Mana Magic and Hwange Highlights

[screentraveller]

Hi, @@Atravelynn,

I have been reading TRs since Micheal's first safari and enjoyed reading many others (kelly, gamewarden, safaridude, twaffle, graceland, safarikit......) your HAIKU (!) TR of course. I am happy to be welcome as a humble screentraveller.In a way I got to know some of Micheal's friends just reading and looking at their contributions to this beautiful site. And I have already met two Slovenian safaritalkers in person.

Thanks for your kind welcome

[Alexander33]

@@michael-ibk

 

Great photos of the lions on the zebra kill. That one of the lioness with a bloody mouth says it all.

 

I'm really enjoying your shots of the camp as well. The table lit up with all of you around it, sitting on the banks of the Zambezi in that atmospheric midnight blue light truly conveys the ambience that you have described so compellingly.

 

But romanticism gives way to reality when the elephant bull strolls into camp, doesn't it? Unforgettable!

[elefromoz]

Lovely black and white photo of the galloping Zebra with the dust flying. The cool evenings must have been just blissful, refreshing, great company and night sounds and visitors

[Atravelynn]

Hi, @@Atravelynn,

I have been reading TRs since Micheal's first safari and enjoyed reading many others (kelly, gamewarden, safaridude, twaffle, graceland, safarikit......) your HAIKU (!) TR of course. I am happy to be welcome as a humble screentraveller.In a way I got to know some of Micheal's friends just reading and looking at their contributions to this beautiful site. And I have already met two Slovenian safaritalkers in person.

Thanks for your kind welcome

Perhaps one day you'll be partaking in addition to reading!

 

Zebras running and very much alive and zebra buffet. The whole gamut.

 

That slender mongoose looks like it was zipping along too.

 

"Well, I won´t lie, it was not always pleasant but all in all quite bearable." Of course it was not always pleasant. You're not there for fun!

Edited November 16, 2015 by Atravelynn

[TonyQ]

What a wonderful day - the elephants, the lions with zebra, the eland, the birds

And wonderful scenes around the camp, A beautiful place indeed.

[Marks]

Vic looks like a perfect gentleman!

Your nighttime elephant encounters sound especially intimate and rewarding.

[Tom Kellie]

Hi, @@Atravelynn,

I have been reading TRs since Micheal's first safari and enjoyed reading many others (kelly, gamewarden, safaridude, twaffle, graceland, safarikit......) your HAIKU (!) TR of course. I am happy to be welcome as a humble screentraveller.In a way I got to know some of Micheal's friends just reading and looking at their contributions to this beautiful site. And I have already met two Slovenian safaritalkers in person.

Thanks for your kind welcome

 

~ @@screentraveller

 

Thank you so much for your very kind post.

It's so nice of you to introduce yourself.

I hope that you'll enjoy other trip reports, but your son's is hard to equal!

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

@@SafariChick

 

Thanks, it seemed to be a better place for my 2000th post than the "Quick Word Association Game".

 

~ @@michael-ibk

 

Ha Ha Ha!

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

@@michael-ibk ah, what a fitting moment - your description of finally finding the buffalos coincided with your 2000th post! Hearty Congratulations on both finding the buffalos and on joining the lofty club, the Order of the Pith!

 

~ @@SafariChick

 

You, too, are getting close, as is @@Kitsafari.

Michael's posts and trip reports, as yours and @@Kitsafari's are invariably refreshing to read after long workdays.

Tom K.

[Zim Girl]

@@michael-ibk

 

So the buffaloes turned up after all at Chitake!! Great pictures of them.

 

Lovely floodplain scenes. Getting Mucheni 1 was definitely not a downgrade, if anything, I think a bit nicer than Trichelia.

 

Boswell is performing well this season. You have got perfect shots of him.

 

I also think Mana was quiet this year. When we were there in September (which should be a busy month) we saw very few vehicles and nobody when out walking.

 

Love your night time pictures from camp.

[Atravelynn]

You'll look very smart in that pith, Michael. Do wear it in the Alps!

[michael-ibk]

Another morning, and the same procedure as everyday: Find.those.darned.dogs!

 

We started early again to maximise our chances, the sun had not risen yet.

 

 

Again, we covered quite a lot of ground, along the four major pools, into Nyamatusi Wilderness area and back. But - no tracks!

 

 

Morning scene at Long Pool

 

 

You wouldn´t be able to tell by this report so far, but one of the most characteristic features of Mana Pools is the abundance of Hornbills. They are on almost every tree and bush. Southern Red-billed Hornbill, to be exact.

 

 

 

Not sure about this one - Burchell´s Sandgrouse? (Any help appreciated)

 

 

Doug was sure this is a Steppe Eagle. The gape extends beyond the centre of the eye as against a Tawny Eagle, says my bird-book. They are winter guests from the Central Asian steppes. Two Tawny Eagles didn´t like this intruder at all and tried to chase it off.

 

 

Doug trying to find tracks.

 

 

We got out of the car a couple of times and started walking, sometimes for quite some time, sometimes for only a few metres until Doug would decide that it would be better to try elsewhere.

 

 

One of our longer excursions took us down here towards the Zambezi, through this "adrenaline grass". Why that name? Well, when you go through it you really don´t see all that much. And who knows? Could a dagga boy be resting just over there? A lion even? You really wouldn´t know - and that´s why it´s adrenaline grass.

 

But walk all we would, track all we could - no success. We did find spoor of the dogs, but older ones, and we lost them in the grass and and were unable to locate them again. So it was back to the car, and we slowly began our drive back to camp. It was already late morning now, and getting very hot again. Doug stopped, to chat with some guys with a Vundu camp car. Turned out this was the BBC who have been filming the dogs in Mana Pools for some months now, for a 5-part documentary featuring animal families, including the dogs (I also remember Penguins), to be broadcasted in 2018. And they had found the pack this morning! Where were they? One or two kilometres "in there", they said, pointed in the general direction, somewhere in a dry river bed.

 

Good enough for us, and we made our way through pretty thick shrubbery. And yes, we did find the riverbed. But where were they?

 

 

Walking in the loose sand of the river bed was actually quite exhausting in the heat, but we kept on, this dog search would just have to be a success! And then, Doug came to a halt, grinned, and gave us the thumbs-up.

 

Edited November 18, 2015 by michael-ibk

[madaboutcheetah]

Michael, it's been a delight catching up with this report - Your images tell a story and you bring out the splendor of Mana through your writing and Photos .... Thank You!!!

[michael-ibk]

And so we found the Nyakasanga pack, 21 adults and (only) four pups!



They have quite changed the dynamics in Mana Pools. Originally they were located more to the west but have this year moved into the park proper and pushed out the Vundu pack who moved inland. But after they had conquered that wonderfully game-rich area, they wouldn´t stop and have moved further East since. One would have expected the Vundu Pack to just circle back and resettle at their old hunting grounds, but no, they haven´t. As a result that stretch of the Zambezi is pretty light on dogs this year, and - for whatever reason - lions have been scarcer there than usual as well.



Sleeping Beauties.

In a way this was the most satisfying of our sightings, at least for me. There is something very special about spending hours tracking and walking after a specific "target animal", and there was a real sense of achievment when we finally did find them. Even if technically we hadn´t tracked them ourselves from the start but had help from the BBC guys.



Well, who cares how we found them - we did! These were now "our" dogs, we were all alone with them, and it was wonderful crawling closer and closer to them in the dry riverbed. And they would allow us, they did not mind us too much. A couple of times they would stare at us, wondering what strange creatures were coming their way, but all in all they were absolutely relaxed.

I love dogs, their social behaviour, their speed, their efficiency as hunters, their caring for the young and injured, their big ears, their painted coats, just the way they move, how they interact. Seeing them like this, so intimately, was a dream come true. We all were absolutely happy to just sit with them and spend time with them, and so we did for a good hour, maybe two.

Photo-wise, of course, this sighting was not a dream but a nightmare. They were lying in very dark, hard shadow, with glaringly bright white sand in front of them and behind them, and we couldn´t get close enough to only have the shadowy part in the frame.



Tried all kind of things, different meterings, over-exposing, but it was kinda tricky. But even then, and also now, it was not that important, we did not take too many photos but more enjoyed just being there, "belonging to the pack".



This pack, interestingly enough, has specialised on hunting baboons.



Only very rarely we would get their attention, they would all get up and have a good look. Well, most of them, some couldn´t be bothered.











Eventually, it was 11:15, and we would begrudingly bow to Doug´s argument that they wouldn´t do anything all day long, and that if we didn´t want to melt away in the midday heat we should slowly return to the car.

And so we did. Bye Dogs! Our only sighting of them in Mana Pools - but not on this trip.

Edited November 18, 2015 by michael-ibk

[michael-ibk]

Thanks, @@TonyQ , @@Treepol , @@Alexander33 , @@elefromoz , @@Atravelynn , @@Marks , @@Tom Kellie (thanks for the virtual pith especially) , @@Zim Girl and @@madaboutcheetah

 

 

Lovely black and white photo of the galloping Zebra with the dust flying.

 

 

I´ve discovered it´s fun to play around with b/w a bit, and of course Zebras are perfect for it.

 

 

The whole gamut.

 

 

New word for me - proof that Safaritalk is good for one´s education.

 

 

Of course it was not always pleasant. You're not there for fun!

 

 

Oh my, that fun comment will haunt me forever, won´t it?

 

 

Getting Mucheni 1 was definitely not a downgrade, if anything, I think a bit nicer than Trichelia.

 

 

Good to hear - but from what I saw all these riverside campsites seem to be very beautiful.

 

 

I also think Mana was quiet this year. When we were there in September (which should be a busy month) we saw very few vehicles and nobody when out walking.

 

 

Interesting. Why would that be, I wonder. General tourism downturn because of Ebola and economics? The walking ban thing?

 

 

You'll look very smart in that pith, Michael. Do wear it in the Alps!

 

 

Thanks, Lynn, but I will have to respectfully decline. Wouldn´t want to scare away all the marmots!

[Alexander33]

So glad you found the dogs! I agree that after so much work, the taste of victory is sweet, even if the conditions in which it was won are not ideal.

 

With the photos, I would have done exactly what you did. Expose the dogs as best you can and just live with the blown-out background. What else can you do? Deep shadows are always such a challenge.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Alexander33

[Big Andy]

Well done on getting the dogs ticked, and as you say extremely tricky lighting. The eighth image in that set looks great I like the way you've processed that one.

[wilddog]

How great you finally found the dogs.

 

Very interesting about the recent pack changes and the resultant pack movements. It goes some way to explaining why we were not 'dog lucky' in Mana a few weeks before your trip.

 

The images are, in my opinion, secondary to the experince itself. Never the less some great shots given the circumstances

[panamaleo]

Really like the b/w or sepia toned photos. It enhances the dog's beautiful and varied coat patterns. Next to ellies, wild dogs are my favorites...for the same reason you do @@michael-ibk...social behavior, hunting strategies, and also because they are so diminished in numbers. Hope I will see the fruits of the BBC production you mentioned. Waiting to hear more of your TR...particularly interested in your report re: Zambezi Lifestyles, as I will be there next year.

[Atravelynn]

That photo of Doug looking for dogs puts me right back in Mana Pools. Congrats on finding those elusive dogs. And even more elusive lions, from your comments. Interesting dog dynamics. Thanks for sharing what you learned. It makes sense.

 

"They were lying in very dark, hard shadow, with glaringly bright white sand in front of them and behind them," I can so relate to that statement as that is often how we find them. But the big thing is you were with them! And a big pack!

 

"You wouldn´t be able to tell by this report so far, but one of the most characteristic features of Mana Pools is the abundance of Hornbills." I had such poor luck getting photos of them that our last morning I put in a request for just a Red-billed Hornbill photo. Doug found me some, but still hard to get good pics. So they're everywhere but hardly any photographic evidence.

 

RE: a different bird, I would agree Burchell´s Sandgrouse after looking in my books.

 

You can watch that BBC documentary on dogs with insight and gratitude when it finally comes on!

Edited November 18, 2015 by Atravelynn

[Marks]

@@michael-ibk A belated congratulations on your "pith post!"

 

Turned out this was the BBC who have been filming the dogs in Mana Pools for some months now, for a 5-part documentary featuring animal families, including the dogs (I also remember Penguins), to be broadcasted in 2018.

As an (perhaps controversial) aside, this has always bugged me about the high-profile BBC documentary releases: jumping around from subject to subject, continent to continent, etc...I'm sure the footage will be top-notch, though.

 

Your photos of the pack came out great in tough circumstances.

[michael-ibk]

Thanks, @@Alexander33 , @@Big Andy , @@wilddog , @@panamaleo , @Atravelynn and @@Marks!

 

Waiting to hear more of your TR...particularly interested in your report re: Zambezi Lifestyles, as I will be there next year.

Ah, sorry, I think you misunderstood what I wrote in the Kanga part. All the other guests would move on to Zambezi Lifestylyles (both camps belong to African Bush Camps), but we did not. Zambezi Lifestyles is very close to Mucheni (where we had our camp) though, so you would probably cover a lot of the same grounds as we did, I´d guess.

 

@@Soukous stayed at Zambezi Lifestyles, see his TR here:

 

http://safaritalk.net/topic/13335-victoria-falls-to-harare-via-hwange-matusadona-and-mana-pools/?p=141089

 

Atravelynn: I would agree Burchell´s Sandgrouse after looking in my books.

Thanks!

 

As an (perhaps controversial) aside, this has always bugged me about the high-profile BBC documentary releases: jumping around from subject to subject, continent to continent, etc...I'm sure the footage will be top-notch, though.

Intersting, I actually quite like that, even the "continent hopping".

Edited November 19, 2015 by michael-ibk

[Safaridude]

@@michael-ibk

 

Great night time shots. And I love those intense yellow eyes of the lions guarding the zebra kill.

 

Also the shots from camp… brings back lots of memories.

[Big_Dog]

Very glad you finally found some Mana dogs!
The baboon hunting is totally unique to my knowledge, do you know anything more about it? I hope the BBc captured it too!

[michael-ibk]

Sorry, @@Big_Dog , just that they have started doing it and are very successful at it, I´m afraid that´s all. IIRC the BBC guy said he has some very cool hunting scenes on film but he didn´t specify which prey animal.