Here is an excerpt from David Hulme's latest report from The Borderline Walk. The complete article is well over 6000 words. Magazine pundits have cautioned me not to publish any articles over 2500-3000 words, as the average reader loses interest in the story after that point. However, this is not an average story and we don't cater to the average reader.

David Hulme is the first person in history to willingly, and knowingly, trek the Zambezi River from Victoria Falls to the border town post of Kanyemba, at the confluence of the Zambezi and Luangwa Rivers.

The full version of this account will be available at the African Expedition Magazine website on February 1, 2011. If you want to add your name to our mailing list for a FREE ISSUE, you can do so at this link:

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That was a fantastic day, walking through Mana Pools West. We saw a multiplicity of wildlife and the early rain had cleansed the bush thoroughly. Everything was fresh and green, and my senses greedily absorbed the sights, sounds and smells. A walk in the park it truly was. The only real downside to that day, and the days to come, was that taking decent photos was extremely difficult, my poor Canon G10 being in the condition it was. Had I an efficient camera, I could have fared much better. I still managed to get some reasonable shots, however, and that fact is indicative of the abundant opportunity presented. A favorite Mana picture of mine (though not particularly good) is one I took of four different species in one frame – elephant, impala, zebra and waterbuck…

I had visited Mana Pools before (a couple of times actually), but walking through it saw it in a completely different light. On previous visits, I had been part of game-viewing groups and we had been guided by a couple of Zimbabwe’s most well-known and competent guides. How come then, I wondered as Jephita and I walked along through the different light, had we seen so little of Mana’s woodland on those excursions? If the guides were so competent, that is? I think that many people view Mana as one massive floodplain filled with lions and elephants, whether they’ve been there or not, and I know that I certainly did. But Mana is not just plains lions and elephants – close to the river there are tracts of mopani forest reminiscent of the lowveldt, and I felt quite at home walking through those areas. The only difference I could see between the Mana mopani and the lowveldt mopani is that the squirrels are smaller in Mana!

We reached Vundu camp in the late afternoon, and although it was closed for the season, there were a couple of guys looking after the place and they wasted no time making us feel at home. I was a bit jealous when another camp attendant waltzed in from a fishing excursion with a few sizable tigerfish – between 5 and 8 pounds, I guessed. How badly I wanted to catch a decent tiger! I had tried a couple of times on the Kariba shoreline but to no avail, only succeeding in landing a couple of tiddlers. Little did I know what the fishing gods had in store for me… that night we slept on an elevated platform close to the riverbank and were serenaded by grunting hippos. I slept soundly, as one tends to after a day of backpacking.

Dawn the following morning brought about one of the memorable wildlife experiences of my life, let alone the Borderline Walk. And that happening set the tone for what would prove to be a week chock full of fantastic experiences – real memories to cherish. Jephita had already risen and had gone to organize tea, and I lay snuggled in my sleeping bag, being serenaded by the early birds as they went about their business in the treetops around the platform. In due course, I heard a branch snapping, not far off. A snapping branch usually means a human or an elephant, but I had a feeling that all the humans in camp were in a fairly inactive state at that hour. And then there were more snapping branch sounds, accompanied by a most familiar rumbling sound, very close at hand…

There were three bulls – two majongos and one older chap – and they were moving slowly through the fairly compact bush which Vundu camp is uniquely located in. That was the first thing that struck me about Vundu when we arrived the previous day – unlike most safari camps, the constructors did not deface the immediate proximity by bush-clearing everything. The two younger bulls pealed off, but the big bull kept coming towards the platform, pausing now and then to break off a branch, strip its leaves and thrust them into his mouth, or too simply select a tasty tidbit from the treetops, his probing trunk-tip efficiently encircling, plucking and placing each morsel in the recycler, ready for mastication. Eventually the elephant reached the platform, and there he continued feeding, a couple of meters from one overly awestruck spectator. The show lasted for about twenty minutes and any one second of that time was the closest I’d ever been to a wild elephant. And he was such a magnificent specimen, in his prime, maybe just beginning to go downhill physically. At one stage, I could have extended either a foot or hand and touched him on the head. Of course, I did not try! Long after the bull had moved off, I sat on the platform and considered what a fortunate fellow I was, to be in that place at that time…

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing this with us Alan! David's writing puts me immediately in Africa!

Well done Alan - keep em coming !!!

Thanks for keeping us to date on the progress of the walk. This is great reading.

Thanks for posting this Alan, and thanks for the comments gentlemen. I have been doing a fair amount of writing whilst in Mutare, and have enjoyed a few sideline trips in the eastern highlands, alone and with friends, but now that the skies are clear I am going to move on and get this walk done and dusted. I anticipate completing it by the end of May. Let's see if I'm correct this time - I have not been close to the mark yet with my estimations! Of anything....Anyway, most folks are skeptical because I've never been right before, and because it has taken so long to get to this point, but there are a few factors which need to be taken into consideration. Although there are certain to be problems ahead, I have addressed and covered those that delayed me for so long last year. I should no longer have any camera, computer, money, walking partner or mental issues until I get to Victoria Falls. I don't want this to end up being famous last words, but the Borderline Walk is in a better position right now than it has ever been. I will be moving towards Chimanimani next week and reckon it will take a couple of weeks to get there, going slowly that is...

Many thanks as always to everyone for the support. I will add to the report I posted last week before I go and leave you as up to date as possible.

David

David
Good luck