Day 47 – Unforgettable.

It is a real privilege to do the Mana Canoe Trip. It is such a glorious way to see true wilderness and the wildlife along the river banks. The river itself is a force of nature. It is a massive wall of water travelling about 8kph between Zimbabwe and Zambia, carving river banks, depositing sand banks, and uprooting trees. The water swirls and eddies. Tree stumps, lethal for a canoe, abound. Islands form and erode. The islands can be havens for wildlife, safe from the predators or can be like Robben Island, a prison…we came across one island where a baboon had been marooned for years and another with a solitary impala. Once there, there is no way back unless they are prepared to risk the army of crocs that await.

The highlight of the day was our walk. After a few hours canoeing we went for a bush walk and chanced upon 2 lionesses and 5 cubs. We tried to approach them stealthily but they ran off. Whilst examining the tree where they had been lying in the shade, thinking that they were long gone, they emerged from the bush 80 metres away and growled. We approached again but this time they became aggressive. We were not welcome and they made it very clear, snarling and roaring. We backed off carefully. Lionesses and cubs are to be respected.

During the day we had many many encounters with hippos, we got within 3 or 4 metres of an ellie in the water, who didn’t see us coming, and we cruised past crocs.

Finally we steered into camp and sank some serious gin and tonics.  And then we heard some of the true stories of the Mana Canoe trail…girls being taken by crocs off the canoes, hippos flipping the canoes….some scary stuff.  But we had survived, we had had lunch sitting in the river and we had necked a few beers like boys on tour do. We have enjoyed every minute immensely. J