Truck Day 2 – Hwange National Park

We’re awake at 5.30am as wood is being placed into the fire behind our tent to heat the shower for hot water. We breakfast at 6.30am and make a packed lunch for today’s 9.5 hour game drive in the Hwange National Park. Home to the big-5, Hwange National Park also offers a wide variety of plains game and birdlife.

It’s a chilly start to our 7am game drive but it’s summer here currently so we won’t be cold for long. Within 5 minutes of starting the drive we spot a Cheetah and personally I’m bowled over as I’ve never been fortunate enough to see one in the wild before. What an amazing start to our day.

We’re privileged to see in no particular order the following animals: Water Bucks, Batlua Eagles, Cheetah, Crocodile, Black Backed Jackal, Giraffes, Ground Hornbills, Monitor Lizard, Kudus, Zebras,
Impala, Baboons, Yellow Hornbill aka Zazou, Elephants over 150 of them, Wildebeast, Roan Antelope, White Backed Vulture & Warthogs. Its an incredible array of animals and we’ve never seen so many elephants in our lives. At one point when we break for lunch 51 elephants (I made Brownie count them) descend on the water- hole that we are parked closely to. Its an absolutely magical experience.

It’s a very hot day and we need to apply sun screen at regular intervals. Dried trees twist into spectral shapes admitting  defeat in their quest for precious water throughout the park.
Dusty waterholes and sun bleached bright white roads demand that we wear sunglasses to reduce the constant glare. Bleached elephant bones littering a number of waterholes remind us that even the king of the jungle is not immune to the brutal harshness of this climate. It’s been a great day one we won’t forget in a hurry.