Road trips in Southern Africa — Sept. 2021 part 2: Victoria Falls, game counting in Zimbabwe
Day 3 — September 19
The next morning, we set off to Victoria Falls, where once again, as non-southern African visitors, we paid a higher entrance fee (fair enough). I was warned at the last minute that I should wear waterproof clothing — which (again) I hadn’t packed, so I put on a light hoodie and a waterproof sun hat. The closer you get to the Falls, the more it resembles a rainforest. The area has its own microclimate. Sometimes it downright pours rain! But oh, what a wonder to behold these absolutely majestic waterfalls. I don’t know Niagara Falls (I was there only as a baby), but I was told that Victoria Falls is more impressive. It’s quite a long walk to view the entire area, from the Zimbabwe side, and you come out drenched, but delighted.
We had to drive on to make our way to the next stop: Sinamatella Campsite in the Hwange National Preserve. To get there from Victoria Falls, we had to drive for a couple of hours through a coal mining site. It was gray all over the place, dusty, with an astringent smell, when we dared open our windows.
We reached the entrance to the Hwange Preserve, waited for a while to show our IDs, and pay our entrance fee. Then we drove over dirt roads for another 15 km on to the campsite, where we prepared dinner in the barbecue area after setting up our tents. There is a covered open-air dining area with 2 long tables, and benches on each side.
The “ablutions” area was a free-standing structure, men entered on one side, women on the other. Hot water was arranged by park rangers via a wood-burning stove.
A tiny frog appeared to live on the edge of the wall tile in one toilet, and an even smaller frog lived in the toilet bowl, and did not want to be fished out!(The wall tiles in one shower room also crashed down. It was hard to tell whether the tiles were recently installed or not. The next day, the park rangers, unruffled, removed the fallen tiles.)
Cost of stay at Sinamatella Camp in 2021: $34 + gratuities for the charming female park rangers.
Day 4 — Sept 20 — Finally, the count
We met with the Hwange conservationist (Steve) to receive our administrative documents and instructions. The trust that administers the preservation efforts built a number of “pans,” i.e. man-made water spots with pumps. Last year, there was sufficient rainfall, so Steve warned us that the pans weren’t in as much use as is usually the case. He explained to us how to fill in the documentation: to make a sketch of the location, enter the GPS coordinates, temperature, and enter every single living mammal we saw. He warned us not to make any noise, and leave our vehicle as little as possible. He showed us the types of animals we might be seeing.
Along with our group of 11, there was one Zimbabwean couple: a conservationist, Picket Chabwedzeka and his spouse. We were scattered among the various pans; Vicky, her partner, and my partner and I were to be at a location called Baobab, in 2 cars, side by side.
At 12 noon sharp, we were at the Baobab location. As the afternoon dragged on, it became hotter and hotter: note to self: never wear synthetics when it’s hot! Only cotton will do. And the Mopany flies! Officially, they’re bees. However, they don’t sting, and they only come out during the day. There were so many that we had to remain with our car windows closed, despite the intense heat.
There was one source of excitement for me, the newbie: I spotted a giraffe who came to drink at the water hole.
As the night fell, we decided to move the vehicles to get a better view of the pan. A lot of good that did us: we spent 16 hours with nary an animal in sight! We passed cheese, bread, and chocolate through the car windows, dozed off one at a time… it was so boring that I requested (jokingly!) to watch a nature documentary.
At 7 am, there was finally some action. Groups of impalas started coming to drink, as well as other antelopes. It was beautiful, I felt like I was part of a National Geographic documentary myself.
By 12 (noon) the next day, after we had fulfilled our 24 hour obligation, we were more than ready to leave. We finished filling in the forms and brought them to a viewing area, where we dropped off the paperwork to some people (it was hard to tell who was a tourist and who worked there), and paid $160 in cash (not cheap volunteer work!). We received no receipt, but Vicky assured me that the money would be going to the right place.
The view was extraordinary, with many different animals roaming around an expanse of water: zebras, hippos, impalas, and more.
After that, we returned to the campsite to pack up and leave.
