July 16-18: Into the Unknown

Into the unknown no longer! After leaving Chizarira and the amazing cliff-top camping on the edge of the Zambezi River valley escarpment and the Mucheni River gorge, we decided to go to the other extreme and spend time on the shores of Lake Kariba in Matusadona National Park, which just so happened to be more or less on the way to our next destination Park, Mana Pools National Park.

Our original plan was to backtrack west past Binga to the port town Mlibizi at the western end of Lake Kariba, spend a couple of nights R&R, and then catch the 22-hour long overnight ferry to the eastern end of the Lake to the town of Kariba. However, we were unable to book a spot on the ferry because of vehicle height limitations (i.e., the 3 slots for vehicles exceeding 2 meters in height were already reserved), so we instead kept on driving east from Chizarira on the so-called “back road”, which was reported to be a long and tortuous drive on a terrible road. However, much to our surprise and delight, the road was in pretty good shape, with only a few minor rough spots. Moreover, for 7 hours of driving we only saw 4 other vehicles, 3 of which were trucks hauling goods, and these were all near the beginning of the day’s drive. Thus, for probably 6 hours or so we saw no other vehicles, even though there were a fair number of pedestrians from the local villages scattered along the way. We had one river to ford en route, since the bridge was long since washed out. We had a small audience during our crossing, probably because they had rarely seen other vehicles on this road, let alone someone ford the river. Turned out the river bottom was solid sand and the Green Dragon cruised across as if it was an insult to the vehicle’s ego. Here’s a photo of the crossing point:

We detoured off the main through road (which ends on the main highway that leads to Mana Pools and elsewhere) to go to Matusadona National Park on the shores of Lake Kariba. The Park is the first in Zimbabwe to fall under the African Parks mandate, which is a partnership between the National Parks of the resident country (Zimparks in this case) and this NGO. African Parks has helped “rescue” several Parks throughout Africa. Essentially, at the request of the resident government, African Parks comes in an takes over management of the Park and dramatically improves pretty much everything from road infrastructure to tourism facilities, such as first-class campsite accommodations, and the general administration of the Park. African Parks took over management of Matusadona in 2019 with a 20-year agreement and the improvements are already obvious to us.

Proclaimed a National Park in 1975, Matusadona (1,470 km2) was once a conservation stronghold for African elephant and black rhino, and a sought-after tourism destination. But over the years, financial resources slowly diminished and poor management impacted the parks’ wildlife. Limited road networks and manpower left some areas entirely unpatrolled resulting in rampant poaching which virtually eliminated the black rhino population and severely reduced the elephant population. As with Chizarira, the widlife populations are just now starting to recover. As an example, a recent survey counted over 2,100 hippos along the Park’s lakeshore, up from a mere 250 in the 1980’s.

This remote and rugged Park gets its name from the rolling Matusadona hills that form part of its water-rich landscape. The Park is flanked by Lake Kariba to the north, the peaks of the Matusadona hills to the south, and two perennial rivers, the Ume and the Sanyati, to the east and west. Driving here, we passed down through the Matusadona hills on a very windy road that coursed up and down across countless streambeds, most of which were dry this time of year. Much of the mountainous inland portion of the Park is dominated by mopane woodland, but the hills descend to flatland near the shores of the lake with mixed woodland species. One of the iconic features of the Lake is the kilometer-wide “drowned forest” comprised of the trees that died when the lake was filled but still remain today, even after more than 50 years, as standing dead trees or snags. Here are a couple photos of the Park:

For Nancy and I, the highlight of the Park was the spectacular public campsite situated out on a peninsular with huge shade trees, modern ablution facilities (including hot showers!), uninterrupted views of sunrise and sunset across the Lake, hippos serenading us all evening and morning, and much more. Here are a few photos:

A perpetual breeze off the lake combined with perfect temperatures kept the environment most comfortable. We felt little need to abandon our serene campsite setting for drives on the Park’s few roads, so we spent an afternoon and all of one full day relaxing and enjoying the spectacular setting, and adding several new bird species to the list. Of course, the evenings were spent around a campfire, with countless stars in the sky, Venus so bright that it was reflecting off the surface of the lake, and a little musical entertainment by yours truly. Here is a short snippet of my evening campfire serenade to Matusadona and Lake Kariba:

Matusadona evening flute serenade (30 seconds)

Instead of another long and slow drive to another unknown stop en route to Mana Pools, we opted to spend the money on a barge ferry that was returning to Kariba after delivering supplies to the Park and had room to accommodate a vehicle. Six hours of dusty driving or 6 hours relaxing on the barge while birding and brunching? The choice was a no-brainer. Here’s a 6-minute video of our Lake Kariba barge/ferry journey:

Lake Kariba barge/ferry journey video (6 minutes)

After our ferry journey, we ended up staying in a campground just outside of Kariba within a strange lakeside association that is a combination of residential homes, rental chalets, restaurant/bar and this campground. Rather than search for a more secluded setting, we opted to settle here for the night and take advantage of the restaurant, To our surprise, we had a very large hippo grazing on the grasses in our campground after we returned from the restaurant, and prior to dinner there were zebras grazing in between the buildings – strange place or should I say strange animals.

We are off to Mana Pools National Park. See you there!