The Mavros... Safari

August is midwinter in Zimbabwe, and it’s the best time for game-viewing. The screen of green vegetation has thinned out, the grass is nibbled and trampled, and lack of rain makes the animals congregate near any permanent water source.



Patrick, Catja and the four boys went off on safari to the Zambezi Valley in the company of two great bush experts: Stretch Ferreira and “Big J’ John Sharp, both of whom are living legends , their knowledge of the animals and bush is incredible and they have an ability to make a marching column of Matabele Ants seem as exciting as vast migration of wildebeest.



The camp was set under a forest of mahogany trees, right on the banks of the mighty Zambezi. At night the camp would be surrounded with the sounds of foraging buffalo, hippo and the branches would crackle around the tents as elephant stripped foliage off them. Then as the predators started to move the unmistakable and soulful ranting of a young male lion would reverberate through the night sky, only interrupted intermittently by the menacing sound of a pack of hyena moving across the flood plains.



One morning the camp awoke to growls of disdain, uttered by Grim, the fishing guide, he had mistaken a hippo’s ‘highway’, used to enter and leave the river, as a perfect mooring spot for his boat. The hippo clearly thought the boat was pushing it’s luck, so boat with motor and all the equipment was found twelve feet below the surface resting on the bottom of the river. Remarkably, it was salvaged and back in action, albeit never parked in one spot for too long.



Patrick spent his time walking with Stretch and Catja, looking for elephant familiarising himself with their natural beauty and wonderful postures for a new herd that he is making. When moving between the pans and waterholes, they were in search of a particular Baobab Tree. Eventually Stretch and Patrick found what he had been looking for, a young baobab, with all the character of one many hundreds of years older, it stands alone in the middle of an ancient flood plain, with a view of the magnificent escarpment rising out of the haze and can tell stories of the comings and goings of all the animals that live the veld. It immediately captured his imagination and is set to be the new Mavros Christmas Tree, you will hear more of the ‘Little Baobab’.



It was noticed that there was a particular number of tuskless cow elephant around, which are notoriously unfriendly and many very abrupt exits were made from road, paths and waterholes with a terrifying trumpeting crescendo in hot pursuit. Catja had to fly out of the Valley early and the nearest airstrip ran alongside the Rukomechi River, on taking her there the entire party stumbled upon an Eden, untouched and virgin, with more species of game and in such incredible numbers the pilot had to sit on the ground for three hours as the family gaped in awe at the raw beauty of Africa in all its unspoilt beauty.

Images from the top: Patrick Mavros and John Sharp; Getting ready for a game drive in the 'the whitemobile', Some rough off road driving, The boat the hippo sunk, Deep in discussion at the dining room table, Photo taken by little Pat of elephant cows and babies drinking at a pan, The river at early morning