Fun things to do in Zimbabwe

The Whuvi game Park is part of the Matobo National Park. In this game park it is possible to go around by horse.
We didn't , we did the gamedrive by our bus.
The Whovi Game park is known of its black rhino population. We saw a rhino-mother with her kid in the bushes just before we ended our game drive. So we were lucky in the end.
In the two hours before we saw other game like impalas, klipspringers, warthogs, 3 hippos with a baby, a giraffe with a baby and 2 crocodiles.
So our visit to the Whovi Wild Area was not bad at all. At this waterpool we saw a herd of wildebeasts and impalas.

We stayed a few days in the main camp of the Hwange National Park.
At arrival we directly knew, what it was, to be in the middle of wildlife. We saw a group of baboons jumping on some tents.
Early morning and late afternoon we made our game drives to see the elephants and otther game. Open landrovers came to the camp to pick us up. The adventure could start !!!

In August 1994 the park was open from 6 am to 6.30 pm and admission was 15$.

The hillcomplex of Great Zimbabwe is very impressive. The built structures are integrated in the natural boulders. It looks really amazing.
The hillcomplex is occupied for 300 years. There are royal and ritual chambers. The most important part of the hillcomplex is the western enclosure, where two of the original ascents, the ancient path and the terrace path, converge.
i liked it very much to discover the several chambers and entrances by taking narrow steps and corridors.

For more pictures have a look at my travelogue.

From the parking lot it's an easy 5 minutes walk to the top of the hill, that called Cecil Rhodes the "view of the world'' after the view gripped him strongly. Here is his grave, but also two other graves.
The scenery is marvellous with large boulders around his grave. We saw a lot of colorful lizards around the grave and the boulders.
This mountain knew the Ndebele as Malindidzima or ''dwelling place of benevolent spirits".

After spotting a lot of single male elephants at the waterholes, our driver suddenly stopped the car. We waited a few seconds and then started a breathtaking experience.
Just behind our car 40 elephants crossed the track and then also in front of our car another 40 crossed also.
We were enclosed by elephants at all sides. We didn't know, where to look first and nearly forgot to breathe.
There were a lot of young elephants in the herd. The female leader of the herd was looking at us, while the herd was passing.
And the most peculiar of all, we didn't hear any noise of the herd, walking in the bushes !!
For a full sight enlarge the panorama picture.

After the close encounter with the first herd of elephants we drove to a pool with a nice viewing point. The herd, we saw before, was allready arrived together with an herd from the other side. Another herd was leaving allready.
There were 200 elephants around, included some solitary men. Never before I saw so many elephants at the same time!
At the pool were also some buffalos, two giraffes were waiting for their turn, a jackal walked by and we saw some ostriches.
We were in Africa !!!
For panorama enlarge the picture.
See the travelogue for more pictures !

The best known part of Great Zimbabwe, you see at all the pictures, is the Great Enclosure.
Often this enclosure is called Great Zimbabwe itself. The enclosure has a elliptical from of 255 M circumference and 100 M across.
The common people lived in huts outside the enclosures. The more important people lived in the enclosures and it's accepted that the Great Enclosure was used as a royal compound and cloister for the king's mother and senior wives of the Shona king.
The influence of the king stretched into the present-day Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa.

Within the huge walls of the Great Emclosure is a convex conical tower of 10 M high a bit hidden under the trees at the south-eastern end od the enclosure. This tower is object of greatest speculation, because it is not clear what this apparently ceremonial structure represented.
Some speculate that it symbolized a granary, others see it as a phallic symbol or believe it was used in rainmaking ceremonies.

For more pictures of the great Enclosure and Great Zimbabwe have a look at the travelogue.