Bvumba Mountains

The Bvumba, whose name means mist, rise southeast of Mutare on the Mozambican border and are almost always in cloud, which supports patches of Afromontane rainforest among the pine and eucalyptus plantations. The Bvumba Botanical Garden holds proteas, azaleas and a large collection in landscaped grounds, and the forest patches at Bunga and Seldomseen hold birds that occur nowhere else in the country, which draws serious birders. The range straddles the border and the forest continues on the Mozambican side, which is part of why the bird list here is unlike anything else in the country.

Background

The range climbs to 1,911 metres at Castle Beacon, some 10 km southeast of Mutare, and belongs to the Eastern Highlands together with the Chimanimani Mountains in the south and the Nyanga Mountains in the north. On the Mozambican side it reaches Mount Vumba. Dating puts the granite at over 2,600 Ma, cut in places by Umkondo dolerite sills of about 1,110 Ma. The botanical garden holds 59 of the 189 known species of cycad. At least 86 Stone Age sites lie in the Zimbabwean part, including hunter-gatherer rock paintings thought to be around 8,000 years old, and on August 20, 2008 the area was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

Source: Wikipedia, "Bvumba Mountains"

The landscape

• The botanical garden - landscaped grounds with proteas, azaleas and specimen trees.
• The rainforest patches - Afromontane forest at Bunga and Seldomseen.
• The rare birds - species found in Zimbabwe only in these forests.
• The mist - the near-constant cloud the range is named for.

When to go

April to October is the dry season, though mist here is constant in any month. Birding is best in the early morning. Winter nights are cold.

Things to know

Mist closes the views most of the time; the name is accurate. Forest patches are small and fragmented. Some of the older hotels are run down.

Nearby

Mutare is northwest, and Chimanimani is south.

Key facts