HWANGE GAME COUNT

My last trip into Hwange National Park for 2010 was in September for the annual game count.  This is something I have been wanting to do for years and year, and at long last I finally got it together.  I enlisted my good friend to come with me .. which for her was "going home" as she had grown up and worked in the area.  She also isn't as wary of elephants as I am, and we KNOW there are elephants in Hwange and I knew I would need someone to coax me through ... and THANK GOODNESS she was with me !!!  We arrived at Main Camp and checked in to our lodging for the night and found a few friends amongst the other participants.  Our Chalet was just a room with our beds, a fan, a wash basin, and a small porch, and we were right next to the ablution block.  The wooden cross pole holding up the thatched roof was seriously eaten by white ants, and caused me some concern about whether or not we should put the fan on !!!  Our comfortable beds were made with crispy clean and fresh smelling sheets, which made for a good night's sleep.  I used a plastic packed to jam in to the plug hole which had to make-do as a plug as there wasn't one to be found, and had a piping hot bath.  That evening we had pre-briefing from the Wildlife Society Chairperson, and other knowledgeable people.  After that we were entertained by the Ingonyama Dance Group from Dete. This group does perform at the various nearby lodges in the area, and if you ever come across them, they are well worth watching ... they are awesome singers and entertainers.

The next morning we left Main Camp and headed for White Hills Pan where we were to spend the night.  The count runs for 24 hours from 12 noon.  We arrived there in plenty of time to study the surroundings and choose a spot to base up.  We had fortunately been given some advice from a more experienced member about what to look for, and that helped us find the perfect spot to keep out of the elephants way !!!  The down side was that we sat in the full sun all day, in 36 degrees, but that was no problem ... rather that than be in the elephants path !!

The hot afternoon was relatively quiet, there was visits from some not-very-often seen Roan, plus giraffe and a couple of quiet elephant bulls who came in quietly on their own. But the quietness was not to last !!!

The sun set on a hot dusty day in front of us, and the moon rose behind us .. it was very peaceful, and I felt priviledged to have this wild piece of Africa to ourselves for the night.

 

Sunset and Moon rise

From about 6.30 until 11.30, the elephants came in to drink in their droves !!  That night we counted nearly 600 of them, of all ages and sizes.  At first I was extremely uncomfortable with all these huge creatures milling around, but they were well aware of our presence on a little rise, out of their way, but my dear friend calmly sat there telling me not to worry ... they were not concerned about us !!  She had to do quite a lot of that before I settled a little.  Late in the night we had just one fellow who came very near to have a good look at us, but he didn't threaten us in any way, and all I can say is Thanks to the Gods that he wasn't on my side of the vehicle !!!

As wary as I am of the elephants, I was to discover in the dead of the night that my good friend is equally unhappy with 8 hyenas running around our vehicle, sniffing us out !!  That part did not concern me TOO much, but she was clearly not taking any chances with them, and windows and doors were closed and locked in haste, amid much nervous laughter !!  The said hyenas did later provide some entertainment when a lioness and her sub-adult cub arrived to relax alongside the waterhole.  The cub explored whilst Mama flopped around, appearing to be totally at ease.  Naturally the hyenas were not at ease ... at all !!!  They knew she was there and were creeping closer and closer to have a look.  She in turn would get up, stretch, look around, cuff her offspring, and move closer to where they hyenas were before lying down again.  And so it went on.  Before too long, she clearly became totally irritated with being watched by the nervous hyenas and suddenly sprung up and charged them.  Well, that was the end of watching the hyenas .. they left in haste never to return !!  In time, the lions also casually moved off, in the same direction.

I was also treated to the sighting of a leopard silently moving along in the moonlight.  It was one of those occasions that could not be photographed, but which I shall always remember.  The leopard appeared to be a good size, and in good condition.

The activity at the waterhole died down in the few hours before sun rise, and in fact, stayed that way for the rest of the morning.  No more big game visited us, but we did see warthogs, kudu, and lots of birds.

At noon we left our spot and started to head back to Main Camp, meeting with other counters along the way.  Back at camp we caught up on sleep, had a hot bath, handed in our sheets to the organisers, then sought out some friends to cook dinner, have a few drinks and most importantly .. swop stories of our night in the bush !

After a solid night's sleep, we left the Park at leisure, stopping in at Hwange Safari Lodge on the way to have a feast of toasted sandwiches.  The hotel was very quiet, but the service for prompt and friendly.

We will be back for the 2011 Count !!

The Hide, Hwange National Park

At the end of April I was one of a number of agents invited to The Hide to check out their lodge renovations. I drove up from Bulawayo with a colleague, making a short diversion at the Gwayi River.  I used to have family who lived behind the hotel, and many friends lived in the area.  It was just a few years ago, but it was amazing to see just how the hotel has been reduced to ruins, and will soon be totally reclaimed by Mother Nature.

Anyhow, I did not linger there too long with my memories.  I did try to get to see my Mom's cottage which is now hidden behind a huge amount of bush growth that was never there before, but the locals were not happy with that.  Well, it was time to push on anyway, we still had to get down some 30 kms of dirt road to Kennedy Siding and then The Hide, and we could see a storm brewing in the distance.

The drive was straight forward enough, the road was easily handled by my Ford.  There were elephant tracks virtually the whole way along the road, but we didn't see them.  It did not take us quite as long as I thought it would to get to our destination.  At one point I took a wrong turning (blatantly ignoring instructions and directions for some unknown reason), but my navigator soon saw me right, and we arrived safely at The Hide, luckily just in time for lunch.

I was shown to my tented room - one of the very recently renovated ones -  it was REALLY comfortable and tastfully furnished.  Whilst there I made sure I made use of both the deep bath with view of the vlei, and the open air shower.     

The weather was quite moody, and wet, but that didn't stop us seeing animals and the beautiful bush sights. 

            

 For the next two days I was treated to the most comfortable accommodation, delicious meals, an early morning walk in the bush, game drives, and a bush dinner.  The next time I visit The Hide, I am going to spend a night in the "Dove's Nest".   This "room" is set about a kilometre away from the main camp, and is basically a tree house where you are left for the night.  There is a lofty bedroom, and a large viewing deck beneath it, and the shower and loo at the bottom.  Once up the tree, the hefty trap-door is closer, and you are alone in the middle of nowhere.  How fantastic !!!  

The other treat was a visit to Mbiza Pan .. this was previously in a part of Hwange National Park that was not accessible by the public .. in fact it still isn't, only vehicles from The Hide and Wilderness Safaris can take their guests there.  It was such a priviledge to visit this amazing place .. when we arrived I thought we had landed on the moon or somewhere else very unusual ... it was flat flat flat as far as I could see, but dotted with hundreds of ilala palm trees. We stopped near the water, but there were no animals there that day .. it was no matter because we were treated to possibly the most spectacular sunset I have EVER seen. 

The guides who took us out on the walk and drives - Daffy and Nicholas - were very entertaining company and kept our interest up in our surroundings.  Being a bit of a birder, it was great to ride next to them and share in their knowledge.  Daffy has such an awesome huge smile that I think he should be used as the "welcoming face of Zimbabwe" .. what a great guy !!

The Hide is definately a spot to visit again and again !!

HWANGE NATIONAL PARK

In January I was invited to join my Birding friend who was conducting a water fowl survey in Hwange National Park.  I jumped at the chance to  go with and so left Bulawayo at 11 a.m. on a Friday.  The drive to Hwange was very straight forward and went by so fast, that is seemed like no time at all (actually it was 2 p.m.) before I found myself standing in the car park at Main Camp, all checked in and ready to roll.  We were to camp at Masuma Dam which is up in the Sinamatella area and we were to drive through to Park to reach there.  We started off at a leisurely pace, bird spotting on the way.  The bush was very thick as it was the middle of summer, and I was on a birding weekend, not an animal weekend, so any wildlife that I did see was a real bonus.  The birdlife was outstanding - by the end of the weekend we had reached about 150 species !!  We stopped at good old Nyamandhlovu Pan which as always provided a wonderful panorama of animals and birds coming and going.  Once leaving there we pressed on to Masuma without stopping again as we had to reach there by 6 p.m. (Parks regulations), which we managed to do with 10 minutes to spare.

I had the treat of my life along the way !!!  Roughly in the Shumba Pan area, not too far before running out of "tar" road  (Mother Nature should have claimed the road back in about another year or 2 if there is a continued lack of maintenance ... not necessarily a bad thing !!), there, in the middle of the road was a LEOPARD !!  I couldn't stop quick enough so that I could concentrate on getting a good look at this beauty !!  In all my years visiting the bush and being on the farm, I had yet to see a real "wild" leopard, so this was a first for me.  This lovely leopard was not overly concerned by our presence and after stopping to check us out continued on its way - in the middle of the road !!  Then it stopped to stalk something it has seen, smelt or heard in the bush on the side of the road and started its hunt without being the least bit concerned about us, so we watched and clicked away with our cameras.  At some point it pounced and disappeared into the bush.  My heart was thumping and I was grinning from ear to ear as I switched off my camera and put the binos down, wallowing in what I had just seen, to my complete surprise, it popped out back onto the road (without prey !!) and started walking back towards us !!!   As I fumbled to get my camera out again, which only resulted in a lot of hurried blurred photos, it veered off and disappeared into the bush.  We watched it wandering off for a few seconds, marvelling at its amazing spotty camouflage.  After that sighting, I didn't care if I saw another thing the whole weekend, because that was the show of the day and left me on a high for the rest of the day !!

And so we arrived at Masuma Dam which provided us with more treats !!  The dam had a lot of water in it and was full up with hippos and birds !!  The elephants visited, and other game came and went.  Masuma Dam "hide" is awesome as you can sit in safety and comfort and watch the wildlife world go by.  I was totally delighted to find that Masuma had running water, flush loos (complete with loo seats !!), and a shower, which, with a little coaxing at the boiler fire (firewood was chopped and stacked nearby for us !!) gave us a steamy hot shower every day.  The "main road" runs through the middle of the designated camping area, but at 6 p.m. the resident campers have to close the 2 gates so that there are no unwanted visitors in the night.  The sum total of 2 cars passed through whilst we were there, and both of them stopped so that we could have a chat with the occupants - very friendly place this !!  

  

That night was bright and starry, but I can't exactly say I slept "well" .....  man are those hippo noisy in the night !!  Splashing, sploshing, grunting and groaning !!   Earlier on we had heard lion and hyena calling in the distance, but otherwise the night did not hold any surprises for us.

It was a crispy morning when I awoke, and like a child I amused myself for quite a while breathing "smoke" out of my mouth and nostrils, just as an indication of how cold it was out there. I opened up the side flaps of my tent so that I could gaze out into the bush from the relative warmth of my bed and watch the first sun beams hit the ground. It had been a quiet night, or else I just slept very well, but there had been no hyena or lion calls. Soon it was time to be brave and get out of bed and get dressed in cold crispy clothes and head for the camp fire and hot coffee. We sat around and chatted whilst breakfast cooked. It was around this time, whilst everyone compared notes of their night in the bush, that it dawned on me that I had missed out on something. Everyone else had snuggled up in the night with a couple of hot water bottles. Feeling somewhat smarted I declared that I hadn't been given ANY hot water bottles in my bed. But as the words were coming out of my mouth I started to realise the possibility of what had happened !! Which I confirmed DID happen when I went back to my tent to collect my bag and saw 2 hot water bottles sitting on the deck .... I had slept in the wrong bed !!! The "turned down" bed with one blanket was not turned-down at all, it had been robbed to place extra blankets on the bed that was warming up with two hot water bottles in in !!! So my nice warm bed had an empty night whilst I slept in the cold crispy bed. What a twit - and I hadn't even been drinking !!! Breakfast, which was presented in the form of a full-on hearty bacon and eggs fry up, was gratefully devoured. On a previous excursion in the Sports Car some years previously (where we ended up as a tiny speck in the sky some 9 kms up, flying over the rugged Drakensberg Mountains, before being threatened by the military .... but that's another story...), I had been informed by knowledgeable Pilot that it is better eat than not eat before flying to keep air-sickness at bay, so I was more than happy to clean my breakfast plate. Once packing was completed and good byes said, we strolled down the path to the airstrip to get ready for departure. The entire staff, guide and guest all came to say goodbye !!! Pre-flight checks done, I confidently strapped in knowing that I was feeling ready for this flight. We had a lovely take-off and (you'd have thought I would have learnt something the day before ...) said "We must give them a fly past to say goodbye". Huh !!!!!! We circled around and came in really low to give them my royal wave. The next thing I knew we were screaming upwards at what seemed a straight vertical line - I had no control over my body position as G-forces took over !!!!! Maybe I should re-phrase that ... I was screaming !!! At the top point Pilot swooped us into another turn, causing more screaming and hysterical laughter, as we gained a little more height and flew back over the camp. I was trying to take photos, but couldn't hold anything - myself or my camera - in what even resembled an upright position. Pilot then warned me that there was a sharp left turn coming up, which brought on a case of nervous giggles and eyes glancing around tiny cockpit to look for something to hold on to (there isn't anything, by the way). He counted down 5,4,3,2,1 into the sharp left turn. Flippin' heck, he wasn't joking .... I screamed, cried, laughed my way around the "corner". After he had finished his fun, he asked "where's the railway line?", presumably to follow it back to town, and it was vaguely a few kilometres behind us, which I kind of managed to indicate !! We got on the flight path back to Bulawayo, which was a straight line from there right to the runway !! We hit a few air pockets here and there - I can't tell if we were going up or down, but I do know that my stomach wasn't in the same place as the rest of me - but they weren't too serious, no worse than the "Octopus" of Luna Park fame !! (but just as scarey !). We landed easily and taxied in. Somewhere around this time, Pilot declared to Passenger that if she could handle such turns and bumps as that flight had, then she was "okay" !! Well, thank you ....