The mountain behind ISPM is short drive from Chimoio. Once outside the city, the landscape gives way to great freestanding rock structures that just invite you to try to get to the top. And try we did.
Upon arriving as far as the road could take us, we were able to convince a few men from the village to take us up to look for a crashed plane in a cave. After some discussion about whether such a site even existed in the area. Finally, the men explained that usually, they just go to the base of the mountain to pray, and rarely try to go through the elephant grass to the top, but they humored us and led the way up.
Hiking through the towering stalks of elephant grass made hiking a bit difficult, and by the time we reached the “base” of the mountain, we were all pretty tired. We stopped at the base for a prayer and a 5 met offering and then continued onward toward our destination. After about an hour of fighting the grass, we reached the saddle, only to find no plane or cave.
Not to be let down, we decided to hug the crack to one site of the rock face and shimmy to the top for the view. Not one person seemed willing to just stop at the saddle (except maybe our guides). The view from the top (or the near top as we decided to turn back once the face got too steep) was well worth worth it as we were rewarded with a beautiful landscape spotted with caniso rooves and family machambas.
