The Hide, Hwange NP, Zimbabwe - June 2018
The Hide is a privately operated tent camp in the mid-eastern part of Hwange, south of the Main Camp, which was our access to the park, and north of the Linkwasha Concession Area. It was a 45 minute drive from the Main Camp. During the drive to camp we saw a southern ground hornbill which the guide said was quite rare. We had a late-afternoon game drive upon our arrival, where we saw a beautiful bushbuck, a number of common waterbuck, kudu, impala, gray-footed chacma baboons and a number of secretarybirds. The next morning we took a long game drive and saw numerous birds, including secretarybirds, southern yellow-billed hornbills, lilac breasted rollers, gray go-away birds, Bradfield's hornbill, southern ostrich, a crested barbet, cape starlings, Senegal coucals, tawny eagles, a red-crested bustard, hooded vultures, magpie shrikes and kori bustards. We also saw a roan antelope, which our guide said was rarely seen, and quite a few elephants. Late afternoon we took a private walking tour with a guide carrying a rifle and had an amazing experience walking among the wildlife. We encountered vervet monkeys, more baboons, impala, blue wildebeest, Chapman's zebra, and witnessed a herd of about 30 Namibian giraffe walking 30 or 40 yards from us. At the end of our walk we joined the rest of camp at a sundowner in the bush where tables with drinks and snacks were set up and chairs for us to sit on. Two African wildcats walked stealthily past us in the dark (I was unable to get a photo). Later that night I took a night safari which got very cold - I wore a lined poncho and wrapped myself in blankets. We saw an aardvark and about 40 springhares, an animal I'd never heard of before, which looks like a miniature kangaroo (I was not able to get any photos - too dark). Our driver turned off the vehicle lights for a few minutes and the Milky Way lit up the sky like I've never seen before. The next morning we were out early for a 45 minute drive back to the Main Gate and then a 3 hour drive back to Victoria Falls. On our way to the Main Gate we encountered an incredibly beautiful saddle-billed stork and a small southern steenbuck. Shortly after leaving the Main Gate we saw another southern ground hornbill off the side of the road.
We saw 18 species of mammal, including a mongoose, the African wildcats, the aardvark and multiple springhares I was unable to get photos of, and 17 species of bird.
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