Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Chitake Camp #2, Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe

This is just an overnight stop after a long day of driving on a very bumpy gravel/dirt/sand road. It's the camp closest to the gate in Mana Pools Park. We'll move to our intended camp on the Zambezi River tomorrow.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Chilila Cottages, Binga, Zimbabwe

Map

Another driving day. Tomorrow will be, as well. We left the dam around 7:00 this morning and got here around 1:00 with no police stops. We passed a few but they were just sitting in the shade along the side of the road, except for one. It was at an intersection, with a gas station, but we avoided them by going into the station, filing up and then taking the road past the police.

The drive out of the park was a bit depressing. Right at the park boundary is a working open coal mine

At the end is this sign:

The cottages are a bit run-down, but they are right on the edge of Lake Kariba, the largest reservoir in the world, or so I'm told. Driving into Binga, it is believable.  You get a view of it from up on a hill.  It is reminiscent of one of the Great Lakes.

Tomorrow is more driving - on a mostly dirt road. People have said it's only 6 hours, but my GPS says 9. We've had various reports about the road conditions, but none say we will have any problems.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Mandavu Dam, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

We left early to visit another waterhole to see what was there. A fellow there said there was a whole pride of lions just down the road. We went there, but they must have left because we didn't see anything. We continued down the road and came upon this crossing the road:

Back at camp, we spent the day in the platform watching close hippos, elephants a long way off, giraffes a long way off and herons flying in building a nest:

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Mandavu Dam, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

It was a, mostly, long distance wildlife day. We spent most of the day on the platform watching as wildlife came and went. There were elephants a couple of times across the lake:

Then we had a hippo fight right in front of us:

At night we heard lions roaring and hippos making all kinds of loud grunting bellowing calls.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Mandavu Dam Picnic Site, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

Map

The morning was spent driving here. It was about 3 ½ hours through the park over crumbling pavement and washboard road.

It's kind of a nice place. There is this medium sized lake with a picnic area on one shore. The picnic area is available for camping for one group at a time. We're the group for the next 3 nights.

There is a covered platform about 50 feet from the camping area that overlooks the lake. Hippos and crocodiles frequent the area.

There is a hippo in that last picture, he's about 75 feet from the platform.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Main Camp, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

A day of waiting.

Josh and I went out for a drive this morning looking for wildlife. We found zebra:

warthogs:

and a giraffe

The rest of the day was spent waiting for the papers to arrive. They finally did around 8:30 in the evening – intact.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Main Camp, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

It was a day of driving and a short period of great worry.

We drove down to Bulawayo today in Josh's camper and got the gas cap. We found taillight lenses and also a tire pressure guage. When driving in soft sand, of which there seems to be a great abundance of here, you want to lower you tire pressure by almost ½. We have compressors with guages, but both of the guages are broken, so we had no real way of telling when it was right or when we had pumped them back to the right pressure when we got back to better roads.

We managed to make the whole trip with no tickets. We passed at least 10 roadblocks and all but the last time were waved through. The last time they didn't ticket us or anything.

So we got a pressure guage. We had looked for one in Kasane and Victoria Falls with no luck. We found one in Buawayo. But, it came at a price.

I have a folder full of papers, one is vital to traveling in the camper around Zimbabwe. The police ask for it at stops. I had taken the folder into the parts store where we got the lenses because it had the Land Cruiser model information and, after being distracted about paying for the items, left it on the counter. I didn't discover it was missing until we were nearly back at camp – 3 hours later.

After much anquish, one of the ladies at the registration office called the store and verified that they had the folder. We then made arrangements for a friend of hers to drive down tomorrow and get it. I will pay him $100 for that. It would have cost us about $50 in fuel and another whole day of driving. It would cost him much less in gas and the $70 or $80 he would make is about a month's pay around here for many.

Hopefully, by tomorrow evening I'll have the papers back.