GUS LE BRETON TAKES TO EASTERN HIGHLANDS IN SEARCH OF WONDER
There are journeys made for discovery, and journeys made for joy. Last week, Gus Le Breton of the African Plant Hunter chose the latter — setting aside the weight of work and the pull of routine to take a group of friends on a road trip through Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands. What followed, by his own cheerful admission, was a bucket load of fun, captured in a video that is only slightly cheesy and entirely worth watching.
The Eastern Highlands, stretching along Zimbabwe’s eastern border with Mozambique, are among the most botanically rich and visually spectacular landscapes on the African continent. Dramatic mountain terrain, mist-laden forests, cascading streams and a biodiversity that has drawn naturalists, hikers and plant enthusiasts for generations make this corner of Zimbabwe a world apart from the bushveld and savannah that define much of the country’s landscape. For someone with Gus Le Breton’s eye for the natural world, a road trip through this region is less a holiday and more a pilgrimage — even when approached with a spirit of deliberate lightness.
Le Breton has built a significant following through the African Plant Hunter, bringing the extraordinary botanical wealth of the African continent to wider attention with a combination of genuine expertise and an accessible, personable approach that makes plant life compelling to audiences well beyond the specialist community. His travels across the region have taken him to some of Africa’s most remote and rewarding natural environments, but the Eastern Highlands hold a particular kind of magic — one that rewards the unhurried visitor with rare plant species, extraordinary views and the quiet satisfaction of being somewhere genuinely beautiful.
This trip, however, was as much about people as it was about plants. Good friends, open roads, mountain air and the particular pleasure of sharing a remarkable landscape with those who appreciate it — these are the ingredients of the kind of travel that stays with you long after the journey is done. Le Breton’s decision to document the experience in video form, and to share it with his audience, is a reminder that conservation and nature communication need not always carry the full weight of advocacy. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for a landscape is simply show people how much fun it is to be in it.
Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands remain one of the country’s most underappreciated tourism assets — a region of genuine world-class natural beauty that deserves far wider recognition. If Gus Le Breton and his friends can play even a small part in changing that, every kilometre of the road trip was well worth it.
