Nyanga to Chimanimani

Woke up hangry in our hot tent and quickly got to work on taking it down. This was quite the surprise for the golfers on the course above us who had not seen us in our perfectly concealed army-green tent by the river.

After managing to lug our big bags and camping gear up the golf course to the lodge, we drank our coffees and settled our rather large bill with the lodge. Thankfully our nights camping brought the cost down quite substantially, but I can’t say we stuck to our backpackers budget.

Hangry, we scarfed down a bunch of bananas in the car and decided to hit the road. This didn’t come without challenge however, as we were running low on fuel and there was no petrol station in sight until the next town, Mutare. Thankfully, the managers of the lodge supplied us with a receipt to get 20 litres of gas down at the local tea plantation. Upon arrival we showed our receipt to the security guard who looked at it strangely but allowed us to go through the gate down to the pump.

Unsurprisingly, the mechanics were experiencing issues with the pump, which seemed to be the ongoing theme of our Zimbabwe travels. We were told to wait 20 minutes and parked up in front of the garage where we were obviously in the way of the other workers. Finally, we were waved over and given the go ahead to collect our fuel. Without it we definitely would have run dry and been stuck on the side of the road.

Fuelled up, we started on our way towards Mutare through the tea plantation. The road wasn’t easy to navigate with the never-ending pot holes. But we’ve become pretty used to the “African Massage” these days.

Once in Mutare we filled up our tank which was surprisingly easy to do as we only had to visit three petrol stations this time before finding one with fuel! Still hangry we then decided it was time to fill our stomachs with delicious peri peri chicken from the local Portuguese Recreation Club; a hall filled with tables and chairs decorated in the finest Christmas tinsel. After drinking our 2 cokes with the waiter pushing for a third and failing to finish our plate full of chicken, we said our goodbyes to this funny little hall and set out for our final destination of the day, Chimanimani.

Chimanimani was left devastated by the cyclone of 2018. The aftermath of its destruction can still be seen while driving into this lovely little town. With most of its streets and bridges being wiped out and yet to be rebuilt, it took us a little bit longer to get to our accommodation of the evening: Heaven Lodge.

Nestled into the hill side, Heaven Lodge’s name seems quite suiting as it overlooks the Chimanimani Mountains. It helped that we were also greeted by a tiny kitten who quickly learned that one cannot walk through a window, no matter how cute you may be.

We finished the day by setting up camp and watching the sunset fall over mountains. With only three options available for dinner, we chose to eat the chicken as we didn’t have quite enough already that day.Read more