Mana Pools: Wild Dog Paradise
You’d think that after more than forty game parks in Africa, I’d have seen it all. Think again: I still had to enter Zimbabwe. Mana Pools National Park sat very, very high on my list. The Zambezi forms the park’s northern boundary, and the pools scattered through it hold just enough water. That matters, because I drove in at the end of the dry season in October.
Mana Pools is famous for its magnificent trees, for elephants that sometimes stand on their hind legs to reach the best branches, for wild dogs that return to the river after denning, and for the blueish glow that hangs between the trees. This was going to be something special…
Getting there
The 80 kilometers to the park reception are a proper test for any car’s shock absorbers. After surviving the corrugations I arrived at Nyamepi Campsite, right on the banks of the Zambezi. Small tip: don’t pre-book, just show up. It’s considerably cheaper, and you camp on the same beautiful riverside spots as everyone who reserved ahead.
Wild dogs? Get out of the car!
Beyond the scenery, there’s something else that makes Mana Pools unique: when you see an animal, you’re actually allowed to get out of your car and approach on foot. I’d never experienced anything like it. So when I saw a cluster of parked cars and people walking away from them, I parked and followed. Not far off, eight wild dogs were lounging in a dry riverbed while the sun went down behind them. Unbelievable.
A morning walking safari
Early next morning came the next adventure: a walking safari with a ranger through Mana Pools. Elands, elephants, zebras, hippos and impalas all passed by, but the real highlight of the day came after the walk.
Driving back after a coffee on the banks of the Zambezi, I passed an abandoned car by the road. A bit of scouting revealed three people sitting about 600 meters away. I took the gamble and walked out to them, and there was the same pack of wild dogs, flat in the shade of a big tree. At some point I found myself practically alone with them, and that’s when it gets exciting: you’re a long way from the car, and getting back becomes an interesting proposition if something decides to stand in between. The four pups played while the adults slept off the heat. A genuinely unique experience.
Action at the campsite
Back at camp, things stayed lively. An elephant went for a swim in the Zambezi and chose to come ashore right between the tents. The campsite has no fence: hippos graze past at night, and by day the river drifts by while you sort through the morning’s photos. In Mana Pools the game viewing doesn’t stop when you park the car.
Elephants, lionesses and more dogs
I kept hunting for the park’s famous trick, elephants standing fully upright on their hind legs, but had to “settle” for one stretching itself long against a tree, which was spectacular enough. I had more luck with predators: two lionesses on an eland kill. They’d made good progress on the poor animal by the time I arrived, but it made the scene no less impressive.
Late that afternoon, and again on my last morning, I was rewarded with a second pack of wild dogs, bigger than the first, resting on an open plain in the morning sun. Sitting on the ground thirty meters from animals like that never stops being fantastic.
One final note for future Mana Pools visitors: don’t leave your flip-flops outside your tent. The first night I heard a hyena literally trot off with one, and found it fifteen meters away. The second night they were apparently hungry: both flip-flops, half eaten.