Hwange N.P.

Falls Interesse: Neuigkeiten aus dem Hwange N.P.

Shumba
The dam is 1/4 full and it is still being pumped 24hours a day ,solar by day and diesel by night ,It has been raining at Shumba and that has helped raise the water levels in the dam ,but Masuma and Mandavu are very dry .Here it is now green and game activity is still good only that now it is difficult to see something a few metres away from the road .Sables,Roan,Buffalo,Zebra and Lions are seen quite often ,The resident Leopard is still around and still comes to drink water from our leaking water tap at night.Ostriches and Cheetah are still around.
Bird life is now very good with lots of migratory birds starting to come ,the likes of Whiskered tern,yellow billed kites and cranes. Inside the camp by the big ebony trees the residents owls are still around we have the Verreuax eagle,pearl spotted and the scops owls and some times you find them on the same tree.
Masuma
The dam is empty and still pumped 24 hours a day ,solar by day and diesel by night.Game activity is still very good aa it is still very dry with lots of Elephants still coming to drink all day.the resident pride of Lions is still around and still seen more often around their favourite spot near the bridge on the way to Shumba.
Mandavu
The dam is 1/2 and game activity is very good ,Large herds of Buffalo & Elephants are seen around the dam especially in the evenings.Lions ,Wild dogs are seen quite often.
Bird life is also very good .
Rains ,
Our clouds seem to have turned into politicians who promise but don't deliver ,most of the days its over cast and some times you see thunder and a few showers and you think its going to rain but after a few hours the sun is out and it becomes very hot ,also the rains are patchy they rain in some areas only and now in some places it is very green and wet whilst in some its still very dry.
Roads ,are still in a better condition and now there is a game drive road open at the back of shumba it comes off before you reach the hide ,opposite the Camp hwange lodge road and it goes north east of Shumba and it joins Tshompani road on the eastern side of Shumba .
Tourists are still coming in small numbers as we sometimes go for days without any campers.
Best Regards

Neue Nachricht von Godfrey 31.07.21

The dam is 3/4 full and game activity is very good with large herds of Buffalo coming everyday .Elephants are also coming in large herds.
Impala,kudu,water buck and Girrafe are also coming .
There is a pride of Lions which is ussualy following the buffalo and this other day they killed a buffalo near the camp .
Wild dogs have also been coming often and are seen mostly between Mandavu and Salt springs turn off.

Masuma
The dam is 3/4 full and still pumped by 2 solar powered boreholes during the day .
Game activity is very good with large herds of Elephants coming from midday and drinking all night .
The big herd of buffalo is slso coming very often and lions are still around and also still favouring their spot by the bridge on the way to Shumba.
Impala ,kudu ,water buck and Zebras are also coming in larger herds .

Wild dogs and Cheetah have also been seen quite often.

Shumba,
The dam is 3/4 full and still pumped by 2solar powered boreholes during the day .
Game activity is good .Elephants are coming from midday and drinking all night .There Is a big herd of buffalo which comes often .Lions are also around and had been killing a lot of buffalo recently .Cheetahs & wild dogs are also coming with the Cheetahs seen more often near the solar panels on the road to Camp Hwange.,
Sables and Roan have atarted coming in smaller herds.

Roads
Grading has begun and they have done the main road from Shumba to the Mbala gate and to Robins camp.

Tourists
There are a few people visiting the park and with some international tourists now coming to the private camps .
We are still on lockdown and corona positive cases have been very high for the past 2weeks ,hopefully since our winter is now coming to an end they might drop again .
It is very cold at night and mornings getting warmer during the day and last week there were some little rain showers and was overcast for more than 3 days .

Best Regards
Godfrey

Neues von Godfrey:

The dam is 3/4 full and is pumped by 2 solar powered boreholes during the day and one battery powered at night.

Game activity is very good with large herds of elephant coming from mid day , drinking and sometimes swimming all night .
Buffalo are also coming and mostly come after every 2 days.
Impala,kudu,waterbuck ,warthog .zebra and girrafes are also coming in bigger herds and come from morning upto around 5pm.

Lion and wild dogs are also coming and this other day at about 6pm there were .3lionesses with 1 cub and 2 hyena and 11 wild dog at the same time at the waterhole,with one lioness running all directions chasing the dogs and hyena,the lions then left first folowed by the hyenas .
After about 20 minutes the dogs caught an lmpala near the gate on the way to Mandavu and were half way eating when the lions came and chased them from their kill and finished it all

This other day again at about 5:30 am, 7 lion caught a kudu near the waterhole and the hyena was getting so close to them that it ended being attacked by the lions and was injured on its back legs ,now it is staying under the first bridge
near the dam and during the day it drags its self to the waterhole and spends some time cooling its self in the water with other game first running away but they end up drinking as if its not even there as it really struggles to make any movements and sometimes elephants give it a hard time as they will be wanting to chase it away.

Shumba

The dam is 3/4 full and still pumped by 2 solar powered boreholes during the day .
Game actvity is very good with lots of Elephants coming all day.
Buffallo are also coming in big herds .Roan ,sable ,lmpala,zebra and kudu are also coming in large herds , especialy from mid morning upto late evening.there is a pride of lions which is seen quite often around Shumba .

Mandavu

The dam is 3/4 full and game activity is very good with the largest herd of buffalo seen there ,there is a pack of wild dogs which is usually seen betwee n Mandavu and Sinamatella.
Bird life is also good with lots of guinea fowl in the mornings and evenings

Roads
Many roads are good as there have been graded and the sinamatella river drive is closed as the bridge hasn't been fixed yet .

Tourists
The park is very quite with few tourists around ,there are more staying in private camps than camping ,now it goes more than a week without any single camper

It is now very hot during the day and getting cold at night and windy most of the time.

Best Regards,

Godfrey.

Neues von Godfrey:

The dam is full and overspilling and still pumped by 2 boreholes during the day and 1 batrey powered at night .
Game activity is low at the moment as there is water nearly everywhere.
Elephant herds are now coming less and mostly come during the night .
The pride of 14+ lion has been getting inside the picnic site at night and sometimes spending the night there leaving in the morning .they have been making a lot of kills around Masuma .
the resident leopard is still around and if lions are not close by it also comes near the camp.
Dogs have also been coming quite often and are ussually between Kapula and Masuma.


Rains
Its been raining heavily for more than a week and sometimes raining all day and for the past 3days its been hot most of the times with very little rain showers in the afternoons.

Roads are still accesible but many have been damaged by the rains with grading not yet begun .

Tourists
There is hardly any cars driving around and it goes for days without a single vehicle coming .there has been no campers for more than 2weeks now .

Best Regards
Godfrey

Hey Godfrey,
thanks for the update. Will be in Hwange the first week of March for a project we are running with Painted Dog Conservation. Looking forward to green season…
Kath

Guten Morgen,

neues Update von Godfrey:

"the dam is full and pumped by 1 solar powered borehole during the day and 1 batrey powered by night .
Game activity is good but very few animals come to drink but can been seen grazing past the waterhole.
Impala ,kudu and Zebra are seen more often from mid mornings till late in the evenings.

Elephant bulls are coming mostly in the evenings and mostly will be 2 or 3 at a time and ussualy take a few trunk fulls and go drink a lot from the springs and wells they dig in the riverbed.

Lions are still around and still favouring their spot near the bridge on road to Shumba and sometimes come through the camp at night.
There is also a big herd of around 25 Girrafe which is now always around the area.
The pack of dogs has been coming less often in the past weeks.

Rains ,
It is still raining here and there and it looks like the rainy season is coming to end as most of the times its just cloudy with very little rain and its now getting cooler in the mornings & night .

Roads,
Many roads are still accesible with a few places being damaged by the rains and grading has not started yet .

Tourists
There are very few cars at the moment sometimes going for the whole day without any car driving past and the very few which drive around will be going to private camps."




Grüße
Jambotessy

Hallo zusammen.

Neue Infos von Godfrey:

The pan is 3/4 full and pumped by 2 solar powered boreholes .
Game activity is still low as there is still water in many pans around .Elephant herds are coming mostly in the late evenings and at night .
There is a big herd of buffalo around and it ussualy comes in the evenings coming from the north eastern side of the water hole and they ussualy go back the sameway they would have came from .The pride of lions also roars all night and it looks like there is a new male lion which is still marking its territory and it ussualy comes past the camp on the road from Tshompani dam and it walks upto the waterhole through to Camp Hwange concession area in the early mornings and it comes nearly everyday.

There are lots of Warthog families coming to feed near the picnic site and sometimes they are more than 30 at one given time .
Impala,Kudu and Zebra are also coming but in small herds .
There is also a leopard which walks around the camp at night.
Roan and Sable are coming less at the moment .

Birdlife is very good with many birds coming to eat the fruits of the Jackal berry and fig trees in camp .and the Owls are still staying in camp and sometimes there are 3 species at onetime with the likes of the Pearl spotted ,Scops and the Verreaux Eagle owl .


It is very cold in the evenings and mornings warming up during the day and its also very windy most of the times .

Roads are still in better condition and the loop roads around shumba are all accesible and in good state especialy the ones which turns off on the road to Tshompani dam and going to join the tarred road .

Tourists
There are few tourists at the moment with few people camping and 3/4 of them go to private camps .

There is a new staff house which was recently built with its own facilities.

Regards
Godfrey

Hallo zusammen,

neues Update von Godfrey:

The dam is full and pumped by 2 solar powered boreholes during the day and 1 battrey operated at night.
Game activity is good with Elephant bulls coming from mid morning and family herds coming from mid afternoon and drinking all night .
Buffalo have been coming less in the past weeks and sometimes its just the old dagga boys .

The Lion pride is still around and still favours its spot near the bridge on the way to Shumba and sometimes spend the day sleeping under the Anna tree on the way to Kapula .
The Leopard is also around and this other day it was seen near the bridge with lions also sleeping about 200m from it .It also sometimes gets inside the camp trying to catch the guineafowls which come roost near the shower at night.The cheetah has been seen more on the Kapula concession and near Robins turn off.

Oneday l woke to find hippos with a big kudu carcass which l suspect might have been chased by lions only to be killed by either crocs or hippos.
They spent 2days trying to open it without any success and the crocs show no interest in it even of hippos were not close by and on these days it was overcast day and night ,on the third day the sun came out in the afternoon and the crocs started feeding on the carcass only to be chased away by the hippos when they saw that the crocs had opened it and took over the carcass again ,adults fed on it for a short time ,the young ones spent a lot off time playing with the carcass and most of the time they made a circle around it keeping the crocs away .
Girrafe,kudu ,warthog and lmpala are also coming in large herds .and now try to drink before many Ellies come.

Mandavu
The dam is full and game activity is good with the big herd of buffalo seen there quite often ,the pride of lions is is also seen seen more often and sometimes spends the whole day on the dam wall.
The picnic site is being renovated ,with showers built on sides of both toilets and braai stands being rebuilt.
They removed all the thatch and put iron sheets in all the structures and the camps water now comes from a borehole .


Tourists
The park was very quite for the first week of july but now there are quite a few cars around and last weekend all picnic sites were booked .

Rains ,
For the past 2weeks its been overcast nearly everyday and we had some little rains showers for 2 days in a row and had to spend the whole days wearing jerseys now it is opening up a bit although its still cloudy most of the times ,it is now cold during the mornings and evenings warming up during the day .

Roads are still better and they have started repairing the mostly badly damaged places.

Grüße
Jambotessy

Hallo zusammen,

es gibt wieder Neues von Godfrey und vom Hwange:

The dam is full and game activity is very good with the big herd of buffalo coming nearly everyday and sometimes spending the whole day near the dam sleeping under the big shady trees .Elephant herds mostly come from mid day and drink all night.

There is a lion pride which also hangs around Mandavu and there are 2 females which always get too close to the picnic site in the evenings and sometimes roaring all night around the camp ,this other day the lions killed a subadult hippo near the water on the Western side of the dam and there were there for more than 3days and the buffalo still came even when the lions were close by .

The pack of dogs has been coming quite often and have been seen moslty by the dam wall and on the road to Sinamatella.but had not been staying long time as there were always on the move

Impala,kudu,warthog ,zebra and girrafe are also coming and now mostly drink from the Eastern side of the dam .

The camp is looking great with the tiling of ablutions now finished and there are plans of planting lawns .


Roads are still accesible and maintainance is only being done in very damaged places only .

Tourists ,
Mandavu had only 1 booking in 2 weeks but Masuma and Shumba were better and many private camps had people nearly everyday and the volumes of tourists coming seem to be improving .

These days it is cold in the evenings and mornings but getting very hot during the day and sometimes its also very windy especially during the night and early mornings .

Best Regards

Godfrey

Grüße auch von
Jambotessy

Danke für die Infos.

Da ich anfang Sep 2022 noch circa 10 tage ohne feste Buchung in Botswana bin wäre der Hwange N.P. eine Alternative.

Könnt Ihr bitte ein paar Infos über die Campsites bzw. die Anreise aus Nata / Kasane schreiben. Links gehen natürlich auch.

Danke

Felix

Einfach hinfahren, im Main Camp ist immer Platz!
Und genug US$ (auch kleine Scheine) mitnehmen. Mitunter braucht man die.
Meist geht es mit Karte.

Hallo felix,

ich kenne nur das Main Camp und Sinamatella. Für beide habe ich nie vorgebucht. Sinamatella liegt sehr schön auf einem Hügel und man hat einen tollen Blick in die Ebene. Das Main Camp ist größer und hat den Charme eines Militärcamps. Allerdings hat man von da aus viele Möglichkeiten zu gut besuchten Wasserstelle und 2 sehr schönen Hides . Wir haben zu versch. Jahreszeiten Hwange besucht und hatten hier die besten Tiersichtungen. Die Angestellten beider Camps waren sehr nett und immer hilfsbereit. An deiner Stelle würde ich den Grenzübergang Pandamatenga nutzen. Da geht es ganz entspannt zu und du kannst von Kasane oder Nata in 1 Tag locker bis zum Main Camp fahren.

Grüße
Jambotessy

Danke für die schnelle Rückmeldung.

Dann werde ich mal sehen, wo mich meine reise hinführt.

Gruß Felix

Hi Felix!

Von Pandametanga kommend liegt auch das Robins-Camp praktisch auf der Strecke.
War lange Zeit zu Unrecht im touristischen Dornröschenschlaf.
Wir hatten dort bei unseren vielen Aufenthalten mit die besten Sichtungen.
In der Gegend um Robins gibt es viele Büffel und daher auch viele Löwen.
Vor allem in der Nähe der Wasserstelle Big Toms.
Die Sanitäranlagen der Campsite sind neu gebaut und sauber.
Als Camper kann man das Restaurant und den Pool der privaten Lodge nutzen.
Vielleicht bekommst Du auch eine Buchung für eine Picnic-Site.
Detema, Masuma, Shumba sind da meine Favoriten.
In Sichtweite von Masuma liegt Kapula, ein sehr schönes privates Selbstversorger-Camp zu moderaten Preisen.
Sinamatella ist ein Traum, in den letzten Jahren aber stark vernachlässigt worden.
Grundsätzlich ist der Westen des Parks viel weniger frequentiert, als die Gegend ums Main-Camp.

Du wirst viel Spaß im Hwange N.P. haben.

Guten Morgen konrad1710,

da liest sich sehr gut und die Preise sehen moderat aus.

Kannst Du mir noch etwas zum Grenzübertritt bei Pandametanga sagen.
Ist es wirklich so schwierig mit einem Mietwagen ? Ich bin 2021 bei Kasane über die Grenze ( ohne eigenes Auto ) und das war schon eine Erfahrung 😉

Gruß Felix

Hallo Felix,

ich bin zwar nicht Konrad, aber kann dir sagen, dass Pandamatenga kein Vergleich zu dem großen Grenzübergang zu den Vic falls ist. Kein Versuch der Abzocke für irgendwelche Versicherungen, die es gar nicht gibt. Der Grenzübergang ist klein und beschaulich. Wir haben ihn die letzten Male zum Hwange bewusst deswegen immer genutzt.

Grüße
Jambotessy

Danke Jambotessy,

sehr gut.

Einkaufen / Tanken in Nata und dann ab in den Hwange NP 😉

Gruß
Felix

Jambotessy schrieb:Hallo Felix,

ich bin zwar nicht Konrad, aber kann dir sagen, dass Pandamatenga kein Vergleich zu dem großen Grenzübergang zu den Vic falls ist. Kein Versuch der Abzocke für irgendwelche Versicherungen, die es gar nicht gibt. Der Grenzübergang ist klein und beschaulich. Wir haben ihn die letzten Male zum Hwange bewusst deswegen immer genutzt.

Grüße
Jambotessy

Hallo Felix,
wir waren schon öfter im Hwange. Im Mai d.J. das letzte Mal. Auf dem Campingplatz im Main Camp wirst du sicher Platz finden, allerdings sind die Campingplätze und die sanitären Anlagen alles andere als angenehm. Der Platz ist übersät mit Kot der Antilopen, die dort nachts Schutz suchen. Im Mai und auch schon einmal ein paar Jahre zuvor, wollten wir ein Chalet (sehr schlechter Zustand) buchen, es war alles ausgebucht und dementsprechend auch viel los. Es wurden im Mai zwei Chalets renoviert, die wir uns anschauen durften und das sah recht ordentlich aus. Das "schlimmste" was uns im Hwange mal passierte, war der alljährlich stattfindende Gamecount. Es gab eine Tagung. Im Simantella hat man uns im Mai nicht übernachten lassen, angeblich hatte jemand alles privat gebucht. Auch auf mehrmalige Anfragen, war da nichts zu machen.
Giselbert

Hallo Giselbert,

ich bin mit Dachzelt unterwegs und einfache Plätze mag ich, würde somit in mein Profil passen.

"Der Platz ist übersät mit Kot der Antilopen, die dort nachts Schutz suchen"

Dann gibt es ja auch Räuber in der Umgebung 😉

Danke für Deine Antwort

Gruß Felix

Giselbert schrieb:Hallo Felix,
wir waren schon öfter im Hwange. Im Mai d.J. das letzte Mal. Auf dem Campingplatz im Main Camp wirst du sicher Platz finden, allerdings sind die Campingplätze und die sanitären Anlagen alles andere als angenehm. Der Platz ist übersät mit Kot der Antilopen, die dort nachts Schutz suchen. Im Mai und auch schon einmal ein paar Jahre zuvor, wollten wir ein Chalet (sehr schlechter Zustand) buchen, es war alles ausgebucht und dementsprechend auch viel los. Es wurden im Mai zwei Chalets renoviert, die wir uns anschauen durften und das sah recht ordentlich aus. Das "schlimmste" was uns im Hwange mal passierte, war der alljährlich stattfindende Gamecount. Es gab eine Tagung. Im Simantella hat man uns im Mai nicht übernachten lassen, angeblich hatte jemand alles privat gebucht. Auch auf mehrmalige Anfragen, war da nichts zu machen.
Giselbert

Wir kommen gerade frisch aus dem Hwange NP.

Zunächst: Die Grenze Pandamatenga war vor ein paar Wochen immer noch geschlossen. Tipp: tagesaktuellen Stand erheben.

Im südlichen Winter (insb. Juli) sind Tierbeobachtungen immer schwieriger, weil sich die Tiere bei schlechtem Wetter (Wolken) in den Busch zurückziehen. Das hört sich erstaunlich an, wurde uns mehrfach von Rangern, Guides, Einheimischen gesagt und auch von uns so beobachtet. Daher muss man Tierbeobachtungshinweise mit der eigenen Reisezeit vergleichen.

Sinamatella wird (bis auf Ausnahmen) immer verfügbar sein. Der Norden ist für viele Besucher weniger attraktiv, vor allem für die Einheimischen aus Bulawayo.

Maincamp ist so groß, dass man auch dort sicherlich immer einen Platz findet. Auch wenn Nummern im Plan stehen, die gibt es auf dem Platz nicht. Die Fläche ist halt typisch für die Zustände in Zimbabwe, nur das Nötigste wird gemacht. Da aber niemand den Hwange wegen der Ablutions besucht, finde ich das nebensächlich.

Die Picnicsites (private Campsites) werden seit einiger Zeit von den "Friends of Hwange" (https://friendsofhwange.com) erneuert. So haben alle (!!!) Campsites warme Duschen und der Zustand ist teilweise wirklich sehr gut (für Zimbabwe).
Der Trust erneuert auch die Wasserpumpen (Solar) und hat noch weiter Innovationen in petto. Die Entwicklung des Parks hat durch diesen Trust extrem gewonnen. Ein Hoch auf die Friends of Hwange!

Die meisten Tierbeobachtungen macht man In Ngweshla. Vom Maincamp fährt man schon 2 Stunden dahin, daher sollte man sich überlegen, ob man sich nicht für eine private Campsite einbucht. Die sind teuer (172 USD pro Nacht pro Camp).

Ngweshla ist (mit wenigen Ausnahmen) nur über Vorbuchungen zu bekommen (für Oktober muss man wirklich 12 Monate vorbuchen), weil die Pan so attraktiv ist.

Aber auch andere Picnicsites sind super und erlauben viele Tiersichtungen.

Noch ein Tipp: Wenn man das Maincamp bucht, um vor Ort nach Picnicsites zu schauen, zahlt man den Differenzbetrag (50 $ Maincamp zu 172$ Picnic).
Bucht man nichts vor und erhält dann eine Picnicsite spontan, dann zahlt man nur 27 $ pro Person.
(Das mussten wir so zahlend lernen! Ich hatte nämlich zur Sicherheit das Maimcamp gebucht und musste deshalb die Differenz zahlen. Hätte ich mal das Papier nicht gezeigt!!)

Also entweder Picnicsite vorher buchen oder gar nichts buchen und schauen, was da ist.