Beautiful Zimbabwe! - September 2013

Dear FoMis,

We returned from Zimbabwe early this morning after having spent three weeks in this stunningly beautiful country with its welcoming people.

Over the next weeks I will start a detailed trip & photo report here and will also try & respond to any queries some of you may have if you planning to travel to Zimbabwe shortly.

Our itinerary:

8. 9.2013: over-night flight London to Johannesburg

9. 9.: flight Johannesburg to Livingstone, Transfer to Zimbabwe - over-night in Vic Falls

10. to 13.9.: Walking Safari in Hwange

14.9.: Receipt of a 4x4 Hilux and over-night in Vic Falls

15.9.: Early departure from Vic Falls direction Mana Pools - over-night at Makuti Lodge (we arrived at Sanyati River at night fall, couldn't find the camp [the sign had been stolen - apparently by the gold diggers ...] in the dark and decided to drive on to Makuti, which we reached at 23:00)

16.9.: Early departure for Marongora (collection of the entry permit for Mana Pools) - overnight at Nyamepi Camp - the first magical place of our trip.

17. to 19.9.: Canoe Safari in Mana Pools - what an experience! Overnighting on the banks of the Zambezi river between Vundu Camp and Chikwemya Safari Lodge.

20. to 22.9.: Early morning / late evening 4x4 excursions around Mana Pools - overnight at Nyamepi Camp with elephants patrolling the camp during the day & hyenas, hippos and lions at night.

23.9.: Mid-morning departure for the Sanyeti River Camp where Merrick was our welcoming warden.

24. to 25.9.: Tashinga Camp / Matusadona - the second magical place of our trip. The fig trees were in fruit and the elephants were therefore in camp day and night.

26.9.: Early departure for Milibizi - over-night at Milibizi Resort.

27. to 28.9.: All-day excursions around Hwange - the third magical place of our trip - over-night at Main Camp.

29.9.: Mid-morning departure for Vic Falls - where we spent 2 nights.

1. 10: Early departure for Livingstone airport and the flight back home via Jo'burg.

Any questions - just ask ....

Liebe Gruesse
Joachim

PS: Ich werde den Bericht in Englisch verfassen - nach 20 Jahren in England liegt mir die Sprache einfach naeher - hoffe das is OK.

Thanks for your report!
Please tell me, what are the roads like to Matusadona?
We are planning of going NAM,BOT, ZIM ( Hwange, Chizarira, Matusadona) up to Malwi in December.
Best regards from WHK 🙂

Hi Joachim,

Many thanks for your feed back! 😎

I am really looking forward to your detailed trip with pictures. 🙂

Best regards from France
Annick

Hi Brakkies,

there are two possible approaches to Matusadona when coming from the Binga/Karoi road as shown on the attached.

We took the shorter eastern approach on arrival & departure - the first 13km were well maintained. The problem starts immediately after the junction where eastern & western approaches meet mainly caused by steep & rocky slopes, we used the low gears on occasion, mainly to protect the brakes & suspension. There were ca. a dozen of small stream crossing with steep banks and a concrete bases [which could see some fast flowing water after heavy rains] and one larger rocky river crossing [ca. 60-80 meters across]. We travelled in the dry season and therefore only felt the discomfort of being slung about by the rocky road - matters could be quite different in wet weather though! This rough section stretches for ca. 55km and flattens out after the road descends from the escarpment. The remaining ca. 13 km were not as good as the first 13 km, but they posed no problem.

The rough section has two short diversions covering the worst two flat stretches. Coming from the Binga/Karoi road the first veers off to the right and goes on for some 400-500 meters, the second is shorter and veers off to the left - it's hard to overlook them if you know they exist.

The terrain is tough on the tyres. Rick & Sue from Durban, whom we had the pleasure to meet at Tashinga, experienced a flat tyre when arriving at ZimPark's Tashinga Office.

However, all the trouble was worth the effort on our occasion, which I will detail later within the actual trip report.

Hope this helped a bit!

Cheers,
Joachim

PS: We found Tracks4Africa's Zambia/Zimbabwe map really useful in connection with a PC and a Garmin SatNav device

Hi, Joachim

so schnell ist die Zeit um, und schon bist du wieder hier.
Freue mich auf einen Bericht von dir, mit schönen Bildern.
Wir müssen noch gut 5 Wochen warten..... 🙁

Lieben Gruß
Birgitt

Thanks so much 🙂 Highly appreciated!!!
Only now that I saw your pm.
Will answer you more detailed there...

Hi Joachim

Looking forward to your trip report a lot! Thanks for taking the time. Zimbabwe is indeed a beautiful country!

I think we met at Nyamepi Office while you were waiting for your canoe safari pick-up. You asked us, if we're joining the same canoe safari 😉

Cheers
Jenny

Hello Birgit,

yep time flies by ... and so will your 5 weeks too!

I had a first scan of our stills and clips - their should be some nice footage!

Cheers for now,
Joachim

Hi Jenny,

yes, I was a bit irate at the time as our tour operator was an hour late for the pick-up and the rep that met us was completely unaware of the fact - so he got it wrongly in the neck - but all went well from then on - I apologised to the rep after finding the culprit, but not without getting the message across.

How was your stay in Mana Pools?

We felt that you never knew what was going to happen next, especially at Nyamepi Camp.

Cheers,
Joachim

Hallole,
reise und route hören sich perfekt an, nur sehr schade leider durch englisch nicht so gut verständlich und somit werde ich wohl nicht richtig folgen können... 😊 🤨 😐
lg,
antje

Halloeli,

die Reise hatte meine Gattin Cindy in Verbindung mit oertlichen Kleinbetrieben in Zim & SA zusammengestellt - sie hat ein tolles Haendchen dafuer! 😉

Bzgl. Englisch hoffe ich dass dies Dich nicht auf Dauer abschrecken wird und unsere Photos fuer sich sprechen werden. Wenn es dann wirklich einmal nicht verstaendlich sein sollte koennte versuchs mal per copy & paste by Google Translate ... benutze ich immer fuer Franzoesisch ...

Werde heute Abend / morgen frueh mal versuchen hier ein paar Photos einzustellen um Dein Interesse zu wecken ...

LG
Joachim

Hallo Joachim,

ich habe leider das gleiche Problem wie Antje. Darf ich mal fragen, warum du das Ganze auf englisch schreibst? Scheinst doch perfekt deutsch zu sprechen?

LG
Sabine

Hi Joachim

Yes I remember your story very well. We had a similar experience as we were waiting for our pick-up to a mobile camp too. Nobody showed up at the agreed time. But that's Africa I suppose 😉

Our stay at Mana was awesome. It was our 3rd time and finally we've got lucky and saw lions for the first time 🙂 Nyamepi is indeed a magical place. Almost every day an elephant joined us on our campsite and munched from the tree next to us.

Hope you had an unforgettable canoe safari. Really looking forward to your report 🙂

Cheers
Jenny

... vielen Dank für den Bericht in englischer Sprache. Bitte weitermachen - und die Bilder werden auf jeden Fall alle Sprachen sprechen.

Da wir alle in Ländern unterwegs sind, in denen dies häufig eine offizielle Amtssprache ist - sehe ich das durchaus als "sportlichen" Anreiz!

Ich übe weiter 🙂

baboon

Many thanks, Baboon!

Jenny, your are asking if we had an unforgettable canoe safari and state you are looking forward to my report.

I promised Cindy to work on our trip video first - which means the report will not be started before next week.

However, I thought it best to address your anticipation with a few picture
s in the meantime.

Going by 'Baboon' they should go some way in doing the talking and, I hope, will show well the special perspectives on offer in a canoe ... 😎

Is there a limit of 8 photos per upload?

Cheers
Joachim