Hwange National Park

We started early today and spent the entire day traveling through the park. Besides those staying at some of the private/concession lodges there are other alternatives. The National Parks runs both a lodge and a camp ground plus there are several sites that are authorized for private camping. The appeal to me for staying in a car top (yes, up on top of the car/truck. Not on the ground, that would be kind of stupid in an area where there are elephants now wouldn’t it?) tent is about the same as camping on the ground at Denali among the grizzlies.  At the lunch stop location I met a couple from Vienna who came to Africa several times a year and traveled from Namibia where they kept an automobile. There were also a couple of young men in a well tricked out safari vehicle and heavily loaded with cameras. I got the impression that they were several months into a long, extensive and multiple country journey.

To find animals today we went from watering hole to artificial lake. The rains have been delayed and severely limited this year leaving much of the park suffering from extreme drought.  We saw a few of the usual suspects: there were elephants, impalas, water bucks, baboons, crocodiles (yes, the dude with his mouth open is very much alive), hippos and birds. I appreciated the owl, the long tail starlings, herons, ducks, geese and the various smaller birds, but nothing was  more impressive than the secretary bird striding along. I can just see “her” with a white shirt, black leggings, a steno pad under the wing and the black pin feathers resembling pencils floating out behind her head.

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4 Responses to Hwange National Park

  1. carmen says:

    Great photos!

  2. AlisonH says:

    Chinchillas are South American–what IS that?

    Thank you for all these wonderful pictures!

  3. Cat says:

    Think you have seen pretty much an entire zoo by now 🙂

  4. I don’t know what kind of noise the secretary bird makes. I only know it would sound like my year being made.

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