Southern Africa Unexplained

Case · UFO Afrinews No 3, May 1990

Lights in the hills at Fern Valley (Umtali Post report)

1975 · Fern Valley, near Mutare, Mutare, Zimbabwe

What was reported

A brief newspaper item recalled by Maureen T.: the Umtali Post reported the week after her Irene Township sighting that a couple living in Fern Valley, not far from her home as the crow flies, had seen lights up in the hills on the Saturday night, three days after her own Wednesday afternoon sighting. She thinks the lights were described as orange and green but could not remember exactly. No further detail, names or investigation are given; Hind prints it only as part of Maureen's letter.

In their words

  • I think they said these were orange and green, but I don't remember.

    Maureen T., spread 13

Cross references

  • Case No 14 Irene Township Sighting
  • Umtali Post

Connected

  • The Irene Township Sighting, 1975Case fileSame window

    Same week in early 1975: Maureen T.'s Wednesday 15:30 sighting at Irene Township, then the Umtali Post's report of a Fern Valley couple seeing orange and green lights in the hills on the Saturday night. Both reach Hind through Maureen T.'s single letter; the Fern Valley couple are unnamed and Hind did not investigate. Irene is c.23 km west of Mutare centre at Grand Reef; Fern Valley is south of the town, so 'not far as the crow flies' is generous.

  • Letter: G V Longstaff's steady light over Fern Valley, MutareCase fileSame place

    Both are night lights over the hills around Fern Valley in the mid-1970s. G V Longstaff's steady light due east for an hour or more (year approximate) and the Umtali Post couple's coloured lights on a Saturday night could even be the same evening, but neither report carries a date that would settle it. Independent sources (Longstaff letter 1997 via his son; Maureen T. letter).

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 3 (May 1990), spread 13

Nearby

Stories within 60 km