The Standard

24 THE STANDARD STYLE / FAMILY /GETAWAY
September 14 to 20 2014
Enjoying a Mountain Club hike
Rosie Mitchell
A couple of times a year, I lead a walk for the
Mountain Club. If you’d like to get out and
about into scenic areas over the weekends,
meet some new people, and get or keep fit, this
is the club for you. It’s often the first port of
call for people from overseas who arrive in
Zimbabwe to live and work for a while, either
in the diplomatic service or for an NGO, and
don’t know quite where to start exploring
our beautiful country. Soon, with energetic
Mountain Clubbers, they are off out into the
bush every weekend, to experience some new
and lovely place that’s close enough to town
to make it possible as a day or afternoon hike.
The Mountain Club also organises some extended
several day hikes out of town, and even
out of Zimbabwe. Their members are very
friendly and they have a social evening every
Wednesday as well, and also offer rock climbing,
including for beginners, in Haka Park by
Cleveland Dam. The club has a several decade
history and an enthusiastic membership and
annual subscriptions are tiny, so think about
joining, for a whole new lease of life, a new social
circle and some fun adventures exploring
beautiful places on foot over weekends!
In late August, I took a friendly and thoroughly
cosmopolitan group of Mountain
Clubbers and their friends, out for an afternoon
hike in the Chishawasha area. From
Canadians to Americans, Germans to French,
some visiting, some here for a couple of years,
some resident, and of course, Zimbabweans,
this was an interesting bunch of people. Lots
of long conversations took place en route and
good times were had by all. When I lead these
hikes, I like to show the participants places
very close to the city that they might not know
about, that are quiet and scenic and away
from the “madding crowd” yet easily accessible.
They are areas I’ve mostly discovered via
solitary exploring on the run, since I took up
running a decade ago. I much prefer running
in the bush to running on suburban roads, because
there is no traffic, I often see interesting
birds and wildlife, it’s quiet, and I really enjoy
the varied scenery. It’s surprising what pretty,
wild places there are to explore, very close to
the suburbs, you just have to go and look for
them. Some, I tracked down by going on Google
Earth, and simply looking for open spaces,
and the nearest suburban roads via which I
could access these.
At a run, I went on a “recce” of my
planned route a couple of days before the club
hike, into the rolling hills and rocky outcrops
of Chishawasha communal land, with just a
10-minute drive to the starting point, work-
ing out roughly where I’d lead everyone. On
the day, however, detours proved necessary.
Sadly, a raging fire was racing its way through
the exact area I’d planned to take them. It’s
always distressing to witness the careless,
wide- ranging environmental degradation and
destruction caused by these fires, started both
carelessly and deliberately, and each year in
the “fire season” I cannot help but be angered
and saddened by this. Such fires rage through
wetlands and greenbelts and peri-urban open
spaces across our towns and cities, as well as
through game parks and rural areas all across
the country, causing untold ecological damage.
As there was a fair amount of wind, the
fire spread far and wide during the course of
our hike, wreaking havoc on the landscape,
and no doubt, on the small unseen wildlife
within it.
Nonetheless, we had a very enjoyable, social
time on the hike, and managed to avoid
the fire and thoroughly enjoy the scenic
Chishawasha landscape, so close to the city.
To find out more about Mountain Club, email
lorraine@zimbiz.net.
Haka Game Park
Another very enjoyable place to walk, run,
mountain bike, picnic, game spot and enjoy
with the family very close to town, is Haka
Game Park, where the animals are breeding
very well and the landscape is looking lovely.
I took my nieces Carly and Jaime and nephew
Jayden on a bush adventure in Haka last
weekend, for the first time in ages, and we had
a wonderful time.
Haka is adjacent to Cleveland Dam and
recreational area, in itself a very popular
place for family outings over weekends, and I
was happy to see lots of groups relaxing, picnicking
and enjoying this pretty place. You
can hire canoes by the Dam and actually canoe
into the Game Park and see it from the
water, and there are lots of good picnic sites at
Cleveland.
The Game Park itself offers varied landscapes,
from woodland to wetland to kopje to
open plain, and you can easily spend a full day
hiking around it. Equally, there is an excellent
network of well-maintained roads if you
prefer to do a game drive instead, and several
really good developed picnic sites. At the
entrance gate you can buy firewood and cool
drinks and for gardening enthusiasts and
those interested in re-afforestation, Haka also
runs a good nursery.
Game to be spotted at Haka includes wildebeest,
eland, zebra, giraffe, impala, duiker,
bush pig, civet, genet, jackal, various mongooses,
and a wide diversity of birds, trees,
plants, and more.
We had a very enjoyable walk and rockclimb
– there are lots of rocks and kopjes and
in fact, some San rock paintings in Haka also.
So if looking for somewhere to take the family
for a weekend outing, consider Cleveland Dam
and Haka Game Park. Turn left into the Cleveland
entrance just after the recently opened
TM hypermarket on Mutare Road. The Haka
sign and entrance gate are un-missable, and
for Cleveland itself, simply continue beyond
there.
Rhino AWAREness Day today at Raintree
Today is AWARE Trust’s Rhino AWAREness
day at Raintree, from 10 am to 4pm. You can
buy tickets on the gate and there is lots of entertainment
and activity for the whole family
throughout the day, including a fun run and
walk, in the morning, skydivers, live music,
food and drink on sale, and you can take your
own picnic too.