This series is taken driving between Lusulu and Binga.
Rivers have cut through the plateau, creating these escarpments.
I took the above pic leaning over the escarpment…eeuuw – and it was slippery from the rain!
We managed to dodge the rain most of the time, but the light was special. Strong African light, filtered by rain clouds!
All taken in the pass climbing the escarpment to Lusulu
Is in Matabeleland, about 40km from the Gwanda Rd. Its been on my to do list for sometime and was well worth the visit. We had a survey a short distance from here,a nd couldn’t resist a short detour.
Its low now, the water level marked on the rocks is down about two metre.
The dam was built in 1994 and is meant to supplement the Bulawayo water supply. The views around there are dramatic, the Matopos domes towering.
The road in is a little rough! But one part of it winds along the edge of the spillway gorge and looks almost as if it has been planted, with aloes and tiny flowering succulents.
Geologically, there are lots of things going on in this pic…I took it fairly close to where the road crosses the Ume River, after the turn off to the Bumi Hills. It fascinates me that one layer of sediment is cut off and then another layer is added at a different angle. The pic below is a close up of this rock:
Shortly after, I saw this rock…the layers very clear:
A closeup…
I also have a writing blog. Please take a look here: https://frankiekay.wordpress.com/my-books/
I have been asked on numerous occasions to photograph Inthabazinduna which is just outside Bulawayo on the Harare road. It’s a fairly obvious landmark, a long, flat topped hill that sticks out above the surrounding, flat flat plateau…But actually, its not that easy to photograph – it just comes out as a long flat hill in an otherwise boring plateau!
So I decided I should maybe get up close, and perhaps it would come out better.
Very near Inthabazinduna is a little round hill, the same height, known as Maxim Hill. This one was easy to photograph…
I’m told its called Maxim Hill (or sometimes Maxim Kopie) because it was the last place the Maxim Gun was used against the Ndebele during the war in 1898.
This is the view of Maxim Hill taken coming down Inthabazinduna with the stunning skies behind. Rain here in dry Matabeleland is always welcomed with intense relief, jubilation and much running about in it! This rain storm soon moved over and belted down in buckets! Below is a pic of the same hill, this time shrouded in much needed rain…
I am afraid the rain foiled my efforts at photographing Inthabazinduna! It came down in sheets and I couldn’t even see the road! But I did open the window and take this one…:
As you can see, it is a boring flat topped hill with a history!
This is what is on top of Inthabazinduna though! A view of Bulawayo and the cement factory (wow…!) and an idea of the vastness of the African plateau – one of the oldest pieces of Gondwanaland remaining. This flat topped hill, and Maxim Hill nearby are all that remains of an even more ancient plateau…
The rocks, Inthabazinduna is made of. (Above.)
The view over Bulawayo and the vast plateau…
And within minutes, the rain came down, the lightening struck and I was in four wheel drive – the mud in that area is legendary!
Matopos has some very odd shaped rocks. Sometimes I can see a person’s face, other times an animal…
Have a look at these!
Looks a little like Stonehenge doesn’t it?
OK no suggestions on THIS one, (above) maybe a troll???
Amazing how they wear into strange shapes.
Don’t tell me you can’t see a grumpy old man…
Although, other people have seen an elephant, and a horse!
I love the tree holding up this rock!
Look at that pothole, in the middle of the rock. Can you imagine how many years it must have taken to develop? There are a fair number of them here at Diana’s Pools, some of them deep.
I find little bits of nature that I want to take home, add to my garden…of course I can’t, so I take photos instead. These were little ‘gardens’ underwater, growing in amongst the rocks and the crashing waves.
I couldn’t have arranged it better if I tried..
Those little thingies at the water level are hell on your feet walking on the rocks!
My Christian friend was delighted when I noticed these two rocks…the squiggly line leading to the cross, hidden under the rock.
It isn’t painted on…its a light colour in the rocks!
Tucked away on a rock very close to the crashing waves at Still Bay in the Western Cape.
I took these photographs of the Waterberg, on our way through Limpopo Province…
Usually we drive on a road on the other side of this range of hills and have always wondered about a place called Vaalwater. There are so many signs heading there…we wanted to know what Vaalwater looked like!!! So now we know.
I love the colour of the grass and the mountains repeating themselves into the distance. I took these two pics at about lunch time, the light pretty strong.
We asked for a camp site at Chilojo Cliffs – and this is what we got:
These photos are all taken from our campsite! 
We arrived in the late afternoon – the sun shining on the cliffs.
There is water; river water, and far far away across the sand. I wrote about digging for it on my writing blog here:
Word of advice – keep your emails arranging your booking at GRZ on your phone – when we got there they had no record of us!!