Cloud forests filled with unseeable birds, water dripping everywhere. Trout streams and waterfalls. Autumn-dry Brachystegia woodlands with late-blooming wild flowers. Cecil Rhode’s mountain home, now Nyanga National Park. The vast estate of La Rochelle with its 65-year-old botanical gardens. Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands boast a great variety of scenery, plants, animals, camping and weather. In one day we were drenched in the misty cloud forest then baked by the sun on a hike up to San paintings. The down comforter is out of storage and on the bed for the cold nights but we are still bathing in sunscreen during the day. The high mountain air reminds us of home. This is a different part of Zimbabwe than we visited last year.

But the people are still the same – the friendliest, most literate and likable people you’d ever want to meet. Yes, things have changed, they tell us, since November 14 when Robert Mugabe finally left office. At the tollgate on the highway the attendant said November 14 is the new  Independence Day. There is much optimism; how we hope for the best for these people who’ve been in limbo for years. Still, an instant change is impossible. Prices have skyrocketed since we were here a year ago. Deeply-rooted corruption will take years to dismantle. Fallow farms will need literally everything to be up and producing any time soon. If the new government can rise up for its people, there is a good possibility of success because regular Zimbabweans like Listen and his wife Shubi, with daughter Paisley, are willing to work so hard to make something happen. We will leave Zim tomorrow for Mozambique; with multi-entry visas we can return to see how it is going in a month or so. Good things come to those that wait, it is said. These people have waited long enough.