Accommodation in Vumba

The road to the Vumba winds upwards from Mutare, Zimbabwe's fourth largest city,  climbing 609 metres to the junction at Cloudlands. If Nyanga's air can be likened to dry champagne, then that of the Vumba is a cabernet: rich, heady, mellow. It is kind to vegetation; the Vumba Botanical Gardens are 30 ha of terraces crammed with flowers and shrubs. Although the spring garden in August is a joy, the end of the year is equally breathtaking when the pinks, blues and lilacs of hydrangeas, fuchsias and begonias are put on display. Set in the Vumba Mountains, the Leopard Rock Hotel affords a spectacular view and is well worth a visit. Before it, far below, lies the tropical beauty of the Burma Valley; behind it is Chinyakwaramba, "the hill that sat down".