Our journey to Hwange was the much rumoured difficult drive.  We knew the roads would be somewhere between tricky to non existent but no one was sure exactly what it would entail. Setting off before first light requires a special permit as all movement should usually take place within the 12 hours of daylight. It took us nearly three hours to 4wd through the park, crossing eroded roads and river beds, but as we left the park the roads were even more of a challenge. They ranged between rutted gravel, slipping dirt roads, across crumbling bridges, and towards the end of the day, onto tar that had such deep pot holes in was challenging to navigate the rumbles. We were relieved to make it to camp in the remaining slither of daylight. The temperature could not be more different. Each night up until now we had slept without the sleeping bag, often with only the fly net down, sweltering. In this part of the country, as soon as the sun set the temperature plummeted. We huddled around a camp fire and slept in all of the layers which up until then I had felt stupid to have packed. 

In the morning we navigated into Hwange National Park, the biggest in Zimbabwe at around 11,000sq km.  It had the nicest roads we had seen in a while! The scenery had open plains, or vlei’s, where we had some nice sightings of giraffe who congregated to snack on acacia trees. 

Another exciting viewing was a group of vultures (their collective noun is a wake) by a watering hole. There were about 50 of them, with more joining by the minute. They subbed themselves, wings outstretched, in vast numbers.

On the bird count we added a new candidate to the favourites list, the funky hairdo of the Grey Crested Crane! 

Our final spot of the game drive was a group of Sable, a new antelope for the list that looks like it is dressed for Cinco de Mayo with a skull painted in white on its otherwise black body. 

On our way out of the park, we stopped at the Painted Dog Conservancy, a hospital and rescue centre for injured Wild Dog. They had two dogs in residence, Lucky who had been in a fight with a lion and lost her eye, and Comfort who was the last one remaining in her pack. Dogs hunt in big numbers and are very successful as a group, but are unlikely to survive alone. Their plan was to introduce her to a new pack.  They were selling wire sculpture souvenirs of dogs made from poachers snares.

On our evening game drive we were taken out by a safari vehicle with an energetic guide called Jameson. He gave us many quizzes and laughed emphatically when we knew the answers. We had all been studying my kids workbook and knew all of the trick questions, such as “is a zebra black with white stripes, or white with black stripes?”

We drove across the Vlei – an area of a dead river, maybe now isolated from its flow. Many animals grazed around the watering holes. Zebra muddied themselves in the water, elephants played outside a safari lodge where Queen Elizabeth once stayed. 

A big hitter for bird bingo was a lucky spot of a secretary bird. These strange birds have the head of an eagle but the legs of a stork. They walk along and stamp on their prey – snakes. I had read that they were so called either because in of an anglification of Saq-et-tair meaning hunter bird in Arabic, or because their head feathers looked like quills, but our guide offered up an alternative – that they dress and walk like a secretary. 

At our sundowner spot, Jameson laid out a tablecloth and poured Gin and Tonic and wine. His choice of snacks was questionable, a choice of nuts or chicken liver. But as soon as we were out of the vehicle, we piled back in as the rumour of lion came over the radio. We sped along the Vlei to where 7 cubs we playing, accompanied by a few adults who skulled through the grass readying themselves for an evening of hunting. 

Amazingly, once back at camp we were privy to the most immersive wildlife experience of them all.  We could hear the roar of lions very close to camp, followed by the trumpeting of unhappy elephant. The noise surrounded us as we prepared the evenings braai (barbecue) over the fire. We occasionally put the spotlight on the grassland, and then saw that around 500 buffalo were silently walking the entire panorama of our camp to drink at the watering hole.  Though it was dark, through the binoculars you could easily see that they were followed by a herd of around 50 elephants, young and old, all on the move from the lions call.  Sitting quietly, we were close enough to hear the rip of the grass as they are and the slurp of the water as they drunk.  A little while later we spotted the lions stalking behind. Each time you caught a glint of an eye it had stealthily and silently moved in the direction of the herd, pursuing its dinner.  This camp, like most that we stayed in, was completely unfenced meaning that once you went into the tent at night, you had to be sure you didn’t need to visit the bathroom again until morning. 

Next stop Victoria Falls!