Troutbeck - Springhide House

For our first Spring Break in Zimbabwe, we did not head for the beaches of Mozambique like half the families at HIS but headed to the mountains an easy 3-hour-drive to the east for a just couple of nights away. We were lucky to find out about this house from some local friends of ours who have been coming up here for 10 years. You need to bring everything with you from toilet paper to salt & pepper, but there are beds, comfy if a bit worn furniture, and importantly, Rusiya and her husband who are the managers of the estate and who, in true Zimbabwe style, took very good care of us. Rusiya cooked hot meals and took the kids to see her lambs and chicks. Her husband built fires in the fireplace at night when it got cold. We had loads of candles but were lucky that we had power the whole weekend. $15/person/night and half-price for the kids! I hope we can make it up again and bring friends during the month-long Christmas holiday we'll be here.

Springhide House, Nyanga National Park, near the town of Troutbeck

There are 5 single beds, 3 in this kids' room, 2 at the top of the stairs, and

her is one of two rooms with double beds, both with fireplaces.

"World's View" overlook nearby.

Up in the mountains, a lot of people come to fish, but you have to have your own gear. So we just took the kids out on the row boat which was not very easy to manage with the wind and broken oarlocks. (It's always helpful to have a good sense of humor while living in Africa since you are definitely going to find yourself in situations where things don't work quite the way they should.) While David golfed at the Troutbeck Inn, I explored the grounds with the kids. At home, we played board games and less traditional iPad games, and read, wrote, and had our drinks while the kids enjoyed climbing the boulders in the front yard. Even though we are at the tail end of the dry season (it actually rained on our way home and the risk of fire went from extremely high to moderate), it was still beautiful with blossoming azaleas and fresh smelling pines.

Veld fires purposefully set ths time every year everywhere in Zimbabwe

Lake at Troutbeck