Matobo National Park in Bulawayo - 7.sept

Up nice and early, at 6, quick breakfast and second try to get a flight out of Harare. Got to the airport nice and early, checked in and had a bit of spare time. They did not ask our ID or passport once when doing the check-in or getting on the plane or getting off :) Wonders of domestic flights :) Got all nicely seated at the plane, plane was quite full to my surprise. Perhaps because they crammed 2 flights on there - yesterdays cancelled flight and then the regular morning flight that we were on now. Anyways, got all seated and plane even made it to the runway when we turned back to the terminal house. Lady announced that the plane has a technical problem that needs attention. Oh uh - not very assuring I'd say. Few men in bright yellow vests ran around one of the wings, more people gathered and they seemed to have some sort of meeting :) We did not get more information and we were left sitting in the plane. Hour later we returned to the runway and the journey started :D No update on what was wrong or what got fixed - the plane just took off :D Luckily we all landed safely 45 minutes later in Bulawayo.

Bulawayo airport is under construction so there was a very minimal temporary terminal up and running - but it all worked without a big hassle, we got the luggage quickly and all was good. Found nobody there waiting for us though. Later found out that they were there at 9:30 already but then got told that there is a delay and never got any news of how long the delay would be. Anyways, got our transfer and got dropped off at our hotel - Bulawayo Club. This place deserves it's own chapter so look at the next entry after finishing this one ;)

Dropped our stuff off at the room and hurried back down to take a trip to Matobo National Park (Matobo is the correct name, but Matopos is used more often). Our guidebook knows to tell that at 425 square km it is one of Zimbabwe's smallest national parks, yet it is second only to Victoria Falls National Park in terms of visitor numbers. Apart from the spectacular landscapes and the hundreds of examples of rock art, which together have given the park UNESCO World Heritage status, the very special Matopos habitat carries the greatest concentration of leopards in Zimbabwe.

First we visited one of the rock paintings at White Rhino Shelter. The paintings are faded, but it is supposedly one of the fine examples of line drawings, probably the best in the country. There are hundreds of rock shelters and caves around this rocky area which have been decorated by descendants of the world's most ancient peoples. This is one of the few areas in the world proven to have supported continuous human occupation for over 40 000 years.

Next stop in the park was at the View of the World (Ndebele, who are the local people, it is their sacred place known as Malindidzimu, meaning 'place of benevolent spirits') and Cecil Rhodes' grave (read about him in the next entry). Rhodes found this place while negotiating peace with the locals, called it 'View of the World' and chose this as his burial cite. He died 1902 in Cape Town at the age of 49 and was buried here. The view is of course beautiful, also the colored rocks here are something that will take away your breath.

The rock formation here are beautiful, our guidebook calls them dramatic rock landscapes :) Granite is the building material and weather the artist as it writes. One can find the balancing rock 'kopjes': huge angular blocks of granite piled on top of and beside one another, forming pillars and stacks. Most dramatic in scale, however, are the massive, bald 'dwalas' or 'whalebacks', grey granite hills rising from the surrounding woodland and criss-crossed with fault lines.

Last but not least our search for wild animals started - game drive. It is really really difficult to spot a leopard, so did not even dream of that. We were prepared to see rhino, buffalo, elephant or hippo, but did not see anything! Only 3 zebras after many hours of driving around. All the wild animals must have taken a day off or something. Our guide even said that this is his first time when he does not see any game at all. We were a bit disappointed about missing all the animals - this being my first safari and all. But the rest of the sights were beautiful. On our game drive we passed through Togwana Dam, being the prettiest reservoir in Matopos.

Just this past weekend they had a huge fire here at the park and we could clearly see the damage it had done. Apparently the ground burns here a lot - it helps to clean the bushes up and is totally natural. While driving around the ground was still smoking from many places and I'd even spot live fire here and there (just very small flickering flames). Our guide informed us that in 2 weeks it would all be green and it would be the best time to spot many different wild animals munching away at the tasty fresh food.