Anyone who been to Mana Pools on the Northern boundary of this country, will encounter raw Africa. The heat haze, the insects, the queelia birds prints of animals in the dust and fresh droppings. These animals come down in the dry part of the year to the last remaining reliable water source in the season, the great Zambesi River.
It was October 1983, the war between the settlers and the emergent African population was over, and I had taken advantage of the calm to take a bunch of art and photography students to see this diminishing treasure before I emigrated to Australia. This was my second trip -- the first had been a few months before, when a friend, on hearing that I was ‘hell bent' on leaving Zimbabwe, used all his powers of persuasion to encourage me to investigate this region.
We traveled in my old camper van and small half-ton truck, on which perched two canoes. We settled in the dust under the great Mopani trees, and made a fireplace. If you know Mana Pools you know there is no fence for the camp ground and animals walk through at their leisure. This increases ones senses remarkably. We experimented with the canoes on several trips on the Zambesi. All had their own histories, in particular a close encounter with a croc whose length was longer than that canoe. The students took turns taking the canoes down the Zambesi from the camp to a position about 20 kilometres down stream where the river split and formed a comparatively narrow waterway about 50 meters wide surrounding a piece of land 10 kilometers long and 2 kilometers wide.
In the morning, it was my turn to go down stream and bring them back. It really was a beautiful day, not hot yet, as I drove in the company of a young student down the dirt track, the brush of the centre of the road hissing against the bodywork. The first incident that indicated this might be an event-full day was coming upon a young male elephant dashed off into the bush screaming in terror. Perhaps he was a casualty of the war as there were too many guns in immature hands.
We arrived at the position and settled in for a long wait. In front of us was a gentle slope down to a narrow shallow strip of water, which then rose again before dipping again to the main waterway. To the right was a hump in the ground of say 6 meters in height with an old tree at the top. Behind us was reasonably thick bush. The main waterway ran straight towards us for about 2 kilometers and bent sharply to my right. A cloud of dust was rising from the bush to the left of the waterway about a kilometer distant. Using my rather cheap pair of binoculars, I climbed the tree for a better look, but could not make out any shapes.
Then as I sat in the tree, I heard a quiet sound behind me a large cow elephant moved out from the bush and towards the little strip of water that lay between the bush behind and the main body of water. Beside her crept a tiny elephant calf, it must have been very recently born. I froze I had no wish to be seen by a cow with a calf in such a fragile refuge. Experience taught me to be alert for danger. The cow appeared not to notice us. When they were standing in the strip of water, the mother lowered her trunk into the water, lifted and sprayed her back, and waited, the calf did not move a muscle. The mother gently cuffed the calf with her trunk and the calf followed, lowering its tiny trunk into the water only to spray a little dribble over its back. Then its mother slowly moved off, leading the calf back into the bush. We were just 30 meters away and I breathed again in relief.
Now the dust in the distance was rising faster. Some buffalo appeared on the edge of river, then they crossed to the right, about 30 of them. This area to the right of the river was clear ground and although rather undulating I had a clear view except for some dead ground behind a low rise. Soon after, lions crossed, I counted 12. The buffalo would now have been at around 400 meters distance. Suddenly three male lions launched themselves at the rear buffalo. Immediately the other buffalo rallied and smashed into the buffalo pinching the lions between their powerful bodies. The lions appeared to give up but followed the herd into lower ground and around a hill to the right, and they were lost from view, but soon a cloud of dust rose from that area showing that the lions had not given up. Two giant elephant bulls appeared in the waterway where the buffalo had crossed shortly before. They appeared to be taking the air, as they did not attempt to move-on.
I sensed movement in the bush to the left of the river but right in front of us about 50 meters away. A lioness appeared, followed by two grown cubs. They crossed the river in front of us and made their way around the nearside of the hill. The hill obscured my vision of the buffalo, and the lions soon disappeared towards the dust.
The two elephants now moved away, which was timely because the students in their canoes now appeared. They realized something was going on and stopped their canoes on the bank about 200 meters away and got out to explore what they now discerned to be a kill. The lions had taken a buffalo calf. The rest of the herd must have decided there was little point staying because I could just make out the bumps of their backs as they continued on to the right.
The students returned to their canoes and paddled towards me. Then the lioness with her cubs, obviously unsatisfied returned along the same path towards the left. About 70 meters in front of the tree we were perching in was a small sand dune about 3 meters high which ran right up to the river's edge. The lioness was on my side of the river, but I realized that neither the lioness or the canoes were aware of each other. I was about to yell out a warning, when the canoe maneuvered close to the bank, and the lioness, taken by surprise, leaped over it, into the water, followed by the cubs.
It was October 1983, the war between the settlers and the emergent African population was over, and I had taken advantage of the calm to take a bunch of art and photography students to see this diminishing treasure before I emigrated to Australia. This was my second trip -- the first had been a few months before, when a friend, on hearing that I was ‘hell bent' on leaving Zimbabwe, used all his powers of persuasion to encourage me to investigate this region.
We traveled in my old camper van and small half-ton truck, on which perched two canoes. We settled in the dust under the great Mopani trees, and made a fireplace. If you know Mana Pools you know there is no fence for the camp ground and animals walk through at their leisure. This increases ones senses remarkably. We experimented with the canoes on several trips on the Zambesi. All had their own histories, in particular a close encounter with a croc whose length was longer than that canoe. The students took turns taking the canoes down the Zambesi from the camp to a position about 20 kilometres down stream where the river split and formed a comparatively narrow waterway about 50 meters wide surrounding a piece of land 10 kilometers long and 2 kilometers wide.
In the morning, it was my turn to go down stream and bring them back. It really was a beautiful day, not hot yet, as I drove in the company of a young student down the dirt track, the brush of the centre of the road hissing against the bodywork. The first incident that indicated this might be an event-full day was coming upon a young male elephant dashed off into the bush screaming in terror. Perhaps he was a casualty of the war as there were too many guns in immature hands.
We arrived at the position and settled in for a long wait. In front of us was a gentle slope down to a narrow shallow strip of water, which then rose again before dipping again to the main waterway. To the right was a hump in the ground of say 6 meters in height with an old tree at the top. Behind us was reasonably thick bush. The main waterway ran straight towards us for about 2 kilometers and bent sharply to my right. A cloud of dust was rising from the bush to the left of the waterway about a kilometer distant. Using my rather cheap pair of binoculars, I climbed the tree for a better look, but could not make out any shapes.
Then as I sat in the tree, I heard a quiet sound behind me a large cow elephant moved out from the bush and towards the little strip of water that lay between the bush behind and the main body of water. Beside her crept a tiny elephant calf, it must have been very recently born. I froze I had no wish to be seen by a cow with a calf in such a fragile refuge. Experience taught me to be alert for danger. The cow appeared not to notice us. When they were standing in the strip of water, the mother lowered her trunk into the water, lifted and sprayed her back, and waited, the calf did not move a muscle. The mother gently cuffed the calf with her trunk and the calf followed, lowering its tiny trunk into the water only to spray a little dribble over its back. Then its mother slowly moved off, leading the calf back into the bush. We were just 30 meters away and I breathed again in relief.
Now the dust in the distance was rising faster. Some buffalo appeared on the edge of river, then they crossed to the right, about 30 of them. This area to the right of the river was clear ground and although rather undulating I had a clear view except for some dead ground behind a low rise. Soon after, lions crossed, I counted 12. The buffalo would now have been at around 400 meters distance. Suddenly three male lions launched themselves at the rear buffalo. Immediately the other buffalo rallied and smashed into the buffalo pinching the lions between their powerful bodies. The lions appeared to give up but followed the herd into lower ground and around a hill to the right, and they were lost from view, but soon a cloud of dust rose from that area showing that the lions had not given up. Two giant elephant bulls appeared in the waterway where the buffalo had crossed shortly before. They appeared to be taking the air, as they did not attempt to move-on.
I sensed movement in the bush to the left of the river but right in front of us about 50 meters away. A lioness appeared, followed by two grown cubs. They crossed the river in front of us and made their way around the nearside of the hill. The hill obscured my vision of the buffalo, and the lions soon disappeared towards the dust.
The two elephants now moved away, which was timely because the students in their canoes now appeared. They realized something was going on and stopped their canoes on the bank about 200 meters away and got out to explore what they now discerned to be a kill. The lions had taken a buffalo calf. The rest of the herd must have decided there was little point staying because I could just make out the bumps of their backs as they continued on to the right.
The students returned to their canoes and paddled towards me. Then the lioness with her cubs, obviously unsatisfied returned along the same path towards the left. About 70 meters in front of the tree we were perching in was a small sand dune about 3 meters high which ran right up to the river's edge. The lioness was on my side of the river, but I realized that neither the lioness or the canoes were aware of each other. I was about to yell out a warning, when the canoe maneuvered close to the bank, and the lioness, taken by surprise, leaped over it, into the water, followed by the cubs.
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