We arrived at the Ruckomechi airstrip and were collected by our guide Goderick - 20 minutes later we were in camp and having brunch. The temperature change was noticeable - both the days and the evenings were much warmer than Hwange. After brunch and our welcome briefing we settled into our lovely spacious double tent looking over the Zambezi river - needless to say we were regularly serenaded by the snorts and grunts of the resident hippos. The camp was full albeit it quickly thinned out - 8 left that afternoon for the canoe trail, an American family of 5 left the next morning for Davison camp and 4 Germans left with their pilot in a helicopter for who knows where! That then left just the two of us in camp for 2 days - all alone with all the staff just to look after us - many would pay a lot of money for exclusive use of a camp!
On our first afternoon we opted for a boat trip on the Zambezi to take in the water view on a motor boat - knowing our next foree would be in unmotorised canoes. We finished with sundowners on an island to celebrate one of the german ladies 60th birthday......and saw another lovely sunset.
We then had a night drive arriving back at camp for dinner at 8pm. Our next few days followed the same routine - up at 6, breakfast at 6.30, 7am we left to go to a walking spot where we walked for 2 hours back for 11am brunch, siesta including swimming in the warmish pool, tea at 3pm followed by an afternoon game drive and night drive returning at 8pm for dinner and finally bed.
The walks were excellent both from a wildlife and environment perspective but also from an exercise perspective - it stopped us from becoming over fat and slothful!
On our first walk we saw a large herd of eland - the guides had not seen them for several months so it was an indicator that the water was drying up inland.
Our second walk was a little like a death march as after seeing a large number of vultures we then smelt the carcass of a dead elephant apparently shot in the hunting concession just north of us and then making its way to the game viewing area to die....it was now dinner for others. Then on the way back to the lodge we saw the rib cage and spinal column of an impala - probably the leftovers from a leopard kill the night before.
The night drives revealed new animals for this trip; a white tailed mongoose, a genet,a side striped jackal, and two lovely civets - sadly no honey badger. On our first afternoon drive we watched the comings and goings on the flood plain before going in search of a lioness and her daughter who had been spotted by some guys doing some maintenance trying to hunt warthogs - they remained hidden to us and the warthogs lived to fight another day! On the last afternoon we found an impala kill under a bush with no leopard but returned when it was dark to see if it would return and yes there was a beautiful leopard feeding on it - she was very pale - the palest I have seen. The next morning we returned again to the spot to find absolutely no trace of anything so either the leopard finished it all or the hyenas were very quick to clear up the leftovers.
The final night drive also had a surprise we saw a reflection in the bushes and could not work out what it was - further inspection revealed our starter - soup and fresh rolls- keeping warm over hot coals! We drank the piping hot soup, dug a hole for the coals, and made our way back to lodge for the main course and desert - a lovely surprise!
The only other new animals we saw were banded mongooses. On the bird front we saw grey headed gulls, red beaked quelea in flowing flocks as they moved from place to place, western banded snake eagle, brown snake eagle, bataleur eagle, African fish eagle, Namaqua dove, reed cormorant, African jacana, grey headed parrot, Myers parrot, grey headed kingfisher, pied kingfisher, nightjar, white browed coucal, white browed sparrow weavers, pied kingfisher,coqui francolin, crested francolin, red necked spur-fowl, arrow marked babbler, honeyguide, African hoopoe, green wood hoopoe, and crowned hornbill.