Another of my favourite stops and our last on adventure, Mana Pools in Northern Zimbabwe. Oh gosh, it's beautiful and the campsites that are along the Zambezi River, are so tranquil.
We were forced to leave Nic's car with the locals at the school where we'd camped, for the rental company to pick up and squished into the 3 remaining cars. Fortunately, our vehicle had come with an extra tent, so Nic and his family had to sleep in that. We were a good group for making the best out of a bad situation and fortunately had a few extra days, so managed to still stay in Mana Pools for a 3rd night.
Arriving in Mana Pools, we were welcomed by a host of animals drinking in the open at a waterhole not too far from camp...
Including an ellie family...
A big mud-covered ellie next to the road...
We'd taken a slight wrong turn from reception into the campsite, but were treated to a very special sighting of an ellie strolling through the camp...
Mana Pools is famous for their elephants that roam through the campsites, however this was our only sighting of one...
The views from our campsite were magnificent and the photos simply don't do it justice. Across the river is Zambia...
In the fading sun, it was just perfect...
I have dreamt of visiting Mana Pools, but never imagined it would ever be possible...
The next morning we were up early for a 2 hour walk in the bush. I really love walking in the wild - it gives you the opportunity to see details that you wouldn't see from your car. Plus, there's the thrill of never knowing what lies around the next corner...
Imapla in the forest...
Would you believe that this is actually a hippo and croc filled dam?
A grey heron in the morning sun...
Looking across through the forest - Mana Pools is also well known for it's elephants that stand on their hind legs to reach fruit in trees, but we sadly missed that - a good excuse to visit again...
A herd of impala, acutely aware of us...
Massive army ants...
Fresh lion spoor...
Water hyacinth...
Jake and Nic with our guide, Steven...
And me with the ladies... 
The roads in Mana Pools were better then some others and Jake took advantage of driving me around as much as possible. We found this mommy and tiny elephant...
A little herd...
The baby was so little and we spent a lot of time just enjoying them... 
Thankfully, I didn't see many spiders while we were away. I didn't really look too hard. There were a few snakes, including a boomslang that had made a home in the walls of the men's bathroom at Mana Pools, but he stayed out of the way...
Happy and rested (and make-up free)...
I can't take credit for the below photo - Avin took this one of Jake and his reflection...
We were treated with a gorgeous sighting of ellies crossing the river into Zambia...
Jake watching the elephants with Avin, Ariana and Malia...
Safely on the other side...
A pair of white fronted bee eaters...
Jake enjoying the peace and quiet...
The rays of the setting sun...
Jake and I decided to get up early one morning - because the campsites are unfenced, you can get up and go as early as you like. Estelle joined us and we set off around 5:30am. By the time we got onto the road, the impala were still lying in the road sleeping, so we were really the first ones out the gate. We were well rewarded with an amazing sighting of two huge male lions walking down the road right in front of us. We turned the car and followed them for about an hour. They lay in the road and marked their territory...
A sighting like this is exhilarating...
The car in front of them arrived long after us and took over prime position. We slowly followed the lions, as we had been doing for some time. I'd just reached the corner to pass him, when he very rudely cut me off, swung out in front of me to do a U-turn and ensure that he had prime position. He succeeded in chasing the lions into the bush, where they took cover under some trees. We headed back to camp for bacon and egg breakfast after I'd told him that I thought he was very rude...
Our chill out spot...
Sunrise over the river. We'd watched the hippos munch their way through the grass on their way out of the water the night before...
I don't think I'll ever get bored of the views...
Water hyacinth again...
A sign leading to our camp. The dirt road behind leads through the staff village down to reception. It was about a 500m walk through the bush each way...
Our last braai...
Now this path at our campsite has a good story! It's an old hippo track and Jake took me down to the bottom to go and see the river. Great idea, we had uninterrupted views in all directions and spent a bit of time enjoying it. Nic came to see what we were doing (I'd already started making my way back up the track) and told Jake to move quickly as there was a croc stalking him. We thought he was joking, but Jake came up and we very naughtily threw a piece of chicken into the water and the croc re-surfaced. He was slowly moving towards the very spot where Jake had been crouching next to the water's edge. And he was HUGE. Our holiday could've had a very different ending. And I should've known better, especially since we'd been told that there was at least 1 croc for every 10m2 in the Zambezi and they love the warm shallow water. Lesson learnt!!
Early morning sunrise on our last morning...
From Mana Pools, we drove all the way down to Bulawayo, where we spent a night in a filthy bungalow. The next day we cut back into Botswana, through Francistown and down to the Stockpoort boarder post and back into South Africa. We spent a last night camping somewhere just in SA and the following day drove on into Johannesburg. We spent a night in a hotel and all met up for a final farewell dinner, before heading home on the Sunday morning.
I can't even begin to tell you how life-changing our holiday was. It was so very different from what we've experienced before. Kruger will always be our favourite place in the whole entire world, but it was amazing to experience something new. It was a good life lesson for me and I'm glad that we rose to the challenges that the holiday brought us. I can drive a great big 4x4 in 4x4 mode and it's so much fun. I do make mistakes, and I did get stuck 2 or 3 times, but that's part of the adventure. Jake can do it too - he did so well on the roads!! We travelled with amazing people and we're already talking about doing Mozambique and Malawi next year. Added to all of that, Jake feels like he did some proper growing up while we were away. He was very nervous about camping in the wild, but like I've said before, you develop a very false sense of security when you're in a campsite. You almost forget it's unfenced. And when the fireflies come out at dusk and you see the hippos wading out the water, it is really special. We did see a wild cat in the campsite and we did have a hyena in our campsite one night at Mana Pools, but it's exciting. There's nothing better then lying in your tent at night and hearing the wild sounds all around you - we would do it again in a heart beat and we will!
Thanks for coming on our adventure with us!
Sue XXX
No comments:
Post a Comment