Another day, another pack-up. We had only a short day on the road finally hitting the main highway between Victoria Falls and Bulawayo. In fact we skirted Hwange National Park so we had closed the loop around the country. The countryside around Hwange town was full of mines and mining infrastructure with huge numbers of big trucks on the road. Not the prettiest part. We entered Vic Falls town, a touristy little place and saw more westerners in a few minutes th...

We left Tiger Bay along the road we came in on, this time in daylight. We continued south a while then west again along more dreadful dirt roads, through some of the remotest areas in the country. We stopped for morning tea as usual along the road and some shy children stopped to investigate us. We gave them some small rubber balls we had brought with us and showed them how to throw and catch, something they had clearly never done before. At first they were hopel...

Only on waking did we realise what a view we had from our bure overlooking Lake Kariba up a short slope too steep for hippos! Seven of the group decided to hire a boat, driver/guide and fishing gear. Robert, who is also the chef and whatever else he is called on to do, took us out on a punt poking into small bays and stopping for us to fish with the old rods and reels. They had corks or reeds for floats, rusty old hooks and when one rod was found to be sans ho...

If we thought that the day driving from Antelope Park to Mana Pools was a long one, then we were sadly mistaken. Although that day had been longer in terms of kilometres, the day to Tiger Bay was across the most appalling roads and so took hours longer, eventuating in what no-one wants to do in Africa - drive after dark. On top of that one of the cars was having alternator problems and so was lacking a functioning battery to start the motor, use the radio or powe...

What a night! Despite an early night, we had a remarkable lack of sleep. We know from past experience that hippos come onto the riverbanks to feed on grass by night. Hippos are the most dangerous large animal in Africa and venturing from the tent at night when they are around is strictly not to be done. So we listened to the snorts and grunts and chewing of an unknown number of animals from about 11pm or so. At about 4 in the morning there was the most fearful no...