Expedition Zimbabwe ep5: Hwange National Park 🇿🇼

in this episode of expedition almost Zimbabwe Joe speak cornball tasty takes some photos of chickens chickens Graham bites the tree Caleb gets excited then being excited to be in Girl Scout today [Music] but we are departing Kazuma today we're heading to wangi we're gonna head down to pause Panama tinga into Robbins we're going to check into the park at Robbins and then from there down to the Nori pen thank you [Music] wangi is Zimbabwe's oldest protected area it was given game reserve status in 1928 and promulgated as a national park in 1930. not only is wangi Zimbabwe's oldest National Park it's also its largest national park at over 14 000 square kilometers it is huge and it has a massive population of elephants that is estimated somewhere between 40 to 45 000 elephants [Music] foreign National Park was spent at dandari Park the Pan Is Right on the Northwestern edge of the park and it's surrounded by teak Forest through the teak forest was this web of well-trodden Game Pass that came from all angles towards the pan it felt very ancient very remote really beautiful and very very far from the wangi main drag [Music] yeah it's five o'clock but the sun's still pretty high still pretty hot the days are definitely getting hotter it's only going to get hotter as the trip progresses but yeah all good spirits are high all good I'm sure the plan for this leg of the trip was to explore the southern section of wangi which is more remote less visited and there's less available information on exactly what the conditions of the road is like what the pans of any water in them Etc so we knew that we were going to be in for a bit of an interesting time a lot of uncertainty and possibly some Bush clearing as well little did we know what we had actually signed up for we live in dandori this morning we're a little bit uncertain we don't know if the road even exists today so if it turns out to be too too testing um we'll we'll make a plan B big day today dude I got the privilege of driving me and Joe and Caleb in the backyard this is the fun car this is where it happens people boring cars outside what do you think what do you think is being a nice time with it are you excited to be in the girls car today yes I'm being excited to be in girls car today I'm very happy and it will be a nice time driving I sure thank you very much this Access Road parallel to the border with Botswana all the way down and head on out through the southern section of the park it didn't take long for that plan to start unraveling foreign about three minutes out of camp and the first road that we had designated is not a road turned into an elephant Park so yeah it's punctured terrain and it's yeah it's gonna wreck the vehicle so it isn't even wide enough for a vehicle so yeah we've got Plan B the other route that I'm marked and we're gonna see what that one holds now what do I think [Music] um I don't really think anything right now I don't know what I think what I think about the road building plan I don't think you can build this road this is not a road this is a guasha this is a game past not a road it's the wrong road that's what I think [Music] we should have known we should have listened to that first kilometer we were in for one hell of a long couple of days of bush clearing but that sadly didn't deter us on we kept going Plan B involved a lot of push clearing a lot of slow bumpy hot long hours in the car and things were starting to unravel a little bit [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] eventually we got tired of all the bush clearing all the bumping along the roads and made the call to stop for lunch right so your first one uh we've been hacking our way through um yeah roads that haven't been used as roads for 10 plus years so it's been quite a slow going lots of PT but um yeah we've made good time and yeah we're gonna we found a nice pan here we're just gonna take take a lunch break and then figure out where we're going to end up tonight but uh certainly the road was not just an elephant path so um yeah but otherwise going well not much gaming I think just no water so we we did see those two groups of big elephant balls with this magic that's the last pans that were pumped so yeah nice to be around a bit more activity now [Music] after lunch we set out once again to find a campsite where we could spend the night foreign [Music] we've been driving since about half past eight this morning it's 20 past five now we did have a lunch break rather special at a pan a natural pan and there was no borehole and a huge breeding hood of elephants came down to drink which was really cool they'd taken a while to suss out eventually came down anyway had lunch packed up continue driving hoping to find the next deserted designated campsite with water there was no water at that pan so we pushed on for another 10ks to this pan again completely dry so we've called it a day we're about to set up camp I think it's quite cool it's going to be special big big big wide sky for stars uh no moon so yeah even though there's no water it's going to be a nice quiet quite special evening foreign [Music] further than we had originally planned to but we've been coming further south hoping to get you some big bands with water and uh they are dry so yeah glad we've got about 150 liters of water on the vehicles for tonight so we're going to drive Camp here no wood in the pan so yeah beautiful side here we've got a fire game we had a good day here Caleb yeah we solved the world's problems Caleb myself and Casey big long discussions on a big long drive actually what did you enjoy with the ladies today it was a very nice day with ladies was our driver she was driving very well and I enjoyed very well sure can I see how did you drive it so lacquer we just parked like I said earlier an aircon to get out to members even bigger and add lots of chats Graham what do you think of the scratches on your car I think everyone was having a Joyride and you and I were twirling at the front that is a true story oh the next morning we decided the best thing to do would be to drive to Joseph anini find a tourism camp and ask for water so on the on the checks for Africa map for wangi they're gonna come up with a more detailed Zimbabwean one but we've pretty much come down into this neck of the woods we're now done somewhere around here about 35 K's from Jose benini in this bottom section so we've we've picked up old roads all the way through and try to follow water points and then we were due to lack of water we've been pushed closer to the known water point I just didn't want to spend three days and yeah with with other opportunity to to refuel with water so yeah we're going to head to Josephine [Music] thankfully we found a camp and they were kind enough to let us fill up our water tanks by now we were looking for any kind of entertainment and Joe used this opportunity to practice hornbill [Laughter] are you communicating yes I'm a little bit worried about my toes I'm trying to get them to come on go on the floor and then they'll come on the wings [Music] so now we had water which was great but we were not interested in another day of driving in search of dry pads it was decided to scrap the entire plan and do the sensible thing and go to the wangi substation at my corner and asked for some help and guidance we're at makona base station national parks we've come to ask for a little bit of assistance and advice because we're basically trying to find somewhere to stay with water shade animals something to look at something to do hasn't been the most successful day today um but on the plus side there are some cracking chickens at the substation beautiful hens and the biggest and the cutest little tiny little baby chickens and then there's a huge ass couple running around um but yeah to keep it brief we've seen a lot of elephants some good birds and not a lot else with wagy's been a lot of trees and dried patterns to be honest I'm driving and driving lots and lots of driving but tired of driving to be honest [Music] let's see as the wildlife photography going [Laughter] any good photos of chickens so I'm the only live thing we've seen for the last three days I think [Music] allowed us to set up a campsite at a pan near the makona substation where we could spend our last two nights in wangi [Music] okay I saw those bunny Plus I don't know how anyone could get annoyed with him great and yeah we're in some camouflage trees and uh yeah great sight with the pen in the background um been a hot afternoon so we've just been laying low but we're gonna make the most of wangi probably spend two nights here before we head out through to and then pull away sounds good I'm good used to be here wangi national park has probably been the first one where I don't know it's not Nest it hasn't been terrible by any stretch of the imagination it's been really beautiful but it is just a very vast scrubby Park certainly the parts that we've seen of it very hot and only getting hotter my pony flies bugging a few of the team members and lots of dried pans that we've come across so it hasn't been maybe what we thought it would be certainly the route we've taken down the South so we've just had a discussion around the breakfast fire sons of porridges coffees and a vote was held and it was decided that we would pack up and head back to sorry pack up and head to bulawer for an earlier arrival and a little bit of r r get some washing done restock some groceries blah blah blah blah rather than stay another night yeah it's beautiful there are some beautiful trees but the pan is pumped by a generator oh night long [Laughter] feels like you're in a nightclub in Union so yeah we're not we're not keen for another night and out on the town we want some peace and quiet hopefully a good night's sleep hot shower fresh hot food I think the route that we've taken over the last four days has been largely uncertain from the outset that the whole intention was to try and explore a section of Angie that not many people had had done for a long time and certainly that is what transpired when we try to take some of the roads we had identified so we we're going to leave wangi a day earlier on our original sort of intended itinerary but yeah sighting's not as good as the Northern parts of the park I think something to do with really the water um and it's really a wild rugby Woolen Estonia and we just haven't haven't seen the wangi that we would have liked to have seen in terms of game sightings but a really special place to explore and it's just thousands of kilometers square kilometers of of wild bush so yeah and uh the Adventure Continues [Music] next time on Expedition almost Zimbabwe this episode third we're in the matopos National Park we got a very very early it's freezing cold bambata cave we're gonna find it we're gonna look at it yeah cool spot [Music] on your marks get that guy foreign [Music]

Channel: Bad Rabbit Studio

Views: 10,276

Keywords: zimbabwe, Hwange, Hwange national park, safari, overlanding, overlanding zimbabwe, Zimbabwean YouTubers, Zimbabwean vloggers, zimbabwe vlog, africa, overlanding africa, African safari, bad rabbit studio, safari zimbabwe, vloggers, national parks, adventure, 4x4

Id: tGGS3IcJyo4

Length: 19min 54sec (1194 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2023