Jet lag got the best of me so instead of sleeping in on my first day in Zimbabwe, I woke up at dawn. It looked like a beautiful spring day in Harare so I put on my walking shoes to explore.

There’s always one destination I aim for when I arrive to a new place: the botanic garden. Google Maps said it was a 30-minute walk from my hotel so despite the advice from the hotel reception who said you can’t walk there, I set out regardless.

Google Maps was right. It was an easy walk along streets with sidewalks and wide shoulders. I paid a US$2 entrance fee and had the botanic gardens pretty much for myself and strolled amongst a flora which I did not not know at all. The gardens were created in 1902 and at one time apparently, they were extraordinary. But I had to use a bit of imagination to see that splendour as the gardens had suffered through a drought and what appears to be many years of neglect.

I’ll learn a lot more about Zimbabwe this week as my colleague, Beri, and I will travel to some remote villages to meet some farmers. We’re here to document a Crop Trust-supported project to help community seedbanks regenerate and process their best seeds for long-term conservation in the icy vaults of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway’s Arctic region.