Our lodge is in a beautiful spot right on the Great Zambesi, overlooking the floodplains on which hippos and elephants graze, backed by the Zambian side of the escarpment. After the previous day and night’s adventure we are quite happy to relax under the trees by our lodge looking out over the plains and drinking tea. In the afternoon we venture out for a very safe drive on the roads near the camp. There are impalas everywhere, the rains having brough with them innumerable little impala calves. The baboons too have their young and are out in their hundreds, playing and grooming and shouting.
After a walk along Long Pool, at random we take one of the roads heading to a different camp. There is a wet patch that we get through with difficulty, but I am not too worried, having gone through many of them on the previous day’s drive. The next wet patch is different. We get stuck. I soon realise that this particular mud is a particular type of hard, sticky, black clay. It sticks into the type trends, turning the wheels into slick, black balloons. Over the next hour we dig, push, rock, and stuff a variety of grasses, sticks and logs under the tyres to no avail. In the plains nearby, zebras and elephants watch curiously and the rumbles of distant lions can be heard. Initially I am more worried about all the photo oppurtunities I am missing as the last sun lights up the trees and the sky is painted a series of wonderful colours. To the horror of the girls, now caked in mud, I am compelled to take a tiny little break to take a couple of photos.
Then it was getting dark and, our huge efforts not having more the car a single inch, we where faced with the choice of sleeping in the car, or walking back to the camp in the dark, not something you want to do if you have ever experienced the amazing density of wildlife in the park. Nonetheless, Soph and I set off bravely into the dark, headlamps on bright, knobbley sticks in hand and talking loudly to warn lurking creatures of our approach. It was terrifying yet oddly comforting to know that we were only a few km away from help and not 50km, as we would have been had we got stuck the previous day.
As it was we were lucky and a returning Parks guy picked us up about a km down the road. But it soon became obvious that we weren’t going to get any help from the Parks guys. Their 4×4 was broken, and in order to “Mobilise” they would require some kind of compensation. So we get them to drop us at the neighbouring lodge, where the occupants very kindly agree to drive out and rescue us. Annie, who has been waiting in the car anxiously with doors locked, is very happy to see us. On the way we learn that some others in a white Isuzu had gone out in the morning and not yet returned. On getting back to the lodge we all have a well needed shower and take our rescuers a bottle of wine. Another day, another adventure.
The next day we make an even bigger effort not to get ourselves into trouble. There is much relaxing and game viewing from the safety of the lodge, but we also do a short drive out to see some lions that had been spotted by one of the other groups. In in the mid-afternon a very muddy white Isuzu drives past our lodge. They had spent the night in their car. In the late afternoon I am happily getting my camera ready for my first chance to take evening photos uninterrupted by peril. Its just then that Annie comes and tells me that the beleaguered white Isuzu is now bogged just outside our lodge. Cursing, but not wanting to anger the karma police, I am compelled to leave my camera and pull them out as the precious minutes of sundown pass by. We get them out eventually and tell them that its probably not a good idea to be heading out at this time of day, but they seem very determined to leave. As they go we are half expecting to come across them on the road the next day.
I put out my camera that night to attempt a star trail photo. I have to leave it for longer than I planned when I notice an elephant lurking not 10m from where it’s set up.
The next morning we leave early for kariba to give us plenty of time for stoppages. We have a keen eye out for the mythical baobab, by it evades us on the way out as well.
Our lodge is in a beautiful spot right on the Great Zambesi, overlooking the floodplains on which hippos and elephants graze, backed by the Zambian side of the escarpment. After the previous day and night’s adventure we are quite happy to relax under the trees by our lodge looking out over the plains and drinking tea. In the afternoon we venture out for a very safe drive on the roads near the camp. There are impalas everywhere, the rains having brough with them innumerable little impala calves. The baboons too have their young and are out in their hundreds, playing and grooming and shouting.
After a walk along Long Pool, at random we take one of the roads heading to a different camp. There is a wet patch that we get through with difficulty, but I am not too worried, having gone through many of them on the previous day’s drive. The next wet patch is different. We get stuck. I soon realise that this particular mud is a particular type of hard, sticky, black clay. It sticks into the type trends, turning the wheels into slick, black balloons. Over the next hour we dig, push, rock, and stuff a variety of grasses, sticks and logs under the tyres to no avail. In the plains nearby, zebras and elephants watch curiously and the rumbles of distant lions can be heard. Initially I am more worried about all the photo oppurtunities I am missing as the last sun lights up the trees and the sky is painted a series of wonderful colours. To the horror of the girls, now caked in mud, I am compelled to take a tiny little break to take a couple of photos.
Then it was getting dark and, our huge efforts not having more the car a single inch, we where faced with the choice of sleeping in the car, or walking back to the camp in the dark, not something you want to do if you have ever experienced the amazing density of wildlife in the park. Nonetheless, Soph and I set off bravely into the dark, headlamps on bright, knobbley sticks in hand and talking loudly to warn lurking creatures of our approach. It was terrifying yet oddly comforting to know that we were only a few km away from help and not 50km, as we would have been had we got stuck the previous day.
As it was we were lucky and a returning Parks guy picked us up about a km down the road. But it soon became obvious that we weren’t going to get any help from the Parks guys. Their 4×4 was broken, and in order to “Mobilise” they would require some kind of compensation. So we get them to drop us at the neighbouring lodge, where the occupants very kindly agree to drive out and rescue us. Annie, who has been waiting in the car anxiously with doors locked, is very happy to see us. On the way we learn that some others in a white Isuzu had gone out in the morning and not yet returned. On getting back to the lodge we all have a well needed shower and take our rescuers a bottle of wine. Another day, another adventure.
The next day we make an even bigger effort not to get ourselves into trouble. There is much relaxing and game viewing from the safety of the lodge, but we also do a short drive out to see some lions that had been spotted by one of the other groups. In in the mid-afternon a very muddy white Isuzu drives past our lodge. They had spent the night in their car. In the late afternoon I am happily getting my camera ready for my first chance to take evening photos uninterrupted by peril. Its just then that Annie comes and tells me that the beleaguered white Isuzu is now bogged just outside our lodge. Cursing, but not wanting to anger the karma police, I am compelled to leave my camera and pull them out as the precious minutes of sundown pass by. We get them out eventually and tell them that its probably not a good idea to be heading out at this time of day, but they seem very determined to leave. As they go we are half expecting to come across them on the road the next day.
I put out my camera that night to attempt a star trail photo. I have to leave it for longer than I planned when I notice an elephant lurking not 10m from where it’s set up.
The next morning we leave early for kariba to give us plenty of time for stoppages. We have a keen eye out for the mythical baobab, by it evades us on the way out as well.
Our last trip to Mana was quite an adventure with huge numbers of bugs, strong winds, rain, a rampaging wind scorpion, and a hyaena seige of our campsite combining to make of of the most hectic nights of camping I have had. But having scared Annie with all of the stories, I am was confident that it would be unlikely for such adventure to find us a second time in a row. I was wrong.
Our first adventure happened before we had even found our way to the camp. I had been told tales of a huge Baobab tree, possibly the largest in Africa, maybe even the world! This mythical tree was to be found, around 20km from the first checkpoint after entering the wilderness area. Despite asking every National Parks person that we passed in the different Parks checkpoints, I they could not narrow it down more than, just off the road on the left, between 18km and 20km from the boom. Being a keen photographer I was of course very interested in seeing such a tree, but as we drove it was obvious that the lush bush, which would be very dry at other times of the year, would make it difficult to spot. So come 18km we crawled along with our eyes peeled. Of course there were no signs saying “Largest Baobab in Africa to Left”, or even a track or path for that matter. Shortly after 20km though there was a track to the left. Surely this is the way! We head off down the rough track. It is not long before our four wheel drive is tested with a quite hectic crossing of a dry river bed. After a few km there is no sign of any overly large Baobabs. Looking at our trusty map of Zimbabwe, I notice a green line that follows where we have gone and joins up with the main road 20km or so along. The bush is beautiful so I decide to continue on, trusting that we will join up later. We cross a couple more dry rivers and charge through a few more muddy puddles. At some points we temporarily lose the road. It’s easy to do as many areas are very open and flat and one can choose their own route through. I am not really paying attention to which direction we are heading, confident that the green line on the map will deliver us eventually.
At 30km we still have not joined up with the main road. Normally at this point logic would have kicked in and told us the very obvious course of action would be to go back, especially after Annie looked at the map and realised that the green lines signify park borders and not in fact, roads. Maybe it was the stunningly lush green bushland that we were driving through, maybe it was our indominable spirit of adventure or maybe sheer stupidity, but we drove on in the hope that we would end up somewhere. Having given up on the illusion that we would meet to the main road we now paid attention to where we were actually heading. Had we been doing this earlier it would have been obvious that the road was heading north and not east as it was meant to. We were now hoping to reach the road that runs along the river. I was really regretting that I had inexplicably not taken the shiny new GPS that my dad had offered us.
We drove on through more amazing bush scenery, which was now beautifully lit by the late afternoon sunlight. The hills to the north of us seemed to gradually get closer, promising that we were nearing our goal. The road splits off a couple of times and try keeping north.
50km. The sun is down, we’re not at the river yet. Time to face the reality that we’re going to have to set up and sleep in our flimsy tent out here, “Somewhere in the bush near Mana Pools”. I set up the tent while the girls start preparing our elaborately planned first meal. Its dark by the time the tent is up, and I am not happy being out in the open so dinner is canned and we have peanut butter on bread huddled in the tent. Through the night we can hear hippos bellowing and snorting, there are distant lion sounds, and very un-distant sounds of large animals moving near the tent. I spend a fair bit of the night praying that it does not rain heavily, as it is prone to at that time of year. I have finally come to the fairly obvious realisation that if it does, the numerous muddy puddles and dry beds that we only just got through to get here will be innavigable and we’ll be stuck in the bush 50km from the nearest road that we should have been driving on. I don’t mention this to the girls and hope they are sleeping well.
We rise with the sun in the morning and get to walk around the tent looking at all of the footprints of all the animals that have been wandering around our tent during the night, antelope, baboons, hyaena, elephant and a few that I don’t recognise. Although I am fairly sure we are now on, or at least near, the river road, we have no idea how far we have to go. As much as it pains me to backtrack, we wisely decided to head back. Luckily the cars tracks are still fresh on the ground so we have no problem following our path back. We manage not to get stuck and I am very relieved when roll back onto the main road two hours or so later. We take no more detours on the way to camp, but not far along the road we see a large pack of twenty wild dogs. Endangered, and very seldom seen, it is a real treat to see them, even worth spending the night in the bush. We watch them for a good while as they relax and play by the road before going on to our lodge.
Our last trip to Mana was quite an adventure with huge numbers of bugs, strong winds, rain, a rampaging wind scorpion, and a hyaena seige of our campsite combining to make of of the most hectic nights of camping I have had. But having scared Annie with all of the stories, I am was quietly confident that it would be unlikely for such adventure to find us a second time in a row. I was wrong.
Our first adventure happened before we had even found our way to the camp. I had been told tales of a huge Baobab tree, possibly the largest in Africa, maybe even the world! This mythical tree was to be found, around 20km from the first checkpoint after entering the wilderness area. Despite asking every National Parks person that we passed in the different Parks checkpoints, I they could not narrow it down more than, just off the road on the left, between 18km and 20km from the boom. Being a keen photographer I was of course very interested in seeing such a tree, but as we drove it was obvious that the lush bush, which would be very dry at other times of the year, would make it difficult to spot. So come 18km we crawled along with our eyes peeled. Of course there were no signs saying “Largest Baobab in Africa to Left”, or even a track or path for that matter. Shortly after 20km though there was a track to the left. Surely this is the way! We head off down the rough track. It is not long before our four wheel drive is tested with a quite hectic crossing of a dry river bed. After a few km there is no sign of any overly large Baobabs. Looking at our trusty map of Zimbabwe, I notice a green line that follows where we have gone and joins up with the main road 20km or so along. The bush is beautiful so I decide to continue on, trusting that we will join up later. We cross a couple more dry rivers and charge through a few more muddy puddles. At some points we temporarily lose the road. It’s easy to do as many areas are very open and flat and one can choose their own route through. I am not really paying attention to which direction we are heading, confident that the green line on the map will deliver us eventually.
At 30km we still have not joined up with the main road. Normally at this point logic would have kicked in and told us that the very obvious course of action would be to go back, especially after Annie looked at the map and realised that the green lines signify park borders and not in fact, roads. Maybe it was the stunningly lush green bushland that we were driving through, maybe it was our indominable spirit of adventure or maybe sheer stupidity, but we drove on in the hope that we would end up somewhere. Having given up on the illusion that we would meet to the main road we now paid attention to where we were actually heading. Had we been doing this earlier it would have been obvious that the road was heading north and not east as it was meant to. We were now hoping to reach the road that runs along the river. I was really regretting that I had inexplicably not taken the shiny new GPS that my dad had offered us.
We drove on through more amazing bush scenery, which was now beautifully lit by the late afternoon sunlight. The hills to the north of us seemed to gradually get closer, promising that we were nearing our goal. The road splits off a couple of times and and we try keeping north.
50km. The sun is down, we’re not at the river yet. Time to face the reality that we’re going to have to set up and sleep in our flimsy tent out here, “Somewhere in the bush near Mana Pools”. I set up the tent while the girls start preparing our elaborately planned first meal. Its dark by the time the tent is up, and I am not happy being out in the open so dinner is canned and we have peanut butter on bread huddled in the tent. Through the night we can hear hippos bellowing and snorting, there are distant lion sounds, and very un-distant sounds of large animals moving near the tent. I spend a fair bit of the night praying that it does not rain heavily, as it is prone to at that time of year. I have finally come to the fairly obvious realisation that if it does, the numerous muddy puddles and dry beds that we only just got through to get here will be innavigable and we’ll be stuck in the bush 50km from the nearest road that anyone would ever expect us to drive on. I don’t mention this to the girls and hope they are sleeping well.
We rise with the sun in the morning and get to walk around the tent looking at all of the footprints of all the animals that have been wandering around our tent during the night, antelope, baboons, hyaena, elephant and a few that I don’t recognise. Although I am fairly sure we are now on, or at least near, the river road, we have no idea how far we have to go. As much as it pains me to backtrack, we wisely decided to head back. Luckily the cars tracks are still fresh on the ground so we have no problem following our path back. We manage not to get stuck and I am very relieved when roll back onto the main road two hours or so later. We take no more detours on the way to camp, and not far along the road we see a large pack of twenty wild dogs. Endangered, and very seldom seen, it is a real treat to see them, maybe even worth spending the night in the bush. We watch them for a good while as they relax and play by the road before going on to our lodge and setting about preparing a huge and indulgent cooked breakfast lunch.
