And when it’s time for leaving Mozambique . . . you will feel sad. Mozam-beach, as we took to calling it, will be difficult to top. The people, the scenery, the warm welcome we received from Pemba to Maputo – Moz is wonderful. When you visit, be sure to say hi to Mateo on the beach at Goody’s Villa, he has the biggest, freshest crayfish.  At Pandani Beach, Michael and Joseph are the guys to see for oysters, mussels, white snapper and rock cod. And should you find yourself in Cuomo, the only hotel in town has a desk clerk who, while he knows as much English as I know Portuguese, can hook you up with a room and he’ll go out of his way to find you something good to eat, even though it is well past dinner time. Most surprising, and unlike most everywhere else along the Indian Ocean coast, the water is both safe to drink and delicious. Have a long cold glass, you will love it.

Still, another park is calling us. At the southeastern side of Zimbabwe is Gonarezhou National Park, part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. The Frankfurt Zoological Society has been managing and updating Gonarezhou since early 2000. Their practice of keeping the park accessible but uncrowded makes visiting a delight. Four of the six nights here we were all alone in  an environment kept as natural as possible. Most impressive was the staff, everyone knew about their area, knew which campsite has the best view and which one the elephants like the best. Gonarezhou means Place of the Elephant. There are more elephant here than there are impala. If you’ve been to Africa, you must know what the means – and you might think I’m making it up. How can there be more of anything than there are impala? But it’s true. As well, elephants here are somewhat less explosive than in Gorongosa, lucky for us.

Which leads me to explain the cover photo of this post. Jim caught me on camera, beating a hasty exit from the long-drop at our primitive camp – I’d walked to the toilet, admiring how sturdy it was (that should have been my first clue) and I rounded the corner thinking, is that a wall? No, you idiot, it’s an elephant! and I was about to bump into its ass end. Oh dear. . . or words to that effect. I ducked inside the outhouse and he turned on a dime to face me. Was he going to charge? Not that it’d be that much of a charge, I was six inches and a piece of wood away from him. But I didn’t feel threatened and as it turned out he was more interested in the fruit of the Nylala tree over the outhouse; he stood on his hind legs reaching up for the lowest branches as shown in the upper right of this photo.

Elephants, bush buck, monkeys, kudu, baboons and of course the elegant impala came and went through all of our camps; birding was crazy good along the Runde river and out in the mopane, only a kilometer from camp on a hot afternoon we came upon three lion – one of them starred us down for a bit. Only later did I realize my window was completely down while this powerful cat was giving me a good look-over. That is why we keep the engine running. And why we come to wild places like Gonarezhou.