Outdoors:Exploring the wilderness just down the road

Environment
By Rosie Mitchell Rather later in the year than usual, and thankfully reminded of my commitment in time not to embarrass myself, last Sunday I led a hearty group of Mountain Clubbers on an all-day hike in the Chinhamora communal lands.  This had been slated for months earlier, but what with marathons and rehearsals and festivals and generalised happy chaos all year to date, it was pushed back!  The Mountain Club is a rather wonderful long-established institution comprising a core group of Zimbabweans, passionate about our environment, wildlife, great outdoors, and appreciating these by exploring them together, whether on several day intrepid hikes or a casual afternoon stroll.  Mountains often feature, but not necessarily.  Their number is regularly augmented on outings by a changing addition of visitors to our country, whether they be here doing voluntary work, in the diplomatic corps, with a donor agency or simply visiting friends here, who love walking and hiking in wild places.  Each time I lead an outing — around three time a year — I kick myself for not making more time to participate in these year round weekend gatherings of like-minded people.  

Chinhamora, and neighbouring Masembura, are an undiscovered  paradise close to the city which Sarah and I first began exploring in earnest almost a decade ago, while I was recovering from brain surgery to despatch a tumour.  For years, with limited mental and social stamina, in contrast, my physical stamina returned rather faster, and it lifted my spirits to get out exploring the bush, my favourite way to spend free time.

Over several years we discovered just how beautiful and wild these areas are, and how charming and hospitable the people who live in the valleys and plateaux between these mountains are.

One especially wonderful discovery was the Inyauri river valley, to which we have regularly returned.  This was the second time we shared it with the Clubbers.

With just under an hour’s leisurely drive, one could think oneself in a national park. While obviously respecting the friendly residents’ personal space, fields and gardens, one could spend a lifetime enjoying and exploring these massive granite mountains and surrounding virtually pristine forests and plains.

While Domboshava and Ngoma Kurira are well-known beautiful places that city dwellers visit, walk and enjoy San rock art, there is a veritable unexplored paradise around and extending far beyond these.  

My guided hike had been slated as what the Clubbers call “high impact” and on clarifying the definition (which I’d thought relatively long and demanding) it turned out to require some challenging scrambling and steep ascents.  In this terrain, it’s easy to oblige!  The assembled ages ranged from the 20s to 60s, all demonstrating a gung-ho attitude and a high level of fitness, one of many advantages of joining a group like this, which include making new friends, going to wild, unspoiled places you might not otherwise get to, enjoying great scenery, birds and game and developing a passion for environmental conservation, which is likely to lead to involvement in other related voluntary activities and societies.

So, after heading up a precipice suitably steep to test balance, stamina and nerve, some time to enjoy the spectacular view atop, then heading at times precariously down its other side to a lovely waterfall, we settled to picnic lunches by the water.  While I winced at the icy temperature and cried off a dip, one hardy fellow took the plunge, and enjoyed.  High impact ticked in the box, we headed further downstream, hoping to re-locate some San rock paintings Sarah and I had happened upon years ago, and though failing, the mission itself was fun and we encountered a fascination of nature – a troupe of caterpillars travelling over a boulder in a strange joined head-to-tail convoy.

We walked back up the valley, enjoying a different point of view, all now satisfied with their earlier workout.  While we unsurprisingly didn’t see game this time — 17 people making quite a bit of noise moving together and chatting, there are klipspringers, reedbuck, duikers, mongooses, vervets, dassies, baboons, genets, civets, serval and more to be spotted in these areas if you’re quiet, the nocturnal creatures of course more rarely, and bird life is teeming.  Who said you have to travel far to enjoy the best of what our country can offer as a wilderness experience?  We didn’t see a soul the entire day and all agreed this was a spectacular place to explore.  I believe we become invested in conserving our environment and wildlife in two ways; either, because we come to see these as having real, measurable economic value to our community, or, because by visiting unspoilt areas and interacting with them as described here, we come to care whether these remain, for now and future generations.

 

Rather later in the year than usual, and thankfully reminded of my commitment in time not to embarrass myself, last Sunday I led a hearty group of Mountain Clubbers on an all-day hike in the Chinhamora communal lands.  This had been slated for months earlier, but what with marathons and rehearsals and festivals and generalised happy chaos all year to date, it was pushed back!  The Mountain Club is a rather wonderful long-established institution comprising a core group of Zimbabweans, passionate about our environment, wildlife, great outdoors, and appreciating these by exploring them together, whether on several day intrepid hikes or a casual afternoon stroll.  Mountains often feature, but not necessarily.  Their number is regularly augmented on outings by a changing addition of visitors to our country, whether they be here doing voluntary work, in the diplomatic corps, with a donor agency or simply visiting friends here, who love walking and hiking in wild places.  Each time I lead an outing — around three time a year — I kick myself for not making more time to participate in these year round weekend gatherings of like-minded people.

Chinhamora, and neighbouring Masembura, are an undiscovered  paradise close to the city which Sarah and I first began exploring in earnest almost a decade ago, while I was recovering from brain surgery to despatch a tumour.  For years, with limited mental and social stamina, in contrast, my physical stamina returned rather faster, and it lifted my spirits to get out exploring the bush, my favourite way to spend free time.

Over several years we discovered just how beautiful and wild these areas are, and how charming and hospitable the people who live in the valleys and plateaux between these mountains are.

One especially wonderful discovery was the Inyauri river valley, to which we have regularly returned.  This was the second time we shared it with the Clubbers.With just under an hour’s leisurely drive, one could think oneself in a national park. While obviously respecting the friendly residents’ personal space, fields and gardens, one could spend a lifetime enjoying and exploring these massive granite mountains and surrounding virtually pristine forests and plains. While Domboshava and Ngoma Kurira are well-known beautiful places that city dwellers visit, walk and enjoy San rock art, there is a veritable unexplored paradise around and extending far beyond these.

 

Discover the wild and unspoilt Chinhamora

My guided hike had been slated as what the Clubbers call “high impact” and on clarifying the definition (which I’d thought relatively long and demanding) it turned out to require some challenging scrambling and steep ascents.  In this terrain, it’s easy to oblige!  The assembled ages ranged from the 20s to 60s, all demonstrating a gung-ho attitude and a high level of fitness, one of many advantages of joining a group like this, which include making new friends, going to wild, unspoiled places you might not otherwise get to, enjoying great scenery, birds and game and developing a passion for environmental conservation, which is likely to lead to involvement in other related voluntary activities and societies.

So, after heading up a precipice suitably steep to test balance, stamina and nerve, some time to enjoy the spectacular view atop, then heading at times precariously down its other side to a lovely waterfall, we settled to picnic lunches by the water.  While I winced at the icy temperature and cried off a dip, one hardy fellow took the plunge, and enjoyed.  High impact ticked in the box, we headed further downstream, hoping to re-locate some San rock paintings Sarah and I had happened upon years ago, and though failing, the mission itself was fun and we encountered a fascination of nature – a troupe of caterpillars travelling over a boulder in a strange joined head-to-tail convoy.

We walked back up the valley, enjoying a different point of view, all now satisfied with their earlier workout.  While we unsurprisingly didn’t see game this time — 17 people making quite a bit of noise moving together and chatting, there are klipspringers, reedbuck, duikers, mongooses, vervets, dassies, baboons, genets, civets, serval and more to be spotted in these areas if you’re quiet, the nocturnal creatures of course more rarely, and bird life is teeming.  Who said you have to travel far to enjoy the best of what our country can offer as a wilderness experience?  We didn’t see a soul the entire day and all agreed this was a spectacular place to explore.  I believe we become invested in conserving our environment and wildlife in two ways; either, because we come to see these as having real, measurable economic value to our community, or, because by visiting unspoilt areas and interacting with them as described here, we come to care whether these remain, for now and future generations.