Mana Magic and Hwange Highlights

[michael-ibk]

We went back to the pond and spent time with the birds for almost half an hour.

 

Yellow-Billed Storks are one of my favourites, and I had never seen them in numbers like this.

 

 

Even the Marabous looked kind of beautiful in the golden light which was shimmering through the woodlands now.

 

 

It was quite stressful, Doug would often point out Kudus, Impalas or Baboons walking by, and it was impossible to look at everything that was going on. On the flood plains there is never a moment where you don´t see animals, even mammals. But for now, I concentrated on the birds, even if some photobombs were unavoidable.

 

 

 

 

White-Crowned Lapwing

 

 

Wood Sandpiper

 

 

 

[SafariChick]

Wow - so glad Boswell decided to grace you with his presence, and right after you arrived too! He sure is a big beauty!

[michael-ibk]

We were returning to the Zambezi, just taking in the scenery, and stalked the guys from Mucheni 2 while they were fishing.



Isn´t this paradise? Even if going for a swim would not be "the clever thing to do".



One of the cooles things about Mucheni 1 was that a Carmine Bee-Eater colony was nesting just 50 metres next to it. They are everybody´s favourites, and rightly so, their colours simply are amazing. (We decided that we would spend more time with them on one of the following days.)





Getting them in flight is super, super-tricky (at least for me), and results in something like this 99 out of 100 times.



The hundredth time:



The light was going quickly now, and I remember thinking that I had never, ever been in a place with was more beautiful than this here.



Elephants were coming from everywhere, all heading to the river to quench their thirsts.



Baboons, like Impalas, are absolutely everywhere on the flood plains. And share the fate of all ubiquitous animals, they are mostly ignored.







Elephants were drinking close ...



... and far back, on the small islands in the Zambezi.



The rapdily sinking sun ended the day.







Doug had often joked that he had to toughen me up more on this trip, that I was still far too clean for his taste, that I needed to get much more filthy. Well, after this afternoon, after lying down and crawling around non-stop in the mud and sand he approved of my state for the first time. I was gloriously dirty.

Edited November 14, 2015 by michael-ibk

[michael-ibk]

What exactly was the magic device for tsetse bites?

 

@@Marks

 

It´s a German product, it treats the bites with heat (temperature of about 55 ° degrees, applied for 6 seconds). Really helps very well. Quick google search didn´t produce any finds in English, here´s the German site:

 

http://stichheiler.de/

[Marks]

 

What exactly was the magic device for tsetse bites?

@@Marks

 

It´s a German product, it treats the bites with heat (temperature of about 55 ° degrees, applied for 6 seconds). Really helps very well. Quick google search didn´t produce any finds in English, here´s the German site:

 

http://stichheiler.de/

 

Interesting, thanks! Bookmarked for further research!

 

Lovely Boswell shots.

[Alexander33]

I'm so glad you saw Boswell, and relieved that he moved away from the hunting area. I've seen photographs of him before, but I guess I really never appreciated how long his tusks are. Wow, indeed. What an unforgettable experience. You captured some really amazing photographs of him, as well.

 

Yea on the carmine bee eater, too.

 

Sheesh, 50 degrees C? Never experienced heat like that, and I'm from Texas!

[Peter Connan]

What a beautiful series of Boswel. I think I have never seen him other than on his hind legs, a position that actually looks quite strained and uncomfortable. He really is a stunning Ellie

 

As for the Bee-eaters, the 100th makes up for the 99! Glorious, I do hope you show us more.

[michael-ibk]

Luckily it cooled down quite a bit in the evening, so sleeping was no problem at all. The nights here at the Zambezi were quieter than at Chitake. The snorting of a hippo, the call of a hyena now and then, but compared to the life and death orchestra we had been an audience to at the old riverbed this seemed like absolute silence. Well, almost.

We had a mission today - find the dogs! Other people had seen them yesterday, and we were very, very keen to go after them. Doug told us that there wouldn´t be time to stop for "everything" this time, since it would be next to impossible to find them after they had settled down, which they would probably do sometime between 07:00 and 08:00, depending on if their hunts had been successful or not. We started our drive at abou 05:20.

The hippos were still returning to the water, this one was more or less traversing through our camp.



It was a beautiful morning at the Zambezi.



A small herd of buffaloes was enjoying the first morning rays of the sun.





Mana Pools is famous for its Elands, and rightly so. Completely unlike their extremely skittish relatives in most places they are absolutely relaxed here, and always an impressive sight.





We would also see Eland kindergartens, a first for me.



Lots of interesting birds about, I especially enjoyed this Purple-Crested Turaco.





Waterbucks are also very common near the river. When I went through the photos at home I felt quite guilty - we had taken almost no pics of them.





But the main thing we did was drive, drive, drive, and look for tracks. I was pleasantly surprised with the low number of vehicles we encountered. From what I had read some people were beginning to complain that it was getting just a bit too much at Mana. Well, not for us, obviously the park is less busy in October. We would never see people on any of our walks (except the rest of "our" team on two occassions), and so often had the wonderful illusion that Mana was all ours.

Doug worked hard this morning, often stopped to check, and we covered quite a lot of ground. I enjoyed the ride, we got see quite a bit of Mana, including all mana of the four pools the park is named after. (Mana is Shona for Four.) Their names seem to be a topic of discussion, and according to Doug apparently not everyone even agrees which pools are THE four. We went with Green Pool, Long Pool, Chine Pool and - I think - Chisambuk.

Often, however, water was not the most characteristic feature of the park, more often it would be the lack of it.



I assume this is the Cheruwe river, we crossed into the Nyamatusi Wilderness area here because some (older) tracks were leading there. But we should not be successful today, Doug did not find fresh tracks, and in this terrain it was not too easy to see animals in the bushes. Even elephants (with plenty of them there) became invisible quite quickly after they had left the road, an ability which always astonishes me. In the green(er) season this area must be very tought for game viewing, all the foliage here would make an impenetrable barrier for all visitors.



We returned to the main park area and met up with Andy, Andy and Shirley at Chisambuk. They hadn´t fared better than us with finding the dogs.



There´s a hippo in there, I swear.

It was already pretty late now, so we gave up on the dogs and just enjoyed the park and its regulars. And nothing is more regular at Mana than Impalas.





I decided to cut off the legs when taking this picture to create a bit of flurry discomposure, symbolizing the nervousness and alertness which makes the Impala such a successful Impala.







We spent some time near the river, and Doug would explain the flooding cycle of this ecosystem and its fauna and flora. Even with Lake Kariba the area does still flood, the many small channels fill with water and carry vital nutrient matters away from the riverbed.

This is Zambia on the other side.





We spent some time later at Chine Pool with lots of Marabous and Yellow-Billed Storks around, but the light was very harsh now, and since we were happy with our pictures yesterday we just sat and watched for a change.

Well, not totally, I was having a hard time accepting the fact that a 100-400 lens is not exactly suitable for macro.







Little Bee-Eater

Long Pool was our last stop for the morning.





It was about 10:30 when we finally drove back to camp, and today was the first time I was really battling with the heat. Even the wind in our face while we were sitting back on the car did not really help - it felt more like a very hot hairdryer.

[SafariChick]

Forgot to mention I loved the 100th photo of the Carmine Bee-Eater. It's good to know that even better photographers than I sometimes struggle to get non-blurry photos of animals moving.

 

I would have a really tough time with that heat. I've been done in by far lower heats than that. Yikes.

 

I love waterbucks, so I'm glad you got at least a few photos of them. The eland are beautiful too.

[michael-ibk]

After lunch we rested a bit in our tents - mistake! We had counted on the breeze going through, but it simply was way too hot, and I was feeling pretty unwell. But the problem was quickly solved - I took one of the rehydration satchets we had fortunately packed, and voilá - it was astonishing how quickly I recovered. (Though it really couldn´t have been a problem of drinking too little, I felt like a Camel on the flood plains with gurgling down litre after litre.)

 

The afternoon became much more interesting when we had surprise visitor.



This is "Big Vic", another one of Mana´s impressive older bulls. Unlike Boswell, he has not learned to get on his feet, though.

 

Obviously he doesn´t mind human company, it felt a bit like he was visiting for afternoon tea.

 

After a while he went down to the river to drink, and of course we all followed him.

 

 

Group Portrait with Elephant:

 

 

We left him, but apparently he really didn´t like being left alone and so soon came up to join our tea time again.

 

 

And was checking if everything was ok with our tents.

 

 

Only in Mana.

 

 

Doug was making sure that he wouldn´t wreak too much havoc, but Vic is a well-behaved guy and left everything in perfect order.

 

[michael-ibk]

We had no specific plan for our afternoon walk, Doug had suggested just talking a walk from camp upriver and see what we might find. And since there is no thing more enjoyable than simply go for a stroll at the flood plains, the most beautiful area I´ve ever been to, this was absolutely fine for us.

There is never ever one single moment where you won´t see mammals around.

Be it Eland ...



... Impala ...



... Baboons ...





... Elephants ...



... Warthog ...



... or Waterbuck.





The tall ancient trees give the place a very special feel. "Cathedral"-like I´ve often read, and it´s a fitting description.



Of course birdlife is prolific here, too. We saw lots of waders, Jacanas, Egrets and Herons (including a Goliath), and these White-Faced Whistling Ducks.





On this safari we had already seen plenty of Slender Mongoose, but they are frustrating animals to get pictures of. Small and extremely fast, they never stand still. Luckily, finally this one had mercy on me and was a bit more accomodating. I found it interesting that they are so common here, and Banded and Dwarf Mongoose (which are around) are much more elusive.





This part of the park hosted a remarkable number of Zebras, many more than in previous years according to Doug.







He mentioned it´s the Crawshay´s subpecies here, which surprised me - I didn´t know they are found in Zim at all.







Suddenly the time to slowly stroll along, enjoy the peaceful quiet of this afternoon was over. We saw some Zebras running back there, and then - only dust.

Doug: "Quick, quick, come - the Lions have killed a Zebra!!!"

[marg]

@@michael-ibk...HURRY! we are waiting.

[michael-ibk]

And so they had! We had to approach slowly and cautiously, you don´t want to storm in on seven hungry lions who have just made a kill. When we got to the scene, they were already busy feeding. Four females, and - yes! - cubs, always wonderful to see. And again, even with all we had experienced with Sapi, it was a surreal experience just walking in on them. Surreal in a good way, of course.

 

 

It was a bit difficult to get a decent angle on them, so now it was time for the opposite of getting down:

 

 

Much better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug had contacted the others as soon as the kill had taken place, and after a while they arrived at the scene.

 

 

Here you can see why Andy is @@Big Andy . Hell, even his camera is bigger.

 

 

 

Another magical afternoon, and we felt very lucky. Doug had told us that right now it was pretty difficult to find predators in the area, everyone was struggling a bit. And we had just happened to walk in on them.

 

Always loved dinners at the Zambezi. As mentioned before our chef was just brilliant, and nothing can be better than enjoying good food, good wine and having a laugh with good company in the moonlight.

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed just a bit longer than Andy and Shirley, wanted to finish another glass. The "just a bit" became "quite a bit" when we had another unexpected visitor. A big bull came walking by, less than five metres from dinner table, and started to feed at "our" tree. We were sitting very still, just watched him in the moon light - another unforgettable moment. Doug escorted us back to tent a bit later when the big boy had moved a bit. We hurried in our tents (brushing our teeth was not possible), and then I just lay in my bed and watched elephant feet through the flyscreen - and then an elephant head and trunk through the top flyscreen, he had decided that our tent tree was very tasty too.

Edited November 15, 2015 by michael-ibk

[SafariChick]

wow, such an up close and personal visit from eles several times, and the second intimate lion kill experience - just great! The storytelling is as good as the photos. Now if only those darn dogs would make an appearance, it would be perfection because we all want everything, right?

[michael-ibk]

Thanks @@SafariChick

 

 

I would have a really tough time with that heat. I've been done in by far lower heats than that. Yikes.

 

Well, I won´t lie, it was not always pleasant but all in all quite bearable. We would all probably have gone mad if it hadn´t cooled down at nights, but it did, and so mornings, evenings and sleeping times were very pleasant. It only got uncomfortable between 10 and 14, I´d say, and that was the time we were mostly resting anway. We drank a LOT (I once kept count and had seven litres before dinner), and I often poured water in my hat to keep a cool head.

 

Now if only those darn dogs would make an appearance, it would be perfection because we all want everything, right?

Well, my first post in this report kinda gave away that they would. But - when? Edited November 15, 2015 by michael-ibk

[dlo]

@@michael-ibk

 

I'm only done page 2 but as usual another fine report. As you could tell from my report I adore ele's as well so you can never have to many photos of them. You really have brought Mana to life for me but its not the bank manager I'm worried about but the manager of my house who I can not ignore! I'm looking forward to catching up on the rest of this.

[SafariChick]

@@michael-ibk I guess you did kind of give it away in that first post but I had sort of forgotten by now! But then I did see @@Big Andy 's posts in his report so then I remembered again

[Atravelynn]

So you did get to see the buffalo. That's a great video of them running.

 

Hello @@screentraveller, very nice to meet Michael's Mother! You can keep track of his adventures by checking his trip reports.

[Atravelynn]

You got the flying carmine bee eater! Love the group shot of all of you and the elephant! "elephant head and trunk through the top flyscreen, he had decided that our tent tree was very tasty too." Oh my goodness!

[michael-ibk]

@@dlo

 

Thanks! The good stuff is only starting on page 3, though, I swear. And just bribe your "personal manager".

 

@@SafariChick

 

The blessings of short memories - always something new that way!

[Soukous]

@@michael-ibk what a stunning safari you had.

such a shame it had to end.

 

Some very memorable sightings indeed.

 

I must confess to be surprised at how much water there was at Mana Pools - based on your photos.

There seemed to be a lot less last year when I was there and everyone had been saying this was a very dry year.

[panamaleo]

Gorgeous photography and beautifully written. Thank you for such a compelling trip report.

[michael-ibk]

Thank you @@Soukous and @@panamaleo !

 

Soukous, I´m not finished yet, still 7 days to go. About the water: I was told that in total, it was a very dry year, but the rains had been very unseasonal, including some very late ones. As a result a lot of the pans which would normally be long dry in September still kept some water (and so game was more dispersed than what would be normal). So I think your observation is quite accurate.

[TonyQ]

@@michael-ibk

I have just reached the point where you got to see the buffalo herd - very impressive - especially running down the hill. Great images of the buffalo in the water

Congratulations on your Pith - you are a really positive contributor to Safaritalk, so wear it with pride!

 

Welcome @screentraveller

It is good to hear from you!

[Treepol]

@@michael-ibk I really like your photos of the lions at the zebra kill. The intimidating stares of the hungry cats and cubs are captured expertly in your shots.