Africa week two CHIKWENYA

Chikwenya Camp, I will do my best to describe this piece of heaven on earth. It all started three years ago when Graham invited us to come to Chikwenya to shoot a promotional video on tiger fishing. He had just gotten this concession which had been unoccupied for years. Run down wall tents stood on concrete floors. Your only source of light at night was a fire.
That was then. This is now!!!
The Zambezi River Valley separates Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a Magical Place Indeed!!!

Butterflies of all colors.
To see a sunrise in Africa is to see the hand of God.
As soon as you get the river in your sights you hear the sounds of the hippo grunts from every direction. Their big heads bobbing around, sinking down only to pop up somewhere else. We fished around them most all of the time.


While we were out fishing a big group of elephants were on the shore mingling around. Then all of a sudden the matriarch of the herd decided to cross over to a nice green island. So away they go, all of them.

At one point the matriarch of the herd stopped, and they all stopped. It was only when she started walking again did the rest of the group walk with her.Every calf had an adult in front and adult in back of them for protection.

Ahh look at the babies.
Here is the Chikwenya Lodge now. From camp you cam see the Zambezi River lined by the mountain range on the Zambia side. Monkeys watch you from the trees. This amazing place runs entirely off a generator. No electricity, but you have AC in every room.
This is the open bar. You can see Ken sitting under a tree watching wild dogs run up and down the shores.
Hot tub and dining area.
Swimming pool with bar stools connected to the bottom so you are able to view all the wildlife from the pool.
Ken with one of the many tiger fish we caught.
Wild dogs are a pretty special sight to see. They are protected, and at one point were almost extinct. They hunt in groups. Together they will bring down an impala. Once down a group of about five will stop to feed, then the rest will continue to hunt until another impala is caught. They continue to do this until all are fed.
What I've noticed here is, most animals have big ears.

Sitting at the bar this was my view. WOW!!
In the mornings when we woke up it wasn't unusual to see cape buffalo or elephant and you always heard the hippos.
The plane we flew in on from Harare.
The landing strip. At the far end after we landed elephants walked across. YIKES!!!
This is a twenty five hundred year old baobab tree. The fruit it bears is a pod which is made into cream of tarter. That's the land cruiser truck that picked us up after we landed next to this beautiful, magical tree.
Me standing next to a giant hole that has worn itself into the baobab tree, assisted by elephants over time.
Look at the different pattens on the wild dogs.
Ken showing off his tiger fish.
Looks like I'm busted now. That's me wearing Hunter's "lost" tee shirt.
Flying over Chikwenya. Zimbabwe is BIG, VAST and Beautiful..

Me getting some of this fighting action. My biggest weighed 13 pounds.
Nice hippo!!! Or water horse. Grunt Grunt Grunt!!!
Red breasted rollers.

From the water you can see camp along with elephants and water bucks
This lamp shade is made from porcupine quills. They also use these quills for bobbers when fishing for bream.

I will be writing and posting more pictures from our journey to Africa. A journey that has touched my soul once again.
Enjoy!!!