MY ZIMBABWE DIARY XIV: MUTARE…
June 21, 2016…
It was time to leave Masvingo and we checked out of the Lodge At The Ancient City in the morning, setting out on our way to Mutare. We had a brief stopover at the ZTA office to see Daniel before finally saying farewell the the Ancient City.
We stopped briefly to admire the Birchenough Bridge, one of the wonders of world engineering, before continuing our journey. An imposing steel structure of 1,080 feet span, the Birchenough Bridge is the third longest single-arch span in the world. It crosses the Sa’ve River about 62km from Chipinge.
On arriving in Mutare, we drove straight to the Golden Peacock Villa Hotel where Ropafadzo Dunira from ZTA Mutare was waiting for us. We had quite a sumptuous lunch. Too bad we weren’t going to spend the night there.
After some rest, we set out to do some site inspection of some accommodation facilities. We checked out the African Sun Amber Hotel*, Mutare and from there we drove down to Bvumba to see the Leopard Rock Hotel.
After we finished our business at Leopard Rock, we headed on to Penhalonga. By this time it was already dark, while temperature had dropped further. We arrived at La Rochelle Centre and went to have dinner before retiring to our rooms.
*Amber Sun Hotel has since transformed into Holiday Inn, Mutare.
