Mana Pools Canoe Safari / DAPU Volunteer Report / East Cape Hunt - These photos are posted in a rather haphazard fashion, but I hope you still get the essence of this experience.

I always wanted to beat Buzz Charlton at something and a Canoe Safari down the Zambezi was just the ticket. In case you haven’t heard the story, Buzz arranged a Canoe safari for some family members. It was quite an entourage of four canoes loaded with people, beer, mankinis, blow up dolls (emergency flotation devices) and supplies. It was to be solid week of good times floating down the Zambezi, but a local hippo apparently got offended for not being invited. Buzz’s canoe safari didn’t even last as long as the safety briefing. Within ten minutes of launching the group was charged by a lone hippo bull. Two of the canoes were destroyed, another was turned over and all supplies were lost. Nobody got hurt, but this happy holiday came to a quick end. Rumor was that some happy fisherman downriver recovered the flotation devices. Buzz told me that as he went over the canoe he felt the bristles of the hippo’s face brush against his thigh.

Since Buzz set the bar pretty low and because I wanted to recover a few items for him from those happy fishermen, I decided to book a Mana Pools Shoreline 3 day luxury canoe safari with Natureway Safaris based out of Lake Kariba. Buzz recommended them, but of course with his history I checked them out myself. You basically start at the west end of the border of Mana Pools and then paddle/float (your going with the current the whole way) the entire 69 Ks down to the east end of the border of Mana Pools. The basic method of operation is to leave your tented camp early in the morning and canoe downstream for about two hours, beach the canoes and go for about a two hour bushwalk (depends on the fitness level of the participants) into Mana Pools. Once you return from your bushwalk, you canoe till lunch where once again you will beach yourself. The guides bring the food and drinks in the canoes. After lunch you canoe to mid-afternoon until you arrive at your tented camp that is already set up for you. There are warm bucket bush showers and a long drop loo to use at the campsite. The meals were all excellent and there was a full selection of drinks and spirits. The camaraderie around the campfire went well (I was the only hunter of six guests) and it is something special to sleep on the banks of the Zambezi.

The head guide was Mark V (nobody can pronounce his last name) and he carried a 460 Weatherby on his bush walks along with a Taurus 44 Magnum revolver on his hip, just like Dirty Harry. Mark had recently killed a charging elephant on one of his bush walks; the muzzle of his 460 actually touched the cows head as he pulled the trigger. There was a lot of paperwork to fill out. Being a native Zimbo he has done quite a bit of hunting himself and is comfortable with it as a conservation tool. I arrived a day earlier than the rest of the guests so we could talk openly about it. However, we agreed I would show some conversational discretion over the subject once the other guests arrived. This was pre-Cecil.
Mark V , Takeshore and camp manager.

Evening view from the banks of the Zambezi at one of our Canoe safari campsites.


View of our campsite as we paddle in after a day of cheating death.



Young elephant bull viewed from canoes.

Typical scene of coming up on hippos.


Elephants who came nearby as we ate our lunch on shore.



Old and calm guy who hung out at our camp.


You can get close to big elephants while in a canoe, but be careful.

Raft up in the middle of the Zambezi

Mark V doing most of the work.

While I.....

Elephants near our lunch spot.




Near the start of your journey.

One thing about dealing with all those hippos is that you forget about the big crocs that are swimming underneath you.


Awesome views all the time. That's Zambia where all the cheeky bastards live.




Croc that got caught by lions away from the Zambezi river inland in Mana Pools.
Mark V


Lion pride encountered while out on or day hike in Mana Pools. They would have been the pride that killed the big croc.



There are about 3,000 hippos living along that 69K stretch of Mana Pools shoreline and that did put a little anxiety in my gut. I was charged by a hippo once and I have been charged by elephants several times (not mock charges, but I am coming to kill you charges), but during all these moments my feet were on the ground and I was carrying a big gun. In this situation I was in a slow moving canoe holding a plastic paddle. My defense was limited to trying not to get too close to the hippos, paddling as fast as I can to get away from the hippos, and slapping the paddle on the face of the water while shouting obscenities and making promises to God. Mark V and the back up guide, Takeshore, both had 44 mag revolvers on their belts. I know how difficult it is to hit the brain on a charging elephant so the odds of either Mark or Takeshore successfully hitting the even smaller brain of a charging hippo while in a wobbly canoe firing a 44 mag with a one handed fast draw…..well….not sure how that’s going to work out.

We are all too some extent adrenalin junkies here. If you want to feel adrenalin…..then go on a canoe safari and get charged by hippos. The positive aspect of encountering so many grumpy hippos is that you forget about all the big crocodiles cruising underneath you after you just watched them slither off the bank.

We got charged once a day for each of the three days. It was a bit much for one of the guests and she decided to leave her husband and travel with the crew after the second day. The others were a married couple with their son from Canada and a recently married younger couple from Florida, the wife just mentioned. The travel agents downplayed the danger factor for all of them and told them it was an easy trip. Since I knew better, I was the most cautious of the bunch.

The Son from Canada had spent the last four month in Harare working for an NGO trying to get new farmers’ loans. He shrugged his shoulders and admitted it was just not possible as the best deal they could find was at a 27% interest rate and the most successful sophisticated farmer in the world wouldn’t be able to make money at that kind of rate. Captain Bob strikes again.

I caught the first hippo charge on the first day by looking over my left shoulder. The hippos are everywhere and apparently we got too close. Mark hits the side of the boat with his paddle to let them know we are in the area and coming through, sort of a professional courtesy and safety procedure, but it didn’t matter to this guy. I was in the lead canoe and already slightly past the hippo, but the other two canoes were right in his path. Apparently hippos will also do mock charges as this one ran towards us for about ten yards (in the water, the Zambezi is mostly shallow) while Mark and Takeshore slapped their paddles and shouted him down, must the same way you do to an elephant who is mock charging. He pulled up about ten yards away from the other two canoes and gave us all the evil eye.

I wish I had video of these charges, but no way am I not going to be paddling as fast as I can and just sit there in the canoe with a video camera or one of those GoPro things attached to my hat.

The second charge, in retrospect wasn’t a charge at us, but one beaten bull hippo trying to get away from another bull hippo. However, we instigated the confrontation as we were coming into a narrow side channel to beach the canoes at our camp for the night. There was a pod of about seven bachelor bulls right at the entrance and one of the bulls had a noticeable chunk of flesh missing from his upper back. As we got closer this bull moved away from us, but closer to one of the other hippos he had been fighting with. This dominant bully hippo then started to chase the injured hippo, which caused him to turn and run straight at us. Again, Mark and Takeshore started shouting and slapping their paddles on the water. I noticed Mark also unleashed the strap holding his 44 mag in place. It worked as all the hippos went down under the water including the one that was running at us. I paddled like hell and started to curse the day I met Buzz. It was too much for the young woman from Florida. When we got off the canoes at our campsite just a few moments later, she was clearly shaking and near tears. She made it clear that she wouldn’t be joining us for the next day’s canoe ride and she would travel with the ground crew to our final campsite. It was a good thoughtful decision as everyone should know there own limitations. I wouldn’t want to share a canoe with her. She would be the type to panic or freeze up and with a hippo charging, you need boat paddles in the water working together and not someone so frightened they tip the canoe over.

The last day was going smoothly until we took a slender side channel. There were a three or four hippos in it, but they started to move off so we proceeded. Halfway down this channel one hippo surfaced right in the center off our exit, turned our way and stared at us. We stopped paddling and grabbed some reeds on the island to our left to wait her out. It was then we saw she had a baby with her and we could also see the head of a large crocodile that had its eyes on the baby hippo. Mark surmised that the mother didn’t want to move off into the deeper water where her baby would be more vulnerable to attack by the big croc, so she was standing her ground right where we needed to go through. He decided it would be suicidal to try to run that gap, so we all got off on the island and dragged our canoes across it so we could launch on the open river side. There was another large pod of hippos to the left so we would still need to go in between them and the mama hippo on the right. The current ran strong to the right and we didn’t have much distance to build up speed. The first canoe with Mark and the husband of the woman who bailed went first; as they drew parallel to the mama hippo she began to charge which caused the rest of us to stay glued to the island. The hippo only came forward about five yards and then went under the water. She was warning us to stay away, but didn’t want to leave her baby as the croc would sweep in and snatch it. The Canadian family went next; all three of them were in one canoe. They couldn’t get enough momentum going and I watched them drift sideways right over the spot where the mama hippo had just submerged. I thought, oh boy this is going to be good, I should get my camera out! I screwed up last year when I didn’t get photos of a dead Chinese tourist who just got killed by an elephant, only because the Botswana cop wouldn’t let me….so this year there were no cops around and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity of taking some good gory photos of a nice Canadian family who just got chomped by a pissy hippo.
Alas, my dreams were crushed when the mama hippo decided to stay submerged. Life is so unfair.
Having just watched the Canadians cheat death, Takeshore and I paddled straight out perpendicular to the mama hippo to give us plenty of leeway against the current. We did get close to the other large pod of hippos to our left, but they all kept their heads out of the water watching us as we glided by obviously deciding I was much too dangerous to screw with.

It was a great experience. We saw lots of wildlife and birdlife while on the river and during our bushwalks. The camps were comfortable and the food was good. It is a great add on adventure to a hunt and is a lot cheaper than dangerous game hunting, although just about everything is cheaper than dangerous game hunting. Don’t worry too much about the hippos….during our safety briefing we were told that if a hippo is about to make contact with you or your canoe then just slide off sideways into the water, grab the bottom and pull yourself downriver underwater as far as your breath can hold out until you surface, then just walk or swim to shore and someone will eventually come to get you. No worries.

The next part of my adventure triad was as a volunteer with DAPU (Dande Anti-Poaching Unit) sponsored and run by CM Safaris. I had already hunted with Buzz (before he hooked up with Miles) and various CM Safari’s PHs for a total of six hunting trips that included a lioness, buffalo and six tuskless elephant cows so I knew them and they knew me. I mention this because if you contact CM out of the blue and want to volunteer to go out into the bush with DAPU, I doubt if they would let you unless you have already established a history of hunting with them and have exhibited a calm sensible demeanor. They let me, but that was before my canoe trip and my hand to hand combat with the hippos of Mana Pools along with my references to Buzz’s mankinis and personal flotation devices.
A bunch of photos doing down the Zambezi from Mana Pools to Dande which took about three hours (in no particular order)
















Lots of inland water pans with more hippos in Mana Pools.

A friendly tuskless (in your dreams).

Early season Dande terrain.




You will learn to love Sadza.

The Crew at the start.


The plan is that I would make a tax deductible charitable contribution to DAPU through Conservation Force that would roughly equal the cost of sponsoring one DAPU scout for a year. In return I would get to go out into the bush with a patrol for five days and nights. It would be a Spartan affair with me having to carry all my own gear, except for the sadza that we ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This whole thing was my idea as I thought it would be a good way for CM to raise money to help finance DAPU and provide a very reasonably priced adventure and add on to the Canoe Safari I mentioned above. This is probably the closest chance any of us have of experiencing what it must have been like for the old time elephant hunters. That is, you take off into the African wilderness with nothing more than what you can physically carry with a good rifle and see what you find. We are not hunting in a conventional sense, but are hunting for snares and poachers. The Dande is wild and there are lion, leopard, buffalo and elephant roaming through it. Miles loaned me his 416 Ruger to carry as I didn’t want to hassle with the logistics of taking my own rifle into Mana Pools.

What about the danger factor? Frankly, I am more concerned about lawyers that I am with wild animals and poachers. However, let’s examine this issue a bit more. I would rank the chances of injury or death as follows:

1. Travelling to the hunting area (small plane mishaps and car accidents).
2. Falling down drunk in camp.
3. Soon to be ex-spouse chasing you with a knife because you spent too much money hunting.
4. Falling down while out hiking, accidentally poking yourself in the eye, cutting your own finger off.
5. Hunting vehicle rolling over.
6. Malaria, food poisoning, bad water and other infectious diseases (probably not experienced until you return home)
7. Accidental shootings.
8. Wild animal attack including snake bites.
9. Confrontation with armed poachers.

My point is that I don’t think you have any more chance of running into poachers on a patrol with DAPU than you would while out hunting. The reason Miles wanted me to carry a rifle is that there is more of a chance running into an injured animal than anything else.

After communication with Miles this is what I brought with me. I wore my typical hunting shorts, boots, shirt and cap. I also carried my binoculars in a harness attached to my chest which was a mistake as they get heavy and bulky on the long hikes between campsites. In the future I will keep them in my backpack until the daily patrol around the camp. In my backpack I carried two good sized water bottles, a lightweight sleeping bag and blow up air mattress, one pair of pants, long sleeve shirt, one pair extra socks and underwear, a pull over jacket, GPS, Glock knife, a package of anti-septic baby wipes, five round ammo carrier, very basic hygiene necessities in a plastic bag, torch, camera, extra batteries, biltong and M&Ms. When we got to the first campsite, Bongi told me where to set my tent up, but I didn’t have a tent since I thought we would be sleeping out in the open and Miles didn’t mention anything about any tent. Bongi let me use his and he doubled up with one of the other scouts. So make sure you bring your own tent. In the future I would bring a pair of lightweight sandals as always being in boots gets old and also bring one of those lightweight aluminum folding chairs as always sitting on the ground and rocks gets rather tiresome. You will learn to love Sadza.

My big concern was drinking water. I was assured by Chooks Langerman (CM’s camp manager) and Bongi that we would have fresh water out in the bush that was perfectly safe to drink. We got water by digging holes in the ground next to streams and letting it seep in. I drank it and it was fine.


The best part of this adventure was my trip down the Zambezi from the east end of Mana Pools to a fishing camp in Dande. It was a three hour ride and the scenery was spectacular. Bongi and an assistant came down by boat to get me and away we went.

Once we arrived at the fish camp, Chooks was there to greet me. She took my extra bags in her possession to be delivered to another camp. I was introduced to the other scouts besides Bongi who were Five, Mumei, Bachi and Member. I grabbed my backpack and Myles’ 416 and we piled into the back of the bucky, drove about twenty minutes and then started hiking.

What kind of shape do you have to be in to do this? Well, you are hiking with a heavy pack with a heavy rifle through varied terrain in the African bush, uphill, downhill, rocky, soft, bushy and bare with young, fit, black, bush African males. You will not be hunting with a PH that will adjust his pace to suit yours. You must be able to hike at their pace. However, they also sweat and get tired and take rest and water breaks. I was quite proud of myself for keeping up and even staying near the front of the pack. The first hundred yards are always the hardest, but once I got warmed up and in rhythm I just went into auto-hike mode and booked along. You do have to stay alert as this is wild Africa and you never know when there might be an elephant or buffalo on the other side of that next bush. Rifles are carried in the typical African manner with no sling. I went on practice hikes with a full pack and a 12 pound body bar (to simulate a rifle) in the hills where I live to get ready, but I made one big mistake.

Challenging hiking, but feeling good.
and besides they also get tired.

Abandoned village due to lion attacks.

Relaxing at camp and next time I bring one of those light weigh folding aluminum chairs.


The basic SOP for these patrols is to take a roughly six mile hike (measured by a straight line, certainly longer in actual distance travelled) to a campsite. Set up camp, have lunch (sadza) then go out about one mile from the camp and complete one big circle looking for snares and poaching activity. I went early in the year (May). We did find snares, but mostly for small birds. You will be able to clearly see the methodology of snaring as there is a physical logic to it. These hunters/poachers (depends on your politics) have been doing it for a long time and have developed a certain level of practical sophistication. Once you finish the afternoon patrol, you return to camp, have dinner (sadza), sit by the fire for awhile and then go to sleep. The next morning you have breakfast (sadza), break camp, put your packs on and then repeat the process. I went early in the season when there is still plenty of water around and the game is more scattered, but did hear elephant, leopard, hyena, baboons and some impala barking at night.

Hole cut designed to snare birds.


The only light we had a night besides our own individual torches.


To my great embarrassment I did not make it through the entire five days. I went on plenty of practice hikes getting ready for this using the same pack, boots and socks I would use on the trip and my muscles and lungs were ready. However, I did not take into consideration the much faster pace of the hikes and the extra friction it would cause to my feet. I should have worn two pairs of socks. By the end of the second day of hiking I had developed some severe blistering on the bottom of right foot. I probably could have toughed it out, but I was limping around and would have noticeably slowed the pace and these guys need to cover territory quickly if they are going to properly do their jobs. And besides, there was a nice big fat juicy steak, a delicious bottle of fine South African red wine, a hot shower, and a soft bed waiting for me back at camp. We rendezvoused with Chooks late in the third morning. I tipped my co-scouts with brightened their dispositions and left them some of my gear for their use in the future.

I was able to save a bit of money by not taking a Charter flight back since Chooks had to drive back to Harare the next day anyway. It took about thirteen hours to make the drive as our radiator blew out about two thirds of the way up the escarpment out of the Zambezi valley. It would have taken at least sixteen hours as we had to wait for Royal to arrive to tow us back, but luckily Chief Chisanga’s brother happened to be going our way and after attaching a very short rope (which required some expert driving from Chooks) to the back of his truck we managed to shorten our meeting point with Royal and saved at least four hours. I spent the night at a very comfortable guest house in Harare before leaving the next day for the Eastern Cape for hunt with Wild Karoo Safaris which I have already detailed in a previous hunt report here:

http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/8691052312.

Travelling up the escarpment on a short rope.

Since I failed to successfully complete the DAPU patrol I will have to go back and try again. This time I will get my feet in shape and then combine it with a seven or ten day hunt afterwards. I enjoyed the Canoe Safari and will do a longer one sometime in the future. Maybe I can talk some fellow AR members into going with me canoeing down the Zambezi, then jumping off for a DAPU patrol and then on to hunt a buffalo or tuskless afterwards. It would be one hell of a trip.

Cheers,

GunsCore

Great story and photos, thanks.

I did a four hour canoe trip above Vic Falls. That was 3 hours and 59 minutes too long. Damn hippos.

What a trip! Well done

great trip thanks for the photos

Nicely done. Any good tigers?

Thanks for sharing this. I love the idea of going out with DAPU. Good for thinking of it. Priceless experience.

Cheers
Jim

Great story and even better photos. Thanks for sharing!

Great story but you gotta be nuts drifting down the Zambezi on a little bit of fibreglass.

When I was working in the Lower Zambezi Tourists were frequently attacked by both Hippo and Croc.

Well done on your support to DAPU.

Very nice.

Mike

Andrew definitely has a point. Still, what a great adventure.

Great photos!

You're a braver man than me, I'm not getting in the Zambezi in a canoe!

Awesome report and photos Mike. Mana Pools is now top of my list of parks to visit.

Victor

Very interesting.

Not PFD insight every body must be able to swim well.

Mike well done on achieving an adventure " outside" the box !! Most people have no idea how hard far and fast the anti poaching teams work and walk !!! Awesome pics . Thank you for your continued support of DAPU !!

On my first hunt to Chewore North in those days run by big 5 safaris, as we were leaving an American couple flew in to camp with their daughter. Turned out that they had just come from Mana Pools area where they had gone to pay a visit and say prayers at the place where the previous year their other daughter had been PULLED OUT OF a canoe and eaten by a big croc. All they found of her was her head I think.

This too had started off canoeing down the Zambezi and having a bit of fun. Buzz not sure if you were still in camp or had left by then but you probably remember the incident.

Arjun

quote:

Originally posted by reddy375:
On my first hunt to Chewore North in those days run by big 5 safaris, as we were leaving an American couple flew in to camp with their daughter. Turned out that they had just come from Mana Pools area where they had gone to pay a visit and say prayers at the place where the previous year their other daughter had been PULLED OUT OF a canoe and eaten by a big croc. All they found of her was her head I think.

This too had started off canoeing down the Zambezi and having a bit of fun. Buzz not sure if you were still in camp or had left by then but you probably remember the incident.

Arjun

I am familiar with that sad incident. Canoeing down any wild river in Africa definitely has its risks. I don't think these risks are much different whether you are a novice or a professional. I never really relaxed when I was in the canoe. It was exciting, but certainly not for everybody. I was aware of the danger, but I don't think the other five people had a clue. The agents that signed them up said it was a relaxed easy paced canoe ride down the river with lots of wildlife sighting opportunities. The Canadians took it well, but the American couple, particularly the wife, were quite shocked by the real danger factor caused by so many hippos. I doubt if they even thought about the crocodiles. I would not take my wife or daughter on one.