Overseas Walk: Wandering with rhinos in the Ma

in the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe

By Judith O’Leary

As part of a 30-day Overland trip in six countries in Southern Africa in 2017, our group had a day walking with rhino’s in the Matobo National Park located in the Matobo Hills.

Andy from Black Rhino Safaris collected us from our accommodation on the outskirts of Bulawayo in one very temperamental jeep. Andy was a big guy dressed in sandals, shorts, and green shirt, who called a spade a spade. We had been told to wear neutral colours, as we would be getting very close to the rhinos. We also had to turn off our GPS tracking on our mobiles.

We clambered into the jeep which had trouble starting and we were treated to some colourful vocabulary that could have come straight from my favourite old film, ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy.’ Not swearing but very colourful.

Within 35 minutes we entered the main gate of a National Park which did not have any fences. We parked on a small rise and were told about Zimbabwe having 96% unemployment and a bankrupt government. Andy didn’t agree with poaching but understood why it happens.

Left: View across the park.

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Walking with rhinos in the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe

Our park fees for the day were $15 each - only $5 went to the park. With poaching fees often being $20,000, it would take an awful lot of photographic safaris and more numbers than the rhinos could cope with wandering in their domain. If you had a starving family, your choices can be removed. His theory was professional hunting was the answer. A registered hunter could be granted an annual quota where only the old males that had finished breeding were targeted. Usually for a fee of $200,000.00. He said he had been involved in this in the past and if your customer shot a younger animal, then as the person in charge you lost your quota or could even face imprisonment. He also maintained that where professional hunting was used, the species usually flourished. We also listened to some horrific acts of poachers often leaving these animals to a painful death.

We were told the park guards were doing an awesome job and when the park system could pay

Above left, right and middle left: : A Close up view of rhinos. Below left: Andy preparing our lunch. Below right: Judith at Nswatugi Cave..

them, they received $200.00 per month. This included a ‘staying out in bush’ allowance. When we were there, they hadn’t been paid for three months. These rangers also had the company of Police who were paid by the Government, but Andy wasn’t sure if they were receiving their money either.

Lecture over, we were back in the jeep which Andy crashed started off the rise and we drove 30 minutes into the park. We pulled over on a dirt road, parked up and commenced walking. Andy now wore a pistol on his side. We walked in single file following in Andy’s footsteps through some very lush grass and over reasonably flat terrain. It was an area of granite kopjes, wooded valleys, and lush pasture. We stopped to admire a golden orb spider busy weaving its web, so large and beautiful!

After 45 minutes, we found a ranger and policeman who had spotted a group of five rhinos moving across the valley earlier. We took off in the direction indicated and came across a hill which most of us climbed to try and spot these rhino’s.

One of our group, Anna saw them and 10 minutes later, we were within five metres of these amazing creatures. Andy had us crouching by bushes taking photos. Although rhino’s have extremely poor eyesight, their hearing is very acute. Andy made a type of hissing sound to them which seemed to have a calming influence. I was amazed by just how big they were close-up. We were told earlier they are tranquilized from helicopters for ground people to dehorn them. This protection from poachers had about a 29% success rate, as even the stump was worth money!

While crouching as quietly as possible, the bull started coming towards us, seemingly out of curiosity. Andy threw a large stick at it, which made it turn away. We were told this large boy was 106. He was enormous!

We were joined by another group of people and as we had enjoyed several minutes with the rhino by ourselves, Andy said it was time to move on. There had been another party there earlier and he didn’t want the rhino’s to get agitated.

The rhino’s started moving away but one youngest one didn’t notice. He took off in a hurry once he realised, he was by himself, shaking the ground as he departed. We learnt he was about three years old and once his mother fell pregnant again, he would be cast out. This meant he would need to start his own crash.

Back at our jeep which started this time, we drove to a pretty spot by a lake for our provided picnic lunch. I spotted a beautiful African eagle in a tree.

We then drove closer into the hills for 30 minutes and stopped at a shop

Above left: An African fish eagle high up in a tree. Above right: A stall in the middle of nowhere. Below left: A rhino in the bushes. Below right: Cormorants drying their wings.

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rangitawa@xtra.co.nz, Kindle, Amazon books or order from any book store. in the middle of nowhere. It was well stocked and we all indulged, before heading off in the jeep again. The granite rock formations were impressive with a range of earthy colours and shapes.

We drove beside a pretty lake where cormorants were drying their wings on what appeared to be old pipes. We heard there were crocodiles in the water and saw a water monitor pop its head above the surface. We drove across a ford and

Walking with rhinos in the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe along a very rutted road for another 10 minutes before stopping. San Bushmen had lived in these hills around 2,000 years ago and had left a legacy of numerous rock drawings. We made the climb to one of their caves, called Nswatugi Cave, which took us around 30 minutes. It was a relatively steep climb over the granite rocks going up. We reached a huge rock which was like an enormous Moeraki Boulder. Our shoes seemed to almost stick to the rock, so moving across this open area was no problem. Across

Above: The Motobo Hills. the other side of this rock was a semi

Below: Rock drawings. cave. It had a roof but felt very open

and inside was the most amazing friezes of giraffes, kudu, and buffalo. So worth the climb to see.

Lastly, we drove down an unmaintained road looking for rangers. This road was shocking and we bounced all over the road (better than a fairground ride). We came across two rangers who were heading off to cook tea but they knew where some more rhino’s were including a baby. They happily got into the jeep with us after being told to take the magazines out of their guns before getting in.

If I had thought this road was terrible, it was nothing compared to the next. At one point we had to get out and walk. The sun had just set when the rangers brought us to the spot and there was a five-month-old baby rhino. We had to ensure that no flashes went off when taking photos, so as not to startle the rhinos. This baby was just so jolly cute. It kept trying to come over and check us out so we had to keep walking quietly around to keep the adults from getting agitated.

The perfect end to a fabulous day. Luckily the jeep and all the passengers made it back out safely. Above left: A golden orb spider. Above right: The granite rock we walked across to get to the cave. Below: Rock drawing featuring wild animals

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