TRAVEL DIARIES- OUR FIRST TRIP TO INYANGA MOUNTAINS IN NOVEMBER 2004

Photo of Troutbeck Inn from www.troutbeckinn.net

We love traveling and we had planned three main trips this year, the first trip was three weeks drive during mid year school break from Pretoria, Harare, Malawi, Da es Salaam, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali, Goma, Lusaka and back via Livingstone, Bulawayo. I enjoy long drives 👌🏿The second trip was a return flight to Singapore and then road transport to neighboring Malaysia and back to Singapore. The last trip was going to be a cruise for our 19th anniversary as demanded by the boss. Life happens we hope for better days🤷🏿‍♂️

Anyway here is what I remember of our first trip to then Zimsun Troutbeck Inn hotel in Nyanga. Troutbeck Inn is one of my favorite hotels, I rate it as being number three after Victoria Falls hotel and Kingdom hotel. We booked two nights for November 2004 for MaNyoni’s birthday. MaNyoni was expecting our second son Isheanesu who was born in December 2004.

On the day of the trip, I was supposed to leave Harare around 12 midday, unfortunately then as an underwriting manager at Zimnat Lion Insurance I was preparing the tender for the insurance for Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The Central bank had decided to insure directly and not to go through an insurance broker. I worked on the quotation for weeks with the support of my boss I think our AGM then was AZ Shoko. For days I worked late with my secretary Sandra Chipunza in order to finalize the tender document.

On the day of the trip I only left Harare very late. I would have wanted to travel early so that we would see MaNyoni’s high school, the Catholic run Kriste Mambo High School were she attended from form 1 to form 4. MaNyoni talks a lot of her high school years at Kriste Mambo. I am also stuck with dietary preferences she picked up as a border 🙈

During that time I had 10 shops from Rukanda on Mutoko road, then in Hoyuyu resettlement areas of Mutoko and the some in the new resettlement areas of Virginia Macheke. My last store was at Rufaro farm about 10kms from Macheke GMB next to Harare Mutoko road (Timber Mills), so many Sundays and Saturdays I would drive to Rusape to buy stock at Jaggers Wholesalers and also use the ATM at Standard Chartered Bank Rusape. I had never driven on the Nyanga Road.

Our village closer to Jekwa School in Murewa is on the borders of Mutoko and Macheke. From our villages places like Chiendambuya, Tanda, Mayo in Manicaland is within a walking distance. In the 80s the Shiriyekutanga bus would pass through our village to Virginia Macheke and Chiendambuya. I am told the white farmer at the neighboring Paradise farm banned the bus from passing through his farm as people were stealing from him and then transporting the goods with the bus. My grandmother’s younger sister who is married to the Majiras moved from our village to Chiendambuya in late 80s and I used to visit them before they left.

Growing up in Murewa we would herd cows in the Dzete Hill ranges and from there you can see the imposing Inyanga Mountains. We got to Nyanga town very late around 9pm. We got directions to Troutbeck Inn Hotel. My company issued Mazda B2200 Double Cab had a problem blocking fuel. When I started climbing the steep Mountains, we moved very slowly.  We got to our hotel just before midnight. We went in to the reception to check in.

As we were being shown to our room the floor was wet outside from the rain. MaNyoni slipped and fell on the floor, I was so sure that she was going to have a miscarriage, she assured me that she was fine. The next morning we went for breakfast and drove to the World View, the highest point in Zimbabwe👌🏿 We then drove to Town, went briefly into the national park and then drove to Juliasdale to see the Montclair Hotel. We drove past the potato farms and the apple trees plantations.

On the last day we left around 10am and I was able to see Kriste Mambo school for the first time. Our bid for Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was successful and we got their big motor fleet and one or two classes of Insurance. I had the pleasure of organizing Insurance seminars for RBZ staff at our sister company Cresta Hotel Jameson.

Towards the end of 2005, the Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe annual conference was held at Troutbeck Inn, I attended and I booked my accommodation at Montclair Hotel. Last year we wanted to visit Nyanga again but given the fuel situation back home in Zimbabwe and the fact that my ML350 is a real guzzler we decided against the trip. I hope we will visit Nyanga as one trip covering Chimanimani ( I still want to climb the Chimanimani mountain after reading Peter Godwin’s Biography-Mukiwa), Vumba Mountains & Inyanga Mountains again.