The Matopos Part 2: Rock paintings, World's View, and more

We were in the Matopos for a couple of days. It was one of the places I most wanted to visit when we were in Zimbabwe. And I was certainly not disappointed.

Rock paintings

I had hoped to see rock paintings. There are lots of them in the hills. Sure enough we had hardly got there, when there was a sign to some.


It was a bit of walk up to the cave through high reeds and a staircase up the rock - but gosh, worth it. (That is Peter's new red hat. I wanted it for myself, but sadly, it looks better on him)










The paintings apparently go back for something between 2,000 and 20,000 years. Nobody is sure. Anyway, they were part of culture of the San people who lived here until they were displaced by incoming Bantu.

The paintings are well protected by a grille, and there they are, for anybody to enjoy. 





World's View

We then moved on to a wonderful view and some different history. Cecil Rhodes decided he would be buried at what is known as 'World's View'. And sure enough the view is extraordinary. And that is what we went for.
There was a car park but you had to climb up the last bit.

We loved the view - like all distant views, it was almost impossible to photograph. But of course we tried!

 There were also lizards to admire and the extraordinary lichen which came in three colours, and made some of the Matopo rocks look as if somebody had poured paint down them.








But on to Rhodes and the colonial history of the country. We arrived at the same time as school children. We saw them seated around the memorial to the Shangani Patrol. I had not heard of them, but Peter remembers it from his lessons as being an episode where a patrol of an irregular force were chasing Lobengula, the last king of the Matabele, in the last stages of the war between the Matabele and the British. This patrol was after him and his treasure. But they got surrounded by the Matabele and there was a last stand in which they were all killed.

It was very interesting to see how all this history figured in the museums and, indeed, what the children were being told. It was all presented very matter of factly, and Rhodes remains a central figure important to the country. (Though at least his statue in Bulawayo has had to make way for Joshua Nkomo.) When Peter told the teacher about the controversy surrounding Rhodes statues, etc, in Oxford, she was horrified, saying 'but history is history': that we (i.e. Zimbabweans) are well aware that these people made the country what it is, for good or bad.

So interesting. And thought provoking.

Finding a bed for the night

I think we were lucky. It's the middle of winter and we keep being told by the people who live here how cold it is. To us it is the temperature of a lovely summer's day (the high twenties in the day time). So there were few other tourists around and the owner gave us a beautiful chalet overlooking the dam for less that the going price. (At least we think.)
It was lovely. In the morning we had breakfast outside admiring the view, the birds and the monkey that would have like some of our breakfast.

 

 

 

 

The only bad time in this holiday so far...

Well, there had to be one. It was a bad couple of hours. We set off on what we had been told was a pleasant drive round the nature reserve, with a chance of seeing some animals. Not only were there no animals (oh well, that is a detail) but the road was beyond dreadful. It was lucky I wasn't driving - I would have damaged the car at best and stranded us in the middle of nowhere at worst. Peter (my hero!) used all his years of experience driving on bad roads to get us home just as dark was falling. There were gullies, rocks, tree stumps, fallen trees, high central grassy bits - thank goodness we had a vehicle with quite a lot of clearance. A couple of the forks in the road had no signpost and we had to guess. I was quite frightened and very glad to see the final bit up to the chalet. Unfortunately we had brought no alcohol at all with us.

Fishermen (and one fisherwoman)

In the morning, before heading back, we went down to the dam, where it told us to beware of crocodiles. So we did. We walked at a wary distance from the shore, and admired the reflections - so beautiful!
 Then we saw some people apparently walking on water - but they turned out to be walking on dry land and going fishing. They shouted a greeting, as is the Zimbabwean culture. Always greet people. We said that we thought they were walking on water. But they said not and offered us fish if they caught any. We (especially Peter) then exchanged thoughts about the rainy season and the height of the water. A lovely encounter. We compared it with taking photos of fishermen on the Tweed - who never shout greetings and would think it very odd if we did.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Khame Ruins and Great Zimbabwe

Image
We are back home now. But I can't leave this blog without including a post on these two excellent archeological sites in Zimbabwe. However, it is going to be a very short post, mostly pictures. There is a lot more information on google if you are interested!      Before we left Britain I knew I wanted to visit Great Zimbabwe. I had heard of it as an enigmatic ruin in Zimbabwe, I thought of it as maybe dating from the middle ages. Peter had visited it as a boy with his brothers. At that time there was a widespread assumption among white people that Africans could not have built such an impressive structure (Peter's father had no doubt that they had, knowing the local Africans better than most whites did). They thought that maybe it had been constructed by the Queen of Sheba. All of that has been completely overturned by more recent historians and archeologists. The ruins date from the 11th century and were occupied until at least the 15th century.   ...
Read more

When Mo was small. Part 2 The house in Mbeya

Image
Finding the house. Another extraordinary meeting - and indeed an extraordinary discovery. I'd chosen a hotel just a few hundred yards from where we thought my family house in Mbeya had been; again judging by google earth, and also by Peter's memory of having stayed near there forty years ago when he was working in Tanzania and had visited the town. The satellite showed a house with a shape like an E but with the middle arm missing. The long side of the E was the front of the house, facing the road. That is what our house had been like. When I was aged about seven we had moved there from Dar. The family lived there until Dad retired, when I was ten. After we had arrived in Mbeya from the Dar train, and changed our clothes we walked along. There the house was, now gated and with high opaque walls. Peering through the gate I suddenly remembered the front verandah, its red tiles, and my mother sitting there crying. She was holding a letter saying that Great Aunt Ethel had...
Read more

A saunter round Gaberone

Image
Kelone was having to deal with Exam Board preparations all day, so Jes took us into Gaberone to pick up our rail tickets to Bulawayo. (Booked on line but you have to collect them in person with your passport.) We sauntered down the main street, past the Presidents Hotel which I remember in a earlier incarnation from 50 years ago when the city was a fraction of the size. Like so much , here it is peaceful, easy and immaculately clean of litter. It was getting on for midday so we passed a fast food queue getting their lunch. There it is on the right of the photo. The man with the red stripes round his clothes is serving. You could get sorghum porridge and additions of various sauces. We also passed this stall selling nuts and other snacks. I was interested to see those black things in the front on the left which are mopane worms. I knew they were a delicacy here but had never seen them before. It's not the best season for them apparently, so we didn't try them. At the e...
Read more