Walking up to Rhinos again!

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We got to the Translux bus station in Pretoria in plenty of time, but they didn't announce the bus over the tannoy, so we were left in the waiting room with a large Indian family from Durban who were heading to Harere for a brother's funeral. Their bus was very late and they were very worried about missing the event. We found out we had missed our bus about an hour after it had left and were told to get on the Harare bus and switch to our bus at the border. The Harare bus driver told us that the other bus would not wait at the border, but after talking to the guy behind the counter agreed to take us. If our bus wasn't at the border then we may be going to Harare. At the border we pulled up at 6am - seemingly 4 hours late. We pulled up right behind our bus to Bulawayo. We went through immigration where I had to pay $55 for being from the UK and all other nationals had to pay $30 or nothing. This was quite new - English didn't need visa's until a few months ago. We worried a little about catching our bus as we waited for customs, and then after we changed buses we waited another 2-3 hours for the customs guys to look through everyones luggage on the buses. It didn't seem that it was a question of the Bulawayo bus "waiting" for us at the border... not if the speed and efficiency of the officials was usual.
I spent the time on the new bus reading Burr by Gore Vidal and learning about American history during the revolution and talking to a local 4 year old. It is very intersting to me to read about Washington and the British, and then the politics after the British left New York (undefeated so the American author seems to point out - especially by Washington's disasterous attempts at battle.) Right now I'm trusting that Mr Vidal's reputation as an author is such that the main facts of the book are true - if anyone knows differently I would appreciate an email...)
We met a local musician (http://www.sandie-tainment.co.zw/biography.htm, http://www.zimtownship.com/sandra.htm)
at the end of the bus ride to Bulawayo who helped us keep the local taxi drivers at bay. She told us how she had been to Chicago and around the world singing and her friend called our lodge to let them know we had arrived (only 4 hours late) in Bulawayo.
We are now staying at Paradise lodge in a suburb of Bulawayo and it is great. The weather is nice and hot and the gardens at this lodge beautiful. Yesterday we took a safari to Matobos where Cecil Rhodes was buried and walked right up to two White Rhinos - mother and baby. We also saw a ton of baboons and some cave paintings by the Khoisan bushman which are thought to date back 2000 to 6000 years. It was great to get so close to the Rhinos - the White not being nearly as dangerous as the Black kind I encountered closer in Nepal.
We are planning to head up to Antelope park to see some young lions in the next few days, and then to Victoria falls after a few days in downtown Bulawayo.
On our first night in Bulawayo, feeling a little head heavy with my now-nearly-departed cold, hearing the sounds of the locals singing at night was amazing. We have spoken to Sandra today - who has invited us out to see some dancing this afternoon, and aparently she sings on Wednesday night in town. Zimbabwe has been very beautiful, relaxing and friendly and we are getting the experience we missed for a while in the south of South Africa - I think we were a little impatient, but South Africa had so many similarities to the culture we live in.
We took a day trip to Matobos - the national park where Cecil Rhodes is buried. We got taken for a little walk to see some sleepy White Rhinos which was great. They are quite tired in the morning and you can walk up pretty close to them. There was a mother and her child. We took photos pretty close up and then walked around the park for the afternoon.

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Photos

White Rhino
we could get closer without one of us in the picture.

Matobos National Park
Where Cecil Rhodes is buried