Mana Pools in my eyes

[Geoff]

Lovely pictorial. Excellent images with some standout beauties amongst them.

[Zim Girl]

Beautiful set of images of the lions @Wild Dogger.

[Wild Dogger]

Here´s a few pictures of the "armchair safari" at Kanga Camp overlooking the waterhole in front of camp.

[wilddog]

That pan always delivers and the pictures are lovely. 

[JPS]

I really enjoyed your photos , they are incredibly expressive with excellent compositions. They also took me back to my time at Mana Pools, where, as a photographer, you experience the ultimate freedom to creatively capture wildlife.

[Julian]

Fantastic photos, enjoyed your report.
I was at Kanga 6th to 8th Sept, and Goliath 9th to 19th.

There is now a serious drought in Mana Pools, very little food left for grazers and browsers.

[Wild Dogger]

Up to the general game.
































 

 

 

Unhostetly, I was a bit disappointed of these sightings.
I did not get to see big buffalo herds.
The Elands were always in the distance and we did not walk up to them (my fault). Unfortunately no Nyala.
Leopards only at night at Kanga and far away.
The number of animals seen was very good, but the variety of animals was lacking a bit.

Edited September 23 by Wild Dogger

[Wild Dogger]

Photographing birds was not on my agenda.
I did not care at all about photographing them.
I definetely got to see plenty.
Lilians´s lovebirds, Redbilled Hornbills, African Fish Eagle to name a few.

 

Still got some pictures.



Red-billed Hornbill




Crowned Hornbill






Yellow-billed Stork




African Spoonbill




African Barred Owlet

[Atravelynn]

We have a clue as to the clown of the circus.

 

I understand why one of your edit tags is backlight.

 

For birds not being on the agenda, you got some great shots.  Especially that spoonbill.  Wowl

Edited September 25 by Atravelynn

[mopsy]

Excellent photos @Wild Dogger

[Dave Williams]

Each to their own of course but the more you photograph birds the more fascinated to their behaviour you become in my opinion. They are often more difficult to photograph than mammals too! You got some nice shots.

[Wild Dogger]

5 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

Each to their own of course but the more you photograph birds the more fascinated to their behaviour you become in my opinion. They are often more difficult to photograph than mammals too! You got some nice shots.

They are definetely more difficult to photograph than mammals.
And I do like to photograph them. But on this special trip somehow I did not.
I think, I was just to focussed on getting the shots that I wanted of landscape, dogs, elephants and lions that I did not care a lot of them.
 

[Wild Dogger]

As I told in the beginning of that report, I want to resume at the end.

A week before departure, I was informed, that all canoe trips were postponed due to the low water level of the Zambezi.

 

The trip itself went very smooth.
I flew in with Ethiopian, which was okay.
On arrival in Harare I was picked up by a representative of the bush flight company directly at the gate who took me through immigration, which was helpful but not really necessary.
He took me to a lounge, where I waited for the flight to Mana.
Waiting time was a bit long, not as I was used to in Maun.

 

On Mana Main I was picked up by my guide Bryan, who was really very good.
What I really liked about Bryan were his communication skills.
His English was very good, compared to what I experienced often in the last times in Botswana.
Unfortunately, he was not a „walking guide“. He was still in the process of getting one.
In the end that turned out to be the biggest issue I had with this trip.
Without walking Mana is only half as good.
There was one walking guide at Zambezi Expeditions. I walked with him one morning.
The other times we relied on joining other walking groups on interesting sightings, which always was possible.
All camps work together, which was really nice. But this also resulted in „big“ walking groups.
The big groups were not really an issue for me. I just did not expect it to be this way.
Same with the traffic. If you are looking for a remote place, the flood plains are not really your place to go.
There are a lot of camps on the shoreline and we also saw many self drivers.
It was not an issue for me, but my expectations were different.
Bad research.

 

Another issue I had was with an owner/guide from another camp.
He stepped into a lion sighting, which ended in chasing them away.
A lady from a different group, who we also joined for walking with Boswell, was really angry with him and went after him.
He pretended that he did not know, that there were lions, which was more than a cheap excuse.
For me, I can’t trust this guy after this incident.

 

All in all I really loved my stay at Zambezi Expeditions. The tents are simple but you have everything you need.
The food was good and the staff excellent.
Elephants in camp every day. A Waterbuck visited me always at siesta time at my tent.

Normally they do communal dining, which I enjoy very much.
The first 2 nights there were some people from South Africa and the States, which whom I had a lot of fun.
After they left a photography group dropped in and they wanted to dine separately.
This forced me to sit alone with Bryan or the camp manager for lunch and diner, which was tough at times.

 

After 5 nights Bryan transferred me up to Kanga Camp, which claims itself for armchair safari.
A lot is happening there directly in front of camp at the waterhole. Many guests don’t even go out on drives.
It is totally different there. Dense forests and dry river beds.
The area where they operate is really tiny. But no traffic here.
My guide was Godwin and I could copy and paste Bryans description in here.
Like at Zambezi Expeditions Elephants were in camp literally always.
The big pride of lions came to drink everyday.



Kudu, baboons, impala, zebra, buffalo, guinea fowls, bush buck were also seen during day time. At night 2 times a leopard (but far) and civet.
I stayed her 5 nights which was way too long. 2 or 3 nights is enough here.
We even drove back down to the river one day, I still had an open account with dogs,

 

and Julie, who joined me in the vehicle was happy to go there as she only made Hwange and Kanga.
She was eager to see hippos.
The camp was managed by ladies, strange that this is a note to point out.
They ran it brilliantly.

 

So, the big question:
Would I go back again?
DEFINITELY!
I am already in thoughts planning my next trip for next year.
Would love to go back to ZE, not to Kanga. Maybe combine it with Hwange or even Lake Kariba for a change.
I would ask to have a walking guide troughout, otherwise Mana makes no sense for me to go again.
Promise to take more bird pictures.

 

Thank you all for reading this report and I hope you liked it a bit.

 

 

[nluke19]

@Wild DoggerWas the photo above in which the lion pride drank at the water hole taken with your 300/2.8? Exquisite detail. 

[Wild Dogger]

1 hour ago, nluke19 said:

@Wild DoggerWas the photo above in which the lion pride drank at the water hole taken with your 300/2.8? Exquisite detail. 

Yes

 

[Zim Girl]

Lovely report @Wild Dogger.  Your photographs of Mana and it's wildlife are stunning and brought back memories of our many days spent there.

[Peter Connan]

Thanks for a wonderful report!

[Bush dog]

GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY  !!!!!

[michael-ibk]

Great report Thomas, love your photography.