Dream of a safari? Go! Every park is different, but UNESCO-listed Mana Pools in Zimbawe has many of The Big Five. The park is close to the Zambezi river on the border to Zambia and not that visited. But you might have to charger your own plane…
In 2013, when my son was 8 years old, we visited some friends that were living in Harare, Zimbabwe. There are not lot of tourists in Zimbabwe – the country use to be a big tourist destination, but the political climate is very unstable now. The downside when you are a tourist (the citizens of course have it worse) is that the infrastructure is not good. The plus side is that you are almost alone in the camps. Be aware that a lot of Safari Camps don’t want children.
HOW TO GET THERE
The best safari parks is always in the middle of the nowhere.
The bad infrastructure meant we had to rent a small plane (!) with an old English pilot to fly us out. Our plane dropped us off on a small landing strip. We told him he could just leave us – someone would come an pick us up. I am so glad he didn’t. Apparently a Belgian tourist was left the year before and was eaten by a lion!!! And it turned out that the internet (which is not functioning well there) didn’t deliver our message of arrival time. So our pilot had to call several people, and we had to stop a passing car from another safari camp before we were picked up.
Thank you pilot!
The park is up north by the Zambezi river close to Zambia.
We stayed in Kanga camp right beside a watering hole. There were max 8 other guests at any point. This is how a safari camp should be! The camp is build around a waterhole, so you don’t even have to go out in a jeep! But you do…
THE ANIMALS
One of the big 5 is of course the elephant. They walked right beside our tent, when they had to go to and from the waterhole. It was my first safari, but it was obvious that this is a great safari area with plenty of animals.
Both the elephants and the baboons were always present at the waterhole.
I did know the Kudu before hand, but it is so much more beautiful in real life. We later ate some and it was quite good.
We had a private jeep and chauffeur/guide to take us out on rides. It was more expensive, but well worth it. We could focus on the animals we wanted to see, nobody complained when I wanted to hear more about the insects and with a child, we could go out and back to the camp, when ever we wanted to.
Our friendly guide getting me an termite – he put it back afterwards…
My husband and son stopping for a sundowner.
African fish eagle
Waterbuck – you can tell by the white ring
Carob tree
One of the smaller antelopes -maybe a duiker
Our only sunset since it was clouded in the evenings – rain on the way…
We went in November – just at the end of the dry season, so all the plants had very little foliage and there were not so many waterholes – meaning it was easy to see and find the the animals. If you wanna go bird watching you should go in the rainy season.
The Zambezi river. Also a great place for birdwatching.
I love them, but don’t go swimming. More people are killed by crocodiles than by lions.
The marabou stork. It can reach 162 cm and 9 kg.
Baobab tree. Very important in the circle-of-life of the bush.
Warthogs. I had the best warthog sandwich later on.
The giant eagle owl -the largest in Africa
The road between our tent and the dining area was a small trail also used by the animals – especially the baboons and the elephants. At night an armed guard escorted us.
Note the solar panel in the background…
The buffalo is also part of the big 5. This one is now host to a large number of small strange animals living off it’s horns. It’s the circle of life…
So many impalas. My son stopped counting at 1250!
Red-billed Hornbill
Guinea fowl – comes with and without helmet
Another of the big 5 is the leopard. I know this is a bad picture, but it was the only leopard we saw. It came while we were eating dinner in the camp in front of the waterhole.
Remember good camera equipment and a steady hand!
If you want to see more safari in Zimbabwe go to Walking safari & elephants in the pool in Hwange National Park.
Can you recommend a safari camp?