Zimbabwe and Zambia: Safari (Part 2)

For most people, the main focus of an African Safari are sightings of the 5 African game animals that were traditionally considered the most dangerous to hunt on foot. Also known as the ‘Big 5’ they include lion, leopard, rhino, cape buffalo and elephant.

Blue-eared starling

Safari guides tend to put on blinkers when it comes to spotting wildlife. Due to the limited time at their disposal they will bypass ‘lesser’ species (like the iridescent blue-eared starling above or the lilac-breasted rollers below) with a passing mention at best, in their quest to give their guests a sighting of bigger game.

Lilac-breasted rollers

In my opinion, Africa has so much more on offer. Take for instance the funny looking bird below.

Water thick-knees nest on the ground, specifically selecting sites that are close to, often on top of, the nests of Nile Crocodiles. It’s a condition known as symbiotic mutualism where the crocodiles rely on the noisy birds to raise the alarm on approaching intruders and the fearsome crocs in turn, offer protection! How cool is that?!

Water thick knee

Nile crocodile

Looking back, I am almost embarrassed by the number of times my adrenalin surge got the better of me and I brought our vehicle to a screeching halt. More often than not for an innocuous though beautiful bird or butterfly.

Butterflies of Zimbabwe and Zambia

The Southern yellow-billed hornbill below was seen very frequently, often in large numbers across the entire duration of our trip.

The red-billed hornbill on the other hand looks very similar but was far less common. In fact it happened to be our only sighting of the species.

For me, it was nice to finally see ‘Zazu’ in the flesh. (Remember the red-billed hornbill who was King Mufasa’s majordomo and Simba’s caretaker in ‘the Lion King’?). It was almost as exciting as catching up with Mufasa or Simba!

Red-billed hornbill

I digress.

In June 2025 we did a curated tour of Zimbabwe and Zambia. It was one of our best trips ever and I can’t thank Vivian Peres and his tour company Ventour Travels enough for inviting us to be part of it.

As in the case of ‘Zimbabwe and Zambia: Part 1’ posted earlier, this will not be a chronologically-arranged, country-specific blog. (The flora and fauna didn’t seem to give a damn about political borders so I decided that neither would I!)

The vehicles we did our safaris in were souped-up, open 4-wheel-drive Toyota land cruisers or similar. They had 4 rows of seats including the one occupied by the driver and co-driver).

The vehicles are actually fairly large but are completely dwarfed by the massive baobab tree below.

Baobab tree

Native to Africa, baobab trees live for thousands of years. They are also referred to as the upside down tree (when bare, they appear to rise from the ground with their roots in the air). Local legend has it that the God’s did not like the proud nature of the species and hence uprooted them and stuck them in the ground upside down.

Another piece of folklore suggests that women hailing from villages close to one of these trees bear more children. The fact that the leaves and fruit are rich in vitamins could lend a grain of truth to the belief.

The branches and trunk of this amazing tree hold enormous quantities of water that animals and humans depend on in the dry season. It is estimated that a large specimen can hold well over 130,000 litres of water at any given time!

Damaged tree caused by elephants

Unfortunately, to get to the water, elephants are extremely destructive and it is quite common to see trees whose trunks have been severely damaged. The baobab tree is unique in its exceptional regenerative abilities allowing it to survive even the harshest of onslaughts.

Unfortunately not all trees can survive an elephant attack and the African bush is littered with uprooted trees and broken stumps. Although bad news for the trees, they provided interesting props for many of my images.

Lilac-breasted roller on a tree stump

Pied kingfisher

A tree stump creates an interesting backdrop for a skink

Powerful as the elephants may be, I have documented evidence that elephants are not always the winner when attempting to bring down a tree.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, the one below depicting an embedded tip of ivory in the trunk of a tree tells the possible story involving a proud old tree and a very, very sheepish elephant!

Tip of an elephants tusk embedded in the trunk of a tree

I got the image below while returning back to camp after an evening safari. A subadult leopard cub makes itself comfortable in the angle between the roots and the trunk of a massive uprooted tree.

The leopard is the most elusive of the Big 5 and we were very fortunate to get several sighting of this graceful beast. The cub above was one of two and earlier that day we had a magical encounter with the mother that locals had affectionately dubbed ‘Lucy’.

‘Lucy’ the leopard

We were a few minutes into our morning safari when Mathew, our guide, negotiated a sharp turn and happened to glance back. ‘Leopard!’ he whispered and swivelling back we saw the animal about 100 yards behind us in a small clearing and making its way towards the trees.

Anticipating where she was heading he gunned the vehicle towards the area, shut off the engine and waited. A few moments later Lucy emerged out into the open and casually strolled towards us. She stopped just below me for several magical moments before moving on.

Needless to say, these are only two of a whole bunch of images that I have on record and I will post the others in a photo gallery later.

Later that morning we got our first sighting of her cubs that she left in another part of the forest.

A couple of sub-adult leopard cubs

Wildlife sightings are all about being at the right place at the right time. We were the first to spot the leopard and got the best sighting before other vehicles came storming in.

It was a different story with the hyena below. When we arrived on the scene there were already a number of vehicles cueing up to catch a glimpse.

Visibility was restricted by a couple of bushes and in order to allow everyone to get a sighting each watched for a short while and moved away to make place for others.

Our party was divided into two vehicles and the other vehicle moved into position about 10-15 minutes later. For them the delay was perfect as it was just in time to catch a sighting of Lucy confronting the hyena. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour she climbed up a tree giving our people a great sighting in the process.

Hyena

We were to get a few other leopard sighting over the course of this trip. One was a young cub that was treed by a hyena. There were a number of safari vehicles enjoying the spectacle and I’m not sure whether it was the hyena or our vehicles that terrified the poor cub.

A treed leopard cub

On two separate occasions, both after sundown, we came across a leopard stalking a herd of impala. The image below was shot handheld at ISO of 32000 at 1/8th of a second which explains the quality! Deciding that it was neither fair to the impala nor the leopard we decided to move on and not wait to see the outcome.

Leopard (slightly to the left of the middle of the frame) stalking a herd of impala.

There is another image with a fallen tree that I felt was worth sharing.

We were searching for lions and driving along the banks of the Luangwa River. Our guide, Innocent, brought the vehicle to a halt and pointed across the water. “There is a large male lion sitting on the opposite bank.” he said.

It was far away and barely visible to the naked eye. The only point of reference was the fallen tree below the animal.

This was towards the end of our trip and was our very first, and as it turned out, our only sighting of a fully grown male lion. It was tempting to cross the river to get a closer look.

We had crossed the river on an earlier occasion and, I must say, it was quite an experience.

A narrow, soggy pier constructed entirely of loosely piled sandbags held crudely in place by wooden stakes extended into the river. Vehicles are driven onto a raft that runs along a single steel cable stretched across the river. A couple of boatmen use wooden paddles as levers on the cable to manually winch the raft to the opposite bank.

By the way, the ‘boulders’ seen beyond the raft were a large group of hippos and adding to the drama was the fact that the river was infested with Nile crocodiles! Capsizing was definitely not an option.

Yawning hippo!

Nile crocodile

Anyway, we decided against crossing over to get to the lion as it would take too long and there was no easy approach to where the animal was sitting.

We did see a young male a little later that day and unlike the one across the river this one was barely 20-30 metres away. He kept yawning and each time he did so my camera went beserk!

In the space of a couple of hours we got two sightings of this highly obliging feline. One was on at the edge of the river bank. With the river providing an uncluttered background it allowed for easy application of interesting filter options.

Difficult to believe but this was actually a yawn!

On my bucket list of dream images was a backlit shot of fully grown adult male with his mane all aglow. Unfortunately that never materialised and the only sighting was the one across the river.

Not that I’m complaining.

We had some very memorable ‘lion moments’ and plenty of spectacular images to show for it. Beginning at the very start of our African safari when we were whisked off the Elephant Train (see Part 1) at Huwange National Park.

It was dusk and a pride of lions over 20+ strong were spotted near the railway track. We were just in time to witness some of the adult females try unsuccessfully to take down a lone hippo!

The encounter certainly raised the bar and our expectations were sky high!

A pair of white-fronted bee-eaters

As is usually the case. Nature has a way of balancing things and the next day was quiet. Relatively speaking of course! Although the lions had disappeared there was plenty of other stuff to be seen.

We took the opportunity to visit the Ngamo Rhino Sanctuary which was in innovative community-based rhino reintroduction project in Hwange National Park. This was the first time that white rhinos were seen in the park for over 20 years.

There were 2 male rhinos who were in a large enclosed section of the park each having their own 24 hr armed guard.

We did Safaris in both the countries we visited, staying at Bomani Tented Lodge in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe and Thornicroft and Puku Ridge in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.

The terrain was mainly grassland with intermittent patches of forests. We’d often stop on a ridge from where one could see for miles around. Invariably, from this vantage we would see a number of species. In the image below are warthogs, baboons, Egyptian geese and impala. It was not at all uncommon to see wildebeest, puku, zebra, giraffe, kudu, Cape buffalo, hornbills, starlings and lapwings (to name a few) as well.

Typical terrain. (Note the ‘hippo highways’!)

If you look closely the land has furrows that snake across the otherwise flat terrain. We were told that they were known as ‘Hippo Highways’!

Hippos rest in rivers and waterbodies during the day. They feed at night at feeding grounds that are typically a distance away. They mark the path taken and tend to follow the same path. Over time their massive bulk form narrow trenches that leads from the river to the feeding ground.

Hippos in the Luangwa River. Add to that the nile crocodiles and one wonders whether the risk taken by the fisherman in the centre is worth it.

Crocs waiting for a dead hippo in Luangwa River to decompose to get to the good stuff!

These hippo highways allow water from the river to be channeled inland during the wet season. They also provide excellent cover for predators while stalking prey.

On this trip there was ALWAYS something of interest to see. This part of the world has so much on offer and, for me at least, the big 5 are only a small part of it.

Male warthog: large tusks and prominent ‘warts’

Warthogs were seen throughout our trip but they were either at a distance away or we were actively tracking a target species and I didn’t have the courage to ask for a photo-halt. We saw the huge heavily tusked male (above) with very prominent warts at a time when we were aimlessly driving around and I had no inhibitions to give the guide a shout to halt.

In my defence, emergency stops were not always due to me. We were often made to halt and wait while large herds of Cape buffalo took their own sweet time to cross the road.

Cape buffalo (male, heavily bossed horns causing them to fuse)

Cape buffalo (female, horns less bossed) with ubiquitous yellow-billed oxpecker

The other animals that demanded right of way were elephants. On one occasion we had to wait for a mother and her inquisitive calf to pass.

This baby elephant reminded me of the lovable cartoon character, Dumbo!

The elephant below was another traffic stopper. He was feeding on tamarind fruit on the road and showed no inclination to move off.

Elephant feeding on fallen tamarind. Was this a sneeze?!

While we were waiting Tuso, our guide, shared yet another pearl of knowledge. The elephant was picking up fruit that was inadvertently dropped by baboons feeding in the tree.

Elephants have a very inefficient digestive system and a large percentage of their dung, often upto 60% is undigested. Hence, in a way, they return the favour by passing some of the fruit back to the baboons and other animals when they poop.

The saddle-billed stork below has got itself a juicy dung beetle that was feeding on elephant dung.

Saddle-billed stork eating a dung beetle

Young animals are such interesting subjects to photograph. The baby baboon rides in style on its mum’s back. All that is required to complete the picture, IMO, are a pair of fancy shades, and a tall Mocktail!

Below are a group of 4 blue waxbills that I shot during a midday break. It appeared to be a mother feeding her 3 hungry chicks.

Blue waxbill

There were two safaris each day. The morning sessions began at daybreak, which meant we had to leave our tents/rooms when it was still dark to have a light breakfast before setting off. Below was our tent at Bomani Tented Lodge.

Accommodation at Bomani with en suite bathrooms. Ours even included a bath tub!

Although there were variations between the various lodges the overall layout was the same. A central reception cum dining area from where the individual accommodations fanned out about 15 to 20 metres apart.

There was a standard rule at all the lodges. We could not step out of our accommodation in the dark. Not that we ever had any inclination to do so as every night we could hear grunts of wild animals, usually hippos, grazing around our rooms!

While on safari, part of the time was spent actively chasing a target species like lion or leopard.

There were plenty of other times we would aimlessly cruise around the forest. It was during those times I was in my element requesting a stop for anything, however small, that caught my eye… and I have a large selection of images to show for it.

A few – and I do mean a very few – of which I have shared below.

Tawny eagle

African fish eagle

Banded snake-eagle

Brown snake-eagle

African harrier-hawk

A zebra takes a mud bath while an impala looks on

White-backed vulture

Lappet-faced vulture (endangered species)

A couple of gawky giraffes look curiously back at us

A male waterbuck

Male impala antelope

The most frequently seen antelope were impalas. They were often seen in small herds comprising of one male with many females. On the periphery of these herd were small groups of young bachelor’s that looked on enviously although I’m fairly certain their envy was unwarranted. On more than one occasion we encountered a female lead the male a merry chase with a very obvious antelope version of: “Not today, dear, I have a headache!”

Merve’s Starling

Merve’s Starlings were common and often seen in groups in Luangwa National Park. One of the headaches of wildlife photographers is shooting a relatively dark subject against the light. In the case of the blue-eared starling right at beginning I held our vehicle up for close to 10 minutes waiting for the bird to position itself in perfect light to get the shot.

I got lucky with the Merve’s Starling below. We had stopped for our usual midday halt and one of these birds flew down to within a few feet hoping for some free crumbs and I relied on his greed to allow me to position myself perfectly to get the shot.

Merve’s Starling

They say that African safari guides are the most highly trained in the world. They have to undergo rigorous training and pass several examinations before they get certification and I can certainly vouch for that.

Take the guinea fowl for instance. Flocks of these birds were a common occurrence. They are native to the region but domesticated birds can be found all over the world. Even back home in India. The one difference being that our birds do not have the blue pigmentation on the head. Tuso explained that there is one school of thought that suggests that it is something in the diet that results in the blue pigmentation. Very like that pink colour of flamingoes are due to carotinoid-rich algae in their diet.

Helmeted guinea fowl

This guinea fowl butterfly probably named due to the similarity in wing markings

Every once in a while Tuso would stop the vehicle and jump out to demonstrate a pug mark or a plant with strange properties. One such plant when mixed with water develops a rich lather and ideal for washing. Another he said was used by young females with unwanted pregnancies to induce an abortion.

Towards the end of one of our morning safaris we were heading for our normal mid morning snack in the bush. Tuso stopped the vehicle, got out and threw a few rocks into what looked like a fruiting tamarind tree. He proceeded to collect the fallen fruit with the cryptic assurance that they were for a special surprise he had in store for us.

Our midday halt was a beautiful spot. A table had been laid out under the shade of a tree overlooking a water body where there was a constant stream of elephants that came in for a drink.

Midway through our meal Tuso asked us to rise and follow him. At the time there was a huge bull elephant just about visible at the waterhole to the right of the bush (in the image above).

He dramatically picked up his .458 magnum rifle, loaded a round into the chamber, flipped on the safety catch and asked us to follow him towards the waterhole under cover of the bush.

On the other side of the bush at the edge of the waterhole was a large transport container that was all but buried in the ground. One end was open and had a built in staircase that allowed us to enter. Narrow viewing slits were cut into the side.

There was about 5-10 paces between the bush and the container. With the elephant so close we had our hearts in our mouths when covering the distance.

Once inside the view of the elephant was spectacular. He was less than 10 metres away, and we could really appreciate the enormity and power of the pachyderm.

It was an unforgettable experience to watch these apparently gentle giants from so close. Knowing full well that our container was as secure as paper mache and one flick of their trunk could instantly deliver us into neighbouring Zambia!

It would be a direct flight, no need to bother about airport transfers, air tickets, visas or security checks… the only item payable would be the hospital bill!

Tuso then handed out the tamarind like fruit and asked us to throw them out of our viewing slits. We watched in awe as they were sniffed and picked expertly with prehensile trunks.

Both in Zimbabwe and Zambia there were several waterholes, many of them man-made, that served as thirst quenchers for wild animals. There was always something interesting at these and rarely did we drive away unrewarded.

A pair of grey-crowned crane at a water body

Gray heron

There was this one time when we drove up to one of the water bodies where the grey heron (above) was at the water’s edge and a number of hippos were romping noisily in the water. Every once in a while one of these huge beasts would aggressively break out of the water emitting a series of loud grunts before settling down (below).

Out of nowhere a swarm of Great white pelicans flew overhead and circled a couple of times.

I’ve no doubt that it was in an answer to my very fervent prayers to all the saints in heaven that they decided to settle in the water.

Needless to say my camera went into overdrive… again… and yet another piece of this unbelievably biodiverse jigsaw fell into place.

Great white pelican

I’ve been rambling again and I’d like to go back to the lion pride of Huwange National Park. We were staying at the Bomani Tented Lodge which is one of two lodges run by the Imvelo Safari Lodges situated in a concession that is adjacent to the National Park.

The railway track (dotted line on the map) that runs between Dete and Bomani – (remember the Elephant Express in Part 1?) – marks the boundary between the National Park and the forest in which Bomani is located.

The lion attack on the hippo happened on the evening we arrived. On the next day, try as we might, there was no sign of the pride.

On the morning of the following day news had been received that the animals were making their way through Bomani concession property (where we were staying) towards the railway tracks and the National Park on the other side.

It was early into our morning safari when we caught up with around 8-10 individuals that was sitting around a waterhole.

About 10 minutes later they began to move very purposefully in the direction of the Park that lay across the tracks. Initially we thought that they were hunting down some prey.

Kicking up the sand as it moved purposfully toward the tracks and the Park on the other side

One by one we watched them cross the tracks. Unfortunately we had to make quite a detour to get into the park via the main gate. It turned out that a lioness had made a wildebeest kill earlier that morning and the rest of the pride was hurrying to join in the feast.

By the time we arrived there were already 3 other vehicles parked about 30 metres from the feeding pack consisting nothing less than 15 members of the pride gorging on the dead animal. The growls with occasional snarls when they got in each other’s way was enough to make our hair stand on end.

There were a few adult females. The rest were subadult males and cubs.

As we parked Tuso warned us to stay still and seated at all times. The female at the extreme left he said was aggressive and known to charge at a moments notice. She was one of two adult females that did not seem to be interested in feeding and kept a watchful eye on the vehicles.

There were a couple of frames that I captured when a cub walked up to her and for a few fleeting moments her expression visibly softened. Then it was back to be what can only be described as ‘ominously watchful’!

The ‘fearfully watchful’ look!

Lioness and a pair of jackals (extreme left and extreme right behind tree stump)

A lioness on the right quietly peeled away and parked herself in a shady spot between the feeding mob and a couple of inquisitive jackals that kept their distance about 100 yards away.

Black-backed jackal

Below are a small sample of some of the images I clicked during the feeding frenzy. Several of the images are visually disturbing and I decided to not to include them.

We sat and watched them feed for about an hour. Gradually, bellies full they began to look for a place to rest and the only shade in the area were the ones created by our vehicles. Let me tell you, it is extremely unnerving to have a wild lion sit a few feet away from you in an open vehicle! Especially when one of them gives you a long, unfathomably piercing look like the young male below! The blue in the lower part of the screen is the blanket covering my wife Vanessa. Whew!!!

One by one the vultures came flying in and waited patiently in the surrounding trees to feed on the remaining scraps..

White-backed vulture

Hooded-vulture

By this time we had seen enough. It was time to move on. In the space of over an hour the carcass was all but demolished. The ribs and skull of the wildebeest were clearly visible, stripped of muscle and it was hard to see any resemblance to the original animal.

Wildebeest

We had an interesting encounter with a herd of wildebeest when we were departing from Hwange National Park. We were checking out of Bomani Tented Lodge and were packing our bags keeping in mind that we will be travelling across an International border to Zambia. I remember asking Tuso about any security restrictions for cabin luggage and he said not to worry as he would be doing the security check.

He was joking of course. The ‘runway’ was a long concrete strip in the middle of the bush and the only structure that even remotely bore some resemblance to a ‘terminal’ was a crude wooden table under the shade of a large tree.

While driving up to the runway we needed to clear a herd of wildebeest to allow the plane to land safely. It all reminded me of the old John Wayne movie, Hatari!

It was dark when returning back to camp during our evening safaris and the last 10 -15 minutes sightings were made with a spotlight. The leopard sightings apart, we did get to see a few other unusual species.

Beautiful African civet

Strange looking spring hare that hopped around like a kangaroo

Tiny elephant shrew with trunk like nose are genetically more related to elephants than shrews

It’s been a couple of weeks since we got back and the memories are already beginning to blur. One of the main reason I write these blogs as going through them, often years later, allows me to relive the trips. I took thousands of images and will post them in a gallery with footnotes. I’ll share the link if you are interested.

This was my first visit to Africa and it more than surpassed my expectations. I did get the obligatory images of the big 5. However, what really did it for me was the fact that in a relatively small window of time we were treated to a glimpse of the incredible biodiversity of this region.

I can’t wait to do another trip for I have absolutely no doubt that what we experienced was barely the tip of the elephant’s tusk!