Last month I gatecrashed a men's fellowship breakfast at Chisipite Bible Baptist Church. Even though I was there primarily for the food, I also discovered that they were organizing a camping weekend at Mana Pools.
I had never been to Mana. So I found a first trip with a Christian crowd irresistible.
Turned out to be a fabulous trip, and great value too! I've been back for 48 hours already yet I still feel refreshed! Not many holidays manage that.
We were privileged to have Gordon and Debbie Putterill
of Bally Vaughn fame as camp directors plus two more professional safari guides. They gave us sound advice but whether we heeded it is another matter. On one occasion Gordon gave a safety talk on the importance of staying together and not running in case of danger. Less than an hour later, we were charged by an elephant and you should have seen the guys scattering in all directions! Fortunately the ele had better things to do and did not sustain the charge. (Video: http://youtu.be/BaTwWef4w7I) Apart from that the elephants were generally well behaved and frequented the campsite a lot, probably too often. Hyenas, hippos baboons and monkeys were all over the campsite too. There were grunting, whining and crunching choruses all night. Some were sounds I had never heard before. It remains a mystery what animals they were coming from! The trick was to not take any fluids after 3:00pm. Far better to be dehydrated than run the gauntlet to the ablution block in the middle of the night!
We had our tents right on the banks of the Zambezi at Nyamepi Camp. 
Theoretically gale force winds could have easily blown some of the tents into the crocodile infested waters! Fortunately we only had light breezes.
As I lay in my tent I wondered whether some bright hyenas would eventually discover that there was only a piece of canvas between them and easy tender meat. Their powerful jaws can munch through the thickest of bones. So a piece of canvas would be a piece of cake!
Talking of cakes, we even had cake in the wilderness. Debbie Putterill and Louise Pascoe were amazing caterers .
They created wonders in the wilderness with the most basic of equipment. Wonders that many would struggle to match with fully equipped kitchens. Watching them I learnt how to make great toast on a boerwors banjo! The food was so good I put on 1 kg in 4 days! I had packed some emergency snacks but brought them back untouched since I never had any peckish intervals.
Being a predominantly Baptist crowd, full immersion baptisms in the Zambezi were inevitable. When we arrived 
at the Baptismal site, there were crocodiles basking in the afternoon sun on a sandbank. They promptly slithered into the water when they saw us. So I kept well away from the water. I also took photos that I thought might help any resulting inquest. As it happens, there were more than fifty people wading in the river 
which probably traumatized the poor crocodiles!
Mana Pools is an extensive flood plain in the lower Zambezi River. With the construction of Kariba Dam upstream 56 years ago there hasn't been that much flooding. So some ecologists expect Mana Pools to evolve beyond recognition in time. The dearth of tree saplings 
is considered to be testimony to that theory although excessive elephant numbers are believed to play a role too.
Whatever the prognosis, for now Mana Polls remains a place of breathtaking natural beauty and tranquility before sunset. Immediately after sunset Messrs Hippo and friends commence their grunting choruses.
