"Claire was so permanent; it's like the pyramids have disappeared." The trip had been arranged so that Anaishe could meet her Zimbabwean grandmother for the first time. Mr Penno described his granddaughter as a "delightful little girl" who loved music and the water. He said Mr Mpofu and his son had been discharged from hospital, but that Mr Mpofu was struggling. "He's not going too well, he's absolutely devastated."

Mr Mpofu told Claire's father that after struggling to find a nearby ATM that would dispense cash, the family had been forced to organise the hire of a Toyota Tarago through a hotel porter - and drive about 70 kilometres over the border to Zambia. They were believed to have been about five kilometres from the end of their journey when the accident occurred. "The vehicle was pretty dodgy and the roads weren't too good," Mr Penno said. Police suspect that Mr Mpofu was speeding when he lost control of his vehicle at around 6pm on Thursday local time, Zimbabwe newspaper The Chronicle reported. However Mr Mpofu told Mr Penno that "he was driving at a normal speed, but the vehicle was suspect and the wheels have slipped off the bitumen". Ms Penno and Ngoni Mpofu with Anaishe when she was a baby.

Ms Penno was the operations manager for Victoria with the Guardian Early Learning Group, and tributes have poured in from colleagues describing her warm-hearted and caring nature. Her father said she had been like a second mother to her three younger brothers growing up, and had always wanted to work in childcare. Along with her daughter and stepson, she was a foster mother to a young boy aged 8. "She loved to talk, her talk was all about how you were, how things were going. It was all about the welfare of others," Mr Penno said. "She was a huge character in terms of her concern and empathy for others, and really her love of children." At the time of the crash, Ms Penno and her daughter had been sitting in the back seat of the Tarago. There was no child restraint seat because the family hadn't expected to be driving at that stage of their trip, Mr Penno said. "Claire didn't have her seatbelt on apparently. She took it off for a moment to feed the baby or attend to the baby," he said.

Ms Penno's friends and former colleagues at the Guardian Early Learning Group have created a GoFundMe page to raise money to help bring Ms Penno and her daughter's body back home to Australia and pay for a funeral. Creator of the GoFundMe page Bhekizulu Zwangobani said both Claire and Ngoni “had touched so many lives”. “They have always valued the relationships they have had with people and were not only good together, they also made someone special in Anaishe,” he wrote. “Claire was just an innately good and wonderful person, passionate about welfare of all people, and compassionate beyond measure. “She loved and centred her life on the welfare of children, their education and expanding their potential.

“She was amazing, she was beautiful inside and out and she was loved.” Mr Zwangobani said their 18-month-old daughter was “her parents and grandparents' world” and was truly loved. “Anaishe was just starting her life, full of character, personality and such intelligence. She had so much potential to bring to the world.” A private Facebook group was created by the Guardian Early Learning Group, where Ms Penno had worked for a decade, as a tribute to her and a forum for her former colleagues to support one another and share stories of her life. By Sunday it had more than 470 members from Australia, Africa and Europe and many heartfelt messages and pictures from people who remembered her as an inspiring and caring figure.

Ms Penno's selflessness was a theme echoed by many who took to social media to express their grief. Fybian Fyablo Chakaodza said Ms Penno always put others before herself. "I’m still in shock and can’t believe something like this could happen to such a loving and kind family," he wrote on Facebook. "Claire was a beautiful and caring soul who was making a difference in the early childhood space." Mr Penno said his daughter and her future husband met in Melbourne when she was 19. They were keen travellers, he said.

Mr Mopfu remains in Zimbabwe. Both he and Ms Penno's eldest brother are organising the repatriation of the bodies back to Australia.