Mana Adventure No 3

[Whyone?]

We also visited a newly established camp at Ruckomechi Cliffs - again will write this up, with photos, when I am home.

[Kitsafari]

@@Zim Girl I'm very much enjoying your TR. What a thrill to have the ele help you pack up! Reading all the walking mobile trips makes me very tempted to try one out sooner than later.....

[Shreyas]

Great report, and surely the layout and pictures of the camp helps a lot.

Excellent pictures too....my favorites are the Elands and the elephant's headshot - a little bit of zoom and one can count the no. of threads on the tusks.

I too am hooked on to Mana like many other ST-ers, and all these TRs just add to the misery and impatience

Glad for your experiences.....can't wait to hear more.

TFS

[SafariChick]

@@Zim Girl I am enjoying this TR very much, and like @@graceland I have not been to Zimbabwe but more and more find it sounds enticing. So I also appreciate your describing Mana a bit for her as I also have very little idea of where anything is. I'm interested to learn about the possibility of a safari where one does some walking and some driving as I'm not sure I'd be up for a totally walking safari. Looking forward to more of the TR!

[samburumags]

Fabulous scenery what a beautiful place. Being that close to lions must be such a thrill.

[owenshaffer]

Hello All,

 

I had Mark as my fellow canoeist when I did the three day canoe safari down the Zambezi river. He couldn't have been kinder,more

polite or better at spotting hippos and warning them of our presence. He is a good man who definitely has my respect.

At Goliath Camp there's an elephant that's constantly in the camp. It is incredible not only to be so close to a wild elephant, but to be able to actually look him in his eye. Stretch actually had eight of us pose with a live elephant in Mana Pools this year in August. that was something I'll never forget!!!

[Zim Girl]

Chitake Spring

 

Located inland away from the floodplain, this is where Mana gets wild.

I love this place and in my opinion a trip to Mana is not complete without a visit here.

The camp site is next to the dry riverbed with the spring line running along it.

This year there was more water running than last and there was even a small waterhole which created a stopping off point for the many elephants that rumble past every day (and night).

 

 

The toilet tent next to the water hole.

 

 

 

 

There was action as soon as we arrived. The lads were unpacking and someone shouted lion!

So quickly we were off and following. This was a lone lioness who was looking a bit ragged around the edges. She was making her way along the ridge line above camp. We followed her until she caught our wind, then she was off and away.

 

Baboons were following us following the lion - see them watching.

 

 

 

An exciting start – but more lion action to follow.

 

One of the lovely things about Chitake are the groups of baboons that live here. They still display completely natural behaviour without the learned bad habits that creep in with too much human contact.

There were lots of very young babies this year and it was a real joy to watch them.

 

 

Warthog looking for a drink

 

 

This young bushbuck took a long time to decide it was safe enough to come down

 

 

Another lion spotted coming down from the riverbank opposite

 

 

 

There are no game drive loops here so it really is a walkers paradise.

 

As dusk settles, so then the elephants start to appear, on their nightly journey along the spring line. One by one their numbers grow until there is a steady stream of grey shapes ever so quietly passing by…….. magical!

[Zim Girl]

This morning was to provide us with a little more excitement than we were expecting.

 

We had been walking maybe an hour or so when from nowhere a lioness jumped up from behind a ridge and charged towards us. She stopped at a very small bush only 7 metres away and growled loudly, her body tense, watching us.

 

We were stood stock still behind Mark who was now having a conversation with her in his softly spoken ‘Zim guide’ voice.

 

Weirdly, all I could think of was that she was back-lit in this beautiful glow of early morning light and what a great photo it would make. However, common sense prevailed and I stood motionless waiting for an instruction from Mark.

 

Slowly, slowly, he asked us to walk backwards until he was happy we could turn round and carefully find some cover to get behind.

 

Happy that we had behaved correctly she turned and walked back down the ridge.

 

Mark led us in a big circle around the gully and once we were a safe distance away we watched where she had disappeared too and saw the reason for her charge.

 

She had four cubs who had now come out to play. We also saw another lioness, presumed to be her sister, close by watching us.

 

 

The 'sister'.

 

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Just before sitting down to lunch, we noticed that the spring line in front of camp had dried up. This usually means that somewhere down the line there is a lot of drinking going on. Sure enough, we walked out into the river bed and saw a big herd of buffalo.

 

 

Great stuff - we quickly walked back up onto the ridge above camp and crawled along until we were just above them.

 

 

We were able to watch them for quite a while before the wind changed and they caught our scent.

 

Then they were off in a cloud of dust.

 

 

[Zim Girl]

We didn’t get much sleep that night as the elephants decided to come into camp instead of walking right by.

We sat up in bed listening to a lot of crashing around just the other side of our tent. We were a bit surprised as ellies are usually very quiet when walking around tents.

In the morning Mark told us he had kept watch from his tent over to ours to make sure they didn’t actually try to join us in the tent.

 

When we walked past camp later on we took this picture which shows that our tent had been put up right in front of the game trail into camp, which meant the ellies had to walk through the bush at the side to avoid us - hence the noise!

 

 

 

We didn’t have any more major encounters during our stay so here are just a few more pictures of life in Chitake.

 

Adult female bushbuck

 

 

This is how its done!

 

 

Pictures of the Chitake riverbeds.

 

 

As before, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Chitake and we will definitely be coming back.

 

Our flight out to Matusadona.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Edited

Edited December 17, 2018 by Zim Girl

[graceland]

How wonderful! You make me want to go (now).

 

Oh. these Trip Reports can really grab at ya...and wonder why we are at home and not THERE.

 

Loved the lioness, her cubs and sister. Oh and the "sipping" baboons; the ellies in camp...just about everyting. What a marvelous place!

I had heard it was magical. You really expressed the magic in your shots Zim Girl

[Zim Girl]

How wonderful! You make me want to go (now).

 

Oh. these Trip Reports can really grab at ya...and wonder why we are at home and not THERE.

 

Loved the lioness, her cubs and sister. Oh and the "sipping" baboons; the ellies in camp...just about everyting. What a marvelous place!

I had heard it was magical. You really expressed the magic in your shots Zim Girl

@@graceland

 

Thank you very much for saying so. Chitake really is the most amazing place.

[Kitsafari]

such a lovely bushbuck. and those baboons are so cute!

[Zim Girl]

Matusadona National Park

 

 

We are spending our last 3 nights at Rhino Camp in Matusadona. We are here specifically to look for black rhino.

We last visited in 2011 when we spent two full days in the park tracking rhino with Steve Edwards from Musango. We had eventually found one in thick scrub at 5pm on the second day, but only managed to glimpse it’s rear end before having to make our way back to the vehicle and out of the park before sunset.

 

So here we are to try again!

 

Flying over Lake Kariba and coming in to land at Tashinga airstrip.

 

 

Our room at Rhino Camp.

 

 

Rhino is a lovely permanent camp located on the shore of Lake Kariba. It has a very peaceful atmosphere and is the perfect place from which to view the lake.

 

The lake shore outside our room.

 

 

Sunset over the lake.

 

[Zim Girl]

Mark used to guide in Matusadona from both Rhino Camp and Musango and knew the park well so he was coming with us. We had originally tried to book a PV but nothing had been guaranteed at the time. However, when we arrived at Rhino we were really pleased to find that Jenny, the owner, had very kindly arranged for us to have a vehicle to ourselves for the 3 days we were there.

 

So over the course of the next 3 days we spent our time carefully driving up and down the Park’s tracks looking for signs of Rhino. We didn’t see a single track from the vehicle so inbetween the driving we walked miles through the jesse and up and down the lake inlets.

 

We visited all the old haunts where Mark used to find the Rhino when he was guiding here. But all we were finding were very old, dried up middens. This suggests that because Rhino numbers are now so low, their territories have become much bigger, and they are servicing the middens much less frequently. So obviously chances of seeing them are also reduced.

 

One ray of hope came on our last full day when we finally found a fresh track. There was no other sign of the actual rhino and from looking at the track Mark said that the rhino was travelling at speed away from the area of park near Rhino camp. We only found the one track so there wasn’t much hope of being able to follow but at least it means they are still about somewhere!

 

Apart from our lack of luck with rhino we still had a wonderful time in Matusadona.

On our first afternoon walk we saw a big male lion looking down at us from some bushes. He moved off quickly when he realised we had seen him.

On one of our very long walks into the Park we came across a pride of lions with cubs on a kudu kill. They also didn’t stop around long enough for photos but great to see nonetheless.

 

Another time we very nearly ran into a group of ellies who were feeding in the undergrowth and we had to make a quick exit up the hillside and out of their way.

 

So despite the drop in rhino numbers this is still a worthwhile Park to come and visit. The lake side scenery is beautiful and such a contrast to the jesse of the interior. There are plenty of elephant wandering around the shore line and we saw hippo, warthog, impala, jackal and lots of birdlife. There are also buffalo, although we didn’t see them this time round. We even found cheetah tracks on one of our walks.

 

Some of the pictures I took during our time in Matusadona

 

This was definitely turning into a hippo heavy safari.

 

 

Plenty of ellie sightings.

 

 

Out walking in the Park.

 

 

A serrated hinged terrapin

 

 

More hippos.

 

 

Crowned cranes.

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

On our last day after our final morning walk we took the boat transfer back to Kariba town. This took around an hour and a half. We were dropped off at the Kariba border post and then transferred back to Lusaka by road.

 

All being well we are hoping to go back to Mana in 2015. But for the moment we are looking forward to walking in Ruaha with Moli and Kichaka next year.

I think we are due a change of country but the pull of Zimbabwe and Mana in particular is very strong.

[TonyQ]

@@Zim Girl

 

Great report - love the baboon shots and the lion encounter at the end of Mana

Enjoyed it all the way through!

[wilddog]

Greta report @@Zim Girl Many thanks for sharing it.

 

Reading about Chitake and Rhino camp brought back many memories. You certainly seem to have some really wild experiences at Chitake. I think it is the nature of the terrain (the gullies and crevices along the river bank combined with quite thick jesse bush which makes walking there rather challenging, particularly for the guide who needs to be on high alert at all times. There is so little that is open.

 

So pleased that there was some sign of Rhino in Matusadona. Doug MacDonald is up there now so perhaps we will hear some more news in a while. Fingers crossed during these worrying times.

[Tdgraves]

@@Zim Girl you must have more of Matusadona to show us.......

[Zim Girl]

@@wilddog

 

 

So pleased that there was some sign of Rhino in Matusadona. Doug MacDonald is up there now so perhaps we will hear some more news in a while. Fingers crossed during these worrying times.

 

I do hope so. Jenny was so keen to hear how we had got on each time we went out, it was quite sad to keep giving her bad news.

 

@@Tdgraves

 

To be honest we spent all our time looking for the rhino. These pictures were taken on our way to and from the Park.

[graceland]

Great report @ZimGirl....loved the photos along with commentary.

 

I'd love to go to Zimbawbe and Zambia ~but the pull of Ruaha may be taking us back once Moli establishes the Mpululu camps and permits. We are in communication with him and are waiting for a green season report to decide what month it will be. The walks have definitely put such an authentic spin on safaris; and our major focus from now on.

[michael-ibk]

Mana has a lot of followers here, and reading your terrific report it becomes quite clear why. The experience of walking and getting so close to animals, including lions, elephant and buffalo, must be absolutely incredible. (Though I think I could do without the charging lioness. )

 

Some of the scenery looks like straight out from a fantasy film trying to capture the essence of Paradise, especially the pics of impalas, elephants and baboons under the trees. Just beautiful! The Chitake riverbeds look fascinating, too, what a wild and "pure" place.

 

Love your pictures, especially the Eland with oxpeckers, the elephant bull in the water and assisting in camp and the lion cubs.

 

Wonderful stuff, thank you very much for this report.

 

Now I just need to get there.

[Zim Girl]

@@michael-ibk

 

Thank you very much

 

Mana Pools is an absolutely stunning backdrop to the wildlife and such a wonderful place to walk in.

[Atravelynn]

The Hyena and the Candelabra--I love it! Obviously so do you. Three trips to Zim and 4th already booked. You have found your paradise.

 

Much more excitement to come after page 1.