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Matobo National Park
The Matobo National Park lies 21 miles south of Bulawayo in southern Zimbabwe. It is a small accessible game park which contains some of the regions most interesting scenery.
The park is situated in the Matobo Hills (meaning “Bald Heads” ) - a range of domes, spires and balancing rock formations which have been formed out of the granite plateau through millions of years of erosion. The rock formations look like man-made sculptures, rather than naturally occurring phenomena. A good example is the “Mother and child Kopje”. The surrounding land is communal with a small proportion of farmland.
The hills cover an area of 19300 square miles with beautiful scenery and impressive views along the Thuli, Mtshelele, Maleme and Mpopoma river valleys. Amongst these crevices and cracks of this sacred ground is the Ndebele’s shrine to Mwari – the god of their ancestors. It is also the place where Cecil John Rhodes is buried. He remains interred in the rock, high up on the rocks at a vantage point named World’s View. Another interesting cultural feature of the area are 3000 well preserved examples of hunter gatherer rock paintings. The rock paintings are found in many hidden caves, the most notable of which are Bambata, Inanke and Nswatugi. The Bambata Cave is a major archaeolocial site containing paintings of animals.
The park has long been rhino territory and is well populated with black and white rhinoceros. Other inhabitants include wildebeest, eland, kudu, leopard, hyena, hippo, cheetah, giraffe, crocodiles, sable, and baboons. The birdlife is equally diverse with large concentrations of black eagles as well as fish eagle, pied crow, Egyptian geese, weavers, martial eagle and secretary bird. The black eagles are an incredibly common site – often seen riding the thermals, in search of prey or sitting on the kopjes. The rivers are teeming with fish and species such as bream, bass, catfish and bottle fish are common place.
Activities include guided safari walks, pony trails in the Maleme Valley, boating, hiking, game viewing and bird watching. Fishing is permitted in the parks numerous dams, many of which are well stocked with bass.
The winters, between April and August, are cool and dry and the summers, between November and March, are hot and wet – making it a year round safari destination.
