An exploratory safari led by Chris Breen, founder of Wildlife Worldwide.
Gorongosa National Park is one of Africa’s hidden gems – but of course you have heard that before about other places too. Let me explain…
Earlier this year, I was exploring the possibility of putting Mozambique into our 2010 brochure, but I was only prepared to put in a really special wildlife destination, one with a real story behind it. Mozambique has been included in plenty of companies brochures in the past few years, but mainly as a beach destination – something which at Wildlife Worldwide we don’t do in isolation. I was looking for something a little different. Gorongosa is that place.
The park has had protected status since 1921 but sadly civil war broke out after Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975. During the war Gorongosa was a battleground between the forces of the ruling Frelimo party and the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels. When the war finally came to an end and the peace treaty was signed in 1992 the wildlife of Gorongosa had been, not surprisingly, decimated. Meat and ivory had been hunted to fund the war and to feed soldiers, so basically when the park was once again opened in 1995 there was very little wildlife there and plenty of landmines (which were later cleared).
And now? Well the park is a beautiful place – vast open floodplains, a beautiful lake, expansive woodlands of lime green fever trees, and tall stands of lofty Borassus palms. All this is overseen by the towering Mount Gorongosa which dominates the horizon. But still, not a great deal of wildlife here – yet. And this is the story…
An American IT multi-millionaire turned philanthropist, Greg Carr, visited the park a few years back and seems to have fallen in love with the place. Over the course of the past few years (since 2004) he has given the park a staggering U$15 million in assistance in an effort to re-habilitate the park to its former glory. This is not just money being thrown at the park in an unstructured and disorganized way, it is clearly a well thought through and brilliant combination of social, ecological and environmental projects that are being run in conjunction with, and with full support of, the government and parks authorities.
Together with a small group of wildlife enthusiasts (there were five of us in all) I spent a week immersed in the glories of the park and all it could offer. True, the wildlife is not thick on the ground, but with a little patience and effort the wildlife here is extremely rewarding. I have been going to Africa for the best part of 30 years but I hadn’t seen bushpig until an early morning walk when we came across a family foraging and wallowing by the side of a watery pool. It is not often that you get to add a new mammal to the list.
On an afternoon drive we sat by a cabbage-green lagoon watching saddle-billed storks fishing, and a waterbuck deciding whether or not to come to drink. He pondered the situation for 20 minutes or more (they are at their most vulnerable when they have their heads down to drink) and finally decided that it was safe to do so. All the while, the saddle-bills were clocking up their fish count. We watched the male saddle-bill catch four catfish. Each time he caught one he flicked his head quickly until it was dead, then broke its dorsal fin and manoeuvred it so that it would slide down his neck head-first.
On another drive we heard a terrifyingly loud screaming noise above us and looked up to see half a dozen vultures (white-backed and white-headed) coming in fast and low to attend to something on the road ahead. A big baboon had taken and killed a baby warthog. The vultures had snatched the kill, and together with a pair of marabou storks and an immature bateleur, were tearing it apart and flying off with the remains.
We were staying in a beautiful, but simple, tented camp on the Muscicadzi River. The camp accommodates a maximum of eight guests in spacious tents each with its own shower and toilet, and a view of either the river (which at this time in October/November is pretty dry) or the grasslands. There is a central dining area and campfire and a small library of wildlife books. The food here is absolutely excellent, all freshly prepared (and beautifully presented), and for once on safari it wasn’t in gigantic proportions. Not too much, and certainly not too little. The atmosphere in camp is relaxed, informal and very welcoming. Our hosts, Jos, Rob and Cassius, and our guide Andy were all excellent.
One afternoon we set out on a short drive, stopping to look at one of Africa’s most pristine and delicate raptors a pallid harrier, before abandoning our vehicle to walk for a couple of hours as the sun was dropping in the sky and the temperature was cooling. Our destination was to be our night stop, a beautifully set fly camp, on a small rise enclosed by 1000-year old baobabs overlooking a grassy plain and forest beyond. Sundowner drinks by the fire turned into moon-upper drinks as the gigantic full moon dominated the sky and provided our lighting for another lovely dinner.
There were two real highlights for me on this trip though – one aural and one visual. We had had a sighting on our first day of three lions, two males and a female near to camp, and we had heard them calling every now and then. But one night the calling was deafening, and regular. You know they are close when you can hear the gurgling sound in the back of a lions throat at the end of a deep and guttural roar. As they came closer we decided that it was sensible to retire to our beds, and the roaring continued throughout the night. Most of us lay awake listening to this most spine-chilling call of the African bush.In the morning we saw their tracks, first on the fire break around the outside of camp, then on the path past one of the tents, then the place that they had rested for some of the night - between the kitchen and the dining tent.
The visual highlight, apart from the rainforest on Mount Gorongosa (home to green-headed oriole, Livingstone’s turaco and blue swallow), the fever tree forests, the savannah plains, lake and general wildlife will always be the birds for me, and most particularly the raptors. Pallid harrier, bateleur, black-breasted, and brown snake eagle, Wahlberg’s, tawny, and martial eagle, Dickinson’s kestrel and peregrine falcon were amongst the best. But October is the time of plenty on the bird front since many are arriving from cooler northern climes. Carmine, and European bee-eaters, red-chested cuckoos, African hoopoes all add to the brilliance of colour that this beautiful park can offer, and that is to say nothing of the mammals. Countless warthogs (most with fast and furious young), impala, waterbuck, nyala, reedbuck, kudu, sable, oribi, elephant, buffalo and of course the night mammals make this a very attractive place to visit. And, over the next couple of years as the wildlife naturally recovers, and as more and more mammals are re-introduced it will flourish and will, I suspect, go a considerable way to returning to its former glory.
If you would like us to organise a safari to this unusual and special park, or would like to read more about it, then please click here.
Further images from this trip:
