Eastern Highlands, Part 1

We made a plan to leave Victoria Falls to head directly to the Eastern Highlands to hike.  Paul had a friend that was hiking and kayaking in the area and he offered to let us join.  So we made the decision to basically bus through the rest of the country to go from West to East in a day.

The Extra City Luxury bus left Victoria Falls at 9:30 pm and was supposed to take 12 hours to Harare.  While it did take a little longer, it all worked out very well.  We slept what we could and watched the landscape and music videos when we couldn’t.  The latter were entertaining as they danced by shaking their legs as fast as they could and each song lasted at least 10 minutes.  We stopped at countless police checkpoints and even had to pay a fine at least once, although it’s a safe guess to say we paid at them all.

 

The bus stopped at the company’s office before reaching the bus terminal in Harare.  Tico asked how we could get to Rusape as that was where we were told to get to.  The driver suggested we take a taxi from there as the bus terminal is ‘tough.’  So he helped us get a deal and we went to 4th Street to get a different bus.

The taxi pulled in front of the bus essentially blocking it from leaving.  Meanwhile, the driver honked and revved the engine, which we asummed meant he was ready to pull out.  As we sat there for another 40 minutes, we realized that it was his way of attracting more passengers.  Once we were sufficiently full, we started our 2.5 hour journey to Rusape.  We picked up more people on the way to the point that people were standing in the aisle.  The man next to us offered a seat to a woman standing, which meant for the last part of the trip there were 6 of us in the back row of 5 seats.

 

We unloaded our belongings in the Rusape market.  It was obvious that we were out of place so much that we were asked to have our picture taken with a stranger.  I went to the bathroom and could smell the urine before turning the corner to the entrance.  There was liquid all over the floor and probably 30 stalls, most without doors.  Inside the stalls, there was a hole in the ground with minimal lighting so it was almost impossible to know if you hit the target or not.

We started asking people how to get to Hauna as that was where we’d finally meet up with Jan, Paul’s friend.  Multiple people gave us the same news.  The only bus to Hauna left the next morning.  Our only other option was to get to Mutare and find a ride from there.  So we flagged down another bus as our original one, which was also going to Mutare, was long gone.  We boarded and paid our way for another hour-long bus ride.

The driver knew we needed to get to Hauna so he directed us towards the combi that would get us there.  We were the first in the van, which meant we’d have to wait for it to fill before we could leave.  So we did lap after lap around the block while they yelled Honde Valley out the window.  Again, once we were full enough to their standards, we hit the road.  We made a quick pit stop to fill up gasoline and actually rear-ended the car behind us as our driver wasn’t paying attention.  They managed to clear it up quickly as there wasn’t any damage and we headed out of town.  Our first police checkpoint did not go as planned and the driver had to hand over money for a fine.  From then on, it was smooth sailing.

 

We drove into the mountains and had people get in and out as we continued on.  After about an hour, it was just us in the van.  Our driver pulled up behind another van and told us to load our things into that car.  We were the last 2 needed to fill the van, which meant we were off into the Honde Valley.  The Nyanga National Park was on our left and we could see the Mutarazi Falls splashing down the side of the cliff as we made our way into the valley.

It was now past 5 pm, which was when we were supposed to meet up with Jan.  We hadn’t heard from him since 11 am and we didn’t have any idea what we should do.  One of the guys in the van told us that they could take us to a hotel and we took him up on the offer.  We decided to wait a little longer to see if we heard from Jan.  By 7 pm, we decided we should book the night and moved our stuff into a room and ordered dinner.

Some 20 minutes later, the phone rang.  Jan got stuck up on the mountain and was just getting back to civilization.  We’d eat dinner and he was going to come get us from the hotel.  He called after another 45 mins and said that with all of the rain they were slipping and literally sliding down the mountain so it was taking longer than expected.

Around 9 pm, Jan showed up with 2 others and his 3 dogs and we loaded his truck.  As it was still raining, it meant our 7 bags, 5 people and 3 dogs were crammed into the double cab of his truck.  We headed out of town and to base camp as the roads were too bad to make it up the mountain to the rest of the group.

Base camp was a campsite next to the Pungwe River.  It was next to a power station and the facilities were left over from its construction.  They cleverly repurposed the bathrooms and offices into the campsite and a school.  A couple people that didn’t ascend the mountain were at base camp and were surprised to see us, but greeted us with coffee and tea.  We settled into our tent for the night and it didn’t even matter that water was dripping inside.  Concentrated in the middle of the tent to avoid the water, we were just happy to be horizontal after our long journey.

 

 

 

The group was up at 5:30 am as we needed to meet up with the group.  Jan was actually the guide and he’d left them for the night without a plan.  It had continued to rain all night so instead of continuing to hike the idea was to rescue the group and bring everyone to base camp.  We took 2 cars to make sure we had space for everyone’s things and got as close to them as we could.  Jan didn’t want to slide back down so we left the cars about a kilometer from their camp.

 

 

We walked along the road with locals, who would help to carry gear back to the car.  The group was excited to see us as they wanted to be dry and warm.  As it turned out, the entire group was about 30 people and they were part of the Mountain Club of Zimbabwe.  It took some time, but we packed everything up and worked our way back to base camp.  Most of the group had to walk until those with cars could come back to pick them up.

 

 

 

A few hours later, everyone reunited at base camp.  Jan had decided he was going to leave as the weather was miserable and his dogs were a hassle with the rain.  He offered to let us leave things with him so we could travel light for the next several days.  We took him up on the deal and he took most of our belongings with him to Harare.  He introduced us to the campsite manager and left us with a map and ideas of different hikes.

 

The rest of the day was spent getting to know the group and hearing about their experiences.  Many were ex-pats from European countries while others were Zimbabwe nationals that taught us about the country’s history.  The next morning we joined the group for breakfast at the Aberfoyle Lodge, which is nestled in a tea plantation.  As we drove through the fields of green, the views were amazing.  The mountains were the backdrop to rolling hills of tea, banana and avocado plants.  It was still cloudy, but that didn’t effect the beautiful view.

 

 

The couple that offered to drive us from Aberfoyle to Hauna taught us about tea farming as we drove down.  The man grew up on a coffee and tea plantation in Zimbabwe so was able to give us real-life stories.  They dropped us off along the main road in Hauna and the next several days, we’d be on our own to discover the nearby mountains.

 

Helpful tips:

• Most buses leaving Victoria Falls actually leave from Chinotimba, which is a suburb of the town.
• If you have your own car and don’t want to stay at Aberfoyle, think about doing dinner to see the scenery at sunset.
• If you using combis, look for ones going to Sagambe to get to the worker’s village just below the lodge.  The lodge is 37 kms from the main road.