Who is Monte? Where is his favorite place? Why’s it so special? To find out, at 6am we took off on our third guided game drive in the unique Gorongosa National Park. After stalling around Zimbabwe (yes, stalling around. . . hiking, birding, relaxing) it was time to give Gorongosa another shot. We hope for dry roads, maybe some good game sightings, some birds. . .

Gorongosa is different. You’ve probably read that animals were decimated by the long civil war, that restoration efforts are on-going and that fighting flares up from time to time, creating a tense atmosphere and yes, these things are true. What is not touted loudly enough is how exceptionally beautiful the park is; how the flora is pristine, the trees huge and the bottom land is untouched by farms or cattle ranches. This is a park suspended in time. We’ve seen nothing like this anywhere.

With nearly a clean slate, a couple of decades of research, and lots and lots of money, Gorongosa has begun the return to its prime. Many people are involved. Mozambican graduate students are here, doing surveys and learning from the cream of the crop of professors and teachers leading the education platform. Rangers and guides are training here. There is a state-of-the-art biological laboratory and plant library plus a molecular laboratory. The park is conducting anthropological digs; with its location at the lower end of the Great Rift, there are likely hominid fossil remains waiting to be discovered by some hardworking (lucky) person. Locally, the park spent 10 years determining the best way to involve the villagers and another 10 years implementing a coffee growing/tree planting scheme for them. It is paying off for everyone.

That said, the average tourist is most welcome. Self-driving is not allowed but seeing this park with a trained guide is the way to go and drives are very affordable. Test and Tongo escorted us the first morning and in a few hours taught us so much about the trees and plants I thought my head would explode. That’s not even counting the fascinating animal facts and game sightings including an oribi antelope and a mating pair of porcupine (yes, we all know the joke). On the evening drive, beneath the stunning sunset, a hippo gave new meaning to the saying “throwing his weight around” as he challenged us for our spot on the riverbank. Then in the morning Monte took over guiding. And he really iced the cake.

After weaving through the sun forest and stopping for several excellent sightings, we drove up to the edge of the floodplain and were rendered speechless. In front of us is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. Monte smiles shyly. “This is my favorite place” he says. It is mine too. Endless plains of grass, flowers, water – all of it teeming with birds. Birds, birds and more birds. There are flocks of egrets, ducks, geese, heron, storks of every kind, stilts, pelicans, ibis, songbirds, lapwings, raptors, darters . . . everywhere you look, in the sky or on the ground, there are birds. Waterbuck and cape buffalo graze in the distance. Mount Gorongosa is a hazy grey landmark rising over the plain. I never want to leave. Monte tells me that I’d hate it in the rainy season. Maybe. Meanwhile we are enjoying it now, thanks to the monumental effort to restore and preserve Gorongosa.