Robin’s Camp is on the northern end of Hwange National Park and we are the only campers. Prosper, the enthusiastic National Park employee, explains the park’s accommodations and gives us a tour of fire-lookout building circa 1939. He also shows us this darling Scop’s Owl which we’d have missed without Proper’s pointing it out. That’s the way it is with self-driving, there is no guide to find the animals first and take you to them. So we ask others (assuming there are any other people) and in turn we tell them our sightings. The advantage to self-driving is the thrill of spotting something yourself, and the leisure to spend time with your sightings. No hurrying off to the next lunch or tea appointment. Plus, we get to camp in the wildest places.

At the Guvalava waterhole picnic site, we wait in the Beagle for an elephant to finish drinking before we set up camp. Guvalala is one of the wild(est) camps. No fences, not that a chain linked fence would matter. There’s a nicely-built hide above the waterhole and the afternoon brings a parade of creatures; elephant, baboons, giraffe (fighting over the lone female), zebra, wildebeest, a 100-strong herd of buffalo, impala, kudu, warthog, jackal, and scores of birds. It is chilly so we make soup and take it up to the hide to have dinner. Then the hyenas show up. . .

Hyena are fascinating, with their female hierarchy and pack mentality. This group rushes up to the waterhole and jumps in, splashing about with no regard for how much noise they are making. There’s five or six that we can see and they lay down in a line 50 feet from the truck. Hmmm… Not to worry but caution is advised. Once the food and dishes are put away and we retire to inside the truck, the hyena take off hooting and laughing to each other as they go.

Other camps are not as game rich, but Kennedy camp stands out as the noisiest. Elephant are all around the camp; they trumpet and screech and shriek and rumble all night long. The noises they make are a caveman’s nightmare; hyena sound like a litter of puppies in comparison. There are tons (literally!) of ellies in Hwange and they are a bit more testy than the ones in Chobe, which are used to hoards of people driving by. There are very few people in Hwange. It is the shoulder season, but still, we spent the day game driving and sitting at waterholes without seeing a single vehicle. We are the only campers at Main camp, and we are there three nights all told.

At Makwa camp, another wild camp site, first thing in the morning a vehicle drives up and they are not game watching. They are here to check on us. “Did you camp here last night?” the guide asks. “Yes, we have a permit”. “Are you crazy?” he says.  Well, no, but it might look that way. He is most surprised that we were permitted to camp at Makwa – someone reported us as a suspicious vehicle.

Hwange is a brilliant park. It is really wild, the teak trees in the south are stunning as are the Mopane in the north. There are lion and wild dog here right now; others saw them, we only heard the lion. There is a 100+ troop of baboons, always entertaining, at Makwa. Our best spotting was this extraordinary chameleon – I was reduced to “oh,oh,oh,oh” when I saw it. Zimbabwe Parks Service employees are good at their jobs, checking on us and, likely, other crazy people. Park employees George and Shepard visit with us at Guvalala camp, giving us advice for seeing more of Zimbabwe – we get out the map and they point out the worst roads. “This stretch to Mana Pools will take you 12 hours”, George explains. Ouch. But there are many options, and after 10 days in Hwange we are south-bound for the town of Bulawayo. We will keep their advice in mind.