info@wildearth.travel 
Into Wildest Zimbabwe – a Hwange Expedition
It felt like we were flying in a large toothpaste tube – in fact not a very large one. Such are the proportions of the Embraer 140, operated by Fastjet. This is not an aviation story however – the flight deserved a mention for how seamless it was despite the proportions of the plane. Having sighted the rising mist generated by the mighty Zambezi as it fell off the 108 metre Victoria Falls some 20km away, we descended smoothly onto the tarmac at the Victoria Falls International Airport – about the only thing in Zimbabwe not named after Robert Mugabe.
After a short wait in the Mack Air lounge we were once again out on the tarmac to board an altogether different flying machine. This time a Cessna Grand Caravan which is aviation’s answer to the short fat kid at school who turns out to be surprisingly athletic – you know, the one who plays prop for the first rugby team and breaks the shot put record. One of my guests was a wee bit nervous of the 12 seater and turned the colour of Shrek during the short flight, but mild discomfort aside, it was a magic flight into Hwange.
Camp Hwange, where we stayed, is in a private concession in the famous national park. The exceptional rains this year mean that this otherwise fairly dry part of the world looked a bit like the Okavango in parts – the pan in front of the camp, normally a tiny waterhole, was a giant lagoon stuffed full of great waterfowl – red and blue-billed teals, white-faced whistling ducks, African jacanas, southern pochards, black crakes, herons, egrets and others my small brain can’t remember.
The camp itself is a traditional, canvas-walled safari camp sitting on the ecotone between rugged mopane woodlands to the north and sandy teak forests to the south-west making game viewing as diverse as its varied habitats. The thing about camps like this is that there are lots of options in the area (and the wider region) that, to the casual observer, offer the same thing – eco-luxurious accommodations, delicious home-style food, superb game viewing and, my personal favourite, ‘the best guiding team in Africa.’ There are more African camps that have ‘the best guiding team in Africa’ than you can shake a stick at.
Camp Hwange, operated by Wild Expeditions, is different. In keeping with the founders’ focus on wilderness, authenticity, professionalism and understated yet supreme competence, Camp Hwange under-promises and over-delivers. The rooms are everything they say they are – super comfortable, well maintained, everything where it should be. The grub was delicious – we ate 7 meals there and all of them were fantastic, slightly sophisticated home-style meals. But two things really made Camp Hwange stand out.
Firstly, the camp staff – they were all friendly, kind, smiling and seemed genuinely happy to be making our lives better for the short time we were there. Secondly, our guide was superb. It is worth pointing out that Zimbabwean pro-guides are, on average, by far the best on the continent – they go through hell to qualify so only the genuinely committed make it. Guiding in Zimbabwe is not a stop-gap occupation or an ‘I’ll do this till I can find something else’ job. A Zim pro-guide has more years of study behind him than a lawyer (and infinitely more worth to the world).
Our guide, Honest, demonstrated the perfect balance between delivering nuggets of biological wonder, silence and wild action. We had three wild dog sightings, three lion sightings, bat-eared fox, honey badger, African wild cat, small-spotted genet, dozens of elephants and endless birds. My highlight was a walk to track and find an elephant bull – the bushcraft and confidence Honest displayed were a perfect example of why Camp Hwange encourages guests to walk whenever they can – encounters with elephants on foot are always memorable and, with a Zim pro-guide, safe.
After three nights, it was time to make our way back to the big smoke of Johannesburg, but we left with full hearts and, the real test of any place, the desire to return to the gorgeous teak forests, mopane woodland and unique Hwange landscape.
