Hwange provides habitat to more than 100 different mammals, in excess of 400 bird species, nearly 200 types of grasses and 230 trees. Surely even a poor day by local standards it will impress a visiting Brit to whom seeing anything other than a cat or dog is out of the ordinary?
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“Maintain a minimum distance of at least seven metres,” we were told by guides at least three times during the pre-trek briefing. It’s taken less than five minutes in the presence of the gorillas and, already, that golden rule is broken.
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“We used what we know about bison’s preference for food and forage to develop predictive a model for habitat. The Panther Valley is kind of the bull’s eye in terms of the best quality habitat we have in the park…once we release them and they step out of the gate they don’t have to go looking for their first good meals. For people there may be some discomfort getting reacquainted with these animals that have been missing for 150 years…you need a bit of a warm-up period. We felt we needed to start slowly, with just a few people at a time interacting with the bison, so it was better to start in the back country rather than next to a highway or one of the towns,” explains Carsten, who grew up in Alberta.
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I lean over the inflated side of the boat, photographing a shearwater taking a rest just out of touching distance from the boat. A cry of excitement causes me to spin around and I catch a glimpse of a humpback whale in mid-air, twisting amid spray before splashing back down into the sea. I know I’ve missed a golden photo opportunity but feel blessed for having seen such a magnificent sight.
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“I have had several unforgettable moments. In 1976 an elk jumped onto the car and smashed the window and door. Nothing happened to the animal, but car was not very nice looking afterwards. Happily nothing happened to us but we were shocked,” says Anne Kurepalu, my guide in Estonia's Lahemaa National Park.
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