Giraffes browsing with necks stretched high, ostriches grazing with necks bent low, vultures scanning with necks twisted, and humans observing with necks turning. Viewing platforms in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, afford you a 360-degree aspect on high of the savannah with its characteristic salt pans, mopane woodland, grassland and scattered game.
"I've been running safaris here for five years now. I should've started fifteen years ago. I just love it," said Steve Diedericks, our guide. "Every time I hear the elephants trumpeting I get such a thrill. Even now. To me they're the king of the jungle," he said.
He certainly is in the right place because Hwange boasts a population of 30,000 elephants, along with huge herds of buffalo, dazzles of zebra, towers of giraffes and cackles of hyena. Over 100 species of game roam through the 14,600-km2 park, one of Africa's largest.
Hwange was named for a chief whose tribe once inhabited the area. It was declared a reserve in 1972, just before hunters and settlers managed to wipe out the local game. Now, sixty man-made water holes provide the animals with thirst-quenching water which curb their migration during the parched winter months.
Our three-day safari comprised a lunchtime game drive upon arrival, two in the afternoon, two in the morning, and a morning game walk with plenty of opportunities for game watching and bird spotting in Steve's open-top Land Rover.
Viewing animals in their natural environment involves luck. Sometimes you spot nothing for long stretches, other times you make intermittent spots, or you spot so much you don't know where to look.
"I remember chatting to some American tourists here once who were wanting to sue their safari company because they hadn't spotted a lion the whole trip," said Steve with a wry smile and a roll of the eyes.
The fun of game driving lies in the unexpected. And the unexpected might just be waiting for you in the middle of the road. As we turned corners guinea fowl would go scrambling for their lives, hyena would bound off ungracefully, giraffes would peer at us nonchalantly, and baboons would play on excitedly. At one bend we found we were smack bang in the middle of a herd of elephants.
An armed ranger at Hwange will take you on an early morning game walk. It is a great feeling to be out of the Land Rover and treading the ground where the animals roam. The ranger gives information about the flora and fauna, pointing out tracks along the way.
As a fundraiser, local school children sometimes perform in the evening at Main Camp. Versatile performers, they switch randomly between playing the xylophone to singing in the chorus to dancing at the front, and all with untamed gusto.
Asked about the effects on tourism of Zimbabwe's current political situation, Steve said, "Well, these days at Hwange the high season isn't as busy as what the low season used to be. For that reason the kids don't perform much anymore, and that means less money going to their school."
Hwange is a two-hour drive from Victoria Falls from where one- and three-day safaris depart. An outpost town tucked up in the far northwest reaches of Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls is miles from the politics of Harare.
Surviving on tourism alone, there is a palpable despondency since tourist numbers have ebbed. "Please tell your friends and family to come. We want the tourists to come back!" With a sense of desperation, this was repeated to us many times during our stay.
And what a shame that tourists are missing Victoria Falls. "One of, if not the most transcendentally beautiful natural phenomenon on this side of Paradise," wrote F.C. Selous in the nineteenth century book, A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa.
"Positively cyclonic," wrote I in my diary, rather less eloquently. The Zambezi transforms from placid and meandering to ferocious and hurtling, as the water hits the gorge wall and plummets more than 100 metres.
Bushfire-like columns of spray are visible from miles away giving credence to the local moniker, Mosi-oa-Tunya or The Smoke that Thunders. A path has been cut into the rain forest facing the falls and it offers viewing points along the falls' 1.7 kilometre length. Don't forget your raincoat.
Doctor Livingstone, the first European to view the cascades, memorably wrote, "...scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." Those wanting an angel-eye view can take their very own flight by helicopter, microlight or ultralight.
Those wanting adventure can go white water rafting downstream. The rapids have names like Oblivion, Gnashing Jaws, Devil's Toilet Bowl and Washing Machine, signifying the wildest and most terrifying rafting in the world.
Those wanting tranquillity can take a sunset cruise upstream. Gliding blissfully along the river at dusk, sipping a drink, tucking into nibbles, waving to hippos and saluting giraffes is quite a way to end the day.
There is also bungee jumping, river boarding, jet boating, canoeing, abseiling, gorge swinging, horse riding, and elephant riding to keep those with an army of ants in their pants occupied.
Hawkers are constantly on your heels and do become very irritating. So steel yourself. They are just trying to make a quid, but you are advised to buy at the local curio market.
Gender roles are specific at the Falls Craft Village. Women are inside halls and pandemonium commences as you step in to look at their wooden kitchenware. Men are outside and ready to bargain hard, as you pass their stalls selling stone and wood carvings. Making trades is possible with T-shirts, hats, shoes, watches or anything else hard to come by in Zimbabwe.
Carnivores will not do better than the game buffet at the restaurant, Three 10 Parkway. African delicacies such as wildebeest, impala, kudu and crocodile are barbecued up - strange to think you are now devouring the very animals you were admiring in the game park.
More Information
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Office
Victoria Falls
258 Adam Stander Road
P.O. Box 103
Victoria Falls
Telephone: 263 13 44376
Email: zta@vicfalls.ztazim.co.zw
Steve's Safaris
P.O. Box CT 600
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Telephone: 263 13 40172/8
Mobile: 263 011 410 004
Email: watvfa@telcovic.co.zw
Shearwater Adventures Shop & Sopers Arcade
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Telephone: 263 13 45806
Mobile: 263 091 364 595
Email: overland@shearwater.co.zw
Questions?
If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our Africa Insiders page.
