`Are there any man-eating black mambas around here?” George had been reading up on Africa-the exaggerated adventures of Victorian explorers-and he was expecting the worst. He was full of nervous questions for the guide, like this one about the deadly snakes. I pictured them crawling up his boots, slithering up the leg of his regulation safari shorts, plunging fatal fangs into innocent flesh. “No,” said our guide. “Not right here.”
Here was Hwange, the largest national game reserve in Zimbabwe. Tucked into the northwest corner of the country, Hwange is roughly the size of Connecticut and harbors a great array of creatures from tiny bush babies to towering elephants. Our guide was Russell Gammon, a prematurely portly fellow draped in cartridge belts and toting a rifle. As we followed him through a stand of tall adrenaline grass, we knew we were in good hands. Zimbabwe was the first African nation to establish rigorous standards of training for its guides, and Russell was one of only 35 to be fully licensed. He seemed ready for anything. “If a lion attacks,” George asked him, “should I climb a tree?”
We were traveling with Diane Ebzery, founder of African Portfolio, a New York-based travel company specializing in custom tours of Zimbabwe. As we were to learn, Ebzery’s portfolio contains the best accommodations in luxury hotels and safari camps and a full range of activities, from sightseeing to high adventure.
One thing that makes travel in Zimbabwe exceptionally interesting, however, is that real guides know how to cope. With guides like Russell Gammon and Iona Linfoot in Hwange, John Stevens at Chikwenya Camp and Dave Christensen on the Zambezi, we did much of our wildlife viewing on foot or by canoe. They knew how to lead us safely to within yards of elephants, rhinos, hippos and Cape buffalo. Following their instructions we’d keep still, watching in silence. So it was usually later, at dinner, for example, when we were seated around the big teak table at the Hide, a comfortable tented camp in Hwange, and Russell was telling tall safari tales, that George would look up soberly and ask in his booming serious voice, “Is it true that a Cape buffalo will grind a person to dust?”
Many visitors to Africa pass up Zimbabwe in favor of more popular destinations like Botswana to the west or Tanzania and Kenya to the north. But that’s a mistake. Zimbabwe is a beautiful and varied country, with more than a quarter of it given over to parks and nature reserves. It’s the size of California and still relatively wild, with a population density of 1 person per 16 square kilometers. Much of the country lies on a high central plateau, yielding a temperate, healthful climate. Its cities follow the edge of the plateau: Harare, Mutare, Masvingo, Gweru, Bulawayo. In a two-week visit we covered much of Zimbabwe and found more than enough adventure.
For sheer spectacle, the main attraction is Victoria Falls. There the Zambezi River, which rises 1,000 miles to the northwest in Zambia, plunges 300 feet into the Batoka Gorge, raising always a great cloud of luminescent mist laced with elusive rainbows. The expanse of the falls is so great that it’s hard to take it all in. We walked along the rim for hours, it seemed, then hiked across the bridge to the Zambian side where a great wall of water cascades into a narrow defile, swirls in a “boiling pot” and pours under the bridge.
There was lots to do in the lively old colonial town of Victoria Falls, though none of us snatched the chance to bungee jump into the gorge. Instead, we took a helicopter ride over the falls. And for a closer look at the powerful river, we piled into rafts just below the boiling pot and sped downstream through narrow gorges where fig trees clung to the sheer walls and baboons sat in the branches, making a meal of green fruit.
From Victoria Falls we drove to Hwange, a three-hour climb through communal farmlands, where clusters of thatched huts stood among newly harvested fields of maize and scrub forests of silver-leaved terminalia and mapone. Nights were cold at Hwange’s 3,000-foot-plus elevation; after dark we bundled up in blankets to search in open Land Rovers for prowling lions. But in the early morning, when the sun climbed over the acacias, it was already hot and white in a white sky and cast the bleached, hazy look of midday over the land. There we hiked with Russell and Iona among wildebeest, impala, zebra, sable antelope, kudu and giraffe.
Hwange is only one of Zimbabwe’s great reserves, and we visited several, hopping between them by plane. From Mahenye Camp, on an island in the dry bed of the Save River, we explored the forests of Gonarezhou National Park on the border of Mozambique. Mahenye Camp, a cluster of luxurious thatched bungalows, lies just outside the park on communally owned tribal land. A successful joint-venture of the National Parks administration and the Shangaan people, the tourist accommodation gives local tribespeople a substantial economic stake in preserving wild lands and wild animals.
From Chikwenye Camp on the banks of the Zambezi, we explored the dense riverine forest of Mana Pools National Park, thick with mango trees, ilala palms and towering Natal mahogany. Then we took to the glassy river in canoes. Guide Dave Christensen led us silently past basking crocodiles and rafts of threatening hippos who snorted and stretched their mouths wide in a grand display of lethal teeth. As the sun set, we gathered around a campfire on the riverbank for a dinner of rich stew and maize meal prepared by a Shona cook. We slept at night in airy tents and lay in our sleeping bags watching the rise of the Southern Cross as hippos grazed around us.
We visited cities, too: Harare, the pleasant capital, gracious Bulawayo, home to the country’s best museum, and bustling Mutare, where splendid Shona stone-carvers sell their work in the marketplace.
And at the end of our trip, after days of “roughing it” comfortably on the Zambezi, we returned to five-star luxury at the Leopard Rock Hotel, a rambling pink chateau high in the mountains of the Eastern Highlands, reminiscent of a British colonial hill station.
On our last evening, we dined in the red brocade restaurant at a table bedecked with embroidered linens and silver candelabra and crystal vases of proteus. We reminisced about our adventures in Zimbabwe, while George continued to worry about survival tactics.
He never had been able to get a definitive answer to a question that troubled him a good deal: “If a hippo attacks your canoe and you’re thrown into the water, is it better to swim for shore underwater or on the surface?” (“Just swim,” Dave had said. “Swim.”)
The next morning, trying to sneak in an early golf game at the Leopard Rock course before catching the plane home, one of the men in our party took a nasty fall on the dewy grass of a perfectly manicured green, badly wrenching his knee. Luckily, George, who was present at the time, escaped injury.
DETAILS ON ZIMBABWE
Getting there: Since USAfrica Airways recently suspended operations, South Africa Airways is the only airline to fly to southern Africa from the United States direct. SAA flies non-stop several times a week from New York to Johannesburg and twice a week from Miami to Johannesburg with a stop in Capetown. SAA (800-722-9675) and Air Zimbabwe (800-228-9485) have connecting flights from Johannesburg to Harare. Several airlines offer flights to Harare via Europe-a substantially longer routing. Round-trip fares between Chicago and Harare normally are more than $2,000, but cheaper fares may be available through consolidators or as part of tour packages.
Tours: Custom tours through African Portfolio, with whom I organized my visit, average $250-$350 per person, per day; also available are package tours ranging in price from $1,800 to $3,600 for eight to 14 days (air fare not included). Call 800-700-3677 (fax 212-737-0351). For other tour operators, contact your travel agent.
Information: For general information on Zimbabwe, contact the Zimbabwe Tourist Office at 1270 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 412, New York, N.Y. 10020; 800-621-2381 (fax 212-332-1093).
