Originally our plan was to visit only Mana Pools and Matopos in Zimbabwe, but after spending a morning with Ds. Deon van Dyk of NG Skuilkrans in Pretoria our plans have changed slightly...
Deon lived in Zimbabwe for 25 years and it's not difficult to see that he has a passion for the country, its parks and its people. He offered to give us some advice on different roads, reserves and camps, and on top of that he has some great contacts for in case we break down or hit other obstacles along the way.
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| JI and Deon studies a map of Zimbabwe - so many stunning places, so few days!! |
According to Deon, Mana Pools and Matopos are MUST VISIT-destinations! His suggestion is that we cut out the three nights in Lower Zambezi National Park in Zambia and rather use them to visit some of Zimbabwe's other wilder reserves, such as Chizarira and Gonarezhou. This makes a lot of sense, since you can get very similar (and in all likelihood, better) experience to Lower Zambezi in Mana Pools. Deon also convinced us to spend at least one night in or near Kariba town. This makes a lot of sense, since we can buy fresh food here and go past the Zimbabwe National Parks office as well.
After an exciting morning of looking at maps and listening to stories we have decided to cut two days from the 10-day Malawi stage, along with one night at Mapungubwe, and add them together with the three from Lower Zambezi to give us at least six extra days in Zimbabwe! If we enjoy Mana Pools as much as Deon says we will, we might just stay right there on the bank of the Zambezi catching tiger fish! Otherwise we might cut through to Chizarira and then drive down to Matopos via Hwange. We will probably end in Gonarezhou.
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| Mana Pools in Zimbabwe - a place Deon van Dyk loves and knows very well. |
Either way, the information was invaluable and it's a great prospect to visit a few more of Africa's wildest game reserves...! Thank you Deon for your time and wisdom.
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