Zimbabwe trip - Day 3

---

Day 3 was all about the wildlife. It started early with the baboons around camp attacking one particular tent across from us. I don't think they necessarily wanted anything inside, just to cause trouble. We thought whoever was using the tent was on safari because we had not seen anyone there and it was full of stuff. I think it initially started accidentally with the baboons chasing each other and one jumped on the awning and it tore, then it just seemed to become a game to them to jump on the tent and rip it to shreds. Amusing and scary. The smaller velvet monkeys were also watching the show. The guide said the monkeys are fine, but the baboons are "troublemakers" - my word, but he agreed.

Painted Dog Conservation

We left camp around 8 am and drove south, stopping after an hour at a local gas station which had an old locomotive we used as a photo op. After another hour, (not '15 minutes' as one of our guides said - African time...) we reached the Painted Dog Conservation area. While it was a beautiful location, with a very nice education center and great staff, there were only two dogs onsite and not much else to see. Still, it was interesting to hear about them as they are one of the most endangered animals in Africa. They often get caught in poachers' traps even though they are not the intended targets. The conservation center uses some of the wire traps they come across to make art, like animals and wall hangings, to sell for funding.

The tour / lecture of the center was led by a friendly woman who walked us through the lives of two painted dog brothers, Arrow and Eye-Spot, as they meet a new female, Crescent and her two surviving pups. Arrow becomes an alpha male and he has puppies with Crescent. Eye-Spot, the uncle, helps to care for the pups and eventually, when Arrow is killed by a wire trap, he takes on the role of Alpha male. The tale of these dogs does not end well, and is intended to get you to understand their social structure and how they care for each other, but are generally at the mercy of avoiding humans. The center hosts a lot of lectures for local children, indeed there was such a group when we arrived. According to our guides, all local schools attend a bush camp once a year for 4 days to learn about the wildlife and how to care for it.

Hwange Safari Lodge

For lunch, we stopped at a nearby lodge where we got drinks (of course) and a limited menu selection; I just got grilled ham and cheese. The best part, besides the beautiful lodge itself, was that there was a great viewing area of local wildlife. They keep a daily record of animals spotted. This day, I saw an elephant, warthogs, impala and kudu. There was also a lot for bird watchers - one guy was trying to get a photo of a particular bird which looks normal enough, but has bright blue plumage when it flies. It was really relaxing and incredible.

Hwange Game Drive

We met our afternoon driver, Jordan, at the entrance to the park where we all boarded a typical safari truck. I got to sit on the outside so I had decent views. I love that so much of the information that you learn at the Disney safari is the same - it's pretty cool. Also cool was the drive. It was incredible - like, I had to pinch myself to know that I was actually here doing this. We saw lots of elephants, a couple giraffes, zebras, impala, kudu, hippos, a crocodile, warthogs, and finally at the very end - LIONS! A male and female lion were initially lounging in the distance and then we saw them move towards the watering hole and got some great photos.

We entered the park a little after 3pm and had a 3 hour tour of the park with our guide. First stop, Jordan jumped down to show us recent lion tracks on the side of the road, which of course got us excited. I think the first animal we saw was an elephant, which quickly became three elephants on the side of the road. Hwange National Park has some of the largest concentrations of elephants, so we were bound to see some and they were amazing each and every time. This experience extended throughout the tour - elephants in groups or alone, elephants by water or trees, elephants crossing the road in a hurry. It was awesome.

Next we saw a giraffe, alone by one of the many "pans" - depressions which fill with water and where the animals typically hang out. They are all natural depressions, but the park helps feed water to them during the dry season. Jordan says that despite most photos showing herds of giraffe, in his experience, they tend to be solitary creatures. This also proved true, at least on our tour, where we only saw 3 (I think) and each one was alone.

We passed by many types of deer-like animals, such as kudu, impala and antelope. We stopped at one of the larger pans and got to see a couple of hippos submerged. Despite them generally living in the water, they actually cannot swim; the move in the water by going to the bottom and pushing themselves up with their feet. They also generally stay underwater about 30 seconds at a time, though they can comfortably stay under for about 4 minutes; generally the maximum time underwater is 6-8 minutes. If they get in water too deep to push themselves up, they drown. Also, at this pan we saw a couple warthogs and a crocodile on the beach on the far side.

We moved on to an observation platform for a break to stretch our legs. We saw more hippos from the platform in another large pan as well as some bird species. We had a 'sugary' drink and some chips and enjoyed seeing a herd of zebras in the distance. This was the only time I saw zebras the whole trip, and they were from a distance and moved away from us pretty fast - not a run, but they were not interested in sticking around to have their photos taken.

After about 10 minutes with our group enjoying the observation area solo, we were joined by a couple of other tours, including one with a bunch of nuns. A small Chinese tour group joined us and said they had spotted lions, near the pan where we saw the hippos and croc. Jordan had originally intended to continue in the same direction, but asked if we would like to try to see the lions instead. YES! We passed a couple of other tours coming our way, including one we had run into at the lodge earlier, and soon we found a lion basking on the side of a termite mound. She was just hanging out and it was far in the distance, so we used the binoculars to see. After about 10 minutes, she got up and was joined by a male lion! They started walking toward the pan so we went to join them. Then they turned back, so we did too, then they went back yet again to the pan and this time we beat them there and waited. They ambled along the water and finally settled down, I think to observe the beautiful sunset over the water like we were. At the pan, the other tour groups joined us and we were all just mesmerized in silence watching the wildlife, the sunset and having a successful safari.

---

Photos

Hwange National Park
elephants everywhere - there are 3 in this pic

Hwange National Park
zebras - hard to get a good picture of them

Hwange National Park
female and male lions reflected in the pan

Hwange National Park
did not see may giraffes

Sunset over Hwange NP
with hippos soaking in the pan

Hwange National Park
elephants everywhere

Hwange NP
type of antelope

Hwange NP
Kudu I think

Hwange National Park
guides just as excited to see lions as we were

Hwange National Park
lions near the mound