Chimanimani mountains & Zimbabwe ruins

It's overcast and raining outside and a fair bit colder than its been in recent weeks as we drive towards Masvingo. It reminds me of home and it's making me feel a bit homesick and missing family and friends. Olivia will be returning to, and in the case of Freya, starting school this week. I'd like to see them in their new school uniforms. I think little Finley will feel lost without his big sisters in the house.
We thought Internet access would improve once we left Malawi but it's not the case and as such haven't been able to check in with people. In an attempt to cheer myself up I'm blasting Jess Glynn- hold my hand, out in my ears, reminds me of a sunny day in Ludlow on my hen do, lots of my lovely friends with me as I danced on the garden chair- I'm smiling as I write! Yes, my mood has improved. Next It's an 80s playlist which always reminds me of me & Tony dancing around the kitchen on a Friday night, wine in hand. I can't help but smile at that.

We've spent the last two days in Chimanimani at Heaven Mountain Lodge, and it felt like heaven. Springy green grass to pitch our tent on for a start, rather than rocks or sand and it had a snug with a roaring log fire, a stack of home and garden magazines to read and home made lemon meringue and chocolate cake. Bliss. Our tent was also facing the mountains and so at 6.30am I could sit outside it and watch the sun rise, casting purple shadows across the various peaks. It's my fave campsite so far and I wish we there longer as the area was so beautiful.
Yesterday we went hiking through the mountains which border Mozambique and offered every kind of scenery in the 6 hour walk; beach like, moorland, granite rocks, banana trees and waterfalls- where we stopped for lunch in the 30degree heat, cooling our feet. We visited some caves where there were paintings on the walls, the guide saying that people believed there for more than 300 years. The cynic in Tony and I thought the guide and his mate could have been up there last month and done them. Brad believed they weren't that dissimilar to aboriginal paintings and probably were therefore, legit.
Other than a group of teenagers on an outward bound course, no one else was in the national park. If that was the UK, or many other places in the world for that matter, it would be much busier. Tourism though is returning to Zim and we promised the park warden, as we left her waving, that we would indeed tell people about the Chimanimani mountains and encourage them to visit.
We finished the walk with a swim in 'Tessa's pools', a deep freezing cold pool in the forest, underneath a cascading waterfall. I'm so glad I braved the pneumonia inducing water as it was really refreshing. Returning to another blackout though and no hot water and the cold setting in wasn't so great though. That's where the lemon meringue made things better!
The group headed into the village for dinner at the local, very rowdy bar, having another local meal of sadza, chicken, beans and greens, all washing down with 750ml of castle larger.
There were no women in the bar, and lots of drunk males, some having been there since lunch when others in our group had called in en route from their waterfall walk. I think one bloke demonstrates the level of inebriation when he slurred, 'where are you from?', ' England' I replied. His slightly flummoxing response.... ' which England?'. I wasn't quite sure where to go with that so after trying to explain it, Georgia said ' Manchester United'. Ah, he knew these. 'I support Manchester United'. Of course you do, I've learnt it either had to be them, Arsenal or perhaps Chelsea.

Over dinner we were kept entertained as one young man decided to dance for us, circling his nipples and thrusting his bum in the air towards our group of 12. After half an hour he was chucked out, only to slip back in and carry on. Once again he was escorted out only to find his way back in once more.
In amongst the three fights we witnessed brewing, in part a result of the litre bottles of spirits we saw some carrying around, the men thanked us for coming to not only their bar, but to Zimbabwe too. Heaven Lodge used to have hundreds of visitors each month but for the last 13 years has seen very few visitors. Oasis overland returned three years ago after the hyper inflation issues were resolved but other overland tricks haven't yet returned it seems. Shame, other than Harare which is a city that offers very little to a visitor, the country is beautiful and offers so much.

Now we're en route to the Great Zimbabwe ruins, the 'greatest medieval city in sub Saharan Africa', first occupied in the 11th century and further developed in the 14th century. The site provides evidence that ancient Africa reached a level of civilisation not previously imagined by scholars.

Hmm, I'm not convinced on the great Zimbabwe ruins. True, it's impressive that once this was a community and the area reserved for the king was built up high within the granite rocks, with a little theatre area for ceremony's, but compared to the architectural design and layout of Machu Picchu and the intricate level of decoration at Angkor, it was a bit of a disappointment. It actually looked like a lot of dry stone walling and reminded me of the wall that surrounds York. Still, it's another world heritage site we've visited!

That evening when we returned from the ruins to our tents, the heavens opened. I was cooking for us all outside, in torrential rain with the wind blowing the gas burners out constantly. The awning that covered the cooking area kept sagging with the weight of the water and periodically required draining. One time this occurred with Tony stood underneath it!
As dinner was served up, we all took refuge from the rain on the truck and watched The Lion King on an iPad and played the sound through the truck speaker system. It worked rather well as a cinema and we're hoping to have another truck movie night. Next time, a group of adults ranging from the age of 30 through to early 50s are watching Frozen!! Tony has not yet seen it and I think he's rather excited!!