The road less travelled is ours…

we have boated across the mighty Save River, Mahenye Island in the distance…

and have been the only human adventurers to explore the newly washed landscape of Gonarezhou….along rain-puddled  green-flanked roads inhabited by rolling balls of bullfrog tadpoles…and a troop of Ground hornbills who are happily collecting frogs…

and past the gigantic “Hunter’s Baobab” with its glistening wet Ansellia orchids and dripping honeycombs in its three bee’s nests on high..

The road leads nowhere, into sheets of flowing water, overspilling from the Tembweharta Pan and flowing towards the great Save river..which means that eager tilapia and other small fish such as Squeakers and catfish will soon be speeding their way up the new currents to inhabit the Pan, heralding a new season of life-giving water…

and delighting the crocodiles, Fish eagles and Pels fishing Owl who prey on them…

Tembweharta Pan is bursting with water,

teeming with new life…

and the overspill into lower Tembweharta is spectacular..

Gentle bull elephants dot the lush landscape

and our return to Chilo Lodge involves getting deeply stuck in the mud and a gorgeous sunset river experience…

My favorite fig tree on the river bank usually stands high and proud out of the water, now its leaves brush the surface of the rolling tide…

followed by a peaceful evening on the high deck at Chilo Gorge,

watching nightjars hawk flying ants over the stately river below…

This Save river is a beauty, but treacherous for those who are caught unaware or who can not swim…we have rescued a man who spent two nights hanging in a tree and crying in vain for help across the rising waters below Mahenye Village…

Jephias and Mahore, master boatsmen of Chilo, canoed their way to him..

and brought the happy man to shore…

Peter Khumbula…a grateful and very happy man, puts his feet on solid ground….

He has been spared by the River God– read about traditional beliefs here in this excellent article by Sekai Nzenza

and in my blog ...The Njuzu of the Save River...