Africa 2001

Domboshava

On Friday, we were at liberty in Harare. In the morning, Lucy and Stephen took a taxi out for a ride into the countryside. We had asked the taxi driver to take us to the Epworth balancing rocks which feature on all Zimbabwean bank notes.

However, a misunderstanding led to him taking us to the Domboshava rocks. Fortunately it wasn't too far away!

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Our guide led us up over this very strange hill

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The main hill is just solid rock, covered with yellow, green and red lichens.

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Over the other side we were still expecting to find the balancing rocks, but instead reached what we later discovered are famous Domboshava rock paintings.

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Each animal is drawn with its own blood.

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It wasn't that these paintings weren't impressive - they are - but it wasn't what we had been expecting to find after our climb up in the baking heat.

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Lucy surveying the summit of the hill, with its strange gullies.

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We did find one impressive balancing rock

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At one time, this whole area was much higher, but was gradually eroded. Huge boulders that resisted erosion sunk as the soil level decreased. As boulder came to rest on boulder, massive arrangements called kopjes were formed, such as at Epworth. Here, a boulder has come to rest on the large extrusion that eventually formed this hill as the softer rock all around was eroded away.

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Lucy inspects the strange formations on the ground. Acidic rainwater collects in these, gradually dissolving the rock, making the hollows deeper until they merge with each other. On the summit these have resulted in gullies a metre deep.

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A strange mixture of different coloured rocks.

 

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Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright (c) Stephen and Lucy Dawson