World's View and Nyangombi Falls

If the roads had been paved, the drive wouldn’t have taken more than 10 minutes or so. But, this being Africa, and this being Zimbabwe, the road wasn’t paved, and the machine that is used to pave roads was left rusting 50 meters down the way. The road- or trail- to World’s View was some of the worst roads I had ever seen. Rain had gutted out entire sections leaving small boulders for us to maneuver around, yet somehow the Venture made it through, and brought us to World’s View.

Worlds View is essentially the vantage point from the edge of a very sheer drop. The view goes eastward and you feel as if you can see the whole world. Mikaela, Kean, Liam and I took the opportunity to climb up to the highest point on the mountain where the view was that much more thrilling. When we came down Grandpa Chris couldn’t help but tell us about an idiot hotshot pilot who wanted to be the first person to hang glide from the top. The day came and the news cameras and reporters were there to document it, but the wind wasn’t going in the right direction. This is where the idiot part comes in: despite the bad wind, he was more concerned with the reporters and he ran and leapt off the edge with his glider. Immediately the wind shoved the glider down he plummeted to his death on the side of the mountain, and it took hours before a helicopter could retrieve the body. “What an idiot. And he was a pilot too.”

After Worlds View, we drove to Nyangombi Falls, a series of waterfalls that have calm deep pools beneath them. The problem was, we had to walk on a trail upstream to find a suitable spot to cross the river. Grandpa Chris led the way as we went “Bundu Bashing” or bushwacking. What was supposed to be a ten minute walk quickly turned into a several hour long ordeal. Quickly the trail disintegrated into tallgrass, bushes and thorns which did not go well for our “swimming costumes” and flipflops. Grandpa was looking for an easy place to cross the fast stream, but we ended up getting cut up legs, and dampened spirits before Mikaela and I decided what we were doing was ridiculous. Leaving Grandpa, Liam and Kean, we backtracked until we found a much easier spot, crossed there, and made our way down to the pools on a totally non existent trail. Having no idea where we were, or exactly where we were going, I will be honest I felt like we were having our moment with nature and wasn’t sure what was going to happen!

By the time we got to the pools, the sun was going down and we had only time for a quick dive before we had to hike out. As we hiked Grandpa Chris showed us the rock slab where, as a 17 year old, he spent a week camping under the stars hunting and fishing for food. I really wonder what the country must have been like then…

In the end, we were all pretty frustrated that a lazy afternoon swim had been shortchanged by improv trailblazing, but we were rewarded with one of the most beautiful sunsets Africa could produce.