Some people will read this blog post and laugh at my
over-reaction. These are people who have
grown up in Africa, New Zealand or Australia. Everyone else will think I’m a
crazy lady for even doing the things I did (which is what I now think about
myself).
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| An example of how close people can get |
I’ve been on a number of safaris in the past two years, and
even more during these past 3 months, but as I researched Zimbabwe, Mana Pools
seemed like it would be a different experience.
Many places in the park, and Goliath Camp who I decided to go with,
specialize in walking and canoe safaris.
Seemed like a nice change.
 |
Stretch and I with JD (Juvenile Delinquent
is his name) |
Walking safaris here are not like at other parks, where you
learn about tracking, animal dung, and some indigenous flora and see animals
from afar. No. Here, this means that you find lion tracks,
park the car, and then trek 3-4 km into the wilderness, to get 40 feet from lions
and sit and watch them. Unfortunately (or
possibly fortunately) for me, Stretch, who runs Goliath Camp and is really an
amazing man (and character) had injured his foot, so we couldn’t do the hours
walks through the bush as per usual. So
instead, we would spot a lion and THEN park and get out to walk towards
it. This was probably the least scary
experience, as we walked much closer (maybe 15 ft) to multiple elephants, all
the while Stretch is pulling your elbow to get closer as you subtly tried to
back away. Talk about adrenaline. His animal knowledge and years of experience
with the animals allows him to have relationships with some, and to read their
moods. (But as I always think, animals are WILD!!)
 |
Not actually a pic from the canoe ride.
This was from a car, but it illustrates
my fear of crocodiles |
My real moments of fear though, came with the canoe
ride. The first day, other guests (who
lived in Harare and visited Goliath annually) had told me a story about how in 2006,
an American girl, canoeing with Stretch, had gotten pulled out of a canoe and eaten
by a massively large crocodile (this was not legend, Stretch talked about it
himself. They found her legs and torso
in three different crocs). Yet each day,
people mused in the afternoon about going for a canoe ride, but it was always
too windy. On my last day, the wind had
died down and three of us decided to go for a 2 hour canoe ride down the
Zambezi (actually a channel of it). I
figured if these older, experienced people were willing to go, I should stop
worrying. I’m sure the multiple stories
I had heard (many involving canoes being chomped or flipped by hippos) were
exaggerations or at least rare occurrences.
I was in the canoe with our guide Reuben, so I got to sit back and take
in the view.
 |
This is from the canoe,,, with a zoom,
but they were close |
We were 20 minutes into the canoe ride, having already
passed a few hippos on the other side of the channel (it’s between 50-100 feet
wide), when we’re near a high bank and Reuben says to the other canoe, “don’t
get closer to the bank, there is a giant crocodile that may jump on your
canoe”. Five seconds later, a 12+ foot
crocodile jumps off the bank and into the water maybe 5 feet in front of my
canoe. I am not kidding, it was people
eating size. I froze, let out a silent
tear or two, and strongly considered getting out, but torn between fear of land
and fear of water, I remained in the canoe.
The excitement continued about 15 minutes later, as we were charged by a
hippo (it went underwater, heading towards us at a fast speed, about 20 feet from
the canoes) and we paddled like the dickens to move forward. Reuben played it cool, but later confessed
that he was worried we were going to get flipped/chomped. I survived the rest
of the trip by pointing out every object that may be a hippo or even the smallest
crocodile, and telling Reuben how surprised I was that we hadn’t died yet. When we finally finished, my legs were shaky,
and it was confirmed that our canoe ride was “more adventurous” than most. Let’s just say it was thrilling, and I don’t
plan on ever doing that again.
Aside from the near-death experiences at the hand/mouth of
animals, the wildlife spotting was wonderful.
We saw wild dogs (a first for me), kudu, eland, huge herds of buffalo,
and many of our drives focused on a site where a large hippo had died, and two
male lions (the “Backstreet Boys”) oversaw the carcass, with 15+ hyenas waiting
for their turn. Between the second day,
where the lions still had control, and the third day when we went back to look,
all of the meat was gone and only the bones remained. Those hyenas were efficient.
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Day 2 of the carcas, with the
"Backstreet Boys" still in control |
 |
Day 3 of the carcas, after the hyenas
had taken over. Impressive! |
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| A her of buffalo, moments before it ran from us |
Stretch also got a permit to show us the Reserve park, which
is car free and a space to allow for easy animal migrations and walkers. In reality, the area is often used by the
parks for “ration hunting” (government supported killing for meat), and it was
eerily obvious how frightened the animals are in this part of the park. No animals, including buffalo, impala,
warthogs or any others, let us get within 200 feet of them. They all began running the second they heard
or saw the vehicle, which is a stark difference from the animals when you cross
into the accessible park (an invisible line, with no physical separation), who
may move away from the car, but relax when they are 30 feet away.
 |
Wild dogs! We spotted them on the
run and tracked them until they
settled in to play. |
Mana Pools is a beautiful safari park, and offers so much
more than looking at animals from the relative safety of a car. I’m glad I had these experiences, but my
guess is I won’t be canoeing down hippo and croc infested waters anytime soon…
or anytime at all. But I do love telling
the story
J
After surviving Mana Pools, I headed to Malawi (with a
one-night stop over in Zambia) for my last week of travel. The only thing harder than spotting wild dogs
in the bush is spotting bicycling Malawians, in dark clothes, on unlit
roads. As far as I know, no Malawians
have been injured as a result of my trip.
But I do have a few more days of driving left…
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