Heading South

Africa » Zimbabwe
October 19th 2011

Published: June 17th 2017

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jc80

01 Drinking

Elephants drinking at the waterhole.

Geo: -20.5016, 28.4546

Last night we had a terrible night's sleep. It was pretty uncomfortable sleeping in the picnic shelter and I was also a bit paranoid as we were so exposed to nature – but we survived! We left at about half past 6 for a short game drive. We drove south to the waterhole where we enjoyed the sunset yesterday evening.

Here there were a couple of elephant breeding herds arriving and departing the area. The elephants drank water. This waterhole was not deep/big enough for them to swim in. There were also some Roan – a type of antelope.

An hour later and we were back at the picnic site. So far the weather has been overcast and cool, it will make a good day to be driving. We repacked the car and made some breakfast.

We left the picnic site at 9am and drove towards the park gate. Along the way we had our last sightings of elephants, zebras and giraffes. There was a dead baby elephant surrounded by vultures as it was being eaten by a jackal. When the jackal moved away, the vultures were all over the carcass, it seemed like they were starving! There was

02 Roan

A Roan antelope with an oxpecker on its back.

quite a bit of activity at this waterhole and we would have liked to stay longer, but we had a bit of a drive to get to tonight's accommodation.

It was about 11am when we left the park. It was sad to be leaving the security and remoteness of the park and now we were back in civilisation. We drove south towards Bulawayo. Along the way we saw many abandoned farms. It is such a shame to see good land and buildings not being utilised to their full potential.

At about 4pm we arrived at the gates of Matopos National Park, which is about 30 south of Bulawayo. We were only staying one night here and it was too far to continue back to Madikwe. It seemed like a nice park with lots of fences. Soon after we entered we stopped at the curio stalls. There were many nice curios made of either wood or grass. We bought a wooden carving and two grass baskets. The only animals we saw as we drove to Maleme Rest Camp were lots of cows and one Klipspringer! The scenery was nice, lots of rocky hills.

At reception Paul and Neil sweet talked the

03 Prey

A bird of prey on the lookout for food.

lady into giving us a lodge for a very good price. We could not be bothered setting up camp just for one night. We stayed in the Fish Eagle Lodge. It was so nice to have so much space and be under a roof! Our lodge had a great view of the Maleme Dam and the surrounding area. Tonight we enjoyed a barbecue under the stars with our remaining few cold drinks.

Additional photos below

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