MEET LLOYD AND NERINE WEBER: THE HEART BEHIND ABERFOYLE LODGE

Down in the Honde Valley, where rolling tea plantations meet the Nyamakombe River and untouched riparian forest, there’s a couple who have quietly become as much a part of the landscape as the estate itself. Meet Lloyd and Nerine Weber — the friendly faces behind your stay at Aberfoyle Lodge, your waterfall recommendations, and your inevitable “just one more cup of tea” moments.

Lloyd serves as General Manager and Nerine as Assistant Manager, a partnership that has made them fixtures of one of Zimbabwe’s best-kept secrets. Six years in since they arrived in August 2020, the Webers still reckon Honde Valley beats Harare any day of the week. Guests seem to agree that the pair are part of what makes the place special: visitors regularly describe Nerine and Lloyd as the most incredible managers, so caring and so attentive to guests’ needs, with a warmth and kindness that stays with them long after they’ve left.

Ask the Webers what they love most about life here, and the answer comes easily: the green, the space, the people. “It’s just a happy place,” they say. As for the guest experience they can’t stop hyping, it’s that first jaw-dropping drive through the estate, followed by a sundowner boat cruise on the dam — though honestly, they admit, it’s really the whole thing.

Their own happy place on the property is anywhere along the river by the old wooden bridge, a quiet corner away from the main lodge where the Nyamakombe does its work uninterrupted. Their wildlife crush is a toss-up between the cheeky samango monkeys who sometimes join guests on a run through the estate, and a mountain wagtail the couple have adopted as the lodge’s unofficial DJ — bopping along all day, rain or shine.

For Lloyd and Nerine, Aberfoyle isn’t just where they work. It’s home — the family-style, extraordinary-location, wouldn’t-trade-it-for-anything kind of home. That sense of place is easy to understand once you’ve made the journey yourself: surrounded by rolling tea plantations, rivers, mountains, and tropical riparian forest, the lodge sits in the Eastern Highlands as an idyllic retreat for nature lovers and adventure seekers alike, with accommodation for up to 36 guests and activities ranging from white-water rafting and kayaking to ziplining through the forest canopy. Birders, in particular, find themselves in paradise, with the Honde Valley home to more than 400 species.

It’s a big estate to run, but under the Webers, it clearly still feels like a small, personal thing — tea on the deck, a wagtail keeping time, and two people who found their happy place and decided to stay.