A Short Trip to the Eastern Highlands

I spent two days in the Eastern Highlands recently (not nearly long enough!) - April 9th in the Chimanimani Mountains and the 10th in Juliasdale. Chimanimani village is about 145km drive south and then east from Mutare. Juliasdale is 80km or so north of Mutare (near Nyanga). In Juliasdale I stayed at Inn on Rupurara, which has superb rooms and lodges.
The purpose of my visit to the Chimanimanis was to watch the last day of the Iron Will challenge, but I managed to get some birdwatching done in between climbing mountains and spectating. The area is on the edge of Chimanimani National Park, and is home to some gorgeous miombo woodland and riverine forest. I saw Yellow-streaked Greenbul, African Dusky Flycatcher, Dark-backed Weaver, Cinnamon-breated Tit and a few other species in the miombo woodlands. The scenery in the Chimanimanis is most spectacular.

The view of the mountains on the dirt road to camp

Dark-backed (Forest) Weaver

Waterfall at Tessa's Pool

Back at the Outward Bound camp I saw many birds including Miombo Rock-thrush, Familiar Chat, Ashy Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Waxbill and, best of all, a male Green Twinspot!
This is definitely somewhere to spend more time birding in future.

Ashy Flycatcher

Best bird of the trip - a male Green Twinspot

I got up at 6am at Inn on Rupurara to look for birds in the garden before breakfast. The sun took a long time to reach me, as the Inn is hidden from the morning sun by a hill. African Dusky and Ashy Flycatchers were around, plus Yellow-bellied Waxbill, Chinspot Batis and nesting Whyte's Barbet on the edge of the miombo woodland. Bar-throated Apalises were all over the place. Later on I saw a pair of Cape Batis - what lovely birds.

Male Cape Batis

Female Cape Batis

Later, dad and I went for a drive in the game park. We stopped and walked into the valley of a tributary of the Inyangombe River, where I saw a Boulder Chat and a Greater Honeyguide. Dark clouds and rumbles of thunder had us scrambling up the steep valley as quickly as possible, which was quite hard work!

Greater Honeyguide

The hill after which the Inn is named - Rupurara

I left for Harare before lunch and all too soon that was the end of the trip... Two days isn't long enough to visit either of these places, never mind both of them!