Mount Selinda sits on an east-facing slope, on the very edge of the Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve – the southernmost tropical rainforest in Africa.
Although there are no documents in the Deeds Office reflecting it, it would appear that a Mr. Steyn occupied the farm at the time and sold it to the mission for a sum of £300 (three hundred pounds).
After some 30 km the mountain range plunges down to the flat, arid lowlands of the Sabi River Valley where, in searing summer temperatures of 40 °C and higher, heat-tolerant baobab, acacia and mopane trees abound.
The climate of Mount Selinda is humid subtropical, being greatly influenced by warm, moist air originating from the Indian Ocean, moving west across Mozambique and condensing as it rises up into the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe.
As a result of this year-round moisture, Mount Selinda is evergreen and does not experience the arid winters found in the rest of southern Africa.
Temperatures rarely rise beyond 30 degrees Celsius in summer and light frost can occur in the surrounding low-lying areas in winter.
It must be emphasised that these are only rainfall figures and as such they do not include the vast quantities of precipitation which routinely descend upon Mount Selinda in the form of mist, fog, low cloud and heavy night-time dew.
[3] Whilst a rain gauge (unfortunately sited in the lee of forest trees) is in use in the Chirinda Forest Campsite, and whilst there is a basic meteorological unit at the Mount Selinda High School, it is not clear whether any accurate weather data has been documented or made available to the public in Mount Selinda in more recent years.
The Mount Selinda area is home to a staggering array of indigenous African flora, fungi, birds, butterflies, insects and reptiles.
The largest Red Mahogany tree in southern Africa, a 1,000- to 2,000-year-old leviathan with a trunk diameter of some 6 metres stands at Mount Selinda.
Other smaller flora include thousands of specimens of the yucca-like Dracaena fragrans, numerous ferns, creepers, vines, epiphytes, montbretia, orchids and flame lilies.
Avocadoes, tea, bananas, sweet potatoes, taro, citrus, pineapples, sugar cane, coffee, macadamia nuts and commercial timbers (eucalyptus, wattle and pine) are grown in the area.