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From Victoria Falls we cover a lot of miles to get to Mana Pools National Park, following a rather circuitous route via Bulawayo, Harare and Chirundu. On the way to the park we see bush fires blazing with an orange light, making the night seem spooky. Sometimes the fire is so close to the road we can hear the flames crackling their way through the dry grass and we can feel the heat.
Mana Pools is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It nestles in the valley of the Zambezi Escarpment along the banks of the Zambezi River. The river, the woods and the pools of water create a variety of environments for abundant wildlife in this undisturbed haven.
It is one of the few, if not the only places in Zimbabwe where it is possible to go on walking safaris even though there are lots of predators about. I feel safe in the company of the weapon-bearing and experienced Mike and Bernard, but it gives a real buzz to be otherwise unprotected and on a foot level with lions, leopards, elephants and whatever else we meet up with. It hones your senses, raises your awareness and puts you in your place as a human. We are but mere cogs in the overall ecological cycle.
Our campsite is on the banks of the Zambezi River. We face a pod of hippos basking in the sun on a sand bar in the river. An elephant and her calf mosey past our camp on their way down to the river to drink, take a dust bath and douse themselves with water. A few hundred metres away from our tents a couple of buffalo graze quietly. Birds twitter and fly. It is like spending the days in a peaceful Eden.
At night the hippos lumber up from the water to graze on land. They are so close to my little tent that I can hear their chomping and breathing. In the distance lions roar to each other, hyenas whoop and titter, and baboons shout and bark. Early in the morning, I wake up to the loud splashes of belly flops as the hippos dump their plump bodies into the water ready for a new day of sunbathing and lolling about in the shallow river.
