The Wankie Game Park

The Wankie Game Park is high on the list of travellers to Rhodesia. It is 75 miles from the Victoria Falls and is easily accessible by road, rail and air. The Game Reserve is 5000 sq miles and provides one of the attractions which people from all over the world are coming to appreciate more and more, nature unspoiled and teeming with wild animals in their natural habitat. Wankie is well known for its abundance of wild game. There are an estimated 2,000 elephant, great herds of buffalo, wildebeest, zebra and antelopes of many kinds, rhino, lion, tsessebe, warthog, ostrich, giraffe, cheetah, hyena, crocodile, jackal and many others. Vantage points have been constructed where people may watch for game coming to the waterholes.

Tsessebe - fastest antelope on the plains!

Moonlight watching parties are sometimes organised from the main camp to listen to the sounds of the wilds at night is also a thrilling experience! One can also risk being held up on the roadways through the park by hundreds of elephants, some 250 strong and herds of up to 400 buffalo and if one cannot reverse and remove oneself, then there is only one thing to do, hope and pay that the elephants will not burn their sensitive trunks on the warm car radiator of ones car!

Lions in the Wankie Game Park

I was once in a car chased by an elephant and it is not the kind of experience one wants to repeat, at any price, I can assure you! If anything goes wrong with ones car whilst travelling through reserves, then one must stay put until search parties go out in the evening to look for and bring in missing cars and their occupants. One is always told to never leave the car and try to go for assistance. Upon entering a reserve one signs a guest book and signs out again once one leaves the reserve, so the Game Wardens can keep a check on whether there are any stranded cars in the reserve or not.

The Victoria Falls is considered one of the most magnificent falls in the world, so magnificent and awe inspiring that one is quite speechless with wonder and admiration, the first and every time one sees them.

They are said to be the greatest sight in Africa and also the 8th Wonder of the world. The Victoria Falls is about 1 1/2 miles wide and 355 feet high at the highest point approximately. The approximate usual flow of water over the precipice is something like 75 million gallons per minute! The great Zambesi River, at its highest recorded flood, poured over 3,000,000 gallons of water per second into the huge chasm below. Imagine this scene, as 1 1/2 miles of water plunges some 350 feet below, this enormous cascade of water, sends up a smoke like cloud of fine mist, which can be seen many miles away.

Niagara Falls is less than half the height and width of Victoria Falls. The roar of the falls can be heard as far as 10 miles away. The Africans called the mist that rises from the impact, 'Mosi oa Tunya' - 'the smoke that thunders'. There is a road / rail bridge that crosses over one of the gorges connecting Rhodesia with Zambia and this bridge is 310 feet above the water at high water level and often the train is dampened by the mist which drifts from 'the smoke that thunders'. The 1 1/2 mile crest of the falls is divided into 5 separate waterfalls - Devils Cataract, The Main Falls, The Horseshoe Falls, The Rainbow Falls and The Eastern Cataract.

Victoria Falls Bridge

Rhodesia has many other wonders which encourage visitors from the far corners of the world. There is also the Zimbabwe Ruins and these are generally included in a tour of Kariba Dam, Victoria Falls and the Game Parks. The ruins were discovered in 1868 and since that time have been a great source of discussion and have variously been described as the great mystery or age old riddle. Zimbabwe consists of a 350 foot wide walled enclosure called the Temple and a granite hill supporting extensive buildings called The Acropolis and lying between a range of less spectacular ruins in what is called the Valley of Ruins. Zimbabwe's walls are made from hand trimmed granite blocks in parts they stand 32 feet high and are 16 feet wide. There is no trace of cement or mortar of any description between them.

Zimbabwe - Valley of Ruins

Some say they were built by the Phoenicians but modern scientific opinion based on the research of three archaeologists maintain that the buildings are the work not of a foreign civilization, but indigenous peoples whose development flowered with their ability to build on the grand scale of Zimbabwe. The power of these people was broken by the invasion of warlike tribes from the South. Parts of Zimbabwe date back to 300 years after Christ, whilst 1833-1900 saw the last period, the sacking of Zimbabwe by Nguni invaders and its eventual abandonment by the remnants of Rozwi tribes.

As you know, gold, coal and other minerals, emeralds and semi-precious stones, very similar to those found in Western Australia are found in Rhodesia. A new one called Mtorolite (green chalcedony) has recently been discovered.

Rhodesia has many beautiful wild-flowers, but they cannot in any way compare in colour and variety with what we have here in the South West. There are great varieties of orchids, red hot pokers, gladioli, buttercups, lilies, daisies, cornflowers, proteas, statices, and of course the famous Gloriosa Supurba, commonly known as The Flame Lily and which has been adopted as the National Flower of Rhodesia.

The Flame Lily

One of Rhodesia's greatest assets is its climate. There can be few countries in the world with a finer climate. This especially applies to the highveldt plateau where temperatures are moderate throughout the year. Around 65% of Rhodesia lies 3,000 feet above sea level, and has an average temperature between 66°F and 71°C, though it can be much colder and much hotter in freak seasons. Sometimes in winter, as here, frosts occur and ice is seen occasionally. Whilst Albany has a long wet winter, Rhodesia has a long dry one! Well, not so long, really,as the coldest months are usually June, July and August. There are two seasons, the wet and the dry - the wet season starts in November and ends about April/May and from then on it is dry, sometimes too dry for everyone's comfort! The hottest period precedes the rain, usually in October, called by many 'the suicide month' as it gets so unbearably hot at times. Fortunately, many people have their own swimming pools, and all the main cities have one or more large municipal swimming pools where the population can cool down. It is a 2 days and 3 nights car journey to South Africa and its glorious beaches for holidays. apart from mining and industry, farming is also a very important part of life in Rhodesia. Maize, cattle, tobacco, cotton, citrus fruit, pigs, tea and sugar are the main aspects of farming in which many Africans are employed or rather, were employed, as many of them have been severely hit by the sanctions imposed by England for their good, as for instance the sale of tobacco is restricted by sanctions, wholesale retrenchment has been necessary as farmers cut down on costs, tobacco acreage and labour and convert to other crops.

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