Three Days on the Mana Canoe Trail

The Mana Canoe Trail – June 30 – July 3.
We will depart for our three night Mana trail canoe trip this afternoon, so John is taking a sleeping safari this morning. I too hoped to sleep in but I wake at dawn, walk down to the platform overlooking the river and sit alone by the small fire and write. The other guests straggle in between 7:30 -8:30 and Tom tells me he has received a reply message from Art on his phone. All is well at home, but I have left at a busy time. Art is working on a small consulting job and Barbara Streisand needs 12 more tree frogs.  I type my reply and for the first time on this trip, worry about business and my family back at home.  We vacate our tent at 10:00 A.M; enjoy a delicious lunch of coconut curried chicken skewers and write and read until after tea when we embark on the canoe trip.

At 2: 00 P.M. a land cruiser pulls into camp depositing Laura, Helen, Debbie and Jessica; three doctors and a lawyer, our traveling companions for the next three days on the Mana Canoe trail. After a safety briefing and signing indemnity wavers, we drive down to the inlet, sort out our gear and climb into the canoes. John and I are in one canoe, Debbie and Jessica in another and our guides, Henry and Matthew pair up with Laura and Helen, one taking the lead and the other bringing up the rear.  For the first time in days, John is impatient with me when I cause our canoe to spin backwards and navigate us against the bank. Although John may differ in his opinion, I soon learn the art of paddling and once out on the river the going is easy and we paddle with the current on the wide and gentle river. We glide past hundreds of hippos basking on the river banks and immense crocodiles slip shyly from the edge of the muddy banks into the river as we pass by. The hippos also take to the water and dozens of hippos taking a plunge together is an immense splash, sounding like a near-bye waterfall or impending rapids. Earlier today we learned that one must not come between a hippo and its deep water channel but we are far out in the middle of the river and in little danger of having our canoes capsized by a hippo and becoming a crocodile snack.

John Canoeing the Zambezi River

Hippos along the bank of the Zambezi River

Evening paddle on the Zambezi River

Arriving at our first tented camp

Several hours later, around a bend in the river, we see our first campsite pitched high on the embankment.  We beach our canoes and climb the bank to inspect our home for the night. Four two bedded tents are erected along the embankment, each with a riverside view. Each tent has a back door zipper that opens onto a triangular canvas enclosure, open at the top with a gravity fill shower suspended on poles. Within minutes, the camp crew pours hot water into our shower bag and John and I take turns washing off the day’s river grime. The floor to our shower annex is mesh so that the shower run off can seep into the ground and a small metal pot sits conspicuously in one corner.  I soon learn that this pot is for any nighttime necessities, although there is a more than adequate out house, complete with a real toilet seat, for our daylight needs. The outhouse is enclosed on three sides with a view of the river below.  A white tin cup sits on a peg at the entrance to the toilet.  When the cup is on the peg, the outhouse is vacant and the protocol is to remove the cup, step inside and take care of business, not forgetting to admire the view.  A pile of sand sits alongside the toilet and we are instructed to scoop up a cup of sand and scatter it down the hole to cover our waste; exit and replace the white cup on the peg for the next person. After years of using port-a-potties at the art festivals, this is 5 star camping.

Our Tent Camp

John inside our Tent

The Out House

It is past dusk when we have showered and dressed and walk to the fire circle. Carlie is our camp hostess and takes our drink orders.  I usually stick to wine, but two of the four doctors order gin and tonics and I recall an earlier conversation today when the doctors were advocating gin and quinine as the traditional drink for Africa.  Not wanting to ignore doctor’s orders, I too request a gin and tonic. Carlie is in her early 20’s and charmingly orchestrates the fireside conversation, passing hors d’oeuvers and refilling drink orders until dinner is formally announced by our camp chef, complete with white chef’s hat.  We dine under the stars at a candle lit table adorned with leaves. The pork chop, potato, peas and carrot dinner is remarkable and the wine flows freely, followed by a custard dessert.  At some point during dinner paper votive bags, weighted with sand, have been place around the camp and these votive sacks illuminate the pathway to our tents.  

The Camp Cook and Kitchen

Sundowners at Camp

Day Two-Mana Canoe Trail. We wake up at 6:00 A.M. to the sound of water being poured into a portable canvas basin outside of our tent.  John and I dress quickly and as I am washing my face in the warm water, I trip on a leg of the tripod to the basin and spill the water onto the ground.  No harm is done, but I feel badly, since an obvious effort was made to provide us with hot water for our morning wash.  We are on the river by 7:00 A.M; canoeing alongside the hippos and crocodiles on this beautiful  morning. At 9:30 we head to shore to stretch our legs and take a bush walk. We see impala, water buck, strangler figs and termite mounds. We learn that a certain moth lays its larva in the dead antlers of antelope and the larva feed on the keratin. We learn about the cambium layer of the trees that contains xylem and phloem that distributes nutrients to the tree. I wonder if there will be a test? 

Sunrise Dragonfly

Morning Eland

We Canoe for another hour and take a 2 1/2 hour lunch break on an island in the middle of the Zambezi. Lunch consists of quiche, couscous and bean salad and afterwards John and I explore the small island, hearing more than seeing  illusive  monitor lizards scurrying among the roots and rotting brush of the trees near the river.

A Pod of Hippos

Stork in Flight

Lunch Break

Aground on a Sandbar

Canoeing the Zambezi River

The Hippo Obstacle Course - Day Three -Mana Canoe Trail. We wake to the sound of our canvas washstands being filled with hot water and a gentle knock on the canvas of our tent. It is 6:00 A.M. and the sun has not yet risen.  I dress quickly, wake John and we move groggily from our tent to the warmth of the fire circle. Carlie is waiting and quickly rises, offering us coffee. We have finally resigned ourselves to being waited on and gratefully accept hot tin mugs of brewed coffee, fixed to our likings. We stand by the fire, drink the coffee and watch a sliver of sun pierce the horizon, rise and seemingly float, a glowing red ball, against the grey dawn. Breakfast is an array of hot and cold cereals, fruit salad, toast and muffins. At 7:03, bundled tightly against the cold, we have all climbed into the four tiered, safari vehicle for a morning game drive. We are lucky today and first off, come to a large bull elephant who gives us quite a show, standing on his hind feet with raised trunk to pull off acacia branches from a tree. A smaller male follows him, picking up left over branches that the bull leaves behind. The smaller male poops and pees for our entertainment and we are all very amazed by the length of his extended penis that reaches the ground. Our guides see a Cape buffalo herd in the distance; we drive closer, park the vehicle and approach in single file, flanked on either end by our two armed guides.  A lone bull buffalo, standing away from his herd, watches us warily.  Henry watches back, gathers us in a tight circle and after several minutes, instructs me to lead the retreat, single file back behind a large termite mound.  We continue our drive towards two of the four Mana Pools, several miles inland from the Zambezi River and fed by the river through underground springs. The first of the pools is blanketed with water hyacinths and a troupe of baboons sit at the shoreline, picking and gnawing the lush foliage. A second, much larger pool, further inland, is more arid and large crocodiles bask on the sandy bank and hippos muck about in the center. We see herds of Impala, families of shy wart hogs and countless birds.

Bull Elephant

Very Male Elephant

Cape Buffalo

Returning to our campsite, we find it gone and Carlie watching over our luggage and today’s picnic supplies. Left unattended, the baboons would make off with these things. Yesterday’s camp has already been dismantled and is moving in the truck by the support team of five and I expect that the new camp will be set up when we arrive later this afternoon. Carlie will drive the safari vehicle down to tonight’s campsite while we paddle the canoes downriver. I am expecting another relaxed and uneventful paddle, but Henry and Matthew are looking anxiously at the river. Apparently a dam has been closed and the river is much lower today which may present some navigational problems. We push off in our four canoes, following the lead canoe closely as Matthew seeks out channels deep enough for our canoes to navigate. The change of water level has disrupted the hippos since their familiar, deep water pools are now too shallow for them and they are moving to other parts of the river. We know that we must not come between a hippo and deep water or it will feel cornered and in an effort to reach the safety of deeper water, it may charge and injure or kill you. I have no desire to infringe on hippo territory, but today, deep water is at a premium and we must somehow navigate down-stream. Pods of hippos are everywhere, both in the river and basking on the river banks. As we near, they plunge into the river for safety, their combined splashes as loud as a significant waterfall. Depending on what guide book one reads, hippos can stay underwater between 6-10 minutes, so Matthew in the lead canoe, must watch, time and wait for them to surface in order to know their whereabouts. At one point, there is no hippo safe channel for us to paddle on the Zimbabwe side of the river and we must paddle upstream and around a large sandbar to access a channel on the far side of the river. The river is not terribly swift, but I am anxious about this maneuver and grateful to have John’s paddling power to propel us upstream. When we reach the up-river end of the sand bar we reverse directions, traveling again with the current, but the water is less than a foot deep and it isn’t long before all of the canoes go aground. Our guides, John and Laura all get out, wade, and pull the canoes off the sand bars and into deeper water. Although the water is quite shallow, I worry that one of the many large crocodiles we have sighted, may be lurking out of sight and take a bite out of someone’s feet. For several hours we are challenged by unsettled pods of hippos, sand bars and crocodile worries. I am looking forward to relaxing at lunch stop, but when we near the usual site, it is occupied by a lone bull hippo. As anticipated, he plunges into the water and we wait the appropriate amount of time in order to determine his whereabouts in the river and safely beach our canoes. We are entertained during our lunch break by a territorial fight between the bull hippo we chased from our picnic spot and another bull hippo already in the river. Our picnic site is only 10 feet above the river and the hippo challenge is less than 20 feet from the shore.  I caution John to stand back, worried that the defeated male may take to land, but our guides seem confident that it is safe to observe them from above.  They rise, clash and roar, submerge, rise and clash and roar in another spot and repeat this sequence for nearly 15 minutes.

Tent Camp on the Zambezi River

The afternoon paddle is relatively easy and we arrive at our final campsite at 5:30 P.M, just as the sun is setting.  After showering in our gravity filled shower stalls, we sit by the campfire, enjoy “sundowner’s” and listen to our guides tell hippo stories; ones that would not have been advisable to hear, prior to the end of our trip.  Eventually, Carlie places a grill on top of the coals and barbeques long coils of sausages, steaks and chops.  Having enjoyed fine spirits during our sundowner hour, we are all in good spirits and enjoy our final dinner together.

Marty and John Sunset on the Zambezi River

Hippo Trivia: What we have learned about Hippos to date is that they are very dangerous and cause more deaths in Africa than any other animal. They are shy and have poor eyesight and breeding females are very protective of their calves and the bull hippos, protective of their females.  Although they spend much of the day mucking around in the river and basking on the river banks, at night, they wander inland to graze and the males mark their territory with massive sprays of dung. They eject their feces and at the same time, vibrate their tails at top speed to spray the dung over as wide an area as possible; the shit literally hits the fan. Over 1200 hippos were counted at the last hippo census, along this 80 kilometer stretch of the Mana Pool National Park and their grunts, gurgles and territorial roars are the music of the river. We know that we must not come between a hippo and deep water or it will feel cornered and in an effort to reach the safety of deeper water, it may charge and injure or kill you.     

Mana Pools to Victoria Falls –July 3, 2011.  Our wake up knock is not until 7:00 A.M; we dress and pack quickly and sit by the morning camp fire enjoying our final mugs of coffee along the Mana Canoe Trail. Last night, three tip envelops were placed on our camp cots and I give one each to our guides, Matthew and Henry, thanking them profusely for their part in our experience. I give the third envelope to Carlie who will distribute the amount between the 5 support crew members. The support crew is busily breaking down camp, even as we finish our breakfast. After breakfast, we take a morning game walk from our campsite, following the single file protocol and see the usual impala, wart hogs and water buck, grazing in the early morning light. An hour later, Carlie intersects our walking route, picks us up in the safari vehicle, reuniting us with our luggage and takes us to the bush airstrip to wait for our plane. It is no surprise to see an elephant grazing on the runway and Carlie roars the engine, establishing our dominance, and the elephant spins towards us, flaps its ears and makes a backwards retreat into the hide of trees. The other four guests are also flying out, but to a different destination and we wait together, in the still morning heat, alongside, the red dirt airstrip. Their small aircraft arrives first and we listen hopefully for another plane. Ours eventually arrives, but an hour late with a father and son already on board, having just come from Richimuchi. We are squeezed into the tiny plane, take off land to refuel at Kariba, take off land again at______, finally arriving at the Victoria Falls airport at 2:30 P.M.