Chimanimani is a very special place situated on the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and on the cusp of colliding continental plates that over eons have created the Great Rift Valley. These titanic opposing forces thrust up a belt of mountains running up the east side of the continent from the Ethiopian HIghlands to the Bergs of the Cape Peninsular, and Chimanimani, although not the largest, is certainly one of the most beautiful of these.

The Chimanimani Bushwalking Co. came into being in the early 1990s as a one man company run out of the back of an old Landrover to guide interested travelers into the Chimanimani Mountains. The area on both sides of the frontier is now a part of the Peace Parks Foundation which sponsors a series of TransFrontier Conservation Area Programs across southern Africa.

Throughout the 1990s and in the early years of this decade I covered the mountains in the company of hundreds of interested travelers, training all told about 12 young guides, some of whom still work the area, others of whom have left Zimbabwe and guide elsewhere in the region.

Chimanimani is situated in such a way that it straddles several ecological zones, with belts of grassland and protea, large sections of montane and riverine forest, and with extensive stands of miombo deciduous woodland. As mountains go it does not reach a great altitude, a little over 2000m at its highest point, but the diversity of landscapes and ecologies, and the agreeable conditions and climate of the high range, make it a climber's and hill walker's paradise.

In the year 2000 a social and political crisis overtook Zimbabwe, and although the Bushwalking Co. limped on for a few years with bookings slowly diminishing to nothing, my wife, a native of Portland Oregon, and I agreed in 2005 to emigrate to the northwest for the sake of our kids. Since then I have written and published my first book, a study of British colonial history in the region, entitled Rhodesia: Last Outpost of the British Empire, and published by Galago Press of Johannesburg. Currently I am researching a follow up on the imperial history of the lakes region of Malawi and the life of John Chilembwe.

Although the name is the same, my interest in hauling heavy packs up mountains, sleeping on the ground and living on hard tack for a living are waning, and more interested am I now in traveling in the company of folk I have come to describe as the 'interested and interesting.'

I offer a cerebral version of the usual Africa fare, combining years of guiding experience across the continent with a deep and absorbing interest in regional history. With me you will travel in the company of an expert and and enthusiast who's aim and inspiration is to animate the journey with facts, anecdotes, stories, myths and legends. Utilizing the best field accommodation available in the region, or in the back of a safari truck with a tent and a billy box, we'll mix wildlife with wild tales, and campfire food and wine with the nuts and bolts of the African story.

If this is your bag, then I am your man!

info@bushwalkingco.com