MATOBO NATIONAL PARK

The extraordinary Matobo hills are full of hidden caves, sacred places and Bushman paintings. Archaeological digs have found artefacts over 35,000 years old. Today the hills are the spiritual home of the Matabele people and a visit to a local village will bring you up to date with present day tribal culture in this area.

The massive rock formations of Matobo are awesome in their grandeur and create a unique atmosphere. Giant lichen-streaked boulders have weathered in place to create tremendous sculptures, which balance precariously in defiance of gravity.

Matobo is the domain of the impressive Black Eagle and is their chosen breeding ground. These powerful birds have no trouble targeting their main diet of rock hyrax(rather like a very large guinea pig but genetically closely related to the elephant)!

These comical little creatures scuttle around the rocks in large numbers and there are plenty of small buck including rock-hopping klipspringers.

This is perfect leopard country and although many live here, they are seldom seen. You should however, be able to see giraffezebrajackal, and perhaps caracalporcupinecivet and genet.

Ancient rock paintings showed that rhino used to live in this area, so the Whovi rhinosanctuary, adjacent to the park, reintroduced them and both black and white rhino are doing very well.

Birds to watch out for are a whole host of eagles, hawks, falcons and other raptors, plus colourful purple-crested louries who prefer the cover of dense foliage.

Seasons

Dry Season: The cool dry season is from the end of April to August and the hot dry spell is from September to early November when temperatures get to 90°F (34°C), but humidity is low.

Rainy Season: From November to March thunderstorms unleash their might every few days but the sun re-emerges and humidity is high.

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