Revised itinerary for Bots/Zim August 2011
 

Thanks all for your feedback so far. It's been really helpful. Here's the latest incarnation. I'm really pleased with it, but want to know if there's anything that seems odd or doesn't work that I'm missing! We are sort of lumping the "nicer" places toward the beginning, but that doesn't bother me as I wanted to end with MCT.

-Jo-berg 1 night
-San Camp 2 nights
-Chitabe 3 nights (hopefully! Duba Plains if that doesn't work out)
-Little Vumbura 3 nights
-Vic Falls Hotel 2 nights
-Davison's Camp 3 nights (instead of Little Makolo to save a few extra bucks!)
-Mana Canoe Trail 3 nights
-Ruckomechi Camp 1 nights

For me, that is a perfect itinerary.

I noticed your previous comment on Savuti Vs Mana, they are like comparing apples & oranges. Both are special places, though Mana has the nod for me.

Just make sure your agent gets you out early from Davisons camp. I believe the MCT training starts around 2pm and the flight from Hwange to Mana is 2 hours.

Request that you do a game drive with your luggage if you do not have a private vehicle.

I would avoid doing Duba and Little Vumbura. If that does arise, I would add Savuti into the mix.

I am sure the water levels will be high again this year, even if the rains are average, as the water table is saturated from the last two years of flooding.

(Something to be prepared for, in my experience, it did impact significantly on game viewing. Our viewing was more in the thickets than beautiful, open floodplains)

My other recommendation would be to get a Canoe dry bag for your camera on MCT.

lbj2 - Why not DP and LV? We did both and thought they were entirely different. Lions and buffalo at Duba and water and land activities at Vumbura. Yes, they are close to each other, but I thought quite different from each other.

Alisa - it looks perfect to me, too. I would want more time at Ruckomechi, but other than that, it's good! When are you going? Just curious because of San Camp.

Are you interested in doing some of the adrenaline things at Vic Falls or visit both sides? If not, one night could be enough. (and add a night at Ruck?) Enjoy MCT. Not sure if I'm adventurous enough for it, but it sure sounds great.

Christabir,

I would avoid doing both LV and Duba due to the flood waters of the last couple of years. Both areas were heavily effected, so I think that any itinerary should try to mitigate these potential effects.

As the water table is highly saturated, even a normal flood will mean water levels higher than most people have been accustomed to over the last 15 years.

A visit in Aug/early Sept will be at a time where the flood would still not have receded fully.

lbj2 - Yes, I had ready something about Duba not being great due to the high floods and had a note to myself to that effect. I'm hoping that Chitabe works out instead.

Christabir - We'll be going in August. I'm fascinated by San/Jack's NOT because of the animals, but because of the environment. We're not going there for game viewing! We've thought about cutting down to one night at Vic Falls, but probably won't. No adrenaline stuff for us, but we'll probably just take it relatively easy, visit both sides of the falls, and take a helicopter ride. When were you at Duba/LV?

Looks good to me!

Thanks, lbj2 - Didn't know that the areas of DP and LV were having such high water problems. I guess I should have, considereing there was so much water even when we were there.

Alisa - we were there in Sept 2006. Things have changed A LOT in just four years. I am fascinated by San too, for exactly the same reasons.

It looks like a great trip.

Something going on with a 20 year cycle of rain patterns that has the Savuti channel flowing again. Started a couple of years ago. Think you will find trip reports about it from months ago and last year. Not sure which camps are most affected.

reagrds - tom