Our Adventure Begins
Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe
November 03, 2011
The alarm went off so early! Thankfully the bed was very comfortable and we both had a great sleep. It was so nice to be horizontal for a while! John was waiting for us when we went downstairs. We were able to see a bit more of the city since it was not completely dark. There were a few cars on the road, John said in a couple of hours that the streets will be completely congested. Many people were in vans or walking to work already. Many of the buildings are 1 storey, there were a couple of high-rises like our hotel, but all looked dated, maybe built in the 50's, 60's or 70's. All of the houses or neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city are surrounded by fencing. Most structures were concrete with corrugated tin roofs.
On the way to the airport the red soil is very dry looking and I only saw one field of crops with corn or maize Giles & BillStory!. Otherwise the soil only looks good for grazing, but wee did not see any domesticated animals. Everything looks pretty brown as it the wet season is just beginning, although there were some flowers and some green leaves. John pointed out something that looked like a graveyard as we drove by. The "gravestones" are all sculptures of different size, shapes and colours - really neat! A new road is being built on the way to the airport. John says they are expecting more tourism in the future, so hopefully that should be good for their economy. We passed under a bridge that commemorated the independence of Zimbawe in 1980, but John explained that there is still a lot of political unrest.
John dropped us at the airport and said our captain would be waiting for us. We did not see anyone, so we got in line. At the front of the line we were told that we needed a ticket, not a confirmation and sent Bill across to the International airport LandedStory!. He went to three desks and was not able to get a ticket issued, but he did pay $20 airport tax.
We did spot a captain or two by this point and one turned out to be our captain, Giles. Giles took us through security and then onto the tarmac to our six seater Cessna. On our way there we discovered his dry sense of humour when he asked us, "so, who is the pilot today?". After loading our bags under the plane, we hopped in, put our headsets on and took off.
Good thing I still had a bar in my purse. No breakfast on this flight!
Once we cleared for takeoff and we up above the clouds he began to educate us on Zimbabwe. On a side note, cruising up above the clouds is like being on snowcapped mountains, so beautiful! Giles's father moved to Zimbabwe from England and became a farmer Our fist elephantStory!. Initially he had dairy cows and then tried growing grapes for wine, but the soil was not right for grapes. As a child, he went to boarding school and has fond memories of being on the farm during his holidays. Giles took over the farm and grew tobacco & paprika until 2002 when his property was stolen or seized. He used to have over 3,500 acres, but only 20% was arable, approximately 150 acres on a 4 year rotation. He used to employ 250 people as there was a lot of manual labour, the workers were paid monthly and liked to spend their earnings on beer, so his family played a big role in assisting with local housing and education. Some other farmers used to have some cattle "piggy banks" for bad years. He told us that of 80 commercial farmers, now only 2 remain.
Now his hobby has become his 2nd career. He has 3 planes and a few pilots working for him as he needs to support his family including a 16 year old daughter and 11 year old son CatsStory!.
Into Harare there are 10-15 planes in the Zimbabwe airport. 6-12 of these are large flights/day, so there is not a lot of air traffic here. It sounds like the airport is a bit corrupt. The local pilots used to greet guests straight off the incoming planes and provide advice, but are no longer allowed to. They would recommend a 30 day Visa to guests as most were issued Visas that expired prematurely so that they could be fined upon departure. Now, they do keep records, so it is a bit more honest. Although we were not allowed a multi-entry pass and as a result will have to pay more than we should have.
In this county, black African chiefs do not have title for native lands, but would allocate patches of land to their people. This makes legal ownership of property a big mess CampStory!. A show of wealth for tribes is acquiring cattle. The downside of this is that too much grazing depletes the nutrients in the soil. Another issue is that wood is used for heat & cooking, so people strip the land of timber. My point being, that there is no education about conservation of natural resources which will result in some long-term issues for this country.
Giles explained that women in this culture work very hard. They raise the children, harvest and hoe fields, fetch water and cook. Children are responsible for herding cattle and men get educated and do plowing. It does not seem like an equal distribution of work here…
We also learned that this is the very beginning of the wet season, from November until February and it will rain for 2 hours or all day.
As we get closer to our final destination we can see many animal trails leading to water. We were even able to spot a few elephants from the plane. A short while later we landed at Drakenya airstrip and were greeted by Champion.
Our next stop is: Wilderness Safaris' Mana Canoe Trails - Ruckomechi Camp
Champion was a great sport & kindly supplied us with water. I jokingly said "beer would be nice" and he kindly obliged us. I think this vacation is starting off very nicely! Champ took us on a long drive back to the camp. From the airstrip it is a 20 min drive, but we took an hour to get to camp. Along the way we saw a lilac breasted roller, a small horned billed bird aka the banana bird and a larger horned billed bird. We saw our first elephant from the ground, then saw 2 moms with 3 babies. Two of the babies are around 1 year old. So amazing! Champ explained that the young bulls live with the females until 12, then they go join the other males - fathers, brothers & uncles. The women stay together and raise the young. One female will be in charge and she knows where to go when food is less plentiful. We saw some impala, Champ said that the M on their bum signifies McDonalds - they are very plentiful around here. We saw several dead buffalo, some were killed by lions, others they think may have eaten poisonous plants. We saw live water buffalo, more impalas, wart hogs, baboons, zebras, ginuea fowl, mourning doves, vultures and waterbuck, Champ said that male impalas and male water bok have horns, but females do not. He also said that male zebras have black bodies and white stripes and females have withe bodies with black stripes!
We were greeted by Elizabeth and Sara with moist towels and refreshments that we could enjoy in the lounge, the outdoor deck or the library. We have 30 minutes to relax before brunch. I used the facilities - there is no wall facing the water. While I was peeing I saw two elephants wander from one island, through the water to another island. As I am sitting & writing the blog, I am watching several groups of elephants on the bank across the water. Just below me are some birds that are eating bugs out of the grass along an offshoot of the lake. The mountains look beautiful with the clouds down so low that they are touching the mountain tops. I am already starting to wonder if it is possible for us to open our own camp in Africa… Bill is not convinced yet!
Some of the other travellers started arriving from their morning drives. We met folks from Zambia, Switzerland and Rochester, NY. We talked to two of the guides over brunch, Sandy and Kevin who were recently engaged while on a trip to California. Sandy has done a lot of travelling and has been to Toronto previously. They seem like a lovely couple! For brunch we had tons of food - spinach and mushroom lasagne, spicy chicken, cole slaw, salad, fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage & toast. The spreads they had for toast were marmite, peanut butter (hurray!), strawberry jam, honey, marmalade, apricot jam and some strange beef spread. We washed it down with mimosas & beer. YUM!
After brunch we had a nice hour long nap on the deck. So nice!
Before heading out we had a safety lesson about the 4 hazards on the Mighty Zambezi River from Matthew:
1. Sun - dehydration & sun burn
2. Tree Stumps - visible & submerged
3. Crocodiles
4. Hippos
Then, we departed on our first canoe journey with Henry, Matthew & other guests from Switzerland: Rolf, Josy & Hans (first time canoers). We put our traditional Canadian canoes in the water and started off. Immediately we saw hippos & lots of great scenery. Lucky for us there was a lot of wind which kept us cool & kept animals away from the open & brought them to the shores for us to see. The downside is that it was much more difficult to paddle as the wind was in our face.
The scenery we are enjoying on our left is the Kayila Mountain Range on the Zambia side. From our entry point & for the next 4 kms on Zambia side are villages, after that point is their government management area is controlled by National parks. On the Zimbabwe (Zim) side it is all National parks - Mana Pools.
The guides pointed out things such as:
Reeds on the islands - locals can use for fishing poles, African carpets, & elephants feed on them for a change of diet when resources are low
Waterbuck
Impalas
Elephants
Hippos (pronounced He-Pose)
Lap wing (sounds like owl)
Vulture
Egyptian geese
After a while, we stopped on a sandbar in the middle of the river for a refreshment & saw some neat animal tracks, including hippos, elephants and many birds.
A short while later we arrived at our first camp site, Vundu Camp. Graham & the staff greeted us with moist towels & helped us out of our canoes. We headed up the bank for a tour. Graham introduced us to Chef Bob, showed us our tents/rooms for the evening, pointed out the toilet & gave us the general rules for the site. The rules include - not leaving your tent after the staff retires for the evening (chamber pots are provided in the shower enclosure attached to your tent), if the cup is on the post by the toilet, it is occupied, otherwise it is free, & after using the toilet you must dump a scoop of sand into the toilet to keep the bugs away.
That evening we enjoyed a sundowner (post safari drink), the typical sundowner is a gin & tonic. Then we had a lovely dinner of talapia from Kariba River, baby corn, carrots, salad with avocado & lemon cheesecake. Chef Bob did a great job!!
It has been a long couple of days, so we retired shortly after dinner.
