The Road to Diana's Vow: Remote rock paintings in eastern Zimbabwe

The Story
The pot-holed road becomes more holes than road about 10km out of Rusape. Charlie puts his low slung car into first and we slowly inch our way from one bit of tar to the next. Often it is easier to drive on the grass verge, but then the car is threatened by huge tufts of spiky grass, and patches of 'devil thorn' bushes. Still another 20km of this to go and we wonder, "Is this worth it? Why are we so determined to get to Diana's Vow".

We are reassured by the clear blue March sky, and serene beauty of the countryside, with msasa trees, seas of pink and white cosmos stretching to the low hills on the horizon, and (happily - because of the farm occupation problems) some thriving tobacco plant fields. African grass-thatched, dirt huts cluster below a kopje (a huge pile of naturally-stacked grey rocks formed during geological creation of the land). Two African women in a wooden cart drawn by a black cow obligingly draw off onto the grass, and another woman pushes a wheelbarrow fulled with ripe tomatoes.

When the kopjes (pronounced 'copies') start getting bigger and closer together, we turn off the 'road' onto a track, two sandy strips for the wheels with three-foot high grass between them. We stop in a minuscule clearing and follow a rusted sign through some trees to a cluster of small kopjes.

The nearest has a huge base rock with a wide overhang. We walk forward slowly, and there it is - the whole face of the overhang is covered with this famous, probably 2,000-years-old, Bushman painting. The only disappointment is that the parts exposed to the elements are being weathered away. The rest is magnificent - the kind of awe-inspiring sight that actually does take your breath away and defies real description. The grace and animation in the painting show that it is the product of superb craftsmen indeed, and we wonder about these people and their lives.

After we arrive the guard appears and tries to explain the painting to us. It seems to depict a sable dance, which causes trance and invokes potency.The focus is a huge reclining male figure, probably in a trance, a smaller female figure below, both with sable antelope headdresses. Lower are at least 17 dancing male figures, also wearing sable costumes. The whole scene seems to take place in a camp, as there are gourds, baskets, dogs, and children just above them.

After savoring the complex colored painting we climb to the scant remains of the 300-years old fort above, built for tribal warfare, with its grey circular stone walls. There's a spectacular view out over farms with fruit trees and vines, trees and balancing rock formations as backdrop. We have our picnic there, perched on the rocks, totally content.