Located 22 kilometres west of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, the Khami Ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the remarkable 15th-century stone enclosures of the Torwa dynasty, offering visitors an extraordinary window into southern Africa's sophisticated pre-colonial civilisations.
Zimbabwe: Matobo Hills
🗺️ Matobos National Park — Africa’s Oldest and Most Extraordinary
We had made our way south from Victoria Falls, travelling down through Zimbabwe to Bulawayo, the country’s second-largest city and a place with a rather fascinating history of its own. Bulawayo, whose name derives from the Ndebele word KoBulawayo meaning ‘at the place of he who was killed’, was the royal kraal of King Lobengula, the last king of the Ndebele nation, before it was taken by the British South Africa Company’s forces in 1893. It’s a city with a bittersweet past, and you can feel the weight of that history when you wander its unusually wide streets — designed, legend has it, so that an ox wagon could turn around without any fuss. The main reason we had come down to this part of Zimbabwe, however, was to visit Matobos National Park, which sits about 35 kilometres to the south of Bulawayo.
Matobos National Park was established in 1926, making it not only the oldest national park in Zimbabwe but one of the oldest in the whole of southern Africa. When the Rhodesian government gazetted it all those decades ago, they were protecting a landscape that had already been considered sacred and extraordinary for thousands of years. The Ndebele people had long regarded these hills as a place of deep spiritual significance, and that sense of ancient reverence still hangs in the air when you visit. Today the park covers an area of approximately 424 square kilometres and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, in recognition of its remarkable concentration of San Bushman rock art, its extraordinary granite geology, and its outstanding biodiversity.
It is a popular destination for both international visitors and Zimbabweans themselves, many of whom come to hike the rocky terrain, ride horses through the valleys, or simply absorb the extraordinary scenery. Unfortunately, we did not have time on this trip to enjoy those more leisurely outdoor activities — we had a packed schedule and needed to make the most of every hour. So, instead, we booked ourselves onto a jam-packed day tour, which, as it turned out, was absolutely the right decision. Around 8:00 am our guide Andy came to pick us up, and the day began in earnest.
🦏 Walking Rhino Trek — Getting Up Close With the Big Ones
Our first activity of the day was to track white rhinos on foot, which Andy explained was best attempted early in the morning before the heat of the African day really kicked in. The white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is actually not white at all — the name is thought to derive from the Afrikaans word ‘weit’ meaning ‘wide’, referring to the animal’s broad, flat lips, which are adapted for grazing on grass rather than browsing on leaves and branches. They are the larger of the two African rhino species, with adult males weighing in at up to 2,300 kilograms, and they are generally considered more placid in temperament than their smaller, more solitary black rhino cousins. Matobo is one of Zimbabwe’s three intensive rhino protection zones and has been central to rhino conservation efforts in the country since the 1960s, when both white and black rhinos were first introduced to the area.
Andy pulled off the road and through a gate, where he had a brief word with a man who was armed with a rather old-looking rifle. This, it turned out, was one of the anti-poaching rangers whose job it was to protect the rhinos from poachers — a very real and very serious threat in this part of the world. Rhino poaching in Zimbabwe, as across much of sub-Saharan Africa, escalated dramatically during the 1970s and 1980s, driven almost entirely by demand for rhino horn in Asian markets, particularly in China and Vietnam, where it is used in traditional medicine despite having no proven medicinal properties whatsoever. By the 1990s, Zimbabwe’s black rhino population had been decimated from around 3,000 animals to fewer than 300. The fact that they are recovering at all in places like Matobo is entirely down to the tireless work of rangers and conservationists, so seeing one standing guard with his rifle was actually quite reassuring.
We drove a few more minutes before Andy pulled over and we all jumped out. Whilst rhinos are obviously enormous animals, they can be remarkably difficult to spot among the kopjes, bushes and tall grass of Matobo. The terrain is extraordinary — all piled boulders and scrubby vegetation, with shadows playing tricks on your eyes. So Andy decided we needed to climb a small hill to get some elevation and try to pick them out from above. The hill he selected was not particularly high, but the climb was decidedly steep and there were several large rocks we had to scramble over on all fours. I found myself paying rather more attention to where I was putting my hands than was perhaps entirely dignified. I was also worrying about snakes — the Matobo Hills are home to several species including the puff adder and the black mamba, which is not an animal you want to tread on unexpectedly. Luckily, if any were lurking about in the rocks, they had the good manners to stay hidden.
The view from the top across the park was genuinely lovely — a vast panorama of jumbled granite hills stretching off in every direction, with valleys in between and the odd flash of a waterhole catching the morning light. It was not too long before Andy’s sharp eyes picked out a small group of white rhinos below us — a mother, her baby, and a second female who, Andy explained, was also the daughter of the older female. Three generations, which was rather touching. We were just about to head down and approach them when Andy spotted two things that stopped us in our tracks.
The first was a line of local people who appeared to be members of some sort of religious sect, who were noisily processing through the park in a manner they were most definitely not supposed to — the walking, that is, not necessarily the praying. Their chatter was carrying on the wind and had the potential to spook the rhinos and drive them off. The second irritant was another group of visitors, led by their own guide and accompanied by the very armed ranger we had seen at the gate. Andy was, to put it diplomatically, not best pleased with either party. He was particularly annoyed with the other guide, who appeared to be using the ranger to help locate and track the rhinos. Andy pointed out, with some force, that the ranger’s job was to protect the rhinos from poachers, not to serve as a glorified wildlife spotter for paying tourists — that was the guide’s own responsibility. He was a man of strong opinions, was Andy, and not shy about expressing them. We liked him enormously.
We sat down on the rocks and waited patiently for the other group to finish their visit, which gave us a rather pleasant opportunity to chat to Andy about white rhinos and the park in general. He told us that white rhinos are fundamentally gregarious animals that live in small groups called ‘crashes’, and that the females in particular tend to form long-lasting social bonds — which explained the three generations we were watching. He also explained that rhino horn is composed entirely of keratin, exactly the same protein that makes up our own fingernails, which makes the extraordinary sums people pay for it on the black market even more baffling. A kilogram of rhino horn can fetch more on the illegal market than the equivalent weight of gold.
Eventually the other group finished their visit and wandered off, and we climbed down the hill and set out across the scrub to meet the rhinos. By this point the sun was up properly and it was getting hot — proper African hot, not Blackpool on a good day hot. The rhinos, sensible creatures that they are, had tucked themselves into the shade of a tree and were showing absolutely no interest in going anywhere. As these particular animals are quite accustomed to the presence of people, we were able to approach to within about 30 metres without causing them any distress. The grass and bushes did make getting a perfectly clear view a bit tricky for photography, but that almost added to the wildness of the experience — no manicured game park viewing platform here. White rhinos have notoriously poor eyesight and can only see clearly up to about 30 metres, but their hearing and sense of smell are exceptional. They knew we were there, no question about it, but they remained unbothered and continued their siesta with magnificent indifference. After about ten minutes, we backed quietly away and left them to it. After walking back to the vehicle, Andy continued to entertain and educate us about the birds we could hear, the plants around us, and the various fauna of the area. He was a genuine font of knowledge and a superb storyteller. Honestly, he made the whole experience.
⚰️ Cecil John Rhodes’ Grave — The Man Who Named a Country After Himself
Next on the itinerary was a visit to the grave of Cecil John Rhodes, the man who founded Rhodesia — the territory that, in 1980, became the independent nation of Zimbabwe. Rhodes is, to put it mildly, one of the most complicated and contested figures in British imperial history, a man whose legacy continues to provoke fierce debate from Oxford University to Cape Town. But whatever one makes of his politics and his methods — and there is plenty to make of both — his connection to this particular piece of Zimbabwe is undeniable, and the hilltop on which he is buried is one of the most dramatic and compelling spots in the entire country.
Cecil John Rhodes was born on the 5th of July 1853 in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, the fifth son of the local Church of England vicar. He was a sickly child, plagued by asthma and other respiratory problems, and his doctors and family believed that a warmer, drier climate might improve his health. In 1870, at the age of seventeen, he was packed off to South Africa to live with his elder brother Herbert in Natal, where he was to assist with the running of a cotton plantation. It is fair to say that the cotton plantation was not particularly successful, but what happened next changed the course of southern African history entirely. In 1871, the brothers made their way to the newly discovered Kimberley diamond fields, drawn, like thousands of others, by the prospect of extraordinary wealth. Cecil was a sharp and driven young man and quickly proved himself a formidable businessman.
Rhodes returned to England in 1873 to attend Oriel College, Oxford University, but he found the pull of South Africa too strong and kept returning to manage his growing business interests. He did not actually receive his degree until 1881, having stretched what should have been a straightforward academic course across nearly a decade of comings and goings. By that point, his diamond mining operation had grown into something truly extraordinary. In 1880, he formed the De Beers Mining Company, and by 1891 it controlled an astonishing 90 per cent of the world’s diamond production. De Beers, of course, still exists today as one of the world’s dominant diamond companies, a remarkable legacy for a clergyman’s son from Hertfordshire.
Rhodes was not content merely to be extraordinarily rich, however. He had a sweeping, grandiose vision for British dominance across the African continent — a chain of British territory running the entire length of Africa, ‘from the Cape to Cairo’, connected eventually by a telegraph line and a railway. It was the sort of Victorian imperial ambition that modern sensibilities find deeply uncomfortable, and rightly so. He entered the Parliament of Cape Colony in 1881 and devoted considerable energy to containing the northward expansion of the Boer Transvaal Republic. Through a combination of lobbying, financial pressure, and sheer force of personality, he persuaded the British government in 1885 to establish a protectorate over Bechuanaland, the territory that is now Botswana, blocking the Transvaal’s westward expansion. In 1890, he became Prime Minister of Cape Colony, a position from which he pursued further educational and constitutional reforms — though his restrictions on the African franchise were, to put it bluntly, a deliberate attempt to reduce the political power of Black Africans.
The 1895 Jameson Raid was Rhodes’ most spectacular political miscalculation. His colleague Leander Starr Jameson led a private armed force into the Transvaal in an attempt to trigger an uprising by British settlers and thereby destabilise the Boer government of President Paul Kruger. The raid was a complete and utter fiasco — Jameson was captured within days, his men surrendered without achieving anything, and the whole sorry business was exposed as a conspiracy. The British House of Commons investigated and found Rhodes guilty of grave breaches of his duty both as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and as Administrator of the British South Africa Company. He was forced to resign as Prime Minister in disgrace. The raid also inflamed tensions between Britain and the Boer republics in a way that contributed to the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899.
Following his resignation, Rhodes turned his attention to developing the vast territories north of the Limpopo River, which his British South Africa Company had been granted the rights to exploit by royal charter in 1889. These territories — known collectively as Zambesia, after the Zambezi River — were renamed ‘Rhodesia’ in May 1895, in a rather breathtaking act of imperial self-promotion. Northern Rhodesia eventually became Zambia at independence in 1964, whilst Southern Rhodesia had a rather more complicated transition: Ian Smith’s government made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1965, a prolonged and brutal bush war followed, a new constitution providing democratic majority rule was established in 1979, and ‘Rhodesia’ became ‘Zimbabwe’ in April 1980 under Robert Mugabe. Nearly a century after the man himself had named the place after himself, his name was finally removed from the map.
Cecil John Rhodes died on the 26th of March 1902 at Muizenberg near Cape Town, at the age of just 48. Despite his extraordinary wealth — he was widely considered to be one of the richest men in the world at the time of his death — he never married and had no children. In his final will and testament, however, he provided generously for the establishment of the Rhodes Scholarships, which to this day fund outstanding students from around the world to study at the University of Oxford for one to three years. The scholarships, first awarded in 1902, are among the most prestigious academic awards in the world, and they represent perhaps the most enduring and genuinely positive aspect of Rhodes’ complicated legacy.
He had chosen this specific hilltop in the Matobo Hills — which the Ndebele called Malindidzimu, meaning ‘dwelling place of benevolent spirits’, and which Rhodes himself named ‘World’s View’ — as his burial site years before his death. He had visited several times and declared it the most beautiful place he had ever seen. Standing up there on a clear day, looking out across that extraordinary sea of granite domes and kopjes stretching to the horizon in every direction, it is very difficult to disagree with him.
Also buried on the summit, a short distance below Rhodes, is Leander Starr Jameson himself. Born in Edinburgh in 1853, the same year as Rhodes, Jameson was a medical doctor who became one of Rhodes’ closest associates in southern Africa. He is, of course, most infamous for leading the disastrous Jameson Raid of December 1895, for which he was brought back to England in disgrace, tried, and sentenced to fifteen months in prison — though he actually served only four months before being released on grounds of ill health. In a rather astonishing turn of events, Jameson subsequently rehabilitated his reputation sufficiently to return to South African politics and eventually served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1904 to 1908. He was made a baronet in 1911 and died in London in 1917.
The final monument on the summit is, it has to be said, not particularly attractive — an ungainly, oblong granite structure standing about ten metres tall, with bronze relief panels commemorating the Shangani Patrol. The patrol was a small detachment of 34 British South Africa Company soldiers under Major Allan Wilson who were killed in December 1893 during the First Matabele War, ambushed and overwhelmed by Ndebele warriors on the banks of the Shangani River in what is now northern Zimbabwe. Their story became one of the great heroic myths of the Rhodesian colonial era — the brave last stand of a tiny force surrounded by an overwhelming enemy. Their remains had originally been interred at Great Zimbabwe, but Rhodes stipulated in his will that they should be moved to lie alongside him on World’s View, which they duly were.
🌍 The Incredible Scenery of Matobo National Park — Two Billion Years in the Making
The Matobo Hills are, without question, some of the most extraordinary and distinctive rock formations anywhere on earth, and no photograph we had ever seen had quite prepared us for just how dramatic and alien the landscape actually looks in person. It is the sort of place that makes you feel slightly small, which is generally a good sign.
The geology here is mind-boggling in its age and complexity. The granite that forms these hills began crystallising deep within the earth’s crust approximately two billion years ago, during the Archaean eon, when the African continent was still being assembled from ancient cratons and the most complex life on earth was single-celled bacteria floating in a warm, shallow sea. Over unimaginable spans of time, the overlying rock was gradually stripped away by erosion, exposing the granite beneath and allowing it to weather into the extraordinary rounded forms we see today. The process that created the smooth, dome-like summits is called exfoliation — as the pressure of the overlying rock is removed, the granite expands and its outer layers peel away in curved sheets, like the skin of an onion, eventually producing those characteristic bald, rounded domes that the Ndebele so aptly named Matobo, meaning ‘bald heads’.
The result is a landscape of kopjes and inselbergs — isolated rocky hills and island mountains rising from the surrounding plains — and the extraordinary smooth ‘whaleback dwalas’, great curving expanses of bare rock that look for all the world like the backs of enormous whales breaking the surface of a stone sea. The highest point in the area is Gulati, at 1,549 metres above sea level, which actually lies just outside the official national park boundary. Thousands of these distinctive, tightly compacted rocky outcrops lie across the landscape, with valleys running between them like veins in a leaf. And then there are the balancing rocks — great boulders perched on top of each other in configurations that look physically impossible, as though a giant child has been stacking stones and walked away without finishing. Natural weathering along the granite’s joints and fractures has created these gravity-defying arrangements over millions of years, and they are genuinely astonishing to behold.
The wildlife that has colonised this rocky terrain is perfectly adapted to it. Rock hyraxes — small, rotund, vaguely guinea-pig-like creatures that are, implausibly, the closest living relative of the elephant — scuttle about on the kopje slopes and provide the bulk of the diet for Matobo’s famous population of black eagles (also known as Verreaux’s eagles), of which the park boasts the highest concentration and the greatest number of breeding pairs anywhere in the world. Klipspringer antelope, whose hooves are adapted to balance on the very tips of rocks like a ballet dancer en pointe, pick their way delicately across the granite outcrops. And leopards, which are notoriously difficult to spot anywhere in Africa, are actually relatively numerous here — the rocky terrain provides ideal cover, and the abundant hyrax offers a reliable food source. Hyrax apparently constitute some 50 per cent of the Matobo leopard’s diet, which suggests the leopards of Matobo are not particularly fussy eaters.
🎨 Rock Paintings — Thirty Thousand Years of Human Stories on Stone
The Matobo Hills contain what is arguably the finest and most extensive collection of San Bushman rock art anywhere in the world. There are more than 3,500 documented rock art sites within the hills — some located deep inside massive, cavernous rock shelters large enough to house a considerable crowd, whilst most others are paintings and engravings on smaller overhangs and rock faces, tucked away in corners and crevices across the landscape. The sheer density of these sites is extraordinary and gives you a powerful sense of just how long this landscape has been home to human beings.
Ancient people — the San, or Bushmen, the original inhabitants of southern Africa who have lived on this continent for at least 100,000 years — probably began painting in the caves and on the rock faces of the Matobo Hills around 13,000 years ago, though some archaeological estimates push the initial human habitation of the area back even further. The particular paintings we can see and appreciate today, however, are considerably more recent — no more than two to three thousand years old at most, which means they were being painted at roughly the same time the Romans were busy building roads through Hertfordshire and Kent. It is a humbling thought.
The San were, and the small remaining communities still are, hunter-gatherers whose extraordinarily deep knowledge of their environment was encoded into their art. The paintings typically depict animals — particularly antelope, elephants, and giraffe — as well as human figures, hunting scenes, and, most intriguingly, what scholars believe are depictions of shamanic trance states and spirit journeys. The San spiritual tradition holds that the rock face itself is a veil between the physical world and the spirit world, and that the images the shamans painted were not merely decorative but were a form of communication with the forces beyond. Looking at them in situ, in the dim cool of a rock shelter with the African bush stretching away outside, it is not difficult to understand why the San felt that way about these places.
The cave Andy had selected for us was Nswatugi Cave, which is one of the most accessible and best-preserved painting sites in the entire Matobo Hills area. It is located just behind Maleme Dam — a pleasant reservoir that was constructed in the early days of the national park — and requires only a relatively short fifteen-minute walk from the car park, up a hill and across some rocks that presented no great difficulty, even at the end of a long day. The cave itself is not particularly large, but what it lacks in size it more than compensates for in the quality and preservation of its paintings. One wall in particular is simply dominated by a stunning frieze of animal and human scenes rendered in deep reds, ochres, and oranges — pigments made from iron-rich minerals mixed with animal fat or plant sap that have survived thousands of years of African weather with remarkable fidelity. Several antelope can be seen mid-leap across the rock face, their forms captured with an elegance and sense of movement that any modern artist would be proud of, and there is a particularly delicate zebra near the cave entrance that is quite exquisitely drawn.
The cave has been excavated on two separate occasions by archaeologists. The oldest deposits recovered from the cave floor date back approximately 8,000 years, confirming continuous human use of the shelter over an extraordinarily long period. One of the more unexpected discoveries during excavation was the skeleton of a young woman, her bones carefully arranged, suggesting that the cave held significance not just as a shelter and a canvas but also as a place of burial and ritual. Because we had arrived towards the end of the day, we found ourselves completely alone in the cave — no other visitors, no noise from outside except the occasional bird call. It was genuinely moving. The light was fading by the time we had finished looking, and we had to move fairly smartly back down the hill to the car before we lost the daylight entirely — not really the moment to be scrambling over rocks in the Matobo Hills after dark.
About Matobo National Park
Matobo National Park lies in south-western Zimbabwe, covering an area of approximately 424 square kilometres. It takes its name from the remarkable Matobo Hills that dominate its landscape — a range of balancing rock formations and rounded granite domes created by the erosion of the ancient granite plateau over two billion years. The park extends along the valleys of the Thuli, Mtshelele, Maleme and Mpopoma rivers and is one of three intensive rhino protection zones within the Zimbabwe Parks Estate.
The park supports an impressive botanical diversity, with over 200 species of tree recorded, including mountain acacia, wild pear and the distinctive paperbark acacia, as well as many aloe species, wild herbs and over 100 grass species. The fauna is equally varied: white and black rhino, sable antelope, impala, leopard, hyena, hippopotamus, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and ostrich have all been recorded. The park is particularly renowned for its leopard population and for hosting the world’s highest concentration of black eagles (Verreaux’s eagles) and their breeding pairs.
The grave of Cecil Rhodes is carved into the summit of Malindidzimu Hill, also known as World’s View, where he is buried alongside Sir Charles Coghlan, the first Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, and Sir Leander Starr Jameson. The Shangani Patrol memorial on the same summit honours the 34 British South Africa Company soldiers killed during the First Matabele War in 1893.
Planning your visit to Matobo National Park
📍 Location | Matobo Hills, Matobo District, Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe — approximately 35 km south of Bulawayo
| 🕖 Opening Times | Daily, 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM | 🌐 Website | zimparks.org.zw |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📞 Phone | +263 9 281 1016 | info@zimparks.org.zw |
| 🚗 By Road | Take the Kezi Road south from Bulawayo; the main park entrance at Maleme Dam is well signposted. Self-drive is the most common option; 4WD recommended for interior tracks |
|---|---|
| 🚌 By Bus | Local commuter omnibuses run from Bulawayo’s Renkini Bus Terminal towards Kezi — alight at the Matobo turnoff and arrange onward transport |
| 🚐 Tours | Numerous Bulawayo-based operators offer day trips and multi-day guided tours including game drives and cultural visits |
| ℹ️ Notes | Entry fees payable in USD cash. Park gates close at 6:00 PM — all visitors must be out or lodge-resident by then. No walking unescorted in Big Five zones; guided walks must be booked in advance. |
🎟️ Entry Fees
| Foreign Nationals | SADC Nationals | Children (under 12) | Vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15 USD/day | $5 USD/day | Free | $5 USD |
Best time to visit Bulawayo
❄️ Cool and Dry Season (May to August)
This is winter in Zimbabwe and the most popular time to visit. Days are sunny, crisp and largely free of rain, with daytime temperatures sitting comfortably between 20°C and 25°C. Mornings and evenings, however, can be bitterly cold, occasionally dropping close to freezing, particularly in higher areas such as Harare and the Eastern Highlands. Because vegetation thins out and water sources become scarce, animals gather predictably around rivers and waterholes, making this the prime season for safaris in Hwange, Mana Pools and Matusadona. It’s also peak tourist season, so expect higher prices and busier lodges.
What to pack: Warm layers for chilly mornings and game drives, including a fleece or jumper, a scarf, gloves and a woolly hat, alongside lighter clothing for the warmer afternoons, comfortable closed shoes, and a good pair of sunglasses.
☀️ Hot and Dry Season (September to October)
As winter fades, temperatures climb quickly and dramatically. By October, the heat can be intense, often exceeding 35°C in lower-lying regions such as Mana Pools and the Zambezi Valley, with little to no rainfall to offer relief. The dry conditions push wildlife even closer to dwindling water sources, so game viewing remains outstanding, arguably at its best, even though the heat itself can be gruelling for visitors. The landscape turns dusty and brown, but golden light and dramatic skies make for excellent photography.
What to pack: Lightweight, breathable, light-coloured clothing, a wide-brimmed hat, high-factor sunscreen, sunglasses, and a refillable water bottle to stay hydrated throughout the day.
🌧️ Wet and Green Season (November to March)
This is Zimbabwe’s summer and its rainy season, characterised by intense but typically short-lived afternoon thunderstorms following warm, often sunny mornings. The bush transforms into a lush, vivid green, newborn animals appear, and birdlife flourishes, making it a wonderful period for birdwatchers and keen photographers. Victoria Falls is at its most thunderous and spectacular during these months, fed by the peak of the rains. Game viewing becomes trickier, as animals disperse into thicker vegetation and no longer need to cluster around limited water sources, but visitor numbers and prices both drop considerably.
What to pack: A reliable rain jacket, quick-drying clothing, waterproof or quick-drying footwear, insect repellent, and a dry bag or waterproof cover to protect cameras and electronics.
🍂 Transitional Period (April)
April sits neatly between the wet and dry seasons and is often overlooked, yet it’s a genuinely lovely time to travel. The rains are tapering off, temperatures are mild and pleasant, typically between 15°C and 25°C, and the countryside is still lush and green from the preceding months. Wildlife viewing is improving as the bush begins to thin, while crowds and prices remain lower than in the high season that follows.
What to pack: Layered clothing to handle variable temperatures, a light rain jacket just in case of a lingering shower, and comfortable, sturdy walking shoes.
Overall Best Time to Visit
Taking everything together, the cool, dry months from May to October stand out as the best overall window to visit Zimbabwe, with August and September often singled out as the sweet spot. Rainfall is minimal, skies are clear, and wildlife is concentrated around reliable water sources, making game viewing exceptional, particularly in Hwange and Mana Pools National Parks. Within that window, late winter (September and October) offers the very best safari conditions, albeit with significant heat, while May to August is gentler on visitors though colder at night. That said, travellers chasing Victoria Falls in full, roaring flood, lush green scenery, or quieter, lower-cost travel may well prefer the wet season instead. There is genuinely no wrong time to visit Zimbabwe; it simply depends on whether your priority is wildlife, weather comfort, photography, or budget.
Where to stay
Farmhouse Lodge, Matopos
We stopped for 2-nights at the Farmhouse Lodge, which was about a 10 minute drive from the park entrance.The lodge managers were lovely and very helpful.
In 1996 the original farm homestead was converted into a restaurant, bar and lodge reception. Now known as the Farmhouse, it is located 48 Kms from Bulawayo on the Matopos road, in the heart of the Matopos World Heritage site. The restaurant veranda overlooks the indigenous garden and rock swimming pool, where guests can relax by the poolside or spend the evening around the open campfire in the enclosed traditional boma. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served in the restaurant, where our chefs specialize in healthy, home-cooked meals which can be catered to personal dietary requirements. Some days we offer a braai dinner where food cooked on an open fire whilst sitting outdoors on a warm evening under the stars can be enjoyed. Guests are accommodated in 12 thatched Cape Dutch style cottages, which are built on the fringe of a majestic granite outcrop. Each individual cottage has a twin bedded, bedroom, en-suite shower, toilet and wash-hand basin, open plan lounge with tea/coffee facilities and fridge
Luxury Amalinda Lodge
Set amidst the granite domes and kopjes of the Matobo Hills, Amalinda Lodge is a characterful safari lodge housed within an ancient bushman’s shelter.
The thatched dining and lounge areas are spread across different levels of rock and offer a laid-back, rustic African atmosphere, with stripped down tree branches acting as pillars, wooden furniture and colourful sofas set within quiet alcoves in the rock, and a cosy library offering a good selection of African classics.
There’s also an infinity pool with a bar area where guests can relax on warm days, while in the evening everyone gathers around the campfire to share sundowners and stories.
Mid-Range - Big Cave Camp
Situated on a private estate in the extraordinary Matobo Hills, Big Cave Camp is a unique lodge built onto the granite hillside. It has eight simple A-frame thatch chalets, each with its own en suite bathroom and private balcony with panoramic views of the surrounding hills and valleys. The central living areas are designed around the natural position of some massive boulders. The Leopards Lair includes a teak bar, lounge and communal dining area. The adjacent library is a cosy retreat for those wishing to spend a quiet moment learning more about the history of the area.
The emphasis at Big Cave is on outdoor living with breakfast and lunch served outside. At night dinner is served around a traditional campfire with the magnificent backdrop of the Matobo Hills behind. Refuge can be taken during the midday heat in the nearby pool boma area where ice cold drinks are served.
More to Explore
