The road less travelled

Photo 1: The musicians from Mana Pools

Photo 2: Live RSG broadcast with the singing of the local rangers

Photo 3: Negotiating a campsite

Photo 4: Jurgens Trailers carrying the extra load

Photo 5: En route to Hwange

Photo 6: At the end of another perfect day in Africa

The road less travelled

The corny, but very true saying you often see at nature conservation places states that you should take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints. When we left Mana Pools this morning, however, we left something more behind and took something more away. Friendship.

When we were packed and ready to leave this morning, about the whole staff compliment of the park came marching on, singing songs of thanks and gratitude. Saying goodbye to Norman and his wife, Nyasha felt like leaving old friends behind. Whatever the Outreach came to do in terms of meeting old SAWC students, helping with water analysis, community environment training and more, was to them almost secondary to the mere fact that likeminded people came to the park. And cared. And talked. And shared.

It was an eye opener to witness the love all these people have for nature and wildlife. They are not doing it for money, because there hardly is any money. Sometimes they only eat beans and cabbage, but they won’t leave their park. Norman made an interesting statement just before we left. Maybe the poverty and lack of funds is a blessing in disguise for Mana Pools. Because it keeps development away. It’s a wild place. Very much the way Africa was created. It is one of the few remaining places like that left on the continent.

So with pensive minds we started the trek towards Hwange to see what we’ll find there. Theresa is expecting another six ex-students, but before she can spend time with them, we had to get there.

The route was via the Kariba road and travelling on that road makes you happy to be in a Toyota. It’s hard going. Potholes, sand and dried mud grooves in the better parts. We travelled for 282 kilometres on it today and only had three other vehicles sharing the road. The plan was to sleep over en route at Chizerera National Park.

About 100 kilometres from the park, the one trailer that Richard was towing suddenly locked its left wheel. It was no fault of the Jurgens XT 140. Blame it on the stone, as Kris Kristofferson sings. One of the almost boulders in the road ripped the braking cable off and the brake drum in the left wheel ceased up. Gerhard, Frank and Richard managed to get the damaged drum out and reassembled the wheel to get us going again.

The problem now was that there was no chance to make the gate of Chizerera before closing time. We stopped at sundown and via some great negotiations from Stephen Midzi, we got permission from the local chief to camp wild on his ground.

Nothing stops the Outreach. The tents are pitched. The kitchen is humming. Tomorrow we go to Hwange.

See you there.

Download GPS Tracks for today: Google Earth Format & GPX Format