Magical Mana Pools – the last day and a half

We were down to our last day and a half in this part of Mana Pools – time to explore, visit some old friends and get a little creative…

An eland bull can weigh up to 1,000 kg (2200 lbs), most of it muscle…

Meet Clyde – another bull elephant who has been spotted standing on his hind legs to feed.  We spent a considerable amount of time with Clyde on this morning, but he seemed very sleepy and had no interest in showing off.

He did, however, shake some trees for us…

Every morning we would stop for coffee/tea and snacks.  On this day we stopped at a lovely spot along the banks of the Zambezi.

After the break it was time to play around a little bit with exposures…

Luckily for us, Blondie had digested his meal from the day before and was a lot less smelly!

It isn’t easy being the king of the jungle; constantly having to fight off other males wanting to take over your territory leaves its scars, and Blondie has plenty of them.

For sunset we went to a different part of Long pool and there was a lot more hippo action.  Farting, grunting, yawning – it’s total chaos.

But you can occasionally catch a moment of calm…

The way that hippos stare at you, with only their eyes exposed, is very intense.  They look fat and slow, but they are extremely fast in the water and faster than you might think on land (when they want to be).  Despite being mainly herbivores, they are considered to be the deadliest land mammal on the planet!

Having said that, it’s time to meet Mitch.  He is the resident hippo at Zambezi Expeditions camp, and as long as you respect his space, he doesn’t bother the people.  I was coming out of my tent one afternoon just as he was coming out of the water, needless to say we were both surprised but everything was fine.

As we were gathering for our afternoon game drive this day, Mitch came up out of the water and did a walk through camp, aware that we were there, but not bothered by our presence.  He knew we weren’t a threat to him.  We stayed inside the circle of chairs and watched in awe as he came so close to us!

On our way back to camp a very large tree literally split in half and came crashing to the ground.  Luckily no one was in it’s path as it fell, but it certainly was loud and startled all of us.

The next morning, all packed up and ready to go, we headed out for our last morning drive in this part of Mana Pools.  Much like people, elephants greet one another when they haven’t each other in a while.  That is exactly what this pair of elephants were doing…

We headed back to the fallen tree first thing, knowing that it would be like a magnet to the elephants.  Much to our surprise, they had most of it cleaned up!  Time for some closeups…

A human body has about 600 muscles.  An elephant trunk (just the trunk) has about 40,000!  On the end of the trunk are 2 “fingers” that they use to pick things up.

I love to watch the interaction between elephants, especially those between a mom and her youngster…

Our last “stop” before transferring to the vehicle that would take us to Kanga Camp was the remains of an old baobab tree.  This massive tree was used as shelter by the local people during times of war/conflict in the area.  The “entrance” is on the right hand side, by the hump at the bottom.

Baobab trees are often called the “tree of life”.  They absorb water during the rainy season and store it in their trunk and branches, allowing them to survive in this harsh environment.  Elephants love to scratch the bark with their tusks to get water during the dry season.  They also produce a nutrient rich fruit which is eaten by many animals, including humans.  This last photo was taken on the way to Kanga Camp, an example of a living baobab tree.

After a wonderful few days in Mana Pools it was time to say goodbye and head away from the Zambezi River.  The next part of the adventure features the amazing Kanga Camp, home of the armchair safari…