The Road Less Travelled
I have always thought it amazing the way world the world works. Everything about sensationalism and very little to do with the facts on the ground. Dzimbabwe, which means “house of stone”, is in today’s world known as the troubled country, Zimbabwe. The media have done a great job at making it sound living in hell. The media has to this day not told anything less than the truth, but they have certainly neglected the positive aspects and they have failed to paint the picture of the magnificent beauty that lies beyond this less traveled destination. Don’t get me wrong this country is certainly not without its fair share of problems. The worst one can do, is not travel and support the tourism, as this would be detrimental to the conservation of its wildlife.
I met my group of four intrepid travelers I was to lead on this safari in Victoria Falls where we stayed at the Victoria Falls hotels which exudes all that is opulent and luxurious. In the building still stands history of great interest, whether it was the glamorous controversy of the life of the upper crust of the English Aristocratic society or simply a life that some look back at and call the decadent life style of the pioneers – in today’s time it is history to look back at and strive to live life as best as best as one can, exploring the wilderness and the less traveled roads without exploiting the land and the colourful people one encounters on this road. This group of people I was to lead on safari took the time to go down that road and experience the beauty of its wilderness.
From Victoria Falls we set off by light aircraft to Mana Pools which is a world acclaimed Heritage site. Mana Pools is well known for its wildlife rich flood plains and the Zambezi River whose shoreline boasts of exhilarating tiger fishing, game viewing and other great adventures. We arrived at Ruckomechi Camp where some young elephant bulls had made themselves comfortable at the front of the camp. After a welcome drink and a cool wet face towel to freshen up, we slowly negotiated our way through the young bulls to the main area where we enjoyed a light snack and the full breadth of the fresh air from the mighty Zambezi River. The river was much gentler than we had seen it in Victoria Falls in its full might. Somehow it had a comforting and almost mesmerising atmosphere. Maybe it was the smells of the land, the birds calling and the odd echoing hippo call heard further down stream, what ever it was it radiated peace and a tranquility that was impossible to comprehend in this beautiful country.
The highlights of Ruckomechi were all the elephants that came into the camp in mid day. One afternoon, I lay near the splash pool having a siesta. I opened my eyes to a herd of elephants drinking out of the pool, less than five metres away from me. I could only lie there as still as a shadow, until the giants had quenched their thirst and moved off. I couldn’t think of anyway else in the world one could experience such a thing. On one of our afternoons we found a carcass of a dead elephant, and from the tall adrenaline grass, two lions came leaping out of it running away as they had heard us drive through the tall grass. Our presence had obviously made them nervous. Later than night we went back and found a sub adult male lion lying not too far from the smelling carcass. His whole face was covered in a dark smear of blood.
Leaving Ruckomechi, we soon set sail on the river in our eighteen feet Canadian canoes. For me, that was bliss. Knowing that in a country full of economic and political strife, one could escape and enjoy the tranquility and peace that the wilderness had to offer. We were on the river on a canoeing and walking safari for four days, sleeping in our tented camp on the banks of the Zambezi under the African sky, we were deep within the wilderness areas where we saw few or no other people – it was wild. We walked and stalked buffalo, elephant, eland antelope and various other wildlife. Every night we heard the call of lions not too far from our camp. Every night we had hyenas visit our camp, having smelt the presence of humans, hoping to scavenge whatever we might have left out. We had a team of four staff who went ahead of us everyday, taking down camp in the mornings and setting up camp ahead of us. They provided us with the most impressive five star bush cuisines from a simple open fire. The last night, they relished in entertaining us in some traditional songs and dancing to which we joined and shared great laughter. There is something comforting about the night sounds; grunting of hippos, crickets, fruit bats, leopard, lion and owls, to all of these it was special to fall asleep to every night.
Finally, we arrived at Chikwenya Camp which is situated on the eastern boundary of Mana Pools. It was a perfect combination at the end of such an adventure on the river. Chikwenya is a small private camp built over-looking the Zambezi. We went out on game drives and amazing educational walks, but the highlight was being able to go out on a two occasions to fish for the well sought after Tiger fish. This is a very attractive fighting fish which in fair sport is caught and released. By the time we were done, everyone on board our pontoon had caught and landed a decent size tiger fish. To end a wonderful stay in this area we went off fishing for a fish called Bream, of which there are several different types. The rest of the group stayed back on an Island a few yards from us and enjoyed the afternoon in true style sipping on sundowners as we watched yet another spectacular African sunset on the river.
We left the world heritage site for Lake Kariba to Matusadona water lodge, which is a floating heaven in wild country, situated along the shorelines of Matusadona National park. This park is well known for trekking after its lion and black rhino. This was our last challenge, especially to see the wild and endangered black rhino. On our first afternoon, we were lucky to have a black rhino come down to the shoreline near camp. That took the pressure off me having to find one, nevertheless the excitement of tracking one and the reward of finding it is probably the most exhilarating feeling for a guide in that area. During our last full day, we were out for about two hours walking, and by then it was in the blistering heat, when the sun had reached its full potential. I would imagine it was close to a hundred degrees at that point. We had seen so many rhino tracks, but nothing that was very fresh and encouraging. Finally we found a set of tracks that looked worth while, and we took off after them. We heard the sound of crashing and branches breaking; it could only be an elephant or our rhino. We came round the corner and only to find an elephant bull feeding, tearing down a tree. In that same moment as we looked at him, we heard another sound of branches breaking which was much lighter than the one before. By this time my heart was beating with such excitement that I felt obstructed by its intenseness, infact I questioned if anyone else could hear it, but no doubt everyone’s heart was racing at this point. We went in the direction of the breaking braches, and on the ground, we could see the perfect image prints of a rhino cow and a tiny calf. We knew we were not far away because we could hear the leaves rustling in the thickets. Suddenly through the trees, we saw the mother dead still and looking in our direction. We froze still in our tracks and were overwhelmed with both excitement and fear. In what seemed like forever, I could no longer feel the wind in my face but rather on my back, which meant that they could smell us. As bad as their eye sight is, their sense of smell is incredible, but we were fortunate because they took off crashing through the bushes in the opposite direction, away from us. It was natural instinct, we wanted more. So we followed them for another ten minutes and saw glimpses of them through the thick combretum scrub, but they kept moving. After a few glimpses we retreated going back through the elephant gauntlet and back to our vehicle. We felt rewarded to have had that exciting experience of seeing a mother rhino and her twelve week old calf that was the size of a warthog.
Matusadona gave us beautiful sunsets on the lake as we cruised the shoreline by boat. We also saw amazing night skies from the top deck of our mother-ship where we had our last dinner, the staff as always were very charming and were great hosts. Sadly our safari through Zimbabwe ended when we flew back to Victoria Falls where I bid farewell to my friends who went away with the most amazing memories of our African safari.
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