Explorer Safari
Zimbabwe is a land rich in wildlife, and on our Keeping Zimbabwe Wild safari, you can do something more than simply view it. This adventure is an opportunity for you to participate in protecting all that you see. Zimbabwe’s endangered species and breathtaking natural landscapes are threatened by hunting, poaching, and human civilization. Witness first-hand how these human-wildlife conflicts are being resolved by local community involvement with national parks and sustainable tourism.
This active adventure allows you to: • Patrol with an anti-poaching team• Learn about lions and wild dogs• Help save the elephants• Visit communities• Engage with wildlife experts• View wildlife on foot and from a vehicle
888.658.7102 [email protected] www.deeperafrica.com
888.658.7102
Keeping Zimbabwe Wild DAY BY DAY ITINERARY
explorer safari
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
Photo credit: African Bush Camps
888.658.7102
Photo credit: Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge
DAY TRAVEL/ACTIVITY LOCATION CAMP
Days 1, 2 & 3: Arrive in Victoria Falls Hwange National Park Somalisa Expedition Camp Transfer to Somalisa Camp
Days 4 & 5: Bush flight to Bumi Hills Lake Kariba Bumi Hills Safari Lodge
Days 6, 7, 8 & 9: Bush flight to Harare Gonarezhou National Park Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge Bush flight to Chilo Gorge
Day 10: Bush flight to Johannesburg and international flights
S A F A R I S C H E D U L E A T A G L A N C E
INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT #1• Departs: TBD
• Arrives: TBD
INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT #2• Departs: TBD
• Arrives: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
888.658.7102
Photo credit: African Bush Camps
WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS
DAYS 1, 2 & 3 SOMALISA EXPEDITION CAMP | HWANGE NATIONAL PARK
EXPERIENCES
INCLUDED
BreakfastLunchDinner
Alcohol & BeveragesLaundry
Swimming Pool
You’ll see lots of wildlife here. The Big Five roam freely in Hwange, Zimbabwe’s largest national park, which hosts hundreds of other bird and mammal species as well. Unfenced and untamed, Hwange spans 5,657 square miles. But Hwange won’t stay wild forever without buy-in from local communities. At the park’s edge, elephants are tempted by rows of watermelon and fields of corn, while the docile livestock proves irresistible to leopards and lions.
Part of this safari is exploring the ways to lessen human wildlife conflict while helping local communities benefit from the parks. Meet with local co-ops that recycle materials into beautiful crafts and souvenirs, and local farmers who grow food for safari camps. Meet the Long Shield Guardians, local warriors who chase lions and elephants away from the farms and villages, and innovators building cattle pens that effectively separate livestock from lions without harming either. A visit to the Painted Dog Conservation Center brings you in front of researchers engaged in the protection of African Painted Dogs (a/k/a African Wild Dogs), one of the most beautiful and endangered species on the African continent.
• Baboon• Buffalo• Crocodile• Elephant• Giraffe• Hippo• Lion• Wild dog • Wildebeest• High diversity of antelope,
including tsessebe, and impala,• More than 470 species of
birds
• Walking safari• Wildlife viewing• Bird watching• Night wildlife viewing• Visit Painted Dog
Sanctuary
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
888.658.7102
Photo credit: Long Shields Guardians
COMMUNITY AND CONSERVATION INITIATIVES: VUKANI & THANDANANI
Photo credit: African Bush Camps
COMMUNITY AND CONSERVATION INITIATIVES: LONG SHIELDS LION GUARDIANS
The Vukani and Thandanani Community Projects are local female-driven microfinance groups who use recycled materials to produce high-quality crafts. Vukani also main-tains a communal garden, and will be happy to share methods for dealing with garden pests such as elephants and quelea birds.
The beautiful jewelry and clothing produced by Thandanani and Vukani are popular purchases by travelers, and Somalisa utilizes locally sourced textiles and produce from these projects in their camps. Supporting these projects with your purchases helps the community economy more than you might believe; studies show that for every dollar a woman earns, she invests 80 cents in her family.
Sometimes a horn can be more powerful than a gun, a tenet that Long Shield Guardians – a courageous group of men and women from the village of Dete who work to protect the lions of Hwange National Park – employs to great success. Armed with only drums and vuvuzela horns, the Guardians mediate human-wildlife conflict by deterring and redirecting with sound any lions that have encroached on village space or farmland, moving them back to areas where they are protected. Local communities around Hwange National Park often come into conflict with lions that roam near their schools and villag-es, or threaten their cattle. When the Guardians sound the alarm, the cattle can then be moved and villagers and children are able to stay out of the path of the lions
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
888.658.7102
WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS
Photo credit: Bumi Hills Safari Lodge
DAYS 4 & 5 B U M I H I L L S S A F A R I L O D G E | L A K E K A R I B A
EXPERIENCES
Bumi Hills is a scenic wildlife sanctuary on the shore of Lake Kariba, home to elephants, lions and rafts of hippos. On Zimbabwe’s northern frontier and accessible by water in three directions, the area was once a magnet for poachers who would drift in under cover of darkness and steal across the border with meat and ivory. Now the animals are safe thanks to the tireless efforts of the Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit, founded in 2009. Every day the anti-poaching unit patrols the area on foot, covering 1,300 miles of trail every month. The work has paid off as they have not lost an elephant to poaching in more than two years and 17,231 wire snares have been confiscated. Join them on a patrol for a one-of-a-kind adventure.
INCLUDED
BreakfastLunchDinner
Alcohol & BeveragesLaundry
• Elephant• Lion• Leopard• Buffalo• Zebra• Hippo• Crocodile• More than
450 bird species
• Walking safari• Wildlife viewing• Boat cruise• Fishing• Anti-poaching patrol
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
888.658.7102
Photo credit: Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit
COMMUNITY AND CONSERVATION INITIATIVES: BUMI HILLS ANTI-POACHING PATROL
BUMI HILLS ANTI-POACHING PATROLThe Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit protects the Bumi Hills Wildlife Area from poachers by investigating poaching crime scenes, removing snares, and actively preventing poachers from entering the area and making illegal kills. Poachers are constantly surveilling this area because of the large concentration of elephants around Lake Kariba. The rangers spend their days disarming and confiscating any snares or traps that are found. You’ll join them as they look for signs of illegal activity, record the locations of animals encountered, and record any other unusual activity. The rangers collect this information to keep an ongoing record of poaching activity. Run by Mark Brightman, the unit is staffed by a dedicated crew of rangers
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
888.658.7102
WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS
Photo credit: Chilo Gorge Lodge
DAYS 6, 7, 8 & 9 CHILO GORGE SAFARI LODGE | GONAREZHOU NATIONAL PARK
• Lion• Leopard• Cheetah (including rare King
Cheetah)• Wild dog• Buffalo• Zebra• Elephant• Hippo• Hyena• Many species of antelope
EXPERIENCES
INCLUDED
BreakfastLunchDinner
Alcohol & BeveragesLaundry
• Walking safaris• Wildlife viewing• Exploring Gonarezhou
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
Vast, remote, and untrodden, Gonarezhou National Park is true African wilderness. In the Shona language “Gonarezhou” means place of many elephants, and the elephants here number in the thousands. The park’s remote location on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique makes it both a pristine wilderness and attractive to ivory poachers. You’ll learn all about keeping the park wild and pristine from skilled Shangaan trackers, descendants of the hunter-gatherer tribes that have lived on this land for millennia. They’ll show you their award-winning program that has all but stopped ivory poaching in this vulnerable wilderness.
Our base in Gonarezhou is Chilo Gorge lodge, founded by Clive Stockil. Clive is one of Africa’s greatest conservation pioneers and the winner of the Prince William Award for a Lifetime Contribution to Conservation in Africa. Clive’s been working with both the park and the local Shangaan people since 1980. Together they have build one of the best community conservation programs in all of Africa.
DAY X CAMP | PARK
INCLUDED
Breakfast
Lunch
Sundowners
Dinner
Swimming Pool Available
Alcohol and Beverages
Laundry
DEEPER TANZANIA 888.658.7102
KEY PLAYER PROFILES | KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
MARK BRIGHTMAN CLIVE STOCKIL
©Bumi Hills Foundation ©Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge
Mark Brightman currently dedicates himself to a small, but professional Anti-Poaching Unit at Bumi Hills in northern Zimbabwe. He is tackling head on, the chronic elephant poaching in the Bumi Hills and Matusadona National Park areas. If left unchecked, we can expect to see the extinction of elephant populations in this area within the next ten years.
Mark, who is a Zimbabwean Professional Guide of 22 years, spent nine of those working with the Zimbabwean National Parks. He was very involved in “Operation Stronghold,” Zimbabwe’s effort to save the last remain-ing populations of black rhino in the Zambezi Valley. He spent three of these years based in Mana Pools National Park, as Operations Coordinator for Anti-Poaching for the entire Zambezi Valley. Mark will be sharing his passion with you, giving you the overview of the challenges faced in the area, introducing you to the members of his team, briefing you on safety and responsibility when in the field, and finally joining you for a patrol.
With a career spanning 40 years in conservation and tourism, Clive Stockil is one of Africa’s great conservation pioneers. Long before many others recognized the need to engage local communities in the conservation of their natural heritage, Clive was out in the field doing it.
After independence in 1980, poaching by the local Shangaan people was a huge problem in Gonarezhou National Park. When Clive was asked by the Zimbabwean government to serve as a local officer, he met with 72 Shangaan elders for a better understanding of the issue. Clive recalls, “The local community needed to be able to benefit from their land. They grew their corn, spent months tending it, and then one night, a herd of ‘park elephants’ would cross the river, come into their land and destroy it all, leaving them hungry. They retaliated and hunted the elephants.” Clive eventually convinced the government that if local people could see benefits from tourism things could change. Clive’s logical strategy was called CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources). The first year money from CAMPFIRE tourism projects built a school in Mahenye, and this proof point was a turning point for the Shangaan community. The following year there were nine arrests for poaching instead of 90. Over the years, guns in Gonarezhou were replaced by cameras.
In recognition of this transformation and myriad other conservation projects he’s shepherded over the last 30 years, in 2013 Clive was awarded the Prince William Award for A Lifetime Contribution to Conservation in Africa.
888.658.7102
BUSH FLIGHT • Departs: Chilo Gorge
• Arrives: Johannesburg, South Africa
INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT #1• Departs: TBD
• Arrives: TBD
INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT #2• Departs: TBD
• Arrives: TBD
Photo credit: Chilo Gorge Lodge
DAY 10 I N T E R N A T I O N A L T R A V E L
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD
INCLUDED IN YOUR SAFARI
• Full board accommodations in all lodges and tented camps
• All meals as specified in itinerary
• All park and entrance fees
• Wildlife viewing in 4x4 Land Cruisers, boat safaris, guided
walking safaris, and night wildlife viewing where available
• Experienced and professional safari naturalist guides
• All in-country transportation
• Enrollment with SATIB Evacuation Service
• Laundry
• Alcohol & Beverages
• Bottled water available at all times
• Extensive pre-departure briefing and materials including
health information, reading list, and map
EXCLUDED FROM YOUR SAFARI
• Gratuities
We plan your wildlife adventures in areas where wildlife
habitats are known to exist for the season and time you are
traveling. Still, animals in the areas you are viewing are not in
a zoo. They run freely, and we cannot always anticipate their
movements.
Also, Deeper Africa uses best efforts to provide the lodging
set out in this itinerary, but occasionally there are circum-
stances that occur in Africa that require lodging substitu-
tions. We reserve the right to make comparable lodging
substitutions whenever necessary.
2018 CUSTOM DEPARTURE DATES & PRICING
April - June
• 6 persons: $7,599 USD per person
• 4 persons: $8,099 USD per person
• 2 persons: $8,959 USD per person
• Single supplement: $2,599 USD
July & October
• 6 persons: $8,599 USD per person
• 4 persons: $9,559 USD per person
• 2 persons: $10,759 USD per person
• Single supplement: $4,799 USD
All pricing is in US dollars. Arrivals are through Victoria
Falls, Zimbabwe. Departures are through Johannesburg,
South Africa. Prices do not include international airfare. All
itineraries and prices are subject to change.
5353 Manhattan Circle, Suite 202 Boulder, Colorado 80303
888.658.7102 303.415.2574 720.565.0512 fx
www.deeperafrica.com
explorer safaris
ADDITIONAL SAFARI INFORMATION
KEEPING ZIMBABWE WILD 888.658.7102
2018 pricing $7,599 - $10,759
Best Value
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