It’s a late start (our party are the only guests) and we are on a cruise up the other side of the island to look at the Zambian side of the river. Small communities farm here, growing maize and vegetables. There are herds of cows and Zulu (who speaks nine languages) talks to the people on the edge of the river to pass the time of day as we hover in the boat. We see a vast variety of birds, the Bee Eaters and Egyptian Geese we saw yesterday, an enormous Grey Heron and Fish Eagles to name only a few.
Further up the river we can see a huge group of Elephants drinking. Zulu thinks they might be the same group we saw on our first day. Everywhere are Hippos, but they are mostly under water keeping out of the sun.
Our afternoon excursion is to the area on the other side of the main road to Botswana. As usual it’s the boat from Tsowa Island to pick up the Land Cruisers.
Our first obstacle on this dirt track is a lorry parked in the middle of the road. Workers are preparing to fill one of the many large holes and we manoeuvrer around them. Only a few minutes up the road we spot a huge Bull elephant coming towards us down the track. He is clearly on a mission. Zulu says he is ‘in musk’ as he has a huge erection and we must give way. This guy has a possible date and is in a hurry. He pauses momentarily to grab a mouthfulls of vegetation – he needs to eat – giving us a few seconds. We back up and both jeeps manage to turn around in time and manage to negotiate around the road-workers and take the long way round to the main road.
This part of the Zimbabwe National Park is quite different – we are in a dried-up riverbed covered in grass up gentle slopes on each side, where small shrubs graduate into green forest beyond. The Elephants have been here doing their shrub pruning but it’s a herd of Buffalos that we encounter first, grazing amongst the trees.
We’ve interrupted them and they just stare at us. Bulls, cows and calves make up the herd. One female had recently lost a horn and constantly flaps her ear over the bloody hole to keep the flies at bay.
There is a small group of seven Zebras – our first- and they seem paler that I had expected, a beautiful sight. Here the sky is large and the thin strip of dark green forest separates the golden grass from the blue winter sky.
It’s time for more elephants. A family group of four cautiously approach the water hole The park has installed dinking pools fed by pumps powered by solar panels from artesian wells. As we continue along the road, Zen suddenly stops to avoid running over a Dung Beetle, rolling his prize along the wheel rut. The beetle makes a diversion up the bank and away from danger.
Hornbills are everywhere and then, without warning a herd of Warthogs cross our path. I can see why they are cast in Disney movies as comedy characters – they are funny.
At the final waterhole, what looks like two groups of elephants are gathering. Some of the young males are being pushed away. One of the females is in oestrous. It’s the mating season and dominant males with erections are trying to tempt her but she’s not ready to play yet.
We are on the high side of the valley to have our sunset drinks in a hide – a hut on tall poles. We can see two Kudu deer nervously break cover from the bush and hesitantly make their way down to drink. Our last encounter in the dying light is a Hyena, newly emerged from one of four burrows. He is off for a night’s scavenging but stamps the ground on seeing us – a farewell gesture indeed.
On our now familiar route back to the river, a tree has been uprooted over the path by Elephants. They like to eat roots for medicinal purposes. It is pitch dark, but with the ais of headlights, Zen gets out his machete and sets to work chopping the branches which prevent the jeep from passing. Zulu also gets out his machete, but doesn’t use it, looking on in a supervisory way. Another jeep has arrived and the much taller guy hacks from the other side. A last bit of drama for us all at the end of our stay at Tsowa Island Safari lodge.