A Warm Weekend Away
Woods Camp, water and wildlife
When it’s June here in Zambia, that means winter. Not the bone-chilling, snow on the ground, frozen waterpipes sort of winter that is experienced elsewhere, but certainly cold enough to make you want to spend a few days in a warmer place.
Like somewhere in the valley of the Zambezi river, on the southern border of the country.
And so we packed our stuff into and onto the truck and headed off towards the South, to spend a couple of days with friends who were visiting from Europe.
Our friends were doing a longer trip, looping through Zimbabwe and passing by the Victoria Falls. We’d agreed to meet up with them on the banks of the Zambezi, near Chiawa. This is just outside the Lower Zambezi National Park, but within the surrounding Game Management Area, where there are no fences to inhibit the movement of animals.
We’d been to this part of the country before, but had never stayed at Woods Camp. Warmly welcomed by Ruth, who manages the place, we selected our camping spot. We were the only visitors at that time, so we could choose the best spot, positioning the vehicle so that the rooftop tent would be level, the views of the river would be ideal, but the trips to the toilets not be too long.
I should explain that one needs to take care with night-time toilet trips, it’s important to avoid hippos and elephants. Lions and leopards are also a possibility and while they don’t tend to go around hunting people, it’s not advisable to bump into them at night. So when you visit the toilet at night, you don’t go alone, and you take a torch!
Woods Camp is on the banks of the Zambezi and from time to time, one can hear the grunts of hippos and the haunting cry of the African Fish Eagle.
Not all the wildlife is scary and dangerous. Some aspects of nature are just … pretty. I know for a fact that one of our Globetrotter editors loves anything yellow, so the next image is for her.
Our friends were staying in the adjoining Muchichili Safari House, a very luxurious accommodation. We’d arranged to have our meals with them, an excellent decision!
After dinner, the walk back to Woods Camp, in the dark, on the banks of the river, hearing the grunting and snorting of hippos, seeing their tracks, was also an adventure. We were accompanied by one of the staff members, who was using his torch to make sure there were no surprises lurking in the bushes.
Here it is time to share some wisdom. People often wonder whether you could outrun a lion (or any other animal) but the answer is that this is not relevant. You only need to be able to outrun your slowest companion. The chap with the torch who was guiding us back to our campsite was wearing flip-flops (beach thongs, for you Americans) so my wife and I, in trainers, would be fine.
Of course, we participated in the almost obligatory sunset cruise, very ably guided by Brown, who showed us lots of animals and told us more about them.
If you continue drifting down the Zambezi, then you pass between the Lower Zambezi National Park (on the Zambian side) and Mana Pools National Park (on the Zimbabwe side), after which the river flows into Mozambique on its way to the Indian Ocean.
The parks here are not fenced, allowing animals to pass freely into and through the Game Management Areas and also between the two countries. We actually saw two elephants swimming from the Zimbabwe side towards Zambia, on our return to camp. Not sure if they were on a tourist visa, but they seemed to be having fun.
Some pictures from the boat ride:
And then, time for another brilliant sunset and a very nice dinner at Muchichili House.
The next morning we packed up camp early, but about 50 metres from our campsite we had to stop and wait 15 minutes because there was an elephant on the track, chomping its way through a bush. Which is a thing they do slowly. We just had to wait patiently, until it had moved deeper into its breakfast until it was safe for us to pass.
