Even More Zimbabwe Mountains

Still exploring the remote mountains we wander into the town of Nyanga, perched under Zimbabwe’s tallest mountain, Nyangani (2592m/8555ft.). Camping with the mountain as the backdrop is stunning, and of course it’s all free. We wander through the Rhodes Museum which gives us great insight into the man who built this country and for which it was originally named (Rhodesia).

jeep camping drifters lodge 720x480

Camping at Drifters

As a highlight we also make a stop at the extremely famous Drifters Backpackers. This is the scene of the book by Douglas Rogers. The book tells the story of the horrible decline of Zimbabwe under President Mugabe’s rule from the boom of the late 90’s through 2008 with hyper-hyper inflation. Amazingly, the Rogers family managed to always find a way to survive – not always strictly legal ways – which are downright hilarious. The book is actually a comedy and reminds me heavily of the show M.A.S.H or the book Catch 22 – laden with situations so absurd they defy belief, though it’s absolutely all fact.
The book is a brilliant way to understand what happened in Zimbabwe and how locals managed to survive and get on with life anyway. Grab a copy if you have any interest in Zimbabwe!

jeep mountains zimbabwe 720x480

The mountains of Zim are spectacular

jeep lost in logging roads 720x480

I got us a little lost on some logging roads – great for camping though!

jeep camping highest mountain zim 720x480

Wild Camping near Nyangani mountain

We feel privileged to meet the owner of Drifters and one of the main characters from the book – they are still there though the backpackers closed long ago since tourism took a dive. We thoroughly enjoy hearing all the stories and seeing the locations – it’s a bit like walking into Hogwart’s Castle. It happens to be a Friday and so to continue the Drifters tradition we make massive pizzas in our dutch oven over the fire – Emily has been getting more and more creative with the huge steel pot and the pizzas are delicious.

to vic falls 720x480

Sounds like a great destination to me… eventually!

worlds view hike 720x480

Hiking up worlds view

worlds view zimbabwe 720x286

The view from the top of Worlds View

One afternoon we hike up to the top of World’s View, a spectacular 360 view out over the Eastern Highlands, then wild camp at a remote waterfall far back in an isolated valley. The view at sunrise defies belief.

zimbabwe morning mist waterfall 720x304

Morning views over the Pungwe Falls and valley

emily dan waterfall 720x480

Standing on top of Pungwe Falls

dani crossing waterfall 720x480

Hiking into a mighty waterfall

The mountains in Zim are stunning!

-Dan

2 Responses

  1. Julian Schurman says:

    Looks like you are really enjoying life, keep up the good work and may happy trails be ahead for you.

  1. July 23, 2018

    […] Read more > […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>