Matopos National Park

Hello all,

Firstly, the Internet is terrible here. So here is today's blog without photos. I will put the photos up tomorrow (they're amazing!). 

I ended up heading to bed at 10.45 last night and woke at 5.30am. It gets really light really early here!

Today was fantastic. We set off at 9am and headed to Matopos National Park. On the way in we saw a hornbill (aka Zazu from 'The Lion King'). Then our guides Marc and Ian started talking to us about rhinos before we did our walking safari. 

White rhinos have a squarer, flatter mouth than black rhinos. They are grazers and feed on grass. The reason they are called white rhinos is because the Dutch named them 'Weit' rhinos (meaning wide as in wide lip) and the British misinterpreted and went with white. 

Unfortunately for rhinos, their beautiful horns are believed to have magical powers in Asian cultures. People from these cultures believe that if you eat part of a rhino you gain the strength and size of a rhino. As a result, these beautiful creatures are probably only 2-3 years from extinction. Ian and Marc gave us a really depressing talk about poaching and how many rhinos are being murdered for their horns - it's awful. 1kg of rhino horn is worth $100,000 USD, and one rhino's horn is usually 10kg. The park rangers have started to cut off the rhinos' horns (which doesn't hurt them, it's like cutting out finger nails) to make them not as much of a target. Like nails, they do grow back so this needs to be done on a regular basis. My question is - why don't poachers just do that?! Why do they have to kill them?

The sad thing is that seemingly the rest of the world is against this mission to save the rhinos. There is a reason Mugabe is the fourth richest man in the world, and that the minister of finance's son was caught with $22 million cash in the boot of his car - bribery. Apparently a rhino had its face cut off in a zoo in Paris, that's how greedy people are. 

In Zimbabwe, there is a shoot to kill policy for poachers. In this park alone, 20-25 poachers are apprehended per month. In South Africa you merely cop a $70 USD fine. Ian was saying that the countries here that are cutting the horns off the rhinos should supply the market with them, so demand can be met without poachers. Apparently this vote hasn't been won at the Convention in Trade of Endangered Species (CITOES). Rangers protect the park, but due to economic issues and lack of funding, they've not been paid in three months.

Then we set off on foot to track the rhinos. In a single file with no guns or weapons, I was a bit nervous. Matopos has the highest concentration of rhinos and leopards in Africa. We didn't see a leopard, but we did see zebra and wildebeest straight away. Then we were very lucky - after just a few minutes we ran into four white rhinos. 

We were able to sit just a few metres away from them and take in their beauty - it was incredible! Their eyesight is absolutely terrible, so as long as you're not in bright clothes, you're quiet and walk slowly, you're ok to be near them. They had a bird on them cleaning their ticks, and kept farting! Apparently they do that a lot as they can be digesting up to 100kg of grass at a time - that's a lot of pressure!

Rhinos are 40kg at birth and gain a kilogram a day. They also drink 5L of milk a day as a kid!

We sat and watched them for ages and then set off. They followed us which was cool! Then it was back on the 4x4 and we headed to our lunch spot. I got to sit on the front seat on the bonnet at this point which was pretty cool. Our vehicle felt like a real life version of the 'Indiana Jones' ride at Disneyland - complete with having to duck so as to not be smacked in the face by branches!! The vehicles were pretty lax compared to South Africa. No seat belts and no side covers!

At this point, Marc (who drove our car) started telling us about life here in Zimbabwe. Justin had told us not to speak to anyone here about politics, but Marc brought it up and we all eagerly listened. First he told us about hyperinflation because we had stopped at a small hut selling souvenirs and Rob bought a 25 billion Zimbabwean dollar note as a souvenir. Hyperinflation occurred here in 2009, and 1 trillion dollar notes were printed at this time. Marc said he was out at a bar with friends, bought a round of drinks for 1 billion. Then he went for a second round and it cost 5 billion. By the third round, the bar owner closed the bar, saying it wasn't worth accepting money because he wouldn't be able to use it for anything the next day. A wheelbarrow of notes wouldn't even buy you a loaf of bread. 

He said nowadays, Zimbabweans like himself can only withdraw $400 USD from their bank accounts per month. To buy something big like a car, you have to seek permission from the bank, who will probably say no because they steal/invest your money and you probably won't get it back. 

Marc also said it's near impossible to get visas to travel to places like Australia due to political issues. He went to the protest in Harare in November with 500,000 fellow Zimbabweans to call for Mugabe to stand down. Now he has, and the guy who was the Vice President (and who Mugabe's wife tried to poison!) is now president until April.  He said the protest was very peaceful though with no violence. 

We had a nice lunch and saw some baboons at the lunch site. I'm kind of scared of them! Then we set off again and saw the national flower of Zimbabwe - a flame lily. Marc also stopped the vehicle a lot to allow us to taste various leaves and berries. 

Then we got to a small village. It was so beautiful, kids came sprinting out of their homes to wave to us and shout hello. They were all in new clothes as apparently it's tradition in Zimbabwe to wear new clothes on New Year's Day. Marc told me people in this village don't own the land, no one does. The chief allocates a family enough space to live on, and each family has a sleeping hut and a kitchen hut. People here have to walk up to 6km to get fresh water. Yet all the people and kids were so happy and full of smiles. It always astounds me how friendly people who have not much can be, yet lots of people at home who have so much are nasty. Money doesn't buy happiness!

Next up was Silozwane caves, which had 50,000-60,000 year old rock paintings created by the bushmen. Matopos national park has the highest concentration of rock art in the world - 50,000 examples, because this group of people believed in moving from cave to cave after two weeks so as to not disturb the environment. Their paintings are created from urine and bile mixed with charcoal and more, meaning the acidity burned the painting into the rock. The paintings are like a diary - showing animals, hunting, different people in their groups. They were great! Then we climbed further up the hill but it got too steep for me so I enjoyed the view from partway up. 

When we got to the bottom, the women and children who had seen us driving in had assembled with various things they had made to sell. I bought some lovely salad servers with elephants on them. 

Then I remembered Mum and Dad had given me some stickers to hand out to kids which I had cut into pieces to hand out. I started handing some out to the beautiful children, and soon I had about ten kids gathered around me. Then some mothers asked me for some for their kids at home. Rob took a photo of them all gathered around me - it was a lovely moment I will never forget! We had a giggle as we drove off because a lot of the kids had started sticking them on their faces!

We stopped in the little village for a local beer. It was pretty nice and again the locals were very friendly. Then it was onto our final stop for the day - Cecil John Rhodes' grave.  CJR was born in 1853 in Bishops Stortford in England (been there - my friend Jo grew up there!). He was diagnosed with bad asthma and it was recommended he move to Africa to aid his condition. He moved to Kimberley where he started a diamond company, and by 18 he was a millionaire. At 22 he was given just six months to live, but he went on to live to 49 in 1902 when he died in Cape Town as the richest person in the world at that time. He had six heart attacks in his lifetime and his official cause of death was a hole in the heart. He chose to be buried at World View, where we watched the sunset. 3000 people attended his funeral up on the rock. Throughout his life he ran the British South Africa Company for Queen Victoria, during which time he took control of all British territories in Africa. He wanted to build a railway from Cape Town to Cairo, but upon his death the railway had reached Kenya. He owned six countries, had two named after him (Zambia and Zimbabwe used to be called northern and southern Rhodesia) and was the prime minister of South Africa at age 37. 

It's now 116 years since he died, and still to this day there are 160 Rhodes scholarships worldwide awarded each year which are funded by his estate. His money also funds a few African hospitals and maintains the national park. Marc said that when Zimbabwe got independence, he was virtually wiped from their history books and curriculum, but he needs to be remembered. 

The sunset up by his grave was amazing. Then we headed back in the dark (it was cold!) to camp. We had a late dinner and now are in our tent. It's nice and cool so I'm hoping to sleep ok before our 5am wake up to head to Victoria falls. Zambia here we come! I've loved Zimbabwe even though our stay was short and sweet. 

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox