Matobo
Granite domes south of Bulawayo, cave paintings at least thirteen thousand years old, and a park that guards both black and white rhino.
- Arrival
- J. M. Nkomo International, Bulawayo · BUQ
- To the hills
- About 35 km south of Bulawayo
- Private jets
- BUQ, an airport of entry with customs
- Best time
- March to October
The city
Bald heads of granite.
Tradition says the Ndebele king Mzilikazi named these hills, playing on a word for bald heads, and the comparison fits: smooth granite domes rise above the bush. People have lived among them for at least half a million years. More than three thousand rock-art sites have been registered here, some of the paintings at least thirteen thousand years old, and in 2003 UNESCO inscribed the hills as a World Heritage Site, for the art as much as for the shrines still held sacred.
Within the hills lies Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe’s oldest, created in 1926. It is one of the country’s three intensive protection zones for rhino, black and white, and ZimParks credits it with the world’s densest leopard population, half of whose diet is rock hyrax, and the greatest concentration of black eagles.
- Malindidzimu The “hill of the spirits”, or World’s View, where Cecil Rhodes lies in a grave carved into the summit, with Jameson and Coghlan beside him.
- Nswatugi Cave A rock shelter painted with friezes of giraffe, elephant and kudu.
- Pomongwe Cave Where excavators recovered more than thirty-nine thousand stone tools from the floor of a single shelter.
Arriving
Bulawayo, thirty kilometres from the park.
Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International lies just north of Bulawayo, about 55 kilometres from the centre of the hills in a straight line. The park boundary is some thirty kilometres south of the city along the Matopos road.
- Johannesburg 1 h 10
- Cape Town 2 h 40
- Kigali 3 h 00
- Dubai 7 h 55 long-range jet
- Barcelona 9 h 50 long-range jet
When to go
March to October.
Measured at Bulawayo. The rains run from November to February, each month bringing 90 mm or more. From March to October the weather settles: winter afternoons near 21 °C and cold nights in June and July, then a warm, dry run to 29 °C in October before the first storms.
- 28° J 124
- 27° F 110
- 27° M 55
- 26° A 34
- 24° M 8
- 21° J 3
- 21° J 1
- 24° A 1
- 28° S 7
- 29° O 37
- 28° N 90
- 28° D 123
Elsewhere in Zimbabwe
More reasons to come.
- Victoria Falls The Smoke that Thunders, its spray visible from miles away.
- Hwange The largest park in the country, and its elephants.
- Mana Pools Walking safaris and canoeing on the Zambezi.
- Kariba A large man-made lake, explored by houseboat.
- Harare The capital on the highveld, and the start of flights to Mana Pools and Kariba.
Flying to Matobo?
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