Africa Journal - Hwange National Park

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Sunday, September 24, 1995

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Hwange National Park
We decide to sleep in but, as promised in Andrea’s itinerary, We are awakened at 6:00 by the sound of birds. I recorded the sounds on my camcorder and someday will include on this page as an .au file. No alarm clock could be more effective.

Off at 10:00 on an all day game drive with Ray as guide. It is Sigrid, myself, and a fellow named Herbert from Germany. We are riding in a Toyota Landcruiser that could seat 10. Hwange is the crown jewel of the Zimbabwe wildlife park system. It borders on the Kalahari Desert and the dry dusty heat pulls the moisture out of you. The landcruiser is well stocked with refreshments, and Ray insures we are comfortable all day.

This was a great day of game viewing. We have many opportunities to get close up video and photos of zebra, antelope, elephant, giraffe and more.

 I believe we saw most of the animals listed in Andrea’s itinerary, plus some exotic birds, including an African eagle owl.

Larry, I mean Ray, serving lunch.

Ray served us lunch in a hide overlooking a waterhole. There were more than 50 elephants directly below us, drinking, taking mud baths, taking dust baths, stomping around, trumpeting, and looking us over while we were watching them. 

Sable, Ostrich, and baboons also visited. Ray chased a baboon out of another tourists car, who had left the door open while running into the loo.

 

That afternoon, at another waterhole, we watched a hippo chase a crocodile away from the remains of a kudu carcass. I have some video of this sequence which I will include as an avi file on this page when we get home.

We finish the day at a waterhole on the Chokamella propery watching the sun set behind a small herd of elephant. The elephants look like they are walking through fire and red smoke, as the dust they stir up is lit by the setting sun.

For best results, view while drinking a cold Zambezi beer

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NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This is a back-post / cross-post from my first on-line journal/blogging effort - a journal of our Southern Africa Tour in 1995. Originally posted to an abandoned domain (NetSnake.com), the term "blog" had not yet entered the parlance. I am migrating the original posts to this blog. Links to the original journal Date Index or Africa Tour Home Page will likely eventually disappear. The images from the original post were graphics and screen caps from video which I am leaving in it's low-rez glory for historical integrity. My intent is to also add some of Sigrid's higher quality scanned photos to these blog back-posts.  The difference in images should be obvious.