Zimbabwe - Ruins and Lions

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August 12th 2011

Published: August 12th 2011

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alex waring

Me and a Lion

Antelope Park

Dear All

Greetings from Bulawayo, second city of Zimbabwe and situated in the West of the country. As has been the case on all my trip so far, I’m having a whale of a time and have seen some amazing places – it just keeps getting better!

Before I continue though, I just have to say how shocked, and disgusted, I am at the news back in the UK, and I do hope everyone is ok – hoping that at last the British government and society may come to realize that this “gang culture” is just out of control and something drastic really needs to be done about it – military schools and harsher youth sentences to teach some respect and basic decency come quickly to mind.

But anyway, this is not a general blog but a travel one, and I’ll have to leave my angry sentiments at what’s happening over there to one side as I go back to my journey – again, hope everyone back home is ok.

Last I wrote I’d just arrived in the wild west town of Masvingo, having just checked into an amazingly restored ex-colonial hotel called the Hotel Victoria –

The Conical Tower

The Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe

fantastic place, smacking of a bygone era of early 20th Century colonialism and exploration, and a grand view from my room across the neatly cut lawn towards the old government houses across the street. A bit of a quiet weekend in general, as Zimbabwe has just celebrated its Independence Day, and the whole of the country seemed to be off work and on holiday.

From the lovely hotel and its fantastic owner, I caught a minibus to the nearby star man-made attraction of this country – the majestic and awesome ruins of Great Zimbabwe. To be honest, I had just expected a few piles of stone at this place, the largest stone structure in Sub-Saharan Africa, but I was suitably impressed, at times astonished, by the beauty and magnificence of the place. Great Zimbabwe was built by an ancient Shona kingdom (native Zimbabwean people) some thousand years ago, in the 11th Century just as England was being invaded for the last time. Firstly they’d built a hilltop citadel, on top of an outcrop of rock some 100m or so higher than the plain below, to house the earlier kings and spirituals of the powerful trading kingdom. This was amazing,

Giraffe

Antelope Park

as along with the numerous deposits of large boulders on the hilltop, they’d built their brick walls to make these boulders a part of the walls and fortifications - ingenious! As the kingdom developed and grew from trade with the Swahili Coast, and India and China beyond, the royals moved down the hill to the Great Enclosure, surrounding themselves by a wall up to 11m high and 7m thick at the bottom, and leaving the spiritual guys up on the hilltop. It should be mentioned here that all construction at the site was drystone and without cement, and thus the people had crafted each individual stone to fit perfectly with the next – a triumph of ancient engineering! The Great Enclosure also contains the site’s most famous feature, which you may have seen on tourist snaps of the country – the conical tower, which is in fact solid and whose purpose no-one is really sure of.

A great day exploring these ruins, and something the country should certainly be proud of – indeed, the site gave name to the country, Zimbabwe meaning “stone houses” in the native Shona language.

So after a great stay in Masvingo, I next

The African Road

On the way to Great Zimbabwe

boarded another crammed-full minibus of 20 bods plus 8 or so children, one of which sat right behind me was coughing and spluttering with some awful-sounding disease for the whole journey – certainly hoping I didn’t pick up anything. I do believe, though I may be mistaken, that this was the last minibus I’ll be taking on my Africa trip this time. Since Malawi, the state and condition of these buses have steadily declined, cramming more and more people into them as I journeyed through Mozambique and then to here. The locals refer to them as “chicken buses”, and every White Zimbabwean I’ve met so far has looked at me aghast when I say this is how I travel. I’d never really thought about it before, as it’s really the only way of getting around, but the drivers do drive rather fast, and indeed just 3 days before I arrived in Zimbabwe, 36 people died in two separate minibus accidents on the Harare to Mutare road. Not to worry about me though, as I mentioned I most likely won’t be taking any more – my next two journeys should be by train…!

Anyway, this minibus took me to my

Inside a Minibus

Going to Great Zimbabwe - waiting for it to fill up to capacity before it leaves (usually about 23 people in a bus meant for 15...!)

next destination, Gweru and the nearby and most fantastic Antelope Park. This is a stunning place, 1200ha of African bushland reserve, with all sorts of wildlife including giraffe, zebra and funnily enough many antelope species. But its main purpose is to act as a lion rehabilitation and breeding reserve. Lions which have been found in poorer conditions elsewhere are donated to the park, to live out the rest of their lives in peace, while their babies are bred and reared to be able to survive in the wild and are eventually reintroduced to game parks around the country. Another purpose of the Park is to try to increase lion numbers in the region, as compared to just 35 years ago, numbers have fallen from 200,000 on the continent to only 60,000 or so. The place has also recently been used for a BBC documentary on the subject, the name of the series escaping me, but apparently it’s quite famous. First day there I just chilled in my lovely little safari lodge quarters, by the pool and the lovely lake they have there, listening to all manners of birdlife in the distant bush, and being startled at night by the various

Masvingo

View from my Hotel Room

sounds of wild animals coming from all around.

But the second day there was just the best – in the morning I did a horse-riding safari. I had never done this before, only by jeep, but by horse you can really get up close to the animals as they do not run off – they see the horse and not the human. I had my closest views of impala, zebra and giraffe I’d ever had, and really enjoyed the horse ride too – though after two and a half hours, I really was walking like a cowboy! In the afternoon I did what the park is famous for – its lion walk! Along with 2 Zimbabwean ladies and 3 guides, we met with two lion cubs – around 9 months of age, stroked them and walked with them as they strolled through the bush. A beautiful, if a bit scary, experience – despite being only 9 months, these cubs were about as big as a large dog, and quite capable of flooring you already. We had a talk on how to handle them if they got a bit out of hand, and carried a stick, but nothing really did

The Parallel Passage

Running for 70m in between the two outer walls of the Great Enclosure - some say a secret passage into the royal enclosure

happen, and they were very cute! We even watched as they practised stalking impala – they didn’t attack or kill, but they looked ready, and we were with them when this happened – turning from cute little yawning kitty cats, to mean and fearsome predators in a matter of seconds - amazing!

And finally to here – Bulawayo – got a lift from a lovely Zimbabwean girl and her English friend returning here from a break in the Antelope Park, which cancelled out what I thought would be my last minibus trip. As mentioned, after Bulawayo and a visit to the nearby Matopo National Park, famous for its balancing rocks and rhino, my next trip should be by train on Sunday night up north to the Victoria Falls – what I believe will be the highlight of my trip, although you never know… From here, I plan to cross into Zambia, head up to Lusaka on another overnight train trip, and hopefully finish off with a safari in Zambia.

3.5 weeks down, 2 weeks to go – it’s been just an amazing trip so far, and I’m really looking forward to my next 2 weeks too!

Again,

Shona Drumming and Dancing

Great Zimbabwe

hope all are well back home and that the situation is improving… I half-expected some kind of unrest in an African country, but not back home!! More power to the police, more power to the army – you go guys!

Take care, speak soon

Alex

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