Chobe to Hwange Tuesday 31 March
We are all ready to depart by 8 am. So we go and check out. Our bus leaves just after 8.30 for the border it is a 20 minute drive. We pass through Botswana passport control then drive to Zimbabwe immigration. We are on the road to Vic Falls by 9.50.
Our lunch is going to be early at 11.15 at the Vic Falls lookout cafe. The cafe has a spectacular lookout over the Zambezi river after it has gone over the falls. We have a great seat overlooking the rapids below. There is a bungee jump and zip line and we see it in action as we have our lunch.
After lunch we have a 3 hour drive to our camp site in Hwange National Park. When I looked at the distance I was surprised our guide said it would be three hours. We head off at 12.15. The first part of the road was ok, but then it was dodgem potholes. In some parts there was hardly any bitumen as it had been worn away. Cars are veering from side to side trying to avoid them, and they are not small! This continues for over an hour and now I understand why it will take so long. We have a rest break after nearly 2 hours and there was a good patch towards the end, but then we are slowed down by coal trucks which slow to walking speed when they go uphill.
After about 3 hours there is a toll booth! I would be pissed off having to pay a toll to drive on that rubbish.
After a detour, where improvements are being made, and more rough roads we eventually get to our destination just after 5 pm!
We are given a welcome briefing then shown to our tents. Wifi is not great and limited to the main area. The camp is run on solar power and diesel generators. Our tent is very comfortable with an ensuite. We are told not to move outside at night without a guard as animals can wander through the grounds.
We head off on a late afternoon game drive and at a distance see a wildebeest, baboons and Zebra which is very far away. The baboons are very rowdy and it is two different troops fighting over territory, the males bark like dogs as threatening behaviour. We then come to a place late in the afternoon where another group has stopped in front of us and they have sighted two leopards up in a tree. Try as I might I cannot see them. Others think they saw one but I have my doubts. Our driver asks for quiet and you can a crack every now and then. He tells us the leopard is feeding on a kill and that is the sound of cracking bones. It is getting quite dark now and we start to head back. Our driver has a spotlight and weaves it left and right as he drives trying to find some predators. All we find are impala.
After dinner tonight, which was very ordinary, we are escorted to our tent by a guide armed with a rifle. As I type this out at 9 pm I can hear some animal noises in relative proximity. It is going to be an interesting night.
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