The ManicaPost
Obert Chifamba
IT is nature’s cauldron of wonders. A melting basin of many different myths, truths and suppositions. It is the Hot Springs of Chimanimani, Manicaland!Located some 80km to the south of Mutare City along the road to Birchenough Bridge, the Hot Springs form the most fascinating geothermal feature that has wooed visitors from both local and international destinations since time immemorial.
It is the springs’ natural mystique and seamless blending with the breath-taking Eastern Highlands geomorphology of craggy mountains, tour filled lakes, sparkling rivers, spectacular waterfalls, glorious forests, rolling moorlands and dramatic gorges that has always been awe-inspiring.
The hot springs perpetually discharge water whose temperature is always at boiling point, a fact that has seen local residents coming up with various theories to explain the origins of the hot water and the different uses to which it can be put.
Essentially, the hot springs are really a marvel to watch, as hot water continuously oozes from the ground. The pools at the resort are always full of warm water from the springs.
Locals believe there could be mermaids that mystically bring the boiling water to the surface, which gives the water medicinal powers to treat a number of health complains while assisting to cleanse those people that may be cursed.
People come from far and wide to make their pleas with their ancestors or spirits troubling them before tossing coins into the water or even getting into the pools to collect bath or swim.
The bottom of the pools is now littered with coins ranging from new to rusting ones.
Residents from the adjacent villages will readily tell you that people come from as far afield as Murewa, Hwange and even South Africa especially in winter with the sole intention of swimming in the warm water, which they believe has healing, cleansing and restoration powers.
The local community has from the distant past used the water for the treatment of numerous health complaints such as skin diseases, stomach bugs, cracking feet and swelling legs to name just a handful.
I managed to track down one Ken Smith who confessed to visiting the springs very often to have his problem with swelling feet and sore back treated.
“I used to come to the springs to swim in the pools with the hot water. The water makes you feel good and the swelling of feet that used to haunt me also got cured.
The sore back has also gone. Every time I would swim around for an hour or so before returning to my base in Mutare more than 80 kilometres away,” he said recently.
Despite all this popularity, mystery continues to surround the origins of the springs. The local community does not know when they came into existence save for the fact that a white man going by the name Eastern Roy discovered them in 1914 when he was running a hotel in the area.
They say in the past they used to hear drums beating from the springs yet the drummers were always invisible.
This theory seems to have bolstered their belief that the ancestors had something to do with the existence of the springs in their quest to understand how the water can nourish trees and grass that grow on the edges of the springs yet it is hot.
They confess that before the construction of the small pools to hold the water and the large swimming pool, the water used to be very hot, hot enough even to scald someone.
The place has 12 chalets and another dozen of asbestos roofed lodges as well.
There are also conference rooms for those that enjoy doing their business deliberations in a relaxed natural environment.
