Hwange National Park

Hwange Bush camp located in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. During this time of year as mentioned in Victoria falls post, the area is super dry. They have not had any rain for a couple of months and the temperatures kept getting warmer. Because of this the vegetation is just dry bush and not too many green leaves. There also isn’t much water available for the animals to drink from. While there are a few natural springs available the national park has made a few watering holes as well. They pump water from underground springs to the surface for the animals to drink. They use solar power to operate the pumps during the day and some watering holes have generators that run throughout the night so that there is a constant flow of clean water. Because of this, a lot of the drives at this camp are focused on the different weathering holes at this time.

From Victoria falls I took a small Cessna plane to Robins air strip. This flight was 15 min long. Because the plane was small there was a lot of turbulence. So much so that I started not feel good but I’m glad it was only a 15 min flight which to me was a bit doable. I’m not sure if I could handle anything much longer, there were flights that lasted up to 45 min since they would drop me off at my airstrip then move onto the next stop. I’m so glad I was the first stop lol

I got picked up from robins airstrip by my guides and instead of heading directly back to camp they decided (with my approval) that they would take the long way around and go on a game drive back to camp. One of the first stops that we made was to the small pride of lions who had made a kill yesterday and just feasting on the carcass of the warthog still. Here I also saw my first jackal just waiting for the lions to leave the carcass alone so that he could go in for a snack.  After a brief stop here, we headed to our next watering hole. At this watering hole, a lot of elephants were present just taking mud baths and keeping cool by splashing water on themselves. That was until we saw 2 lions sitting in the back of the hill watching over the elephants. But something quickly changed as we saw some movement and dust kick up. A bunch of elephants started to run away and out of no where most lions came out of camouflage and jump on an elephant. A total of 7 lions jumped on the elephant and the elephant fell to the ground without putting up too much of a fight. (Check the photo gallery in the NSFW section if you want to see the video of this). It was amazing to see that they were able to bring the elephant to the ground in less than 30 seconds. What a sight to see this take place in nature!

After watching the lions try to break through the skin for a while, (elephants skin is very rough and makes it difficult for the lions to break through to the meat so it knew it had to go through the open orifices first; eyes, anus, or joints one the skin is a bit thinner there) we moved onto the next spot. We came across another group of lions eating an elephant of similar size and they had still been working on the elephant for the last 3 days. We stayed here watching the lions a bit longer than expected since base camp radioed in and said not to return to camp. It was flooding! I could see in the distance some rain coming down but just realized that it was right above camp. We continued to drive around a bit longer before heading back to camp once we got the go ahead. They had worked hard to ensure that everything was back to normal and it really didn’t look like it rained at all. Even though they said it rained about .5” in 20 minutes.

I got to settle down in my room a bit while they got dinner back on track. I was offered a bucket shower, as I settled in. Here every time we would want a shower we needed to let the staff know this is because the shower is done through a bucket that is hosted up and letting gravity flow it out of the shower head. And if the bucket was only about 3 gallons. So you really had to conserve water. First get yourself wet, turn off the water while you are soaping up, then you can turn on the water again to rinse off. After getting settled in, I had to wait for my escort to the main lodge. Here because the camp is not fenced off from the animals, it was possible that there could be something lurking around so an escort was required when it was dark out.

The schedule each day at this camp was a bit different than the one at Nottens. The wake up call was still at 5am but full breakfast was served. They had pancakes, toast, and cereal with coffee and tea. By 5:45 we were on the road for our morning game drive. This typically lasted 6 hours with stops throughout to stretch legs and have a snack. We returned back to camp around noon and had lunch. After lunch, was a couple hours of downtime where I would shower and sit outside my tent in a camp chair. It was so hot during the day to really do anything other than sit outside in the shade and hope for a breeze to come by. Each day the high would be a dreadful 115*F. At around 3:30, we would head back to the main tent for high tea. High tea is just another word for snacks. Typically they would have fresh fruit or cake and their new slushy machines that would help me cool off. 

Each night in the tent was definitely interesting, I don’t remember the last time I went camping. Each night as I got ready for bed, I would take my can of Doom (insect killer) and sprayed any flying indents that were in my tent. They didn't have any mosquitoes or any harmful bugs, It was just the flying sound of moths and flies that irritated me while I was trying to sleep. The first night, after I got all the flying bugs, the wind started to blow strong gusts, which caused the tent walls to flap around. It took a while but I finally fell asleep after getting used to the wind sounds. This was only until I was woken up by lions calling from a distance. And again took a while but ultimately fell back asleep until my wake up call. The lion calls became a norm and made it easier to fall asleep. (Check out the video section of the photos link to see/hear a lion calling which I was able to capture on my last night at the camp)

Because of the size of the camp (only 7 tents available) and its “remoteness”, there was only one other group other than myself. This meant that the whole camp was ~10 people. 3 guests, 7 staffers from guides/spotter to camp manager and Chef and couple of other back of the house staffers. While this was great in terms of service toward us, we were really in the middle of nowhere with not a large party. Since there were was only one other guest, we each had our own guide and spotter , which was pretty unique since we could prioritize things that I wanted to see instead of having to satisfy both parties' needs and I’m glad since the other group wanted to do a lot of walking and I did not. 

As we were having breakfast, I mentioned that the only photo that I wanted out of these next couple of days was a portrait of a male lion with his full mane.  And just like that a guide spotted a male lion in the tall grass in the field overlooking camp. We grabbed the last of our breakfast to scarf down and headed out to hopefully capture that lion. After we got out to the field, not only did we find that lion but also a couple of others. The male lion was with 4 female lions and 4 cubs. These cubs could not have been a couple months old. I got my photo of the lion and I was happy that it came out great! After spending some time with them we drove around some more and actually found another male lion that was taking a break from eating an elephant. After a bit of driving around, we didn’t see any additional game animals and got back to camp around noon.

The afternoon was not very exciting as we did not see any new animals. As we drove to the watering holes, they were all empty without a single animal in sight. Due to the heat and scarcity of water sources, animals were hiding the shade until it was a bit cooler before going back out to the watering holes. As we continued our drive we did check back on the solo male lion from the morning who was eating the elephant and realized he hadn't moved from his spot since we saw him earlier that day.

The next morning, I decided that it might be good to go for a short walk while the sun wasn’t as warm. We pulled over to the side of the road and took a walk for around 2 hours while it was still cool out. On the walk we came across another elephant carcass. I learned that this time of year there are A LOT of elephant carcasses. This is because of the weather. Since the vegetation is so dry there isn’t a lot of food available and they resort to eating bark to get some water and nutrients.

The afternoon drive was once again pretty quiet. We stumbled upon this very large male elephant with huge tusks that started to walk our direction. As we stayed still and quiet in our jeep, he walked right by, which was a bit terrifying. It was at this drive where I learned that the drives are better in the morning because it’s not only cooler but it’s also a longer drive which allows us to travel further away from camp and not have to stay so close so that we can return by the time it gets dark. 

One way that my guide was able to guarantee a sighting was to head over to the crocodile pool. It is a part of the river that doesn’t dry up since it starts off so deep. Our guide was correct. We saw a large number of hippos and crocodiles all hanging out pretty closely. As I was positioning myself for a better shot of the hippos, the guide heard a noise behind us and boy were we surprised… It was a big hippo standing right next to us that we just took off for cover. Even though, the hippos are big they are surprisingly fast and we definitely did not want to get in the way of him. Luckily after we moved he just ran into the water to join his friends. After that exhilarating encounter, our guide decided that we should try to see if we could find some buffalo. Using buffalo poop and tracks, he saw he followed them to the far side of the park where we saw a group of 10 vultures sitting in the tree. Since we knew that had to be something, we drove over to that area and unfortunately scared away the cheetahs that were sitting right next to their kill which seemed to have happened maybe 15 minutes ago. The animals in that region of the park are very skittish because there are rarely any cars that drive that far out and so when they see a car they are scared and run away. 

That afternoon the guide decided that we should try one last time to look for buffalo. Using the tracks that he saw in the morning he recommended that we head toward the direction that they were heading to see if we can catch up to them. After a couple of hours, we did see some “fresh” (within 12 hour old) buffalo poop but assumed that they were long gone and migrated somewhere else. We ended up at the watering hole near camp for a sundowner to just sit back and enjoy the view. That was until we got a call over the radio to be careful when returning to camp. This was because one of the staffers who was setting up for dinner spotted a lion directly in camp. The lion was drinking water from the birdbath ~10 feet from the dining table.

Hearing this we decided to make our way back to camp to see if we could spot the lion. As we made our way back, the staffer radioed saying she was heading our direction. As we pulled into the camp road, we saw her laying by the road just hanging out. After stopping to hang out with her for a while, we heard another lion call out in the distance and suddenly, she called out as well. So this was what I was hearing every night. Two lions calling out for each other all night long. It was pretty amazing to see how loud the roars carried throughout the valley. (be sure to check out that video gallery) As we stayed with this lion, we actually saw another lion heading toward camp. We quickly radioed back to camp to keep an eye out as we also headed back to camp. Just as we were pulling in, we could see the lioness entering camp and walking by the campfire that was recently started, she was heading to the birdbath by the dining table to get a drink. We stayed in the jeep during the encounter as we kept our eyes on her and continued to alert the camp of her location so that no one would get too close. She was able to get her drink of water and slowly left once she as done. After she left, the staffers went back to continuing setting up dinner and I did NOT stop by the fire pit on the way to dinner lol. What a way to end my last day at camp. That night, it took a while to fall asleep since I wasn’t sure if the lion had gone for good or would be waiting for me right outside.

That wraps up my African Safari trip of a life time. I want to say that I will definitely be back to go on a safari again but there are also other parts of the world that I would love to visit.

Don't forget to check out all the phots and videos that I took HERE

Or go back to the home page HERE