Matobos National Park, Zimbabwe (Oct. 24, 1998)

I went to the Matobos since I was intrigued by the description of the place: "as if a young god had played with marbles" and because Rhodes is buried there. What kind of a place is it that a guy who had enough power to have a country named after him (for awhile, anyway) want to be buried?

Well, the word "matobo" means "bald head" in Matabele, and it seems like a pretty good description...

Many of the rock formations seem to look like something else, kinda like solid clouds (i.e. if you haven't before, try laying on your back on a partly cloudy day and try to figure out what the clouds look like -- kind of a natural Rohrsach test. Well, after awhile, you start doing the same thing at the Matobos).

Cave Drawings

Since there's quite a few caves in the area, the Bushmen used to use the place as a stopover when they were around. Turns out they painted their stories on the cave walls to both brag and let other Bushmen know what was up in the area. These pictures are strikingly lifelike -- I always wondered why people oohed and aahed about cave drawings until I saw these.

Here's a close up...

Wildlife

But, I hadn't expected to see so much wildlife there, particularly rhinos.

This little guy lives in the rocks trying not to get eaten by eagles. I think it's called a hyrex.

And, yes, warthogs are pretty damn ugly critters...

There's zebra there, too...

My favorite picture of the place is this one -- the zebra, the rocks, the color of the grass epitomize Africa.

I stayed there two days -- just about the right amount of time. The place I stayed was pretty nice and the other guests there were quite interesting. Yep, I suggest it.

Back to the Main African Trip Page

Tom Loos