Matusadona is one of Africa’s great parks – 1370 km² on the southern shore of Lake Kariba.
…and we seem to have it totally to ourselves.
Apart from the guy with the AK47 at the boom gate 40km inland, and the very lovely staff at the ranger’s office, we’ve seen nobody for 3 nights.
After 200km of sand road off the main Bulawayo-Vic Falls road, the the last section to Matusadona itself was a surprisingly difficult 67 km (took us 3 hrs) of eroded rocky sections and dry river beds.
But the reward, once we arrived – no other humans.
Staying still
The shoreline Ralph saw from a boat some 20 years ago was packed with game and elephants and lions, but now feels quite empty of animals. Just eight elephants, two bushbuck, 27 impalas and quite a few hippos and crocodiles. At least the chatting of hippos through the night is taking some attention away from my snoring.
But even small numbers of animals are exciting, the elephants have slowly made their way closer and closer to us (the animals are SO timid here compared to Botswana).
We are resting, reading, bird watching, sleeping, drawing, writing, washing, scrabbling, cooking and eating. It’s so beautiful here, and so rare for our little family to stay still…
A short film below.
It is shot with a GoPro so can’t get the animals (i.e. can only shoot very close scenes).
Leave a reply