Rolf loving life

Long story short—the last two days have been amazing.

Long story long—yesterday Ryan and I left Beira early, around 7:30, to head out to Manica (the closest city to the Penha Longas). We didn’t really know where we would go when we got to Manica, because we couldn’t find any trail maps or travel details online. We had seen photos, like I mentioned, and they looked beautiful, but we really knew squat. We wanted to hike ‘em, though, so we just decided to head out, planning on asking for directions when we got there.

The drive there was beautiful, especially for the last few hours. Really, really green, rolling hills, trees—I t reminded me a lot of the greener mountain-y parts of the U.S., like the Pacific Northwest, or parts of Utah and Colorado after a good rain or snow melt. Some bits really reminded me of the Texas Hill Country, too. Really, really pretty—even just on the drive there, I could feel my batteries recharging just from all the beauty around me.

And when we got to Manica, after asking around in a few places, we discovered there were a number of good mountains, only one of which is called Penha Longa, and that it apparently had a little privately owned area for tourists. So, we headed out towards that, climbing altitude as we went, getting excited as we felt the freshness of the mountain air, made even more delicious from a touch of humidity that you never get in Utah’s mountains. And the view just kept getting more and more gorgeous.

Then, when we got there, I was totally blown away at how beautiful this privately owned land was. Seriously, it felt like something unreal, out of an epic poem or Tolkien novel—it was too beautiful for words. There were a number of groves of a huge, hundreds-of-meters-tall aspen-looking tree that grew in bunches—I kept trying to take a photo to do them justice, and it kept not working. Seriously breathtaking—I wanted to live there. It felt too beautiful to be real, but exactly because of that, I couldn’t think of a happier place to live than one which celebrates so fully the beauty of God’s creations.

On the way up the mountain, I was surprised to see half a dozen houses with families living in them, most of the way up the slope. Definitely a beautiful place to live, but I wondered how often they needed to make the trek down to the city for supplies. It’s a very pretty trek, at least. Also, at least in one of the houses, it didn’t seem like they saw too many white folks too often, as we became a huge hit and attraction with all the kids just by walking through.

One humbling thing was the two groups of Zimbabweans we ran into, hiking the mountain to cross over into Zimbabwe. All of them were carrying heavy loads—some 50 pound bags of rice (and I thought it was already a tough hike with just my backpack on). We talked to one of the men in one group for a bit, and he said they made this trip every two weeks or so to buy things, because there’s no affordable way to buy food in Zimbabwe. That whole trek, every two weeks, a good chunk of the ways on foot, just to buy food—a humbling reminder of the conditions in Zimbabwe right now.

The whole way up, the hike was gorgeous—when we got to the ridge we found a place to sit and sat down to eat, take photos and just take in how beautiful it was. I can’t imagine a more beautiful hike.

We spent the night in a town about an hour closer to Beira called Chimoio, and this morning we got up way early (5 AM) in order to try to hike Cabeça do Velho (a small mountain outside Chimoio—the name means “Old man’s head”) at sunrise. We got some pretty conflicting directions, but after hunting around for a while we found the road there—and soon discovered that this must not be a big tourist spot, as the road was about five-feet wide and so full of brush and tall grass that I was surprised our car wasn’t a lot more beat up by the time we got to the foothills. There wasn’t really a walking trail to the mountain itself, either—we walked through a whole bunch of very dew-y grass and underbrush to get there, effectively taking our morning shower as we walked along. When we got to the foot of the mountain, there wasn’t really a trail, and it was pretty steep, so in many ways it was more like free-base rock climbing than hiking. Way pretty, though. Definitely worth the effort.

After that we hurried and started the drive back to Beira, as I had to be at the chapel at noon to help prepare for a young single adults activity that went on tonight, which was that activity I mentioned going to the rehearsal for earlier, where they asked all the kids who knew how to play anything to come and put together some songs. It ended up okay, considering—some of the songs were even kinda catchy. This afternoon we had the last rehearsals and set everything up—and despite some stressful worrying about how bad it might turn out, it turned out fine, and way fun. Other people danced and things, too—I ended up playing Bon Jovi’s “Living On a Prayer”, just to be funny, though I don’t think they really got the joke (Holla to my Hoolia!).

All in all, it’s been a crazy busy couple of days, and it looks like it won’t slow down too much (tomorrow I’m speaking in church, and then in the afternoon I’m going to Rachid’s traditional wedding)—but I couldn’t have asked for a more fulfilling one, at least up to this point. Especially the trip—I’m so glad we went. It was exactly what I needed. The only downside is now I want to live in Manica. :)

Photos forthcoming! Probably on facebook, since I haven't figured out how to effectively post photos on this thing (I've tried using the little pop-up window, but it doesn't work. So it goes.).