Monday, 15 August 2011

Hwange National Park




8 and 9 august is Heroes Day holiday in Zimbabwe, and that means holiday from work. Which means, holiday out of Harare! My destination was Hwange and Vic Falls, a 9-day holiday to fill up every single holiday day available!

We started off with Hwange, very early Saturday morning, with a packed car and Jos on my lap we set off direction Bulawayo-Hwange. Time seemed to fly and before 4 we had already arrived at the lodge. The car was quickly unloaded and we set off for the first game drive. The days consisted of early wake-ups, morning drives, late breakfasts, afternoon drives, evening braais (one of which was my very own) and early nights. And many animals in between! Since I forgot what we saw when I’ll just make a list. Basically: everything! Leopards were the big missing one though. We saw elephants (herds and herds of them), giraffes, we saw them drinking, which was a comical sight and brought up good pics, zebra’s, hippo’s, buffalo, hyena’s (and we heard them a whole lot over the evening - this however does not mean I recognized it’s cry when asked, a cheetah (from a very beautiful angle), a lion (from not a great angle, not very close and not for very long, but I saw it and I’m happy! We also saw lots of antelopes: impala’s on every corner, kudu’s in abundance, a sable, which apparently is slightly rarer, so I’m happy we saw it, a dik-dik (a tiny antelope), waterbucks and a couple other kinds. A serval, which is a little cat/carnivore we also saw. And baboons, in abundance! I’m sure I forgot plenty, if you want a full list, go visit Hwange Main Camp and see for yourself. It was absolutely great, I love camping, especially when it is so well prepared with all the necessary equipment, and the weather is so great! The nights were freezing though, but like I said, prepared people come prepared.

The last night of Hwange we spent in another lodge (Sinamatella), this one was fancier, with a gorgeous view!! Once again it was game drives (with a packed car) and braais! Hanne also tried out some ash cakes, little ‘muffins’ that you wrap in silver paper and put straight on the ashes, they tasted GOOD!! My whole perception of what to do on fire has completely changed after this week! It was great, I absolutely loved it, enjoyed playing with the boys - when they weren’t tired and prickly from the smallest things and their ‘help’ when doing the dishes, cute kids!, learning invaluable life skills from Jeremy (his own words) and the friendliness and generosity from the whole family!

From Hwange we drove through the park and on the road to Vic Falls to continue the holiday.

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