Thursday, May 13, 2010

Back in the Bush – by Ellen


Confessions of a camper: we were two weeks into a trip to Zim, and we’d not put the tent up once. It was time to get back to the bush.

Before we left Harare we did manage to fit in a trip to the rock paintings at Domboshawa. As well as some great outline paintings of rhino and antelope (a style unique to Zimbabwe – most other rock paintings are solid colour) the rocks here are worth seeing. Great curved expanses of granite topped with balancing rocks and covered in the most extraordinary fluorescent orange and yellow-green lichen. (Also, if you put on a Zimbabwean accent you get local rates – Evan’s years of practicing have finally paid off!).

After a stop-over night in Bulawayo we reached Hwange (Wankie) Game Park. I’ll not bore you with the details of what we saw on safari; mainly because we didn’t see much at all. Because of all the unseasonal rain, the animals didn’t need to come out of the thick bush and down to the watering holes. We did hear some lions, hyenas and jackals in the night. The fence around the camp was...erm...sporadic. We’d been assured that the lions were not able to get into the camp. But based on the fact that an elephant walked right passed us while we were having a braai (bit of a shock in the dark), we weren’t convinced.

One great sighting was by a watering hole in the middle of the day. We watched a stately line of elephants make their way down to the water. We sat for over an hour just enjoying watching them splash and play and fight and roll in the mud. They weren’t happy at having to share the water with three ostriches which had come to bathe, and even less happy when the troop of baboons arrived. They soon gave up trying to chase them off and wondered silently back into the bush.

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