The day we were waiting for had arrived – we were finally going to Mana Pools.  Everyone that had been, told us this was a special place, teeming with animals, lush and amazing.  We felt so lucky to be going.

What can we say – the road was badly corrugated for over 70kms, we passed through nothing but dry, bush encroached mopani (with the odd Baobab), not an animal to be seen, barely a bird in sight, certainly not lush.  Oh dear, had we taken a wrong turn somewhere??

Thankfully not, as we approached the Zambezi everything changed.  The mopani were replaced by green towering mahogany trees, luscious Zambezi figs and delicious (if you are an elephant or buffalo) Ana trees.   The river was spectacular and gave the most rewarding sunsets.

 

Day 1 (Oct 3rd)

We stayed at Nyamepi camp which although is a shared and not private site, it is the only one with ablutions.   We had a great site and had protection from the sun, courtesy of a huge mahogany tree.

After setting up camp, we poured ourselves a well earned sundowner and sat at the river watching the sun go down.  Ah….bliss.  Now we were ready to braai and have a good nights sleep.  Ha ha ha – we were so naive.    As we began to cook – four ‘dagga boys’ (buffalo) came into the camp and set up post about 10m from our braai.  Lucky for us they were chilled and just looking to park off.  We nicknamed them the ‘old boys club’ and they became part of our family for the week.

As we were busy eating, along came a female hyena – she walked straight past the old boys club and then veered off about 8m in front of us.  What an experience.  This was going to be a fun week.

Bedtime loomed and off we went – there was to be little, if any sleep for us.  We couldn’t get to sleep for the sound of tin cans being pulled through the camp – it took us a few minutes to realise we had been visited by Eland.  The noise of their hooves clicking sounded like tin cans being dragged around.   Then there were hyena’s whooping, buffalo snorting, lions roaring, owls hooting, thick knees calling and lets not forget the hippos – having slept all day they were keen to get in on the action.

Day 2

After an exciting sleepless night, we set off on a drive towards Mucheni.  We did take a sneaky peak at one of the private camps and decided Mucheni 2 or 3 will be our next resting place when we return to Mana Pools.  We had a pleasant but uneventful drive – the pools we passed were beautiful and the birding was varied.

Andrew took himself off for a snooze whilst I curled up in a chair to read my book.  I looked up when someone came along to read over my shoulder. The Ellies are so beautiful and come through the park daily, which gives everyone a thrill – including us.

 

Day 3

We had another night of sounds and highlights of the bush – we woke to find a buffalo on the ridge staring right into our tent.  We had let the fly sheet down as it was stifling hot and the mozzies were few and far between.   Not really a smart move when lions are about but we were dying of the heat.

We had made a plan to go for a walk at 6am with our neighbours Jeff + Glynnis, whom we met originally in Hwange.  We managed to walk into 3 of the big 5 including a lioness and her cub.  She was a little upset to see us but soon calmed down when we backed off.  The walk was a route march rather than a guided walk and we managed to stomp over 10 kms in under 3 hours until it was too hot and we headed home for breakfast.  We think the walk was too much for Glynnis and Jeff – what do you think??

 

Ps – Jeff knows everything about cars, caravans and camping. You should see how he has kitted his defender – quite awesome.  Andrew’s hero.

Day 4

By now temps had never gone below 30C overnight and the fridge was truly battling with our poor solar putting out all it could.  We took a drive to mana mouth to see if we could recharge during the drive as Steed is a really expensive generator to charge batteries.

Andrew was a smart ar*e and put some apple rings from the ana tree to entice the elies so he could get some prize winning photo’s, what he didn’t take into consideration was that the old boys club might get there first.  It is still disconcerting to have a buffalo on your stoep.  No matter how chilled they seem to be. Thank god I had finished my book !!!!

 

 

To add to our excitement, once the hyenas had been and gone, a herd of 60 buffalo came to spend the night.  This was a good thing as we could put our flysheets down once more in the knowledge that the buff would let us know if lions or other predators came our way.  This also meant that we had our first nights sleep in a while.

 

Day 5

The camp was invaded by Russians or at least people from one of the ‘Stans……….   Their English was limited and their knowledge of the bush non-existent.   They wandered all over, chatting up a storm, playing music with no regard for their safety (or anyone elses).  However, this all changed one evening when they refused to listen to Andrew when he told them a small breeding herd of Ellies were in their way.  Luckily Ellies can speak Russian and in no uncertain terms told them to b..ger off.  I think they actually pee’d in their pants.

Sadly on our drive we saw a dying hippo on the side of the road.  He looked like he had a full life and was very old.  Otherwise we had another nice sunset, no sleep and plenty excitement.

 

Day 6

Mana has a policy that you take your rubbish home.  This is awesome unless you stay a week by which time your rubbish honks and can no longer be put in the car.  We had put the tent up out the back and securely zipped etc when we went for a drive – or so we thought.  Word of warning – baboons in Mana CAN and WILL open zips and yes, they will shake your soap powder over everything.  Brats !!!!!!  Lucky for us, they haven’t figured out how to get in the caravan (just yet).

Our day was one of necessity – packing, cooking everything that was left, trying hard not to die of the heat.   We did discover that the staff in mana pools have a secret shop where they have a fridge storing beer and coke (something we didn’t have).  So all excited we bought some coke for our Captain.  A nice way to end what had been a fabulous week.

We went to bed happy and full of plans to return.  We still had some packing to do and set the alarm for 5am and it is already too hot at 7am to pack and we needed to head for Kariba.

Alas, the universe had other plans.   Our poor dead hippo was honking up a storm and attracting a major audience.  Firstly, the hyenas descended for a feed, only to be interrupted by a couple of lionesses, desperate to also feed.  A huge fight broke out for almost 2 hours (500m away from where we were trying to sleep) – the lions won the fight when the males arrived to add some muscle.  Their roaring was truly awesome.  The hyenas then tried to save face by coming into the camp and whooping up a storm.    This was still going on at 5am, so we had to delay our packing somewhat.  Even the old boys club had decided to spend the night somewhere else. The Russians however, not being a smart as buffalo, continued to wander around clueless.

Day 7

As we left Mana Pools we had mixed feelings.  It was time to move on and do something else but we had enjoyed our time so much we didn’t want to leave.  We were very quiet in the car, both plotting when, where and how to return.

The road out was as awful as we remembered and we really wished Roger was around to fly us out.  Driving out sucks.  Lucky for Mana Pools it is truly worth the effort.  Poor Humble – he lost another strap in the process.  We have now fixed him again but have run out of spares.  Oh dear !!

NB: A word of warning to anyone driving on the main Chirundu road – it is narrow, windy and full of trucks.  Ignore the speed limit and go slower.  We saw 3 dead (and we mean burnt out) trucks by the side of the road.  As the advert says – better to be late than be known as the late !!