In the northwest of Zimbabwe lies Hwange National Park. We decided to spend some time here as every day in a national park is a good one. This spotted hyena greeted us within minutes of entering the park early in the morning. It was a promise of another great day to come!
What started as a foggy morning soon turned into a sunny day. We had a lovely breakfast during which we spoke to the caretaker of the picnic spot. He was a young man and he told us how he was stationed here, in the middle of nowhere, for two weeks, then home to his young family for a week, then back for the next two weeks and so on. We wondered whether he had means to keep anything cool. He did not. The country does not have a reliable power supply and in the National Park there was no electricity at all. We shared our breakfast with him and he was grateful for a fresh cup of coffee, a bun, and a boiled egg. We came back for lunch at his picnic spot and left him with some goodies to enjoy during the lonely hours. Myron gave him a small toy car to give to his son during the next visit home.
It was a quiet National Park in terms of visitors but also in terms of animals. During the rainy season most animals can find their food in the forest or bushes; there is no need for them to go out to the waterholes to drink. Therefor a lot of animals are harder to spot right now. We did see some absolute beauties though!
The lioness walking straight toward us and then past us, was one of the highlights of the day. We drove this narrow path, not expecting to see much because of the tall grass. But this lioness, not wanting to get wet paws, walked over the path, minding her own business. So cool!
After we had left the park, we drove toward our campsite for the day. The baby leopard and the baboons were a nice encore to our day.
We spent the night at Tuskers Campsite. When we registered for the night, the girl told us to come with her to the waterhole as sometimes the elephants would walk right up to the viewing platform.... She was right! We stood face to face with two beautiful elephants!
No camera, no phone, just us and nature :)
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