Hwange Safari Lodge

Hwange National Park

Republic of Zimbabwe

May 23, 2024

“There’s no better place to be.”  

So spoke Ingrid, a fellow traveler who I met on the grounds of the Hwange Safari Lodge.  We chatted for a moment.  Apparently, Ingrid is a digital nomad.  She sits for hours at one of the shaded tables on the expansive lawn of the lodge, head bent over computer. 

Me? I’m waiting for my sandwich, salad and coffee.  The very young and cheerful waitress serves an attractive meal.  French press!

At dawn this morning I encounter my first game in southern Africa.  A troop of baboons scurry across a distant section of the lawn..........

(Not to worry!   At the edge of the lawn, a deep ditch separates the safari lodge from the wild animals.)

Another family of baboons relaxes in the shade as they watch their cousins scamper about.  

Springboks chase each other across the distant grass. It’s rutting season!

From the rising sun, slowly and deliberately, almost single file, young and old, an unending, undeterred herd of Cape Buffalo migrates west  They create their own dust cloud on the plain. Massive creatures all, a few stop briefly at a pond that is populated by a flock of no less imposing welcoming yet unperturbed grey crowned cranes. 

At sunset the large birds decamp to the high branches of nearby trees.  In the distance, only the white feathers of their heads and breasts appear in the moonlight. A ghostly sight.)

The moonlight.  A full moon perhaps?

As if on cue, lighting only by the moon-lit the night sky above, a herd of the largest land mammals appears!  Large, extra-large, medium, small and tiny (tiny? huddled next to mom), all stride proudly across the plain to a small pond close to the ditch!  Close to me!  A front row seat.

For an hour the pachyderms perform their watery act. Then turning stage right, without so much as a salute with a trunk or a bow to their appreciative audience, the giants retrace their steps to the bush for a cast only late-night supper.

What a first day in Africa!

Hwange Safari Lodge. 

“There’s no better place to be.”  

Jan

PS   And tomorrow? “Game Drive” awaits.