By Steve Vickers BBC Sport Online in Harare

The Zimbabwe women's national team is making a marathon journey by road to play Tanzania in an African championships qualifier this weekend.

A cost-cutting exercise at the Zimbabwe Football Association ruled out the possibility of sending the team by air.

The Mighty Warriors will travel through Zambia and DR Congo on a 2,500km bus trip that began when they left Harare on Wednesday morning.

They are due to arrive in Dar-es-Salaam on Friday, leaving little time to prepare for the game against Tanzania on Saturday.

They will arrive back in Zimbabwe on Tuesday, having spent the best part of a week on the road.

"It's to save money because we've got more international games coming up," said Zifa communications manager Arthur Choga.

"But we're hopeful that it will go well, we've got a good team."

The Zimbabwe men's team will travel to Eritrea next month for a Nations Cup qualifier, while the Under-23 and Under-20 teams will go to Mozambique and Egypt.