Easter with the elephants

The Easter weekend is a big holiday here and most people try to leave the city to visit family in the rural areas or relax in one of the country’s National Parks. This is a perfect excuse to stop ‘work’ for a few days, so we drive down to Gonarezhou to stay at the new and fabulous Chilo Gorge Lodge. It’s a long drive on a terrible road and we arrive at 4pm feeling hot, dusty and maybe just a little bit stressed.

After Nadine’s welcome and the delicious lunch she has kept for us, we do a quick change and join the 3km walk to the Chivirira waterfall. Nadine’s husband John is our guide and the rifle he carries is a reminder that this is one of the remotest and wildest places in Southern Africa.Locals believe that dhows used to tie up near here to offload their cargo,after navigating the Save river through Mozambique. Sipping our‘sundowners’ at the falls after a stiff climb to the top, it doesn't seem too implausible.

Next day, the sound of hippos grunting just below our room wakes me up, just as the sun is rising. There’s a lot of diving and resurfacing so, every time we try a headcount, there seems to be one more. Eventually they settle down and seven of them spend most of the day basking in the sun. During breakfast, a small herd of elephants crosses the river a short distance from the lodge. A couple of hours later, we see the fences they have trampled to get into a maize field and steal the crop that should have fed a village family for a year.  If they keep coming back, one of them will suffer the death penalty for their greed. The community here respect the environment and actively support wildlife conservation, but people have to survive here too.