchen sink in his load as well. He laughed good naturedly and brushed off my question - leaving me to wonder if there was indeed a sturdy kitchen sink bound for Harare in his kit?

Mostly though, the basics are being transported in bulk across the border – one family had about 100 eggs in the back of their van. Another had so many bags of potatoes, it gave a new meaning to the phrase "carbo-loading." Others stock up on huge vats of cooking oil, kilograms of sugar and heavy bags of meilie meal or maize.

Food shortages and hyperinflation have left many Zimbabweans hungry and poor - which is why this highway of makeshift grocery trucks resembles a highway of hope for many.

For all the flat wheels, bent chassis and squealing brakepads, the steady bustle of traffic northwards means that for the next few weeks, at least, Zimbabweans who have relatives or friends in South Africa can savor the luxuries of basic commodities lovingly driven home for the holidays.

Posted by: CNN Correspondent, Robyn Curnow
Filed under: General