Very close to wildlife …

Widening the road for us

From Mukuyu Camp, we drove back the road along the Zambezi to spend more time at the river, but at a different camp closer to Chirundu. We had heard about the Breezes River Camp from other travellers (beautiful planet) and were not disappointed. Apart from a green meadow next to the river, we had a pool, new ablutions, a terrace over the river, lovely hosts and animals like hippos and elephants walking through our camp.

Many baobabs along the road
Buying veggies and fritters at the village market
Our campsite @ Breezes River Camp – close enough for a dip in the pool

Our first visitor was a hippo, which regularly comes to the campsite. It is a wild animal and everybody showed a lot of respect, making a big detour to get not too close to it. They assured us, that if it gets irritated, it runs very fast to attack you.

Hippo keeping the lawn short

The next visitors were a group of 9 big elephants, making their way to the river through the camp ground. We could watch them for a long time eating branches and reed.

In the afternoon we went on a river cruise with our lovely hosts and their dogs. We drove to the Zimbabwe side of the Zambezi again, to find many animals grazing there. We first spotted an Eland antelope, a first for us and also our host was exited, as he hadn’t seen one on the river before.

We got a little bit too close to this big male elephant, which he made clear by flapping his ears and stomping in our direction. Our host gently steered the boat away and the elephant seemed satisfied but kept a watch on us. Everybody in the boat had stopped breathing for a while, imagining what an elephant could easily do to our boat.

African buffalo – one of the “Big Five”
Mama tired of looking after her young hippos

We had a great time at Breezes River Camp, which will soon be completely finished with restaurant and bar next to the pool. A place which we will for sure visit again.

We are now leaving the Zambezi and driving north, going past Lusaka in direction of Mkushi, where we want to visit some friends we have met in Namibia. More on our next post!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *