Going Wild in Mana Pools!

zambezi river sunset from Mucheni 2

My mind drifts Mana Pools…where we recently shared a Safari with various dear friends, including  Gwen Wawn, and travellers extradordinaire Brian and Dee Keating, of Going Wild, Canada.

Brian Keating and gentle Bull

All around our Mucheni 2 camp, gentle elephants wandered and browsed the albida pods, a staple diet at this dry time of the year, parched earth holding its breath before the first rains…

feeding elephant

the hippos too were desperate for sustenance, no green grass to be found for miles, and this resident ‘hippo-podamus’ frequented our camp daily…

hippo-podamus

the sweet scent of minute trichelia flowers filled the air at Mucheni 2…dropping delicately  into our laps from the evergreen shade of the stately tree above us……

trichelia treat

What a treat for our eyes…’carmine candy’ filled our vision just upriver from the camp, a constant visual delight…and inspiration for me to create some Lin Barrie artworks on handmade paper…

carmine candy

African wild dogs lay in our laps…(well, nearly!)…bloated  after a successful morning hunt which saw them bloody necked and contented.

Brian and Dee Keating spent many happy hours watching, photographing, day-dreaming with the dogs!

The best thing when watching resting wild dogs…

The best thing when watching resting wild dogs…

is to lie back and relax with them….

is to lie back and relax with them….

but to be ready for action when they stand up….

Mana dogs

and head out….!

mana dog moving fast

Elephants were the order of the day, filling our eyes and minds with numerous looming images, sometime humourous, always fascinating…

Here is a baby rushing after Mum…..

baby at full speed

Catching up…..

baby catches up

and happily finding the milk bar!

baby gets a drink

gorgeous jewel coloured kigelia flowers littered the earth like persian carpets…inspiration for an abstract  painting, I think!

kigelia fruit and flowers

As was  the dry gold and red Mopani woodland…a visual delight for my artist’s eye…

mopani leaves and trunks

baobabs everywhere , of various form and great character…

mana-bab

sad to leave, yet the road out provided baobab vistas aplenty……

the road out of Mana

and gorgeous combretum flowers and pods against a cobalt sky….

combretum beauty