Magical Mana pools photographic safari

Arrival

Hello everyone, I am back from arguably my favorite safari yet! Back to my home land of Zimbabwe to explore the wilderness area of Mana pools national park leading the trip with non other than conservationist and canon ambassador Tom Svensson.

Our adventure officially started on July 13th, picking up the last guest our only female companion for this safari Nancy is a wonderful cheerful lady who was full of smiles from the get go.

Now being that we are trying to keep the costs down for the guests so as much time can be spent in Mana pools as possible. I opted to drive them up with co-tour leader Tom Svensson in my trusty Jeep grand cherokee and a hired Mitsubishi pajero pinin. The only other way in the park other than driving or the very expensive transfer option is to fly but we are photographer who carry way to much equipment so their measly 20kg limit on luggage was not going to cut it.

First stop 13th July

First stop as we only set off from Harare was in Chinhoyi, a small town located about 2 hours from Harare on the way to Chirundu. Our accommodation was Secret garden guest house a small homely guesthouse which is comfortable, no frills good value for money stop over.

our guard dog was this beautiful young pitbull terrier who made sure we were well looked after not that we needed him

The group with Tom have already found the Bar and are waiting for some much needed refreshments. 

Day 2 Road to Mana 14th July

All excited for the prospect of getting our cameras out today finally we headed off at 7am on the road to Kariba/chirundu. Passing Karoi along the way. David the guesthouse owner was kind enough to make us some breakfast to go and we found a large lake along the way to admire as we stopped for breakfast. Watching fish eagles call and fly around the lake searching for fish along with a host of other birds was already getting the group excited so i knew we needed to get to Mana pools soon before they started to stray and photograph the wildlife right there!

Our breakfast stop is still about 4 hours from getting to the Main headquaters for Mana pools 

Marongora parks headquarters was the first stop to clear our permits for Mana pools as we drive over the Zambezi escarpment

Anyone who knows me will tell you i love bones! don't know why but i get excited at any sign of nature i guess it is the tracker in me.

Typical Zimbabwe, very basic but the people as super friendly and always willing to engage in a conversation or help out.

Once reaching the Zambezi escarpment i was acting like a kid who is going to Disneyland! already excited by the scenery, even the big trucks on this road which hold you up were not enough to contain how excited i was to be back near the Zambezi. Just knowing how beautiful the park was and what the others were about to whiteness. Feeling like someone who has seen an amazing film and tries to tell their friends about it without giving to much away.

Come over the escarpment and you are greeted by one hell of an view! phew, the vastness of the Zambezi floodplain awaits. 

Ahhh the trust steeds have almost got us there

First of two boom gates on the long hard dirt road into this wildlife area. Glad we had the 4x4's for the job

mile after mile of corrugated dirt roads sure make you appreciate Mana pools once you get there. There is good reason this place is so wild and relatively untouched.

Well finally we are getting onto the floodplain after approx 50km of Dirt road

Our first animals! yup you guessed it the big grey descendant of a mammoth the African Elephant!

Well i can tell you trying to get a group of excitable Swedes, one Scotsman and a Belgium lass to leave the animals so we can meet our tour operators was well, Impossible!. So i gave up and let them get their images knowing full well they would not be using them because we had amazing sightings in store.
Finally we did get to Nyampeni HQ and sort out the paperwork before departing on a game drive whilst our bags were taken to camp.

Out in the gameviewer everyone could relax and take in the awesome scenery. A nice touch it the large lens support rail fitted to our vehicle

Everyone has found something different to photograph during our lunch stop. You can see Zambia on the other side providing a nice mountainous backdrop.

Lunch is served, you can see the relaxed happy faces on the guests and Co-tour leader Tom Svensson. Knowing he did a great job of getting us here safe and sound.

Someone crashed lunch so it was straight to work as Tom and me lead the group down to the river

Just showing he is aware of our presence this young bull is not as friendly as some of the older boys in the park.

Whilst i love being with elephants this guy was on his own mission so he departed into the thicker bush and we continued on our drive before heading back to the campsite at old Ndungu.

One the way though some open mopane veld we found a herd of buffalo and decided to walk them. Having the wind in our favor and the dropping sun we approached them straight on. Uncertain looks from the guests faces was obvious they though me and Fisher our guide were actually mad. Being the willing good guests they were there was not a word said and complete trust was given to us Safari guides that this was in-fact pretty safe.

Vehicle dismount with all the camera equipment will take a few try's to prefect the right techniques.

Fisher leading the walk with me bringing up the rear to get some shots of the group and control the group should he need to control the animals in front. Not a usual walking formation but in this open situation i find it works well, so i can make sure everyone keeps up.

Now everyone is feeling safer with the buffalo not reacting to much to our presence. Only a few raised heads trying to smell us. Moments latter a buffalo looses its nerve and the whole herd run away so we leave them for the day. 

Mana pools had already shown us how lucky we are to experience this wilderness on foot. After a long day we headed back to the camp to relax and get acquainted with our new home for the next week.

Nothing in this world better than a fire (bushmans TV) and beautiful view of the Zambezi river listening to hippos grunt as the sun goes down.

Day 3: Cool morning and elephant fun

Wake up call at 5:30 am for breakfast before departing at 6am on our first morning drive. I always prefer early mornings for game viewing, seems to be the best time for wildlife and beautiful light. Fisher our guide took us to Trichillia an area with massive Albida trees the elephants love.

Beautiful morning in the bush listening to bird calls and taking in the fresh air

Off the vehicle we go and walking in the open Albida forests following huge bull elephants as they feed.

Such an amazing place to walk!

One of the Bull groups we followed on this morning. This is a wide angle image and if you are careful you can walk within very close proximity of these amazing creatures.

This is what we all came for! walking in the Zambezi valley with the worlds largest mammal gracefully feeding in the morning sun.

Here are a couple of images i captured with my proper camera. (Nikon D3s)

driving through the forest early morning we saw many beautiful creatures such at these Kudu

Now the bush opens up a bit and we see bull elephants wondering though the massive albida trees.

We are now on foot following the bulls. Take a look at the man sitting next to this group!

Too many images to show all of them but here is a rare cloe up from the morning

Down at the river there was more elephants feeding! we were surrounded with these huge animals

with the correct guides and knowledge you are able to get very close indeed

There were other animals i promise! such as this baboon and many impala feeding amongst the elephants.

On the Way back to camp we found another group of Elephants but this time we got very excited because the massive bull who was with them was non other than the famous Boswell. Unfortunately he is collared which is not so good for images but he does stand on his Hind legs which only a few of the biggest bulls do in Mana pools. There are very few places in the world where this occurs and Mana pools bulls are the only ones i am aware of that consistently show this behavior

Walking round to try and get downwind of the herd.

Unfortunately there was a group of females and some young ones following Boswell to try and get some of the sweet young leaves he is able to pull down. These Breeding herds are not friendly like the Bulls as you can see.

Even Boswell a normally very calm elephant was not that happy about our presence  (maybe due to the females reaction) So we did not stress them out and after a short while of following from a distance we left them to it as they rested under the shade for the hot part of the day.