Sunday, 8 June 1986: My English Hosts Take Me to a First-Rate National Park

June 16, 12:30 PM, Home of Steve & Beryl, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

I decided to leave South Africa for a couple months and head north in search of warmer weather.  Instead, my first couple days in Zimbabwe were bloody cold for Africa.  It was grey, windy, and only in the low 50s F on Sunday morning in Bulawayo which is technically in the tropics at 20°S latitude.  Of course, I have to remember that Bulawayo is situated at 4000 feet above sea level. 

My first Rotary Club hosts in Bulawayo, Adrian and Penny Feather, are in their early 40s and moved here from England in the mid-1970s at the height of the Rhodesian War.  After two years, they had had enough of the war and went back to England.  However, after a couple years, they realized they really wanted to be back in Rhodesia.  Only, by the time they were ready to come back in 1980, the whites under Prime Minister Ian Smith had lost the war to the African rebels.  The country had become Zimbabwe under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.  Nevertheless, Adrian accepted an offer to be the comptroller for Zimbabwe’s largest biscuit (cookie) company.  They said goodbye to friends in England who assumed it would be a final goodbye as Adrian and Penny would certainly be shot. 

After a couple months, Adrian and Penny almost left Zimbabwe again because the post-black independence shortages of consumer goods were often severe.  The economic situation gradually improved, and they bought a beautiful home in suburban Bulawayo for only Z$25,000.  Their spacious home would easily go for US$250,000 in Denver.  Whites were leaving Zimbabwe in droves, and one could pick up some amazing housing bargains in Bulawayo until a year or two ago.  The white population in Zimbabwe dropped from more than 250,000 in the 1970s to around 100,000 now.        

On Sunday morning, the day after my arrival, Adrian drove Penny, their 8-year-old daughter, and me a few miles south of this modern city of 350,000 to Matopos National Park.  Within this impressive 165 square mile reserve are found rugged landforms, abundant wildlife, decent roads, and cottages that can be rented for as little as Z$7.00 per night.

A black eagle’s nest is visible near the top right of “The Stack”, a large dwala. These dwalas were formed in 2-billion-year-old granite.

 

Penny and Adrian are amateur ornithologists so we spent several hours driving around the park looking at black eagle nests.  We saw several eagles flying around and one sitting on a nest.  We also spotted baboons, vervet monkeys, impala, and sable antelope.  Besides the variety of game, the main features of the park are rugged granite hills called dwalas.  They also took me into a grotto to look at some old bushman paintings of wildlife.   The paintings could be hundreds, if not thousands, of years old.

Nswatugi Cave rock paintings, Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe

 

Penny chose not to accompany Adrian and me on one trail to look at an eagle nest.  The last time she was on that trail, she nearly ran into a black mamba, the deadliest snake in Africa.  As Adrian explained, “A quarter hour after you are bitten, you’re ready for the box.”  As we headed up the trail, I tried to come up with a fitting farewell message for Adrian to transmit back to Colorado, in case one of these disagreeable serpents got me on the leg.