Zimbabwe April 2013

29th March - 12th April

Possibly not at the top of the list for destinations at the moment, but no reason why not as Zimbabwe is still a beautiful country with a lot to offer, particularly for those with a birding or wildlife interest . We had a particular reason for the trip. Christine, my niece, was getting married to Gareth and so the visit centred around the wedding and was entirely geared towards a complete family visit rather than a birding trip, so I was very happy just birding as we travelled around without any particular agenda.
Gareth is a wildlife artist and his paintings are exceptional and it's well worth a look at his website www.garethhook.com.

I'm sure everyone knows where it is - but it's bigger than you think - probably 3x the size of the UK

We chose to fly Emirates via Dubai, partly because it was a bit cheaper than the routes via Jo'burg (and  a bit longer) but we planned a very short stop in Dubai on the return. We arrived on Good Friday evening and were picked up by my brother, Tony, at Harare airport with one of my sisters Theresa, who had arrived via Joburg about an hour before us. Tony took us back to his street where we had been allocated friends houses to stay in. There were around 30 family members from the UK who'd travelled for the wedding and in total 180 attending the event ! so the logistics of transport and sleeping and feeding was fantastically organised.

We stayed opposite Tony and Cathy's house, with Sue & Rob, who were so welcoming.  We had 2 bedrooms between us and more home comforts than we expected. During our Harare stay we'd breakfast with Sue and Rob and then would join up with everyone for lunch and dinner either at Tony's or out to a restaurant. The temperature thoughout our stay was divine - typically 25C-28C in Harare and 32c-35c on Kariba, we had one day in harare that was a little overcast and drizzly, and a day at Spurwing that was very grey and very windy with overnight rain, otherwise Blue skies.

Yellow-bellied Sunbird

Sue & Rob's House in Borrowdale

Sat 30th - bus trip to farm

I was up early on Saturday morning hoping to get to grips with the garden birds at Sue and Rob's before the girls surfaced - my first setback that I hadn't planned on the night before was I couldn't get out of the house ! - it was well locked. I managed to see a Yellow-bellied (or variable) Sunbird out of the window but returned to bed for an hour before I heard Rob get up and then went out onto the veranda.

The next hour was wonderful as it always is when you arrive in a country abroad and start to tune into the different birdlife - It had been 5 years since I'd been to Zim and I'd never before been in April when it is just at the end of Summer and in theory when the wet season ends and the dry Winter is about to start, many breeding summer birds had probably departed by now but over the course of our visit  I was more surprised at the number of European species still around.

Vocal Heuglins Robins (White-browed Robin-Chats), Kurrichane Thrush, Red-eyed Doves, Cape Turtle Dove, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Purple-crested Turaco, Crested Barbet, Red-collared Barbet, Yellow White-Eye, Laughing Dove,  Streaky-headed Canary, Arrowmarked Babblers, Red-billed Firefinch, Willow Warbler, Bar-throated Apalis were all seen before breakfast.

We had a couple of hours to get sorted before having to organise ourselves to depart. The wedding venue was a couple of hours drive and we were going to be there 2 nights, so in between packing I wandered to the end of the street where there is a small grassy area with a few trees and where the borehole and water-outlet for the houses are. The shrubs around here had a Fiscal Shrike, Black Flycatcher, Puffback and a flock of European Bee-eaters were flying over calling and an Amur Falcon flew over and perched distantly.

European Bee-eater

Tony had hired a 30-seater bus to transport us to the venue, which was at Doonside Farm owned by Gareth's parents, a couple of hours north of Harare, near Maturoshanga. The Farm is a quarter of the size it once was but still grows Tobacco, Tomatoes and some arables.

The bus loaded with the Matson party

The Farm is about 11.30 on the map, just south of Mutorashanga

The various farm buildings were being used as accommodation in addition to others who just brought tents. We had mattresses down on the floor, there was a purpose built hole for the toilets and a  rigged up shower including provisional hot water through  a log burner - all excellent stuff.

Mark and Trish (Gareth's parents) had put on a barbecue for eveyone on the first night (Nearly 100 people !) which was superb.

I'd seen Lilac-breasted Roller, Wire-tailed Swallows and Black-shouldered Kite on the journey, but the grasses everywhere were very long which restricted some viewing from the road.

Sun 31st - walk & wedding

The day of the wedding, and up to wander around the farm enclosure early, plenty of Dark-capped Bulbuls (probably the commonest bird on the trip) and a Plum-coloured Starling were with a flock of Red-winged Starlings feeding on a fruiting Fig. A Tawny-flanked Prinia in the hedgerow and a Lizard Buzzard on a fence post - which annoyingly vanished when I went to get my camera.

Grasses were very long

We had to be 'out of the way' in the morning for the bride to do her thing, so it had been arranged for us to be driven 'next-door' and taken out to look for game. We climbed on the back of a couple of trucks and went to another farmstead thinking we would be taken on a drive to look for animals. A few more birds were around here, Brimstone Canary, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Miombo Double-coloured Sunbird, Tropical Boubou, and Spotted Flycatcher. We then headed off in single file - there was a group of around 20 of us, slightly unprepared before we realised we were being taken on a walk - 2 hours later and slightly exhausted and out of water, we got back ! We did see 5 Giraffe and a very distant Zebra, and some of the terrain we went through with rocky outcrops , grassland, woodland and wading through stream looked promising for birds if we weren't marching at such a steady pace, so on the bird front I only notched up Lesser-striped Swallow, Yellow Bishop, Black-headed Oriole and African Grey Hornbills .

A surprised Giraffe

 A hiding Brimstone canary

Rocky outcrops were a feature of the landscape

our accommodation at the farm

Then it was time to get ready for the wedding. We scrubbed up as well as we could then lined up for the transport. They had 2 flat-bed trucks acting as shuttles to the ceremony with straw bales covered in hessian sacks - so each truck could take around 40 in the back and we were taken down farm  tracks for a mile or so to the edge of the dam.


Truck transport 

The wedding ceremony  was next to the dam (which was huge) with an improvised altar and sound system, the bride arrived by pontoon from the other side of the dam, the service was held with a priest who may have auditioned for Father Ted, we were transported back to the farmhouse where drinks on the lawn then in the marquee for 180 guests , the catering was magnificent, speeches funny and dancing until the early hours - a wonderful occasion.

What about this for a Wedding venue !

The wedding car

 From left, Adie, Hannah, Gareth, Christine, Stephanie (Christine's twin), Sophie, Adam.

Bridegroom and Bride's Mums, Trish and Cathy

Christine and Tony

Gareth and Christine signing the register.

Mon 1st April - Farm & return to Harare

Slower to rise the next morning, but I decided to walk down a couple of the farm tracks to an area which had a ditch and a few trees and ultimately held a few more birds. A Grassland Pipit was songflighting, there was a large family group of Croaking Cisticolas, then a longclaw took flight which on closer inspection was an Orange-throated Longclaw, a Red-shouldered Widowbird, Yellow-mantled Widowbird, Senegal Coucal African Black (or Amethyst) Sunbird , and the first African Fish Eagle of the trip, walking back 3 Trumpeter Hornbills were at the top of the fruiting fig before taking flight.

View to the Great Dyke from the farm

Trumpeter Hornbill

2 Trumpter Hornbills in a strange flight sequence

Croaking Cisticola

Dark-capped Bulbul - The common bird 

After brunch and games of Volleyball, Boules, Croquet and Table Foortball. We headed back to Harare in the bus , arriving just before dark and had Pizzas for dinner.

Tuesday 2nd - Harare and more packing

Today was unpacking and re-packing, we took my sister Anne and Sue to the Royal Harare golf club seeing a Long-crested Eagle on-route. Tony and I sat for a quick beer and I saw an Abdims Stork fly in, although distantly, apparently a small group of these nomads spend summer on the course but normally around the 14th hole.

A few more birds were seen at the end of the road including another Amur Falcon, Black-headed Heron, Common Moorhen, Grey Lourie and Southern Masked Weaver and a Fiery necked Nightjar heard at night although impossible to work out which garden it was calling from.

Kurrichane Thrush - The common garden Thrush

Fork-tailed Drongo

|Speckled Mousebird

Go away Bird

Red-billed Firefinch

Wed 3rd - Kariba and Spurwing Island

A long journey to Kariba today in the bus - we left at 5am in the dark, and arrived at the Marina in Kariba around 11am. It was a comfortable journey, the few birds on-route included Hadada Ibis, Common Scimitarbill, African Stonechat, Little Swift, Southern Grey Shrike, African Golden Oriole, Augur Buzzard and large numbers of Amur Falcons moving north.

6 hours from bottom right to top left, c380kms, the town of Kariba is on the border with Zambia which run through the middle of the lake 

Lake Kariba is huge - 300kms long and at its widest 40kms. It was formed when the Kariba Dam was built on the Zambezi as a joint Zambia / Zimbabwe project and still provides a significant power source. Operation Noah was put in place to rescue stranded animals as the river flooded the area.

We'd arrived en-masse and we split into several groups, loading up our transfer launch to go to Spurwing Island, There were 40 of us staying in the island lodges and probably another 15 staying on a house boat.

The transfer across on the launch only took around 40 minutes and soon we were settling in to our rooms. The temperature was 30+ degrees, we had seen large numbers of White-winged Terns and a few Grey-headed Gulls around the Kapenta fishing boats.

We decided on a late afternoon fishing trip, where we fished successfully fished for Bream seeing plenty of Hippos and Elephants and on the bird front a Dickinson's Kestrel flew into the bay we were in and perched a bit distantly, The African Fish Eagles were present emitting their evocative cry with Pied Kingfishers, Reed Cormorants White-crowned and Blacksmith Plovers, Water Dikkops, Common Sandpiper, Darter, Goliath Herons, Great White Egret, Ruff, Black-winged Stilt, Spurwing Goose, Sacred Ibis, White-breasted Cormorant and Helmeted Guineafowl.

The bar was well used before we sat down to dinner - All 40 of us on one big table, We had a bit of a shock as we walked back to our cabin as we rounded a tree the big shiny thing in front of us in the torchlight was a Hippo !, no more than 30ft away. Luckily for the 4 of us it trotted off, despite the fencing around the camp, the odd one sneaks in to munch on the fresh grass.

Kapenta Fishing boats (Kapenta is like Whitebait)

African Pied Wagtail

Pied Kingfisher

White-Crowned Lapwing

White-winged Terns

A rubbish shot but it was a new bird , a distant Dickinsons Kestrel

Approaching Spurwing from a boat

4th Spurwing

We had pretty much setup the pattern for the next few days, which was an early fishing or game drive, then more fishing after lunch, today was two fishing outings where we managed to catch more Bream, both Hannah and Adie both catching fish and suddenly the competitive spirit takes over !.

Many of the same birds as yesterday were seen along with Marabou Stork, Martial Eagle, Gymongene, Red billed Quelea , Whited-faced Duck, Wood Sandpiper and Greenshank, with more Hippos and Elephants and Impala.

African Fish Eagle

Adie catching a fish

Black-winged Stilt

Friday 5th - Spurwing.

Overnight was incredibly windy with a rain storm as well, but it was due to clear and despite being rather choppy first thing I was up early for a game walk. Because we were on a small island, this meant an early speedboat to the Matusodona National park (only takes 25 minutes) and then switching to an open Landcruiser just as the light was coming up to take as to where we were walking, only 4 of us went. It's not like other African parks where there are a queue of vehicles - we were the only ones there. We we warned that it was Spider season and it soon became clear what this meant. The dirt track was spanned by the massive webs of the equally massive Golden Orb Web Spider (about the size of an open hand) , the spiders had been busy overnight and given the raised seats in the Landcruiser the webs spanned the track at roughly head height and in a density that rivaled an Indiana Jones movie. So we were each given a branch or a feather duster ! and it meant driving along waving the implement in front of you to avoid being covered in web and then spider. There was a lot of squirming as several spiders ended up in the truck - we were told they didn't bite, but it was a distraction when I really wanted to be looking for birds ! .

We managed to see Dusky Lark, African Hoopoe, Red-billed Hornbill, Namaqua Dove, and , Brown Snake Eagle, before we abandoned the vehicle and started walking with our guide. We soon came across an Elephant and were careful to keep downwind and a safe distant, we tracked both Cheetah and Lion spore and saw Baboon we notched up more bird sightings with Little Sparrowhawk, White-backed Vulture, Bataleur, Three-streaked Tchagra, White-browed Sparrow Weaver, Giant Kingfisher, Three-banded Plover, Shikra, long-tailed Glossy Starling, Wattled Starling, White-headed Helmetshrike, a pair of African Hawk Eagles and a Grey-backed Cameroptera before returning for breakfast.

African Hoopoe

I also opted for a game drive in the evening - which was without most of the spiders webs as we'd cleared them in the morning ! In addition to what we'd seen in the morning we added African Spoonbill, Woodland Kingfisher, Grey-headed Bush Shrike, African Jacana and Bronze-winged Courser, at first a single of these birds but as the light went we encountered several Coursers on the track in front of the jeep.

Three-banded plover

African hawk eagle

Chameleon

The Matusodona National Park

Lilac-Breasted Roller

Arrow-marked Babbler

Impala 

Bronze-winged Courser

Woodland Kingfisher

Goliath Heron

More ele's

Kariba sunset

Saturday 6th - Spurwing

We went fishing again in the morning, catching more Bream, and just after lunch we took all the boats we had to the Sanyati Gorge, which gave some incredible scenery, and a slightly different flavour on the fishing, catching Cornish Jack and Squeeker (a small catfish that has poisonous barbs and squeeks !).

The Sanyati Gorge

African jacana

African Darter

Dinner for 40 !

Sunday 7th - Lady May - Elephant Point

So our Spurwing stay had come to an end and various people departed throughout the morning leaving 12 of us to be picked up by our House boat for the next 4 nights . Sal, Hannah, Adie, Tony, Cathy, Chris, Elizabeth, Sophie, Adam, Harry and Irene.

juvenile Grey-headed Bush-Shrike

Little bee-eater

The Lady May - our home for 4 days.

The boat arrived after midday and we transferred our luggage and were on our way towards Elephant Point for our first night's mooring. There were 4 crew on the boat - Willard , the captain, George the chef, Moses and ? who helped with fishing and everything else. It was pure luxury in Africa and was fantastic.

Even though the cabins were comfortable, 7 of us slept on the top deck each night as it was so warm. There was a Jacuzzi at the front of the boat an air-conditioned dining area below where we had all our meals served.

Sleeping arrangements !

It was late afternoon when we found a mooring, and as usual went out fishing on the pontoon boat and as usual caught a few small Bream.

At home I'm fairly used to birding with Bins ,Camera and Tripod with Scope, and have got used how to handle all 3 bits of equipment fairly adeptly without getting in a tangle. Here, I was battling with a new skill as I didn't have my scope with me but typically always wore my bins and camera - so introduce the fishing rod and how to manage bins and camera whilst trying to put worms on a hook or occasionally taking a fish of a hook and casting and reeling in, it had the potential to get a bit messy, but just normally ended with some worm juice on the optics !.

Monday 8th / Tuesday 9th - Lady May - the Ume River

The fishing speciality in the lake is Tiger Fish, a fighting fish with sharp teeth, but trickier to catch, needing a stronger rod line, better reel and a wire trace, and in theory this was now not peak season. The chosen bait was kapenta. Tony, Chris, Harry and I spent pre-breakfast this morning trying for Tiger Fish with only one bite but no fish between us indicated this was going to be more challenging.  I was still happy being out and taking in  the bird life, there was always Fish Eagles, Pied Kingfishers, Great White Egrets, Glossy Ibis, Cattle Egrets Sacred Ibis, Black-winged Stilts, Ruff, Wood Sandpipers all around us. A Saddle-billed Stork was added and a Peregrine and an Osprey were hunting near the Fish Eagles.

After breakfast the captain took the boat towards the Ume River past the Bumi Hills lodge and found another mooring site where we stayed for 2 nights. Again we took the opportunity to go Bream fishing catching some of the largest fish that we had caught, and later another tiger fishing session, where we had a feeling of coming closer with more bites.

Fishing on the Pontoon

The scene was repeated the next morning where the first Tiger Fish was landed before Breakfast, then in the after breakfast session I caught a larger Tiger Fish at 4kg's, which certainly gave a bit more of a fight and by the evening session we'd pretty much all landed a Tiger Fish.

A continued theme of seeing birds were around the fishing inlets, and additional species included Malachite Kingfisher, White-fronted Bee-eaters, Mosque Swallow, African Hobby, Abdims Stork, Purple Heron, Chestnut-breasted Bunting,

The large number of crocs in the lake meant no swimming !

Petrified trees typified the scenary

Tiger Fish, weighing 4Kg

Wed 10th - Lady May - Ume to Gordons bay

The next morning saw a final fishing session for Tiger Fish and half-way through we'd used up all our Kapenta bait, so I just stuck a worm on the hook, we were thinking of heading back for breakfast and something took my worm, this was odd and it was obviously big and just headed for the depths of the river. After a few minutes with the rod bent over in a U the 'fish' started to pull the boat against the current, at this point I started to think I'd hooked a Croc. It took at least another 5 minutes before we got a first sight of this beast - It was a Vundu - which is the biggest Catfish in the lake and a protected Game Fish - It looked unlikely we would get it into the boat, but a while later and some clever work with the net from Moses, Harry and Chris they managed to lift the fish into the boat - It was about 35kg - We motored back to the Lady May, took lots of pictures and let it go.

A 35kg Vundu

The Journey to Gordons Bay took until mid afternoon, and we ended the day with trip with all of us on the pontoon looking for wildlife, seeing lots of Impala, Hippos and a couple of Crocs, but the elephants had disappeared back into the bush. plenty of birds were visible, inclduing Yellow-billed Storks, Green Heron, Glossy and Sacred Ibis. and just as the sun was setting we headed back for the last dinner and drinks on the boat.

Yellow-billed Stork, Egyptian Geese and black-winged Stilt

flock of Yellow-billed Storks

Striated (Green) Heron

Blacksmith Plover

Impala with Cattle Egrets and red-billed Oxpeckers

Hippos

Water Dikkop

Great White Egret

Thur 11th - Kariba to Harare

The Lady May set sail back to Kariba at first light and we had breakfast en-route, getting back to the Marina late morning, so we were back in Harare very late afternoon, pretty much a day of non-stop travel. Only adding a White Stork and White-necked Raven on-route.

Fri 12th  - Home via Dubai

We packed and had a last excellent lunch with some of the biggest Prawns in history,  then said goodbyes and headed for the airport for an afternoon flight from Harare that landed first thing Saturday morning in Dubai.

We had 2 full days here before travelling back, staying on the beach next to the Burj al Arab in the Jumeirah Beach, with limited plans other than just chilling out.

 I had tried to find a bird guide for half a days birding on the Sunday, but didn't manage to connect so instead I took a taxi to the Rham el  Khor Sanctuary which is at the end of Dubai Creek - Everything in Dubai is further than you think on the map and the taxi driver had never heard of the place. The reserve was really a big area of salt-pan, with two access hides built overlooking the pan (about a mile apart), the attraction was the large numbers of Greater Flamingo's that spend Winter there. The numbers had started to reduce as they head South once it starts to get too hot. There's not really anywhere in the reserve to walk as the the entrance to each hide is from the road (and it was too hot anyway even at 10am).

In addition to the Flamingo's, which numberd around 400, I saw Little Egret, Great White Egret, Spoonbill, Western Reef Egret, Kentish Plovers, Ruff, Curlew Sandpipers, Gull-billed Tern, Black-tailed Godwit a Greater Spotted Eagle, (a bit of a surprise) , Crested Lark and plenty of White-cheeked Bulbuls and Red-wattled Lapwings. After a couple of hours in the hides I returned to the hotel.

I was coaxed into spending the afternoon in the Wild Wadi Water-Park with the girls ( I wouldn't recommend any of the gravity water shutes !!).

The next day we visited the Souks in old-Dubai and the impressive complex next to the Burj al Khalifa, the tallest building. Dubai has the weather and everything you would find in any resort around the world (but it does feel very artificial). I'd added Pallid Swifts (lots aroud the hotel daily), Graceful Prinia, House Crow, Common Myna  but overall a limited avian experience.

The trip had been fantastic and the girls enjoyed all of it and I got to see some birds and we even returned home to slightly warmer weather than we left !

Western Reef Egret

Greater Flamingos

Greater Flamingos

Gull-billed Tern