10-13 June We meet Mike McNamara on the road into Gorongoza; he was on his way home to Zimbabwe. Mike is an old friend from Victoria Falls and is now the Tourism Development Consultant for Gorongoza. As our visas had not been extended enough for us to complete our trip around Mozambique we were going to have to go into Zimbabwe for a night after we left Gorongoza to be able to get a new 30 day visa and we would stay with Mike, Mignon, Tanya & Layla for the night in Mutare. I was really looking forward to it as I hadn’t seen them since just after they got married and had never met their 2 girls. We got to the gate and got our permit to enter, it is 18kms from the gate to Chitengo Camp and should take around 30 minutes as you are only allowed to go 40kms at the most, but we were doing it very slowly so we could see any animals and birds on the way in. We saw a big herd of sable probably about 30 odd which was lovely. Also quite a few wart hogs that didn’t do the usual thing and put their tail up and run away, they actually in some cases walked towards the car – lovely! Once we reached Chitengo we had to pay park fees and then met Rob who owns Explore Gorongoza with his wife Jos and where we would be staying for the next 4 nights. Kerry stayed at Chitengo the first night and would join us the next day.
Gorongoza is an absolute gem of a park and a huge surprise to me. I have always wanted to check it out, but didn’t realize how much wildlife was around and the birding is fantastic. It is also more about walking than game drives which makes a lovely change from sitting in a vehicle the whole time. We had 3 other people staying with us that first night and it was their first safari experience. We went for a game drive the first afternoon as it was getting a little late to be doing a walk. The elephants here are very nervous and some even still have bullets in them from the war days, which in reality only happened at the most 15 years ago so you have to be extremely cautious around them. Well of course we came across a herd of 40-50 of them and Rob stayed well away to see as he put it ‘who was around’. They were mostly grazing and seemed relaxed, but to our right a small group seemed to be a little on the nervous side. Elephants have long memories and the war was fresh in their minds. In this case one of the tuskless females was very agitated and started running towards us, Rob banged on the side of the car, but she kept coming so he started up and revved the car, but you guessed it she kept coming. We had to do a U-turn through the long grass and head for the track again; (all I could think of was – God don’t let there be a dead tree, rock or hole anywhere). She was screaming at us and keep coming and gaining on us, it almost made me cry as I have never seen an ellie react in this way before and made you realize how traumatized she must have been, it was pretty scary and she had it in her mind that she was going to get us. After we got back on the track she followed at speed for quite away before giving up. Not a very nice experience for first time safari goers it has to be said, but imagine the strife, killing and poaching that had been going on and is still taking place at times – what terrible memories these herds must have. Rob was saying that you don’t very often see them during the day as they stick to the thick forests and came out onto the flood plains at night. Rob had to report the incident as some elephants it seemed there was no hope for – they continually charged vehicles every time and probably unfortunately would have to be put down. Apparently the head warden/vet knew this particular elephant and it was not her first offense. It is such a shame that we humans had caused this grief and that in turn she would probably have to be euthanized because of us!
The rest of the game drive went without a hitch and the birding is just awesome, what we noticed were the huge numbers of waterbuck and wart hog; we have never seen so many all in one place before. The flood plains were spectacular with a lot of aquatic birds and animals. This park closes every year for about 4 months during the rainy season due to not being able to use the roads and a lot of the land being under water. We had a lovely dinner with good company and went to sleep with the sound of lions roaring in the distance. The next morning we were up at around 6.30am; due to the mist in the mornings it is best to start the walks later at about 7am. We walked out from camp and were following the river to see if we could spot any crocodiles or hippos, but also as you know looking at all the little things plants, insects and birds which is what the walks are all about. We had a lovely 3 hours walking and got back to camp to have a fantastic brunch! I then had a wonderful hot shower in the outdoor shower overlooking the river – beautiful.
Kerry joined us around 11.30am and we relaxed around camp, me flitting around the trees and bushes trying to take photos of all the birds. The other three people had gone back to Chitengo so there was just the 3 of us in camp – fabulous! Jos joined us for the afternoon/evening game drive which centered on the flood plains, river and little ponds/lakes. The aquatic birdlife is stunning and we watched for ages with gin and tonic in hand hundreds of birds returning to their roosting sites up stream. Another great feature here in Gorongoza is the night drives you can see civet, genet, porcupine and owls quite regularly. The next day we had another morning walk out towards the flood plains and then back through the forest along the river, then a drive in the afternoon once again. This park is huge so Rob was trying to show us as much as possible in the short time we had. Without trying very hard I notched up around 120 birds in my 4 night stay. That night dinner had been set up behind the camp so that we were under the huge African sky, but we were interrupted just before dinner by the guard shouting from the car park ‘lions’. Rob left us at the fire to check it out and the guard was in the game vehicle as the lions had walked right past him. Rob called us and we jumped in the car to see if we could follow them; it was 2 males and they were following the road with us duly following them. It was lovely to see them not at all bothered by us and just going about their nightly business. They turned off to go out to the flood plains and we returned to camp to a wonderful dinner. Apparently they had walked right in front of Kerry’s tent and along the track that goes to the car park and then out of camp and down the road.
The following day we went for a game drive to try and see some more of the far reaches of the park and got back for brunch and once again relax until the afternoon. We then drove out to one of the places where they set up a fly camp which has loads of baobab trees around and then had a small walk in the area before having sundowners and then returning to camp. Gorongoza is a wonderful park and well worth a visit, one day we saw the vehicle from Chitengo out on a game drive, but where else can you drive around in a park and see no sign of civilization? We would love to go back again sometime and see more of the park and do more walks.

14 June We were up at 4.30am this morning as Kerry was flying out from Chimoio at 9.10am and it would take around 2 to 2.5 hours to get there. Jos had a breakfast packed for us and they drove us back through to Chitengo. The guy wasn’t on the gate as requested the night before, so we started to off load our luggage through a hole in the fence while Rob went to fetch him. We got going and finally left at 6am. It took 30 minutes through the park to the main gate and then we were on the way to Chimoio. We managed to arrive at the airport at 8.15am and Kerry got checked in all okay. I spoke to Mike to let him know that we were on the way to see them in Mutare. It took about an hour or so to the border. We cleared the Mozambique side and got to Zimbabwe. There was a little ‘hitler’ woman there and I had to ring Mike for his physical address as it was needed before we could enter. Mike met us as we were leaving the border and we followed him to his place in Mutare. It was great to catch up with him and Mignon and to meet his 2 most beautiful girls. We had a lovely lunch and then Mike took us up to the botanical gardens in the Vumba Mountains. We spent about 2 hours or so walking around the gardens; we tried to walk around the tracks in the rain forest, but they are a little over grown and nonexistent in places. In its heyday it used to be an amazing place where you could walk through the rain forest and come out onto the most beautiful English gardens. It was nice to see that there was a lot of work being done to restore things. You can still see Samango monkeys wandering round and the birds are out of this world with a few endemic ones in the area. We had a lovely night catching up and thank Mike & Mignon so much.

I hope you are all fit and well as we are. It is almost impossible to get onto the net here so I am slowly getting things up dated. I will try and get some photos on as well. Love and hugs to all xx