Everyone was very eager to get going so we were loaded in the Landdrover and driving out of camp at 6am. We headed up river in the hopes of seeing wild dogs but the scientists tracking them said they were 2km into the bush.
The African Wild Dog tracking team
Reversing direction we headed back to the lion tracks we'd seen earlier. Alex found where they'd left the road but the tracks looked to be from last night.
White Fronted Bee-eater
On we went, to find the remarkable Boswell at Mucheni Camp. Boswell is a large bull elephant who is famous for being able to stand on his hind legs and reach branches that the other elephants can't. There are only a few elephants at Mana Pools who do this so it's another marvellous part of visiting this park.
Boswell was very obliging and stood on his hind legs not long after we'd got out of the Landy. What wasn't quite so obliging was the somewhat distracting surroundings of vehicles and tents. However, it was interesting to see how the little herd of elephants were just going about their business, regardless of where humans had chosen to put up tents.
Boswell looking for the next tree
Pulling down a big branch next to Mucheni camp
Kevin and Alex suggested we walk parallel to the elephants and see what happened. Again, it was so incredible to just spend time with these tremendous animals.
Alex and Kevin
Elephants in Mucheni
They came closer and closer as we waited under a tree. So close! Then Boswell had a nap - right in front of us. So all the others did too - they all follow Boswell's lead.
Slowly the elephants moved away from camp, giving us wonderful scenery full of elephants just being themselves.
"Can I join in?"
Another bull, Fred Astaire, did a lot of stretching, but didn't stand up on his hind legs. He's called Fred Astaire because he's very good at standing on his hind legs and can even move a little like that - just like he's dancing.
Fred Astaire doing some beautiful yoga poses
The incredible Boswell
Slowly they approached the river and spent some time on the bank before crossing the river to an island.
Down to the river for a drink
A brilliant morning, that wasn't quite finished. We had climbed back into the Landy and started rolling away, but stopped to look at an elephant and her calf, known as Floppy Ear. Alex and Frode got out and lay down right next the the vehicle to get some low angle shots. Suddenly the elephant saw them a got a fright. She backed off and seemed ok so they stayed there.
She changed her mind and rushed at them again, coming within 30cm of Alex with her foot. Alex threw his hat and he and Frode quickly got up and back in the vehicle. Both of them looked a little shocked. Kevin and Alex had both talked about being very safe and not going for crazy, dramatic shots but this just happened very fast. It was no different from other times that elephants approached us, but this elephant clearly wasn't happy. Fortunately nothing happened other than a slightly tense moment. Back to camp for some lunch.
Synchronised stripes
We had a special treat after lunch - Alex, Kevin, Ben and I went for a "swim" in the Zambezi river. The same river that's full of crocodiles and hippos. The swimming spot is a very shallow channel, maybe 50cm at the deepest. Therefore you can see any crocs coming towards you.
Thorough check of the swimming hole - no crocodiles found
It was blissful, wallowing in the fast flowing cool water. We watched the Bee-eaters on the bank and talked about Zimbabwe.
Carmine Bee-eaters
The afternoon drive wasn't especially fruitful. But the light through the forest at sunset was sublime.
The extraordinary Mana Pools
Driving back to camp we had a quick hyena sighting, followed by a small genet (too fast for a photo)
I had just got out of the shower back at camp when there was a bit of a ruckus - "lion!" I threw on my clothes, Ben grabbed his camera and torch and we ran to meet Alex.
The lions had walked right through the camp, just meters from our tent.
It was pitch dark of course, but we were able to see them with a powerful spotlight. The national park doesn't allow night drives or spotlighting - but they were in the camp. It was a group of four lionesses called The Spice Girls. They were clearly on a mission, heading parallel to the river. We watched them for a few minutes as they moved quickly on, completely disdainful of our presence. We were happy to head to dinner, very pleased to have seen our first lions.
The drive was fairly slow to start, a few eagles in distant treetops but not much else. A short walk was tried in the hopes of finding lion tracks but no bueno. We did see a giant eagle owl fly past extremely briefly. Of course even if there isn't anything "exciting" there is always something beautiful - like waterbuck Driving on - "lions!" The same four lionesses that had walked through camp last night. Lounging on a little rise, very relaxed in the morning sun. We spent a long time watching them, with a photographer from National Geographic. He is doing a lot of filming of the lionesses and was hoping that they'd bring out a cub. Lounging lioness Once the lionesses had moved off over the hill we moved on as well, stopping at Long Pool. Photographers getting ready . . . . . . for this. After that we drove through the open plains for a while - quite different from the bush and forest we'd been in up un...
Africa has always been somewhere I’ve wanted to go. It has an extraordinary history, vast areas of wilderness and incredible wildlife. But where in Africa? We’d already settled on doing a leg in Botswana, starting from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, so it seemed daft to be travelling all that way and not do a little bit more . . . Zimbabwe wasn’t on my consideration list until I started reading safaritalk, a forum full of people’s amazing trips all throughout Africa. I poured over trip reports, full of beautiful photos of people walking, with their guides, in Mana Pools National Park. This was what I wanted to do and Ben wasn’t going to say no! New Zealand to Zimbabwe is not a speedy journey, but three international flights and one brief hotel airport night later and we had finally arrived in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. On arrival we were met by Peter, our pilot for the next leg, and went straight back through security to get on the little safari charte...
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