Master Blaster

48 hours in the Vumba

- Morgan Trimble

‘Stripe-cheeked Greenbul, Roberts's Warbler, Chirinda Apalis…’ Buluwesi Murambiwa reeled off names for the birdsong chorus before we even left camp in the Vumba Mountains, part of Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands. Over the next four hours, the renowned guide led us up, down and around the forested mountainsides and gardens of the Seldomseen Cottages property. Buluwesi alternated between identifying calls, whistling conversations with the birds and exclaiming, ‘Look, look, look! On the branch! Now on the vine! Did you get it?’

Usually the answer was yes for both my partner and me. It’s a good morning indeed when Swynnerton’s and Whitestarred robins and Orange Ground Thrush, all lifers, comprise your first three ticks. Buluwesi showed us each of these sought-after species within a hundred metres of our tent on a trail winding through the towering mist-belt forests for which the Vumba is known.

Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands is a 260-kilometre stretch of mountainous terrain hugging the border with Mozambique. The Highlands comprise three ranges: the Nyanga to the north, the Chimanimani to the south and the Vumba (also spelled Bvumba) in the middle, with its mix of evergreen forests, woodlands and grasslands.