Great Zimbabwe & Matobo: Culture, Rock Art & Rhino

This morning you travel south to Masvingo and the awe-inspiring ruins of Great Zimbabwe, either by scenic road transfer through the rural heart of the country or by a short flight and drive. Along the way you glimpse everyday Zimbabwean life, villages, farms and rolling bush. Arriving near Great Zimbabwe, you settle into your lodge, often set on a beautiful lake or amid the hills, and after lunch you begin to explore this extraordinary place. Your expert guide introduces the history and mystery of the site, the largest ancient stone structure in sub-Saharan Africa, built by the ancestors of the Shona people. As the afternoon light softens, you take in your first views of the monumental granite walls rising from the bush. This evening, over dinner, reflect on the great African civilisation whose story you are about to uncover. Rest well near the ancient city.

Today you devote a full day to Great Zimbabwe, exploring the monumental stone city in depth with your expert guide. You walk through the famous Great Enclosure, marvelling at its massive curving walls, some ten metres high and built without mortar from millions of precisely fitted granite blocks, and at the mysterious conical tower within. You climb to the Hill Complex, the royal and spiritual heart of the city, perched dramatically among giant balancing boulders, with sweeping views over the valley below. Your guide brings the site to life, its rise between the 11th and 15th centuries, its wealth built on cattle, gold and ivory traded as far as China and Arabia, the mystery of its decline, and the racist colonial attempts to deny its African origins. You visit the site museum, home to the famous carved soapstone Zimbabwe Birds, the national emblem. Rest well, humbled by a great civilisation.

This morning you travel west towards Bulawayo and the mystical Matobo Hills, one of Africa's most extraordinary landscapes, by road or a combination of flight and drive. Arriving in the Matobo, a vast, ancient jumble of smooth granite whalebacks and impossibly balanced boulders, you settle into your lodge amid the hills. In the afternoon you begin to explore this UNESCO World Heritage landscape, drinking in its powerful, mystical atmosphere and its sweeping views. You might visit World's View, the high, wind-swept kopje where the colonial figure Cecil Rhodes chose to be buried, his grave set into the living rock amid a natural amphitheatre of boulders, with views that stretch to the horizon, and your guide explains the complex, contested history of this place. As the granite glows gold and orange at sunset, absorb the beauty. This evening, enjoy dinner at your lodge. Rest well in the sacred hills.

Today you experience the two great treasures of the Matobo: its ancient rock art and its rhino. In the cool of the morning you set out on foot with an expert guide and armed scout to track endangered rhino, learning to read tracks and signs and following them quietly through the boulder-strewn bush until you come upon these magnificent, ancient-looking creatures, approaching at a respectful distance to watch them in near silence, hearts pounding. Your guide explains the fight against poaching and the conservation your visit supports. Later you visit some of Africa's finest San rock art, in caves such as Nswatugi or Bambata, gazing at delicate ochre paintings of animals and figures thousands of years old while your guide interprets their meaning. Between these, you drink in the beauty of the hills and their abundant wildlife and birds. Rest well after a profound day in the Matobo.

This morning you bid farewell to the mystical Matobo Hills and travel to Bulawayo for a flight north to Victoria Falls, swapping the ancient granite for the thunder of one of the natural wonders of the world. Arriving in the relaxed falls town on the Zimbabwe side, you transfer to your hotel and settle in. In the afternoon, the highlight is a sunset cruise on the broad upper Zambezi, gliding past hippos surfacing and yawning, crocodiles basking on sandbars, and elephants coming down to drink, as the sky blazes orange and crimson and the river turns to molten gold, drink in hand. It is a magical, quintessentially African evening and a wonderful transition from culture to natural wonder. This evening, enjoy the lively atmosphere of the falls town and its restaurants. Rest well beside the Smoke that Thunders, ready to stand before the falls tomorrow.

This morning you visit Victoria Falls itself, walking the rainforest rim on the Zimbabwe side, the bank that offers the most expansive, front-on views of the cataract. With your guide you move from viewpoint to viewpoint, gazing across the chasm at vast curtains of water thundering more than a hundred metres into the gorge, feeling the ground tremble and, in high water, being drenched by drifting spray as rainbows arc through the mist. Your guide brings the geology, history and ecology of this extraordinary place vividly to life, and there is time to linger, photograph and absorb the scale of the largest sheet of falling water on earth. The afternoon is free to browse the craft markets for stone carvings and baskets, take an optional adventure, or relax. As the sun sets, gather for a farewell dinner, perhaps a traditional boma feast with drumming and dancing. Rest well beside a world wonder.

After a final breakfast, and perhaps a last look at the falls or some souvenir shopping in the craft markets, you are transferred to Victoria Falls Airport for your onward international departure. You leave having discovered the deeper soul of Zimbabwe: the awe-inspiring medieval stone city of Great Zimbabwe, testament to a great African civilisation; the mystical, boulder-strewn Matobo Hills with their ancient San rock art, sacred atmosphere and the thrill of tracking rhino on foot; and the natural wonder of Victoria Falls, with its expansive views and golden Zambezi sunsets. The images stay vivid long after you land, the towering granite walls rising from the bush, the balancing boulders glowing at dusk, the delicate rock paintings, the rhino among the granite, and the thundering curtains of the falls. Zimbabwe offers history, culture, beauty and wonder in rare abundance, and you depart already dreaming of a return.