Life in Africa VIII

We were fortunate to visit the Matopos National Park in Zimbabwe. The first thing that I noticed was there appeared to be a lot of smoke. Our Safari Driver told me that this was because the traditional inhabitants of the area had been dispossessed of the homelands by the government and with no land in recompense. There only response to the situation was to scorch the landscape as they left.

Matopos is most famous for its rock formations.

This outcrop has a name that I cannot remember, but I'm sure most people will associate the form as a group of people, maybe a family. I remember similar outcrops in the way to Mwanza.
I have some fascination on the geology and how these outcrops were formed.

Rocks sitting on another huge outcrop. Some process of erosion has caused this and obviously rainfall has played a great part. Perhaps wind as well. Also time - these are ancient lands.

Yet another outcrop of rock. This is all granite kopjes eroded again eroded over time by the various forces of nature.
It is in this area that Sir Cecil Rhodes was buried [along with a number of others]. I remember from secondary school history that he was the driver behind the proposed Cape to Cairo railway.

On the way to a small village [set up for tourists] there are good examples of ancient rock art. I found this very interesting and could have spent more time but our driver was more intent on showing us a black rhino. I would have thought that Africa had the oldest rock art and that art is about what I would expect.
This is ancient stoneage -just how old is difficult to assess.



This is some of the oldest known rock art in Europe - enhanced because the rock background has been removed. It is from the Chauvet cave in France and drawn some 35 000 years ago. Still stoneage and Neanderthal peoples were in the same area at the time.




We visited a village set up for tourist and to provide an opportunity to purchase crafts. There is some difference to what we had experienced in Tanzania






There was considerable skill in the crafts made but it is a difficult life trying to make a living like this. All these crafts are available in the main centers and in other craft stalls. And tourists tend to be picky. There is also a tendency to barter unrealistically because it is thought the thing to do.




I made friends with the village kids and challenged them, and taught them the trick of placing a stone on your elbow and quickly bring your arm down so that you catch the stone in your hand. Kids remember this sort of thing and challenge each other.






There is no comparison to the wildlife in Tanzania, but our guide tried his best to locate animals. He tried to tell us that a distant warthog was in fact a rhino, but we let him believe in what he said. He did take take us to a place where we certainly could hear rhino puffing and snorting but they were not visible. In the end we did locate one but the picture I took was too distant for my camera. But for the record here is a Matopos warthog.