Later this morning we will be leaving Kanga Camp for ‘Linkwasha Camp’, in a private game reserve adjacent to the Ngamo Plains in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.
I have been having digestive issues off and on since we’ve been on the African continent, and unfortunately this morning they flared up again. I decided to stay in camp near the facilities and to not go on the morning drive.
Dick, Barbara and Patrick headed out with Reggie for last drive. There wasn’t a lot of game this morning until they were on the way back when they ran into the Kanga pride again.
Before getting back to camp the Rover had a run in with a solo, young male elephant. Usually when elephants hear vehicles, they just ignore them. This one decided to challenge them and charged the vehicle. Reggie held his ground and the elephant finally backed off.
After a light breakfast we headed to the airstrip. Reggie does two passes with the Rover to make sure the runway is clear of animals before the plane lands.
Our bush plane is from ‘Mack Air’ this time. It’s larger than our last plane but not by much. Barnaby is our pilot, a nice young man whose father is also a pilot for Mack Air, guess it runs in the family. The flight takes us over Lake Kariba, the world’s largest manmade lake and reservoir. Lake Kariba lies 810 mi upstream from the mouth of the Zambezi River on the Indian Ocean, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The lake was filled between 1958 and 1963 following the completion of the Kariba Dam at its northeastern end, flooding the Kariba Gorge on the Zambezi River.
The plane needed to re-fuel at the Kariba airport. The airport consists of a single runway and a tiny terminal building with a single entrance/exit. Our time at the terminal was straight out of a Firesign Theater skit. We were required to pass through a security checkpoint (for our domestic flight?), mainly to ensure we passed by the port’s souvenir stand. Staff solemnly inspected our passports and watched us walk through the unplugged body scanner. The gear scanner had a photocopy of shoes and a laptop taped to the viewing monitor. What can you say?
Our plane landed at one of the airstrips servicing Hwange National Park. There’s actually an arrival/departure tent which serves as a terminal along with a ‘restroom’ hut! Our guide for the week, ‘Livingstone’, is waiting for us and offers beer and wine while we wait for another couple to join us for the ride to the Linkwasha Camp. Eventually, Tom and Bearl arrive and we start the 1 hour drive to camp. Glad I used the restroom.
The Linkwasha accommodations are more upscale than at Mana Pools. Our ‘tent’ has air conditioning, wi-fi and all the plumbing facilities are in our tent. Our room is lovely, we have a generous seating area with sliding doors that lead to a private deck and a king-size bed with requisite mosquito net. The camp has a common area with dining facilities, a bar, and pool. From the common area there is a long boardwalk to the sleeping tents. We are at the end of the boardwalk. We have a couple of hours to get unpacked and settled. We set up the charging stations and tried in vain to figure out the in-room safe. I am usually pretty good at it, but this one is a challenge. There are no written instructions on how to use it, so we needed to enlist the staffs help to get it to work. Whew.
Livingstone takes us on an afternoon game drive with Tom and Bearl. They are Canadians who have done a few dozen safaris so the conversation is interesting. The scenery here is vastly different from Mana Pools with much more open savannah.On the drive we had some good sightings of Eland, Zebra, Roan Antelope, Wildebeast, male Lion and cubs, and of course, Elephants.
It’s dark when we return from the game drive so we decided to forgo going back to the room as dinner is about to be served. Dining here is totally different than Mana Pools. At the Pools all the guests ate together as a group. Here guests sit at separate tables and a wait staff takes orders and serves the meals. We will have the same guide, waiter and butler for our stay here and they made sure we are taken care of. The food is good and the wine selection quite nice. There is a swimming pool overlooking the savannah that is lit in the evening.
Like at Kanga Camp, there are no fences around the camp so an armed escort returned us to our room. Today was long and we were ready for bed.