Dear Family and Friends,
Along the banks of the river a burning bush Combretum in full flower is a sight to behold in Zimbabwe in late September 2016. Crimson flowers cascading along overhanging branches, their splendor reflected in the water, almost takes your breath away.
The days here start with a magnificent pink sunrise and end with the grunting of hippos while in the heat of the day crocodiles patrol the river and an extravaganza of colourful birds flit between towering riverine trees. In the surrounds there is a bounty of wildlife: sable, kudu, giraffe, zebra and, if you’re lucky, the shy, beautiful bushbuck, its white spots startling against the russet of its rich coat.
This is Zimbabwe’s lowveld and its hot and dry here, the bush is sparse, dusty and scratchy at this time of year with most of the trees leafless, waiting for the season to change, the rain to arrive.
There are so many hidden gems just like this, all over Zimbabwe with a few simple chalets giving you a chance to revive flagging spirits; beautiful but tenuous, hanging on by a thread, desperate to survive until things change in Zimbabwe. A few visitors trickle in but barely enough to pay the bills and meet the monthly wages.
On the surface it all looks so easy: we are a country filled with beautiful places, magnificent scenery, abundant natural resources, spectacular flora and fauna, resourceful, educated, welcoming people and yet we are stuck. We are just stuck, there seems no better way to describe a country ruled by the same person for 36 years with a leadership that is bereft of ideas, devoid of empathy and which seems to have absolutely no clue how to get us out of the economic collapse they have bought upon us. We are now headlong into the second economic collapse in just eight years and life is getting harder by the day.