It was never appropriate to conjure up images of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) as ‘darkest Africa’ in the way one might to many Equatorial regions, because, although within the topics, most of it was high altitude enough to offer an extraordinarily comfortable climate. And this suited the colonists. But that is not to say in a country larger than Germany (just smaller than California) with an estimated total population of only 3 million in 1950, that remote undocumented areas did not abound. The lowveld such as Save areas and the Zambezi valley were extremely hot and ridden with malaria bilharzia and tsetse and these places resisted development in the western sense. Most roads were not surfaced – turning to sand in the dry seasons and barely passable in the rains. Adventure and room for the intrepid to feel they were treading where none of their peers had ever done was certainly on offer in those days. Here are photos – the most recent color images from the late 50s and monochrome from 1947 on.