Hippos in the pan

To get to the lake, we must first be poled across the Save river in a small boat and climb aboard a jeep. Thomas, our guide and driver, is carrying a heavy pickaxe, which he stows in the back before taking us on a bit of a thrill ride through low bush. At one point, a  huge and grumpy-looking bull elephant blocks our path and there is a bit of a standoff: as he starts charging towards us, we are suddenly reversing along the track at high speed. Having shown us who’s boss, he slopes off and we are able to continue, dropping steeply down onto wet sand and then full steam ahead through water to the other side of the Runde river. 

There seems to be no way up from the riverbed, but out  jumps our guide with  pick in hand and starts fashioning a ramp. A few minutes later, we roar up into a grassy, open area, where we see herds of impala, elephant, zebra, buffalo and many more wild creatures. At one stage we seem to have constant animal activity on all sides and it’s like being at an Imax movie.  A few more dips and climbs later, the stunningly beautiful Machanu ‘pan’ (as waterholes are known here) stretches out in front of us. Partly covered in waterlilies, the whole area is alive with birds and the heads of countless hippopotami pop up through the vegetation.