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Game Drive in the Mosi oa Tunya National Park

By Innocent Malambo

June 12, 2019

Today started off with a game drive in the Mosi oa Tunya National Park Located in Livingstone. It is the second smallest park out of 20 occupying 66 square kilometres of land. The Name “Mosi oa Tunya”, meaning “the smoke that thunders” is derived from the local name emerging from the cinematic view of the Mighty Victoria falls.

The drive began at a slow pace as it was not easy to spot animals in the morning due to the cold. However through the loops in the park we came across impalas, warthogs and even Burchell’s Zebras, which I think was the park’s way of showing us that it had more in store for us.

Through the loops in the park we came across Burchell’s Zebras which gave us hope of finding the other animals.

After an hour of driving through we decided to take a break at the picnic point where we were able to spot some Hippos in the Zambezi River relaxing as they escape the heat of the sun.

We resumed the game drive thirty (30) minutes later. Upon resuming the drive we came across the Crash of White Rhino’s. The friendly Wildlife ranger informed us that the number had increased from 9 to 10 White Rhinos, with the birth of a male rhino two weeks ago.

As we left the site of the crash, a magnificent site caught our attention along the river banks of the Zambezi River, we saw a herd of about 30 elephants. This is biggest herd I have seen in the park. It seemed to be getting ready to cross the river to the Zimbabwean side, into the Victoria Falls National Park which is just adjacent to the Mosi oa Tunya National Park, these two parks are separated by the River

As we proceeded with the drive we came across Giraffes which Jones our guide was quick to explain to us that the species of Giraffe that we have in this park are the Angolan Giraffe.

As we finalized our adventure we came across a herd of Buffaloes that were under the shade, this could be due to the scorching sun, so it was best for them to cool down under the shade.