An early visit was to the Markwe caves with the Ferrars - he was was the school's bursar. The caves were high on one of the distinctive granite outcrops, called
kopjes, near Marandellas, which featured....
....a mass of beautiful drawings dating back to the age of the Bushman, before they were displaced by the coming of the Bantu.
We made several visits to my cousin Charlotte and her husband Keith and their three children at Donnington Farm, near Norton. Keith ran a terrific operation there, specialising in....
.... maize and beef cattle - Aberdeen Angus crossed with local Afrikanders. He was the third generation to farm Donnington Farm, which Keith 'shared' with game animals such as kudu. Picture shows me with my cousin Charlotte.
Charlotte's mother Christian, my mother's older sister, who, after the death of her first husband had run a small bookshop, had remarried and lived on a large ranch near Bulawayo. Her husband, Basil Frost, had made his money from running small shops in the African 'reserves'. They were very good to us on our one visit but they strongly disapproved of our educating 'the blacks'.
In late 1969 my mother and father arrived out from England to visit us. They sailed from Southampton on Union Castle's
Vaal, arriving in Cape Town and then travelling up by train to Bulawayo and on to Salisbury. They spent Christmas with us, after which we....
....went to the Victoria Falls, flying from Salisbury airport on a day trip. The falls themselves were in full spate and we were suitably soaked.
Having inspected the falls we took a river boat upstream, stopping at an island where my mother managed to disappear: we feared she had met a hippo but I think she went for a wander and didn't notice the time. The flight back was unpleasant as we passed through a series of intense thunderstorms.
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