TINY THINGS

Our recent trip through the Hwange National Park with very special family members was enchanting, indeed quite a soul soother.

The grass is literally as high as an elephants eye and the elephant were about the only animals one could see. There is an abundance of water in the park and the corn coloured grass waves gently in the breeze,

But nature provided us with our own gallery of wildlife, except that we had to virtually run over it in order to see it....

We came in from the Falls at Sinamatella Camp, a little jaded were the chalets but still as clean and shining as always, but the lack of water at Sinamatella has been a bug bear for many years now.

Our first piece of "Wild life" was a tortoise meandering slowly along the side of the dirt road. We had seen a lot of big game at the Pilanesburg earlier in the week so we were quite happy to investigate this small feisty little fellow for ten minutes or so, identify him from the several species in the mammal book, and then send him on his happy way.

Our next sighting we a chameleon !! How charming, one does not see chameleon all that often these days. He was vivid lime green and changed to a pearly pink on HeeHoo's hand when he picked him up. His 360 degree eyes watched us all as we ogled him in awe, some of us were less enthusiastic than others to have him crawl on us !!

We put him gently on a bush and his colours changed instantly to blend in with his new jade gene surroundings and he clambered off on his merry way.

Next stop was to allow a four foot long black mamba cross the road !! He was in no hurry and we gingerly closed the windows in case he decided to look at us as closely as we were looking at him !! He reared up once and provided a lot of excitement especially as we had watched a baby spitting cobra in full dance the previous week. !!

As the miombo thickets eased out into grassy plains around Kennedy and Ngweshla Pans, we were able to see a lot more of the big Hwange inhabitants, there were literally hundreds of giraffe, a lot darker in colour than their friends south of the border. There were many many elephant too, some lone bulls, some in small herds, with quite a few young too, to make the the mommy elephants a tad cantankerous ....

Zebra were there in vast numbers and of course there is always a herd of impala to entertain when all else fails. We had seen a magnificent male lion at the Pilanesburg and so were not expecting any more of this rare treat but as we came round the corner between Nyamandhlovu Pan and the gate of Main Camp, there stood a beautiful golden coloured male lion, his mane a lot lighter, but he was truly beautiful. He flattened himself n the grass as we passed but we had him in our sights and watched him peacefully and in great delight as he at last decided to humor us and walk across the road in front of us.

Sadly he had a radio collar on which spoilt his grandeur just a tad. He yawned, he snarled, he sauntered, he glared at us balefully, he posed, he preened he postured almost like a movie star !! What a treat for our visitors who will remember this treasure of the African bush always.

We spent a couple of nights in the tree houses at Miombo Lodge near Dete and were blessed with the company of Simon and Gladys the camp managers who were truly hospitable and gracious.

Our last evening at Nyamandhlovu Pan was tinged with sadness as we dragged ourselves away to leave the park at the allotted time, and we nearly ran over a lady lioness lazing right on the road outside the Hwange Safari Lodge !!

Buffalo were in short supply which is unusual in Hwange, but they arrived at breakfast the next day to drink at the pan below Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, and so we felt very special. As we had already seen rhino at Pilanesburg, our cup had runneth over with the exception of a cheetah and a leopard, but that undoubtedly will happen on our next annual visit to this magical part of the world.

I recently came across a fascinating book, a trade directory called 'The Rhodesian Manual' which dated from the early 1930's. It is full of advertising and technical data but it does give a very interesting snapshot of life in Bulawayo around the time leading up to it's 40th Birthday.

Bulawayo in the early 1930's was not yet a city, but it was the largest urban centre in the country. According to the 1931 census it had a total population of 28,947 persons. Harare at that stage only had a population of 25,594 persons. There was much in the way of culture available in the town. There were two theatres as well as another venue the market hall, the national museum, an extensive library and sporting facilities.

Bulawayo was the commercial centre of the country. It was the location of the stock exchange and the headquarters of the railways. There were also many local industries.

The town was in the centre of a gold mining industry where 25% of all the country's mines producing 23% of all the gold were located within 50 miles from the town. The value of the output of those mines at to-days gold price would be in the region of US$93,000,000. In turn a number of industries had grown up with the town in order to service these mines, such as Issels who occupied half of a town block in 11th avenue. As well as these there were a legion of suppliers of engineering equipment and apparatus, Tarrys, J Clack and Co. and Hubert Davies to mention just a few.

There was also the farming. Alongside the extensive commonage, 36 square miles, surrounding the town there was a large number of farms. In 1930 29,340 cattle were slaughtered in the abattoir, (more than one per member of the population!) In turn the farming industry was supported by a host of other industries and suppliers in the town.
The advertising section of the manual was full of familiar names of companies which had been household names over several generations, Haddon and Sly, Duly's, Palace Hotel and the Buluwayo Board of Executors.

The real eye opener in the book was travel. In a section called 'Table of distances', the book lists various significant points which would act as sign posts on various routes. Were one to be brave enough to ignore the train and try to travel between centres by motor car the problems were legion. For a start the roads in 1930 appear to have been mainly of the standard of farm dirt tracks. This was prior to the Government work program which created the 'Strips' of folk memory. The advice in the book for the motorist is almost amusing. One had to approach drifts (no bridges!) slowly and in low gear, and that one could not rely on there being water in the rivers all year around. There was also a warning to close gates, there are several gates mentioned on the routes listed between centres. It also lists hazards ranging between 'bad donga' and 'nasty donga'. For those unlucky enough to break down the fledgling Rhodesian Automobile Association had made an arrangement for telephones to be available at farms along the roads for unlucky motorists!

The other mildly surprising thing is that the routes appeared to have changed over the years. The road to Victoria Falls in 1930 took you by way of the current airport road and Turk mine!
You could of course take your car to your destination by train but if you were still determined to travel and decided to avoid the train and the motor you could always fly. There was a service offered by the Rhodesia Aviation Company which operated a number of Biplanes at Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. Then for the really wealthy there was a weekly service between London and Capetown calling at Bulawayo, a return flight to London would cost you a measly £240 (over US$30,000 in modern money!) Of course to embark on your flight you would not have gone to the location of the present airport or even Kumalo, but to the town's horse race course. Kumalo only opened in around 1932!