Tuesday 30th December 2025
Woke up after a pleasant night without rocking and rolling. Along with everybody else it was nice to sleep on a stationary train!! We stepped off the train at Bulawayo Station to board our coach for a another Safari but with a Cave Paintings and a trip to visit the grave of Cecil Rhodes. Around the station there were signs of their colonial past but oh dear, everything bar the station has fallen into “rack-n-ruin”, the station was quite a magnificent building; obviously built to last!!!
We drove out of town dodging even more pot-holes and about 30-minutes later arrived at the National park, it is situated in Southwest Zimbabwe and covers about 424-square Kms. This park extends along several river valleys and is one of the three intensive rhino “protection zones*”, both white and black, naturally there are the usual antelopes and impalas amongst others and it also has over 200-species of tree, wild herbs and 100+ grasses. This park also contains the world’s densest population of the leopards due to the abundance of hyrax, which make up 50% of their diet. One “could” also find Hyenas, hippos, giraffe, ostriches and many more but not today, Today we were told we’d see white rhino, and we “did” but only saw three white rhino😩
The cave paintings have been dated about 100,000 years old and took a bit of looking at before they registered, mind you they have had to weather many years!!! They were painted by the “bushmen” of that time whose whole civilisation was fascinating, (http://www.rovos.com/blog/matobo-national-park-lasting-relics-of-an-incredible-people/); this area provided everything they needed to survive, an abundance of of everything demonstrated by our guide. He stopped, picked some particular plant and told us this “acted” as soap, then proceeded to demonstrate, and it did: he also showed us a bush that works as a tooth brush!!!
The other main attraction here is the burial site of Cecil Rhodes, the only issue was the walk up the the mountain, at Matopos. (https://sahistory.org.za/dated-event/cecil-john-rhodes-buried-matopos) The guide who gave us a talk on Cecil Rhodes and depicted him as a generous individual, a pacifist and wanted to keep the peace at virtually any cost though he was also a colonialist and thought the world should be the British Empire!! The grave of Cecil Rhodes, founder of former British colony Rhodesia, is carved into the summit of Malindidzimu. Also known as World’s View, this is the place where Rhodes was buried, together with two of his friends and colleagues; Sir Charles Patrick Coghlan and Sir Leander Starr Jameson. On the same site, a stone monument has been erected erected to honour 35 British soldiers killed in a battle with the Matebele army. who were the thrown into the Shangani River. There is a small gallery which also provides a chronology of Rhodes’ life, and his exploits as a business man, explorer and politician. These days he has a bad press, they ripped down is statute in Cape Town, they de-faced his memorial, and as he spent time at Oriel College, Oxford and the students there wanted his bust removed as well. This was the richest man in the world at the time, he had no dependants and all his money went into an educational trust that still pays for young people today to go to colleges and universities: the same people who accept his generosity over 100-years later but want to apply today’s morals, standards and way of life it historical events!! Anyway, the effort of climbing up to the top of this mountain was well rewarded, magnificent views of the Matobo hills
Back to the safari jeeps we headed back to base passing magnificent sights of huge boulders balancing on rock formations, many looked as if they had been lifted into place but no, it’s all many centuries of erosion and the rock formation; quite extraordinary.
Back to the coach and back for lunch, an hour later than planned!!!
The afternoon went rather quickly as the train continuously headed to South Africa whilst most of the guests took a siesta.
Back in the restaurant car for “another” four-course meal together with wine pairing. Today was also Etienne’s (the South African who lives in Romsey) birthday and the train staff produced a cake and naturally serenaded him, this all added to the atmosphere and another excuse for a party!!! Tonight we decided not to head to the observation car for the party with these “mad” South Africans, and we knew tomorrow night would be a late ‘un, so we headed for an early night !!!
