Zimpapers Logo

Paul Mugwadi

Robert Mukondiwa
As the sweltering heat-wave grips the nation, many would pray for an escape, if only for a few days, where they can cool down a bit and have a good stay away from home. With the heat becoming more and more unrelenting, some have had the few odd dollars to catch a flight out to cooler climates, perhaps a long lost relative in England with whom to catch up and wait for the hades that the country has become, to tone down its temper. But for the many without relatives on Muddy Island or indeed the money to escape, the prospects appear terribly dire. We are stuck in the heat, poor us!

But perhaps not quite. And one does not even need a visa or passport to make the escape. What’s all the more befuddling is that this cool getaway is in the heart of one of the most treacherously hot regions of the nation, tucked a few kilometres away from the medieval city of Masvingo and her modern day equivalent. Kyle Recreational Park, run by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, is one of a whole host of hidden gems in the nation that some sadist has chosen not to tell the nation about, leaving a select adventurous few to sample and enjoy while others sit saddened in their ignorance which hardly passes for bliss.

Bucks cast a glance at visitors

“It is a great atmosphere and we run it at affordable prices that are meant to attract the local and international traveller who wants a serene and peaceful stay away from home in an environment that passes for home,” says the authorities’ public relations skipper Tinashe Farawo. And he is not wrong. Descending into the low-lying land that hosts the Kyle Lodges and Recreational Park, the temperature drops and wisps and whiskers of cloud-like mist start embracing the cars making their way to the establishment signalling a drop in temperatures. Host and Tourism manager at Mutirikwi Paul Mugwidi later explains why that is so.

“Being at the very shore of Lake Kyle, also known as Lake Mutirikwi, means that the lodges are in an area whose temperature is influenced by the waters of the large dam,” he says.

While they call Lake Mutirikwi and the surrounding park a “recreational” one, perhaps that is how this gem has escaped the eye of the intending traveller. It in fact also has game, with three of the big five roaming “peacefully” in the reserve as Paul insists. The leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros have made the place home, while the hippopotamus if perfectly happy running things at the base of Lake Mutirikwi.

“We live in harmony with nature so the animals are quite friendly and frankly mind their own business,” he insists. But for a person who has already taken an early morning walk in the bushy environs and stumbled upon a large mound of presumably rhino excreta, his warm sermon is hardly reassuring.

Kyle Lodges are in an area whose temperature is influenced by the waters of Lake Mutirikwi

With the capacity to house 32 guests at a go at its full capacity, it is the testy relationship between the lake and the land that, apart from the animals, is the mystic draw-card to anyone who appreciates nature. Add to that picnic sites like Popoteke and Mutirikwi, nearby camping and caravan sites including Sikato Bay, fishing opportunities, guided walks, game drives to view giraffe, eland, wildebeest, ostrich, cheetah, kudu and impala and the weekend or breakaway becomes absolutely worth the trip.A walk along the granite “wall” that defines the shore and between dry and wet, the hissing and temperamental Lake Mutirikwi waters display a captivating moving picture that swings like a pendulum between viridian green and breath-taking emerald.

All the while, the poignant hissing sound comes from the waters sadomasochistically hitting themselves against the unrelenting granite and shrieking at the weight of the pain in a dark act of something akin to self-flagellation as if she were a watery member of some nature equivalent of Opus Dei. Haunting. The only word to describe it! But if there was a conspiracy to keep the gem away from the eyes of many, then it is a shroud that is now being actively removed.

“We want to make sure people start appreciating this place and start coming to see what a wonderful place we have here and we are looking after for the nation,” says freshly deployed area manager Mr Givemore Mukuya almost begging for the people to heed his call. With well-equipped self-catering lodges, a climate that keeps you clawing to your blankets and sheets even in this torturous summer, plenty of flora and fauna as well as scenes that even the heavens drop a tear upon beholding, perhaps it is about time people started making their way down to Masvingo for a memorable visit.

“We want these gems to be known and for people to start appreciating what the government is safeguarding for them by way of Parks and Wildlife properties dotted around the nation,” implores Farawo. And as we leave, the little buck that brave the early chilly weather to come roadside as if to give a farewell seem to echo the same plea, armed with beautiful watery eyes that seem to be sad to see us go. Over at the crocodile pond, however, where the crocs are lying out in the chilly autumnal wind praying for a little sunshine, the crocodiles seem to hardly give a damn that we are leaving!