It's quite scenic here; the landscape is a striking mix of balaced rocks, moss, and foliage. Once considered a sacred place by the natives, that grand bastard of all English imperialist bastards, Cecil Rhodes, had himself buried smack in the middle. And his two friends are buried in the centre of the park as well. All of their graves were chiselled directly into one of the most sacred places in the region of these rocky hills. There's also a monument to the soldiers who died fighting these nasty savage African people.




In the end, Cecil swindled Rhodesia into British hands, and shafted the natives. I asked the guide what the Zimbabweans thought of him - "He did bad, but I guess in the end some good came out of it." Oh well, the imperialist graves aside, this is a beautiful land.












The coloured lizards look neat, and there were some old paintings on some rocks too. Wow, you say. All in the spirit of the organized tour, you have to look excited and pretend to get your money's worth. Anything else is blasphemous.
Soon we were onto the safari "game" drive - you pretty much have to buy an organized tour for this, so you may as well just do it. The animals made some good appearances - in many ways it was obvious that they were posing for us. Giraffe, white rhino, blue wildebeest, zebras, I got some good kodak moments. The backdrop of the Matopo hills made for some stunning shots.
You may as well do a safari while you're down here. This game park is good because of the Matopo hills; also, Cobe in northern Botswana is good, probably the best for postcard perfect pictures. It was worth it, and I think you could get addicted to these things if you really like the wildlife. For me, though, I think once is enough for this trip. Plus they aren't entirely cheap - budget from US$50 to US$65 a day for the safari. It could end up being a very expensive hobby.

But onto the pictures!





Safari Pictures
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