Where
does the name
MAVURADONHA
come
from?
While Annette was touring
Africa she visited a wilderness area called Mavuradonha. She was so struck by
the place we decided to name our stud after it.
Steve Murray was born in Rhodesia
and gives this description:
"It is the name of a small, lone mountain
range in the isolated, north-east Rhodesia. While flying helicopters in the
Rhodesian Bush War I often flew over it. I have an abiding interest in eagles, and a pair of Black Eagles lived on the mountain. It was unusual
because their normal home was in the west of Rhodesia in the Motopos Mountains
with an abundance of Rock Hyraxes (their natural diet). The Black Eagle is
also known as Varreaux's Eagle or Lammervanger (Lamb Catcher) in South Africa,
where they unjustly shoot them. It is a cousin of the Golden Eagle and our
Wedge Tailed eagle. I remember one sortie; we actually landed on the mountain,
during a lull in the war. My gunner and I made a brew of tea, listened
to the Saturday morning 'Hit Parade' and while he cleaned the guns I lay
on a peak and watched the pair of the eagles soaring above in search of
another 'dassie' as its prey is affectionately called. They look like a small
brown wombat but is related to the elephant. It was safe from terrorists
because we were so high up.
"Mavura" means water
in Shona, and "dohna" means 'down'. Therefore, literally translated means
"falling water". It is on the Zambezi escarpment and a very dry
area, but any rain that does fall, will fall on the lone mountain because
of the orographic uplift. I once wanted to own a ocean keel yacht and
call it Mavuradohna for obvious reasons, and remind me of my eagles."
Steve Murray is the author of Hunty
the Jet Fighter & is now an Australian citizen, living in Melbourne ( by
choice !!!?).
