Kanga is built right on the pan

Walking around Kanga is very rewarding

The Kanga dining room at night

Tented safari luxury at Kanga

Kanga Bush Camp recently opened in Mana Pools National Park.  This is a luxury safari camp with a difference, in that it is situated on a beautiful inland pan instead of on the Zambezi River. 

Ian Batchelor, operations director and manager of Kanga on behalf of African Bush Camps, tells us that the experience is equally as rewarding and enjoyable as a river camp and the walking is superb.

"Like any new camp, it takes a while for the wildlife to adapt to the new visitors but it is amazing how quickly they realize they are safe and we are no threat. When we started setting up camp and the initial building of the main deck area in October 2009, we had regular daily visits to the water by the following species: elephants, a group of six buffalo bulls, two different troupes of baboon who would always make sure they approached the pan from different directions both in the morning and before heading off to roost for the evening ( supplying us with hours of entertainment), bushbuck, impala, kudu and warthog.

We then had a long and wet rainy season and the bush was very dense and almost impenetrable in some places. Finally in May things started to dry out around the Pan and we started to see a visible change in the area and visibility.  As everyone knows there were some big storms in April and the water level of the Pan remained completely full with no sign of dropping.

As we speak the elephant are coming back.  There is already one resident bull who is a regular visitor to camp, he is missing the tip of his trunk and quite distinctive!

The road in from Nyakasikana is fine and easily drivable now, in fact, we had some guests arrive in a 2 wheel drive Honda CVR.  However, it's not unexpected to find roads blocked with trees pushed over by the elephant, so be prepared!   We try to clear the roads as often as possible though.

We have a resident hippo that has moved in, the warthog are appearing too, as are the kudu. We hear the lions almost every night and there is more than one leopard between camp and the Chavava River. I have heard both male and female calling although I am yet to see them. A few weeks ago our camp staff reported that three wild dog chased and killed an impala ewe next to camp.

Some recent clients were rewarded with lions less than 500 metres from the main camp area. We are regularly visited by this pride and they seem to have adopted this area as core part of their territory, possibly because there is obviously water all year round now and with that there is the resident wildlife.

A vociferous pack of nine wild dogs were seen along the Kanga Pan road about 15 minutes from camp. We noticed that the dominant female seemed to be lactating, this is great news if she is. As this would mean that they could have a den in the area, where they will seasonally raise their young pups. In the pack we also spotted an old female who was very grey and shrunken into herself, she appeared to be injured as she walked with a limp in her right back leg. They were not skittish when our vehicle approached them,  they were very happy to continue lying in the road as our vehicle idled near by. We hope that they will remain resident in the area and that they are the reason as to why so many of the impala herds are heard snorting and pronking near the pan. Watch this space of further news on this pack.

I have to mention the birdlife too, we have our regulars on the pan in front of camp and then there are the interesting species to be found in the thickets and vegetation away from the pan and along the Chavava River. Henry, one of our guides (some of you might remember him from Somalisa Camp) saw a Narina Trogon the other day. Quite a spot! We have some resident Wood Owls in the trees above the deck and each night we are party to their serenading duet.

All in all I think we are in for an exciting first season and many challenges. We want to put a lot of emphasis on the special walking nature of the area and will offer this activity to all our guests as well as the option of visiting the Zambezi River as part of a full day outing with a great picnic lunch. We have a great team of staff and I am thrilled to be back working with cheerful Zimbabwean guys.  Their enthusiasm is contagious.

Hope to see you out here soon for a truly different Mana experience."