Prior to our designated getup time of 0600 we were already awake as a hippo on the riverbank nearby was making a good deal of noise.
We gathered for breakfast at 0630 with cereals, fresh fruit and yoghurt being on the menu as well as tea and coffee.
Sunrise at Pioneers Camp
As we returned to our tent after breakfast a bushbuck antelope with its distinctive white spots and stripes was seen in the open vegetation just behind the tent. The males grow to a maximum size of about 75kg and for their size can be extremely aggressive. When cornered or injured they have been known to kill leopards and humans! It is the only solitary, non-territorial antelope in Africa.
Tendayi our guide then drove us in the camp’s open 4WD truck back along the track towards Victoria Falls for a few kilometres. He kept looking out for tracks of lions and other fauna that we were hoping to see.
As was the case in Botswana we encountered many impalas and guineafowl. One guineafowl hen had four very healthy looking chicks following her along the road. These birds behave somewhat like our Tasmanian native hens by running along the road in front of a car and not diverting into the adjacent bush.
Impala
Guineafowl chick
We had a fleeting sight of two wildebeest that were about 100m from the road. It was hard to get photos of these large antelopes as they were partly obscured by the scrubby trees. Wildebeest are highly gregarious and reach a shoulder height of 150cm and weigh up to 250kg.
Departing for safari walk
We then parked the truck on the side of the track and began a three hour safari walk through the tree covered river plane area. There were plenty of signs of large mammals and other animals. Footprints and scats of elephants, hippopotamuses, antelope, zebra and lions were all identified by Tendayi. We walked slowly and very quietly through this flat territory looking out for fauna. Tendayi carried with him a high powered 0.458 calibre rifle just in case a predator was to look upon us as an early morning breakfast treat!
A pied magpie shrike with its exceptionally long tail feathers was one of many birds seen. Doves, rollers and drongos are common in this scrubland.
A dazzle of zebras crossed our path but were too shy to wait long and fled as we began to approach.
We climbed to the top of a small hill to gain a better view but sadly there was not much action occurring on the open grassland plains below.
Panorama from hill top
On our return trek to the truck we encountered more zebras or was it the same dazzle? We also saw a black-backed jackal but it too was in a hurry and gave us little time to observe or photograph it.
Zebras
Evidence of porcupines, aardvarks and cape hares was noted too but these creatures were nowhere to be seen although they could have been in their burrows as it was now approaching 1100 and they are principally nocturnal.
Although the walk was not highly productive for sightings it was very interesting as Tendayi is a font of knowledge when it comes to the natural history of this Zambezi National Park.
We then returned to camp for brunch and some time to catch up on labelling photos from the last few days. As we don’t have WiFi at the camp, we’ll have to wait until we get to Gabarone in a couple of days’ time to update our blog.
In the mid to late afternoon we were taken by Chris, our boat driver up the Zambezi River in the camp’s 5.5m inflatable boat powered by twin 40 HP Yamahas.
Chris, our boat driver for River boat cruise
The Zambezi is the fourth longest river in Africa after the Nile, Congo and Niger but it is the only major river that drains towards the east and into the Indian Ocean. It forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Pioneers Camp from River boat cruise
The boat trip followed the Zimbabwe side of the river but where it narrowed we were only a hundred metres or so from the Zambian side.
The journey was done at deliberately quite slow speeds and was very picturesque in the soft evening sun. We stopped or slowed down whenever animals were seen. There were crocodiles, baboons, elephants, waterbuck, hippos, vervet monkeys and of course the inevitable impalas. The destruction of the foliage and bushes by elephants is all too apparent. Some of the plants counteract this foraging by releasing tannins when the tree is attacked. The elephants thus move on to a new bush every few minutes.
The bird life was plentiful too with pied and giant kingfishers seen as well as lapwings and water thick-knees. At one point we managed to get very close to a fish eagle and soon after we sighted a beautiful saddle-billed stork. This superb bird is a pied colour with a spectacular blood red beak.
Fish eagle
Saddle-billed stork
At our furthest point upstream we stopped and Chris served us cold drinks (G&Ts if requested) and we then drifted back downstream for the next 20 minutes and watched the sunset. Being a quite overcast day resulted in the clouds having hues of pink and mauve against a scarlet sky. To enhance the scene as if that could be possible, there appeared the faintest crescent sliver of a new moon just visible in the pale blue sky above; magic!
On our return home in the last hint of twilight we sighted a herd of elephants drinking at the river’s edge only a 100m upstream from our camp. Let’s hope they don’t come in and trample us in our tent tonight!
Dinner at Pioneers Camp
Our evening was concluded with chats around the campfire and a delicious meal of bream. This concluded another wonderful African day.