28th June.Mana Pools Zim

28^th June. Mana Pools NP.

I remember writing in my blog on our way down through Africa when we stayed at the camp site above the Murchison Falls in Uganda how once in a while things just click into place and you experience a day that is ‘as good as it gets’ as Jack Nicholson said in the film of the same name. Well, today here at Mana Pools, as we sat on the edge of the Zambezi River with the sun setting over the Zambian mountains I feel we had another of those days. A day to remember. Hippos were present that last time as well. This time they were upstream a little their presence being made aware by their honking, groaning and grumbling. The river here would be a kilometre wide, fast flowing with the odd island in the middle.

Mana Pools NP is very isolated, to get here means 70kms of bad road but it is full of wild life, the camp is on the edge of the river and the facilities are good with each site having its own water supply and braai. The game viewing is mainly on the 4 billabongs that make up an oxbow formed thousands of years ago before the Zambezi changed its course. The drives are not long and the animal and bird life prolific. Many elephants, hippos and crocs. This park is also unique in letting people leave the safety of their vehicles and walk unguided through certain areas of the park. At your own risk of course as there are lions, cheetahs, hyenas and leopards in the park. We took advantage having a picnic lunch sitting outside the vehicle at a water hole where hippos and crocs basked in the sun. For two hours we relaxed and read keeping an eye on the proceedings in the water. The hippos are quite intriguing with us learning a bit more about their habits. They have a short fat tail and when they defecate they use their tail like a propeller to spray it all over the water and themselves at the same time. They then submerge to get it off. Must be a reason for it and am sure Google will explain.

We have been a few days in Zimbabwe now and have found the country very different from what we expected before leaving Australia. Three years ago I can’t think we would have entertained the idea of coming here. But after talking to people who raved about Zim we felt it would be as safe as any other African country. We have found the people here fantastic with a dry sense of humour. I guess considering what they have been through they have to have that. Harare is a modern city with the usual sky scrapers, and traffic lights that frequently work. Power cuts are common. The supermarkets are well stocked with everything you would need but at a price dearer than Sth Africa and getting on par with Australia. Most things are imported, the US dollar is the currency used, they had to do that to get over the hyper inflation they were experiencing.

The roads have been very good so far but then we haven’t been off the main roads yet.

30^th June Gweru. Zim

Sadly left Mana Pools this morning. The last day at Mana was another exceptional day with us witnessing many interesting sights such as a male elephant standing on his hind legs and reaching 5-6 metres up into a tree to grab that succulent branch he had had his eye on. Then there were the two eland, the biggest of the antelopes, we hadn’t seen one of those for some years. And last night, while sitting around or camp fire a spotlight picked up a spotted hyena a few metres away. The people thought he was looking for food.

Tsetse flies were a nuisance at the park though. We have been bitten innumerable times and the darn things hurt let alone leaving you open to sleeping sickness. They bite through clothing and their bites sting like hell, swell up over a couple of days and make you feel miserable. They just keep attacking you until you kill them or they are frightened off. At the moment I would have 15 bites or so in the last couple of days while Joan hasn’t been attacked quite so often. They are in the Zambezi valley and as you climb up the escarpment there is a barrier where a little man with a spray can and insect net comes out to inspect the inside and outside of the car as they hitch a lift. He was very adept of capturing the couple that were still clinging on.

The drive today took us through a very fertile area that must have once been very productive when the white farmers were in charge but is now nothing but waste land with the odd bit of land ploughed for a crop of mealies (corn) for the so called war veterans that now live on the land. What this country could have been.