20 to 21 January 2024

A shake-down, warm-up, first camp out in the tent. I had hoped to use the Menzi ridge as a way to get down to, and cross, the Chirwe river in preparation for Mumunzi, however it was (of course!) the rainy season, and so, at the tired end of the day I decided not to risk the crossing on my own + Jack Russell carry.

After some plodding we passed the end of the ridge, which ends in a forest and cliff, instead turning ‘right’ southwards to carry on down the spur.

Below is the Chirwe, flowing too fast for me to want to cross with the dog in one arm at the end of the day – she agreed.

So we refilled with water and trudged halfway back up the spur to a relatively flat, fewest tufts, least contorted, camp site and pitched just as it was about switch out the lights.

NEXT MORNING: Weather no better!

The steep section was easier on the way up

and with a break in the clouds produced a photographer’s landscape over the Chirwe:

Much higher up and we were back in the short stretch of sub-tropical forest

The last time on the ridge was ‘more’ spectacular for the photographer.

9 to 11 February 2024

For my intended through-hike to Aberfoyle there have always been two looming obstacles:

a) how to get up out of the Gairezi river valley and up to the plateau, in the direction I wish to travel (ie without taking a circuitous route via Nyafaru or the National Park road);

and

b) how to descend about 800m from the plateau to Honde. The first was solved during this three day hike, and the second is now better informed after meeting a Mr Kasu at the pass – as he had walked up from the Honde side for a funeral - and he basically confirmed the route shown on the 1972 maps.

Back to the here and now:

I wanted to avoid a river crossing during the rainy season and try walking in via Dazi and the bridge. Anyway, what you have to realise is that the valleys were not formed via glaciation – and this makes all the difference! A glacier-formed valley is more smooth sided and has a ‘more predictable’ valley floor. Our valleys are specially made to include interlocking spurs in a completely different erosion pattern. Being in the bottom of a valley means nothing as there may be a narrow cut channel for the river as it winds itself between ‘giant’ spurs which have to be climbed even though you are in the bottom of the valley. This is absolutely true of the large Gairezi valley in this area and the small Menzi valley, though not the smaller Chirwe. I’ll have to show you what I mean. Below, one of my typically picturesque views of the Gairezi valley – however the flat valley bottom is lacking.

Examples of the Gairezi river and valley bottom:

These spurs and mounds make the landscape look ‘simply wonderful’ – just a lot more challenging for route planning and walking ‘through’ a valley.

For the above mentioned reason the walking in ‘to’ and waking away ‘from’ Dazi bridge was a major heartache of effort, frustration, and heat, and I was relieved to make my first campsite, at least in a higher area than I had been in before.

Next morning saw more plodding over spurs until the first sighting of what I hoped would be my pass!

More spurs and mini-valleys later

And even a ‘flood plain’ / old meander site higher up:

Hiking up much closer to the pass I detoured (climbed up a spur!) to a small homestead and hopefully some route advice.

His good advice sent me steeply back down to cross a stream and catch the path up through the rainforest.

Videos of trees and monkey alarm calls on FB. Taken during a very needed, cool, shaded, refreshment break – second day exhaustion!

My first real view down the ‘other side’, and yes it’s barely a plateau as it is full of spurs and mounds. Anyhoo, it’s a much higher region than the land to the south, in the distance

These pics taken at about 1800m

And the views are stunning!

And let’s not miss this guy in the distance in Mozambique!

Looking back, south west, to Mount Nyangani in the clouds:

Now having almost retraced back into the Gairezi valley

Good Morning!

Next the view back to our pass:

Finally a bit of the wildlife: the two orchids – satyrium longicauda; red job – ?; guttural toad; juvenile homo sapiens.

Lesson learnt. Going back to my ‘rambling’ at the start about spurs and river valleys: the best route in would have been the one I took on my way out – i.e. to walk along and down the Menzi ridge which is a shorter distance with a single ridge route to reach the Gairezi river — which then needs to be crossed – something to contend with in the rainy season!

26 to 28 January 2024

I had spied this plateau and escarpment in the distance on previous trips in the Chirwe / Dazi / Gairezi area but the distance was always against a day trip. After quite a bit of Google-mapping on line – was there a route down from the far end of the plateau or wasn’t there? – it was time to camp and explore.

Setting off on the Friday afternoon, and via the back route from ours to Dazi shops, I made it to a small top in just enough time to get the tent up in the fading light. The only real pic from the walk-in was of some impressive madumbe plants (this is always translated to English as Yams, but now I check it looks like they could be Taro?)

The next morning was suitably glorious as the sun came up! Lots of impressive tent pictures and angles – it’s new – what can I say!

I walked back down from the top and obtained water from the gents at the nearest house before taking the southern track in the direction of the plateau. On Google the path goes to some small-holdings on the northern side, but hidden in there was hopefully / possibly a path up onto the plateau.

There were some interesting new woodland types – perhaps it was slightly warmer here:

Getting down onto your knees with the rucksack on – and getting back up – is it really worth it!

Nature bit done – time to get serious again.

Basically various cattle paths wound their way through the rocks and bush onto what felt like the plateau. Although the early part was covered with wattle, it became more natural, sparse woodland which it was possible to thread between. A early detour to the ‘edge’ provided a taste of the escarpment:

You can see my short walk to this point on the edge – centre left below:

Checking my position on Caltopo and Google Maps I wound my way to the far corner in the hope of seeing a way down and avoiding the awful ‘go-back-the way-you-came scenario’ that I experienced the week previous on the Menzi ridge when I couldn’t cross a river.

So I’m sitting there, the middle of nowhere, not on a frequented path, above a steep looking possible descent wondering what to do when what or who appears but a very dusty looking acquaintance I had last seen a couple of years earlier on another ‘it looks possible on Google’ outing to find my way up Nyamakanga Peak. His covering of dust was alarming to say the least, but his much younger colleague was fairly pristine. Well, if they could both make it up there was some hope yet – indeed, they were more sure I could make it down than I was.

It was him who advised my next detour – see map above (going ‘down’ the page toward the edge on the right of the plateau) – to witness more views over Gairezi before the real descent:

This is the top of the descent:

and this was taken part way down once I was happier / taking a breath:

The trek westward, contouring round the plateau, was straightforward, passing the odd small farm seemingly perched in the middle of the bush with no track in. There was a tremendous view back up the escarpment, probably close to where I took my initial pics from the edge:

Northern side of the Boyakura escarpment.

Now it felt rather hot in the afternoon sun and I couldn’t stop myself making progress after a short rest in the shade, followed by a water refill. Stalwartly plodding on is becoming a problem for my feet and energy levels but at this young age I’m still learning!

Fortuitously – not by trip planning – the next feature was the Tsanga B hydro power station. As I stood by the gates wondering what the plan was going to be I was automatically welcomed in for the tour of this new (2018) 2.5MW turbine and generator – though no photos permitted.

This shot was taken while resting during my horrible, hot, hike up to the reservoir 100m up.

Basically the whole river goes down 100m inside the penstock so there is only leakage in the river channel for this period – see the slab to the right in the picture below.

We are currently (end January) in a lull in the rainy season, however this is the rather drab ford / bridge below the reservoir:

There is nothing to do. As a local resident we would rather have the electricity than a pristine river however bad that sounds. But let’s not get started on the topic of electricity generation.

The reservoir and guard house for the inlet to the penstock – which has to be regularly cleared of debris to stop sticks etc finding the turbine blades at high velocity:

And finally for Tsanga B, this is the impressive looking breather pipe, to equalise pressure in the penstock. It just sits there mumbling away to itself somewhere deep inside:

Another hike now back up from the valley floor to Dazi making 500m climb overall from here to camp 2.

Tramping back on the Dazi – Troutbeck dirt track there was another cleared area of logged gum trees – this time however with a nice surprise – the whole area was being replanted!

Had to call for a lift for the last 2km or so up to the house – feet problems!

Oh, and I just caught this at the 90 degree left turn into the Troutbeck valley when coming from Dazi – another plateau-like mountain after Tsanga B!

Plus, I need to go somewhere where I can get a good picture of the Boyakura plateau itself!

7 February 2024

Preface: I am ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ from YouTube here, namely the ‘Long Suffering Hiker’ and his Improve a Lanshan 2 Backpacking Tent? Try these 13 modifications video!

I first, avidly, watched the above advice when in Scotland over Christmas then added some adjustments once the tent was in Zimbabwe, drying-off after each trip, below.

Number one, and a no-brainer for me, is a 4 metre guy from the top of the tent at each end of the ridge-line. This provides ‘essential Lanshan camping benefits’ as follows:

First, a shallow angle now exists between this new guy and the ridge-line so ‘better’ tension is easily obtained through the backbone of the tent without thrashing the manufacturer’s door-guy set-up which is already pulling at the wrong angle (a steeply downwards angle to the ridge-line) – thus providing improved wind holding in the north – south axis of the tent (when standing outside facing the doorway = north)

Second, a greater ability to find good ground for the extra tent peg required – or an alternate hold on something with in range. You can easily rack it in to a shorter length with the Line-Lok when in a tight spot. Add the tensioning Line-Lok loop at the bottom of the guy so you can loop it round a rock or what-have-you then tighten. I got this the wrong way round to start with.

Now, using the door-way and fiddling with / slackening the door-guy does not jeopardise the structure of the tent as you are using it. Warning: there is an ‘absolute risk’ of tripping over the longer guy line though! Shorten it when busy.

Third, in really high or variable winds you can peg this 4 metre long guy at an angle out from the centre line e.g. south west, and re-position the door-guy slightly south east, ending up with anything from 45 to 90 degrees between the two guys (although different lengths). This gives the tent much more firmness side to side (east to west) e.g. when you try and shake it at the top of the trekking pole support point. Pegging out the door-guy at an angle does make one of the doors, the entry door, flappier (they are of course already flappy) but you can lessen the angle of this guy compared to the 4m one and still gain east – west stability.

(If the 4 metre guy was pegged out at 45 degrees then half of the tension in this line would be acting against wind coming from the same side. And, if its angle was shallower, a smaller proportion of the yellow, door-guy tension would resist wind coming from the other side. Now the tent is not relying solely on the four corner pegs to resist side winds so we have a stronger set up. See sketch at the very bottom.)

Extra weight = 2 x {4 m of 3 mm dyneema + Line-Lok + peg} e.g. 30 – 40 g

Number two, optional, is to add tension to the base of the side panels – benefits and downsides as follows:

First, this lessens the impact of the whole side panel of the flysheet ‘breathing’ up and down, caused by passing wind. Now, small sections between the newly created ‘vertical’ mid-line ridge and the ‘corner’ point breath or flutter but the effect is reduced;

Second, this increases the distance between the inner and the fly at the bottom of the tent to reduce, but not eliminate, the chance of the inner touching the fly;

With ‘new, extra, added’ tension the fly side panel is further away from the edge of the inner tent:

Third, this creates a vertical ridge from the original centre guy point down the new holding point. This now, just about, creates three planes (see above) out of the single original side panel (OK – it was flattish with a spike at the original central guying point) which MAY help wind shedding a la X-mid etc, but we’d need the wind tunnel …

Back to reality: after adding the Grip-clip and tightening the new guy there is some extra tension directed through the bottom of each door panel – this could either be an advantage in reducing the door flapping, or a disadvantage as too much tension?

An obvious downside is that the new attachment point and tension now raises the bottom of the side panel of the tent somewhat further above the ground. My head or feet or the mattress / sleeping form sliding down and bumping against the inner is the greater problem for me at the moment so I’ll live with it.

Extra weight = 2 x {1.5 m of 3 mm dyneema + CLIP} e.g. +15 g (no extra peg needed)

Number three(s):

At the four corners of the flysheet the loop hole of the tensioner strapping (webbing) is very small and so, after my recent camp on the sawdust mound below, I added larger safety loops to the bottom corners of the fly so that I could hammer through a medium size stick to hold it if necessary. Without this firm hold on the flysheet you suddenly understand that the tent is not going to stand up properly when tensioned – hence these loops provide me with some insurance!

Add a couple of loops, about 3m, of dyneema inside, between the roof hooks, for your ‘washing line’ and it will be your emergency / extra guy line one day.

Number three (if it counts) adjust or add ties to the corners of the ground sheet and the inner so that they match the fly and can all work off the same peg.

Add a safety loop at the top most guy point. See second picture – top. When you need it you will be in a hurry, and the manufacturers loop will already be under tension from your 4 metre guy line, so you may struggle to thread your additional / emergency guy – especially as it will now be cold, dark and the wind howling. Oh, and it will be raining.

Minimal weight of dyneema required for these e.g. 20g

Per the recommendations online:

I added clips to the top of the tent inner for flexibility and easy un-attachment (because the fly is soaking wet in the morning).

Through the four corner seams of the inner I threaded lengths of dyneema – not elastic – and added a plastic-pincher-thing – to add some ‘up-down’ tension. The general flappiness of the inner under the side panel remains a positive disincentive for wet weather. Which now brings me onto ‘sagging’.

There is no getting round it, when wet, from rain, or from my heavy-dew-condensation combo (i.e. every morning for me at the moment, with +50% humidity in the day-time and higher overnight – I left the tent up overnight at the house to test the inner condensation inside the fly), this whole thing is going to droop and wilt dramatically! And, possibly, lead to unwanted touching, of the inner and fly, and then, possibly, leakage – meaning some water in the tent. I understand it comes with the territory using this lightweight material and for £150 I’m not complaining too much!

Witness:

Happy tent erecting.

Zimbabwe out /.

No trigonometry please we’re camping!

3 to 4 February 2024

An overnigher down in the Chirwe valley, tributary to the Gairezi (north, north east of Mount Nyangani, towards Dazi) (not named on any modern satellite images – see map, from 1972, at bottom).

No path down from my direction so I took to Google Earth for inspiration. This is typically not recommended as what looks doable via the nice warm satellite image on the laptop can be entirely different … let’s just say much steeper … in the cold light of ‘I’m stuck here now and any other way out would be much, much longer’.

Below my route the woodland was sub-tropical rainforest which still clings on in high, remote, well-watered valleys. Of course it was ‘surrounded’ by invasive pine which the loggers had been to work on – they go wherever they can push a track into for hauling the sawn timber out.

Invasive wild banana

And this is how steep it was in reality for much of the 300m descent:

Down in the valley a very minor tributary was home to 4m tree ferns:

Looking back up from the camp area:

The Chirwe stream / river.

Next, on to why I was camped, poorly, on the sawdust remains of the loggers (who had their own far longer route down to the valley bottom). The land was fertile and wet from the river, hence plenty of bush growing down in the valley. Where there was ‘open’ flattish terrain it was covered in this wonderfully wretched ‘grass’, growing in tall tuff clumps - absolutely no use for campers!

Hence I wandered in and around the areas used by the loggers, crossing the river and back looking for spots:

This next patch was my resting place later on; with more showers imminent, the tent went up in a hurry using improvised off-cut tent pegs for grip.

GOOD MORNING:

Fly-sheet totally soaked and heavier for my walk out! Humidity is well over 50% at the moment and at 1700m it cools overnight so lots of condensation outside and inside. At least it was wet enough to keep the ants safely under the wooden planks with their larvae all night.

This was about 7 am and the sun was still making its way to the valley bottom over the Mumunzi ridge.

Being curious I started my trip out on the loggers track and got some dramatic views before this headed over to the headwaters on more gentle terrain and probably past more pine trees. Here was yesterday’s route down in the morning light:

Nothing to do but off-piste it up the hill. Slight track made by baboon (or membe (small antelope)) for encouragement – however they don’t know about zigzagging – just going straight up! You can see where I diverged – lower centre where the path starts diagonally upwards to 2200m ! Oh, and did I mention the hand-to-hand baboon scramble up that rocky outcrop at the top. That’s why I don’t think it was for antelope.

Views out were good though. While still on the logging track – camp circled:

Now climbing more steeply:

Now really out of the valley and looking squarely at Mount Nyangani:

Not sure I’ll be doing this one again exactly – the climb back out was somewhat nerve wrackingly, exhausting.

However, the mission was not accomplished: there was too much dense bush either side of the Chirwe to cross and find a route up onto the Mumunzi spur. You can see my path along the river-side looking for crossings, and the big dot where I stood under a tree and thought about camping while it rained, making the bush wet, and so me soaking, on the plod back to pitch the tent on the wet sawdust. More Google Earth time needed.

Take-two involved a bit of preparation with the acquisition of two ‘high lofting’ sleeping mats – actually sacks filled with our high-altitude pervasive weed known as ‘hanya’. Of course this was not yet comfortable as the almost wooded stems dug in painfully. Now the user was at least off the floor so not as cold and less uncomfortable – we have not yet reached the dizzy heights and the land of a comfortable nights sleep!

Then the tarp was pitched down to the ground and folded at the ends to form ‘doors’. This though compromised space as the ends had to folded in and under the ridge if they were to be tied together.

more pics:

More sleep, not yet good sleep!

Videos on FB