WEATHER: Cool in the mornings but it heats up after 10am
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing 100 plus elephants at a waterhole - amazing
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not getting to see any of the painted dogs at the conservation project
BUYS OF THE DAY: My 5USD bangle that I bought from the painted dogs made out of snag wire
WORD OF THE DAY: Elephant has to be the winner today – with a close giraffe call
ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Wildebeest, giraffes, elephants, kudu’s, zebra’s, stein bocks, marshal eagle, batalier eagle, lilac breasted roller, impala, pumbas, baboons, red billed wood hoopoe, zazu’s
CAMP SITE RANKING: 3 out of 5 stars – flushing toilets, no showers in our block and COLD
So we leave Mtopo and its boulder landscapes to head for Hwange (said Wangee) National Park today. It is apparently the coldest place in Zimbabwe during their winter and Ian said it could get as low as minus 5 tonight! So needless to say there is a lot of talk of people upgrading tonight, which we are still calling lovers and losers, which all of them except Dennis and Marg fall into as losers and there were some people getting a little upset that we kept ribbing them about them being losers. They did like to remind Lisa and I that we had upgraded once, but we had Lisa’s birthday as a special occasion, so there. The more upset people came the more I ribbed them – toughen up people, you’re on a camping trip after all right! Thank goodness if Lisa and I decide to upgrade on the next portion, all those who I gave shit to have left, so we won’t cop it back! Big of me right!
So with a 6.15am wake up, a 7am breakfast and a 7.30am departure we had 350km to travel today. We got a chance to stop at a Painted Dog Conservation Project that has been built to try and protect and bring awareness to the extinction of these animals in the wild. Unfortunately their demise is not due to people hunting them, but a byproduct of them getting caught in wire snares set for other animals, but they are not far from extinction. The Conversation Project was an awesome center that has been built and was pretty amazing. They had it set up in a massive story book, following the life of a Painted Dog in 7 sections, with interactive books, information on all aspects of the Painted Dogs. Our guide MK took us through it all and then we got some free time to look more at the displays and the shop before heading out to working section of the sanctuary where they currently have 3 Painted Dogs they are re-habilitating them for release and in their final stages. Unfortunately 12.30pm is their rest time, they are more active first thing in the morning and for 2 hours later in the afternoon, so we didn’t get to see them, which was a shame, but they try and limit human interaction, so their release is less stressful for them. The program also promotes awareness to school children where they come and stay on site and they also try and promote awareness to the locals and instead of poaching for animals that also catch the Painted Dogs, to make things out of the snare wire and sell that for tourism to make money than kill. It is a pretty special programm and more information can be found at www.painteddog.org/
From the Conservation place to Hwange was only a further 30 minutes getting us into camp at 1.30pm. At the main gate is where the people wanting to upgrade for the night had to get off the truck. Well didn’t we cop some attitude when we had a go at them when 9 of them hopped off the truck. We then continued to the camp site for the night and set up our tents and then got lunch under way. As there are only 11 of us ‘tenting’ we were able to double mattress, if not for warmth at least for comfort and we set up our tents pretty close on the chance it may have kept us a little warmer if the temperature was going to be as cold as expected. Yeah as if that would help. The upside camping was that we were right near the truck, the lodgers had to walk 8 minutes to and from the camp and there were honey badgers and baboons that they had to worry about on the walks back and forth from camp. Suckers!
So after lunch we were re-united with Ian and an off sider, so we were broken back up into 2 groups again and off on a safari drive in Hwange National Park. Hwange is re-knowned for its elephant herds that total up to currently around 40,000 in the park. So I am guessing there would be a good chance we may see a few this afternoon. As there are so many the park has to cull a certain amount each year to try and keep the numbers under control. When a cull is done it takes 4 guys, and an elephant is killed every second of the cull process, sounds drastic. But there are a lot of benefits as well as keeping the ellie numbers manageable, the meat from the culled ellies goes to the community, the skin is sold to make belts, shoes, seat covers and that money goes back to the national park and then there’s the ivory that is also sold. The only part from a culled elephant that cannot be used is its lower jaw.
So we drove around for 3 hours and as 6you would expect, with Zimbabwe still trying to get itself back on the tourist map, there were not too many other vehicles on the road, so it was like we had the whole park to ourselves. The 2 main highlights we had were getting to a watering hole and seeing 6 giraffes all having a drink at the water’s edge. As you may or may not know, they have to spread their front legs to be able to reach the water, and as they have to have their heads down, they can’t stay drinking in that position for more than 28 seconds otherwise all the blood will run to their head and they will have a massive hemorrhage and die. Drastic, but the implications of having such a long neck I guess!!
The second highlight was going back to the same watering hole 2 hours later and seeing over 100 elephants all having their drink and wash. As we were driving we saw them all walking to the watering hole in their families and one family crossed right in front of us, which would have had over 50 of them in it, and we were only 20m away from them. It was AMAZING!!! At the watering hole they were all part of different herds, so there was a little argy bargy between the dominate males, but otherwise it was AWESOME to see these massive creatures doing their thing. We got about 30 minutes here at the viewing platform before we had to hightail it out of the park for a 6pm closure. A shame we had to leave, but when the park closes you gotta be out, or there are all sorts of implications. But what a great way to end an afternoon!!!
So we had some free time and dinner and then we were back in the jeeps for a night drive at 9pm. We were told to rug up as it was going to be cold out and we did exactly as we were told. Pretty much everyone had 3 layers on, their clothes (and thermals), their sleeping bag, and blankets. Add onto that beanies, gloves and anything else we could think of, we were ready to tackle the animals at night and hopefully stay warm. As the park isn’t open after 6pm, we travelled right next to the boundary of the park for a few hours to see what we could find. We got to see elephants, and Ian switched off the spotlight, so we could just hear them eating and walking in the bush. It was pretty amazing to have silence, pitch black and hearing these massive animals 5m from the jeep. We also saw some bush babies and baboons until our spotlight blew a bulb and we had to rely on the other jeep for light for around 40 minutes before heading back to camp at 11pm. I can’t say we saw a great deal, but it was good to do a night game drive. Would I do another one, probably not but I did enjoy it, even if we still froze on the drive back. It was freezing and that wind chill factor has a lot to answer for!!!
So into our tents, to get snug as a bug in a rug and hope that we will be warm enough for the night at the losers slept indoors across camp.
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