Big Cave Camp stands on a granite whaleback in Zimbabwe’s Matobo Hills, where the boulders of the kopje form the walls of the lounge and library. Ten thatched chalets are spread across the rock, each with a deck facing the hills, and from them the ground falls away into a wooded valley where rock hyraxes sun themselves on the stone and Verreaux’s eagles work the cliffs.
Rhino are tracked on foot, at walking pace, with armed guides.
Mornings are given to the Whovi Game Park, the closely monitored sanctuary inside Matobo National Park that holds both black and white rhino. Rhino are tracked on foot, at walking pace, with armed guides. Afternoons turn to the estate’s own San rock art, galleries on private ground rather than inside the park, and night drives run on the family’s land, since the park does not permit them after dark.
Cyril Waddy bought the estate in 1947, and Big Cave Camp has stayed with his family ever since. His grandson Dave Waddy, son of Mike, runs it today. When he is in camp he guides the rhino tracking himself, and takes guests out on the mountain bike routes across the granite. Three generations on, the camp has remained independent and family-run.
Living trees grow up through the thatch of the bar.
The chalets are high A-frame thatch over thick granite walls that hold the night’s cool through the summer heat. The rock has been built around rather than cleared away. Living trees grow up through the thatch of the bar, a natural pool sits in a hollow in the granite, and dinner is served at one shared table.
The Matobo Hills are a landscape of granite, whalebacks and balancing boulders piled across the country south of Bulawayo, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Big Cave Camp occupies a private estate bordering Matobo National Park, and the ground around it is worked by kudu, impala, wildebeest and zebra. Leopards hunt the granite ridges here after dark, which is why night drives run on the estate rather than inside the park, and why guests are walked back to their chalets once the light has gone.
Malindidzimu, the hill known as World’s View, lies inside the national park. Cecil John Rhodes is buried there in the bare rock, alongside Leander Starr Jameson and the memorial to the Shangani Patrol. The rock art is the older record. Nswatugi and Bambata caves are reached on a morning’s drive, and a full day’s walk to Inanke Cave covers roughly fourteen kilometres of granite for the reward of a single painted gallery. The estate’s own San paintings need no drive at all, sitting a guided walk from camp.
Sundowners are taken on the bare rock, where baboons bark across the valley.
Breakfast and lunch are eaten outside, on the deck above the valley or in the shade of the pool boma. Sundowners are taken on the bare rock, where baboons bark across the valley. Then the light goes and dinner is served around the fire in a boma built into a recess in the rock, lit by paraffin lanterns, after which the teak bar off the lounge is where the day’s tracking gets retold. The food is generous rather than clever: pumpkin soup, local game, proper puddings.
Bulawayo lies roughly 46 kilometres north along the Kezi Road, about an hour’s drive, with Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport beyond it to the north, and the national park entrance is a short drive from the estate. Children are welcome, and the boulder-strewn ground around the chalets keeps them occupied for hours, though rhino tracking and the longer walks carry a minimum age set by guide discretion. Big Cave Camp suits guests who want landscape, history and rhino on foot, and who would rather have granite walls and a shared table than a designer suite.
accommodation
Ten thatched chalets, among them a family suite and honeymoon options, are spread across the kopje, each under a high A-frame roof, the granite walls cool in summer and warm in winter. Bathrooms are en-suite, and every chalet has a private deck facing the hills, with a king bed or twins.
activities
Rhino tracking on foot in the Whovi Game Park with armed guides, game drives in Matobo National Park and on the estate, night drives on private ground, guided walks over the granite dwalas, mountain biking on granite single-track, visits to rock art caves and World's View, and walks to a local Ndebele village. Swimming in the natural rock pool.
conservation
Support goes to the Matobo Rhino Trust, which funds anti-poaching patrols, monitoring and veterinary work for the black and white rhino of the Matobo Hills. Guests have backed the nearby Whitewaters secondary school for years, sponsoring pupils' education, and the staff are drawn from the surrounding Matobo community.
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You fly to Bulawayo, which is about sixty-five kilometres and roughly an hour by road from the camp in the Matobo Hills. Bulawayo takes flights from Harare and Johannesburg, and we arrange the road transfer with the booking.
Matobo pairs naturally with Hwange, and the drive between them is a reasonable half day, so many trips run the two together rather than flying back through Harare.
Treat it as low risk rather than malaria-free. The hills stand at around 1,400 metres, above the 1,200 metre line below which TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates Zimbabwe's risk as high from November to June, and the same service rates nearby Bulawayo very low risk all year. The CDC takes the more cautious view and recommends tablets for anywhere in Zimbabwe.
That is precisely the sort of difference a travel clinic or your doctor should settle for you, especially if the rest of the trip drops into the Zambezi valley where the risk is real in every season.
Yes, all ages are taken and there is a family suite among the chalets. It is a family business three generations in, which shows in how children are looked after.
The camp is built onto a granite whaleback, so there are rocky paths, drops and no fences, and a good deal of the activity here involves proper walking. Younger children manage the game drives and the rock art easily enough; the longer hikes and the rhino tracking suit older ones.
Milder than the low country because of the altitude. Summers from November to March are warm with afternoon storms, and winter from May to August brings bright days and genuinely cold nights up on the granite.
Bring proper walking shoes with grip, because the rock is the whole point of this place and it can be slick after rain. Add warm layers for winter evenings, neutral colours for tracking on foot, a hat and strong sun protection.
The dry months from May to October are the easiest, with clear skies, comfortable walking and rhino tracking at its most reliable as the animals hold near water. The winter nights are cold, which the granite chalets handle well.
The green season from November to March turns the hills a startling colour and fills the seasonal pools, and the rock art sits in better light for photography. Storms are usually short. It is also the quietest and least expensive time to come.
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