Running Dogs and Rose’s Children tell the story of how Eric and wife Jenny are plunged into parenthood after adopting three siblings aged eleven, five and one after their mother died of cancer. The new family set about starting over, building a family life together from scratch, in their rambling farmhouse outside Harare, Zimbabwe. Their story was on course for a happily ever after ending, until their lives and the lives of those around them were destroyed by Robert Mugabe’s war of terror, unleashed on white farmers and opposition party members, launching an era of economic, social and political turmoil which eventually saw the family fleeing the country for fear of being killed. Eric’s fierce love of his country and his principles saw him immersing himself in the dangerous opposition politics of the day where elections were rigged, and fellow party members were tortured and murdered. Somehow Eric de Jong’s irrepressible sense of humour bubbles throughout this absorbing, honest and deeply personal account of a growing family, of love, entrepreneurial success and failure, mental illness, political exile, and the distressing and often absurd collapse of a beautiful African country and stoicism of its people.

It is never too late to do something crazy wonderful. 'Your mid-life crisis doesn't have to be boring'. Eric De Jong, aged 60, took up mountain biking. The next thing he was making ‘pinky-promises’ with a fellow rider to ride from Cape Town to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Detouring off highways in search of roads less traveled, Cape Town to Kilimanjaro is about having fun, doing good and doing epic. Join Eric on his jaw dropping, foot cramping adventures through Africa and he’ll make you laugh, cry and will hopefully inspire.

Eric de Jong and his wife, Jenny plunged into parenthood when they adopted three siblings from the children's dying mother. The new family set about living happily ever after in their rambling farmhouse outside Harare. But ever after proved short lived as Zimbabwe's small window of stability closed in on them quickly when Robert Mugabe unleashed a war on white farmers and opposition party members, launching an era of economic, social and political turmoil which eventually saw the family fleeing the country for fear of being killed.Eric well knew the cost of conflict, but his fierce love of his country and his principles saw him immersing himself in the dangerous opposition politics of the day where elections were rigged and fellow party members were tortured and murdered.Eric de Jon's irrepressible sense of humour bubbles throughout this absorbing, honest and deeply personal account of a growing family, of love, entrepreneurial success and failure, mental illness, political exile, and the distressing and often absurd collapse of a beautiful African country and stoicism of its people.

"Every year a small group of amateur cyclists known as the Old Legs Tour cycles Africa's less travelled roads to raise money and awareness for Zimbabwe's struggling pensioners. Zimbabwe on the road travelled documents the Lockdown Tour, which the undetook in July and August 2020 in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic."--