Home » Zimbabwe » The Kingsmill's Trans-Africa Overland Trip, Part 7: Zimbabwe

4 December 1998

The Kingsmill's Trans-Africa Overland Trip, Part 7: Zimbabwe

Geoff Kingsmill
2006-04-25 21:02:30

Displayed times (last time: )

of the park entrance. The campsite was just wonderful. It was set amongst a beautiful forest of tall trees on the edge of a dry riverbed. The camp was next to a large natural clearing which made it easy to observe the wildlife. Whilst we were having dinner a heard of Elephants grazed about fifty feet from our campsite. Later in the evening a couple of Elephants walked right past our vehicle whilst we observed from our rooftop tent. It was a splendid place and probably the best campsite we stayed at to date - sorry you missed it Ross and Caroline.

The next night we stayed on the top of a mountain which had a splendid outlook overlooking Mucheni Gorge. As we were preparing dinner we could see the clouds building up and we watched as the thunder and lightning lit up the evening sky. Just as we hopped into bed it started to pour rain. It was a great night and we enjoyed the sound of the rain on our tent.

As we were leaving the park the Rangers told us that they had apprehended four elephant poachers just near where we were camped at Busi. They stored the evidence (elephant carcass) in their butchery. Overnight, a leopard managed to get in and destroy (eat) the evidence so they had to let the poachers go.

From here we headed to Karoi along a 300km stretch of very corrugated road. This road took its toll on our roofrack and so we had to get the fracture welded in Karoi. It was by coincidence that Des and Charlotte Kelly whom we met in Cape Town gave us the name of a friend (Kevin & Tina at Guthrie Engineering) in Karoi who did some welding for them.

After this we headed for Mana Pools which is on the Zambezi River and borders Zambia. We saw lots of Tsetse fly traps along the way. We had to stop at a couple of control or quarantine points. Two agricultural officers came at us, gracefully waving their butterfly nets and sprayed the car inside and out with insecticide.

At the entrance gates into Mana Pools, we had to surrender ...