As the end of March looms and the rainy season is nearly over, we begin our preparations to move into the Zambezi Valley again for our annual foray. So far, this year, we have been working tirelessly on re-thatching and maintaining Vundu camp. We have replaced a lot of the soft furnishings and have also added a new game vehicle to our fleet, giving us five in total.
Some exciting news to share with you all, we have upgraded and bought spacious tents for our mobile camps, Ruwesi Canoe Trails and Chitake, so be ready for a fresh new look on your next canoe and walking safari.

We were fortunate to have received early payments for the 2017 safari season from Africa Adventure Company, which allowed us to go ahead with a lot of the pre-season work. We look forward to welcoming you all to a newly refurbished Vundu Camp.

Henry, our main guide, has been based in Mana Pools during the off season, where on top of managing the camp and keeping animals at bay, he has been working alongside the anti-poaching rangers. We currently have five vehicles doing deployments with drivers, who travel to four remote bases, and BSU are providing food and fuel to keep them running.

One vehicle is down having been washed away in a flash flood, but we should have this up and running in no time!

We would like to thank Bushlife Support Unit for all their hard work over the rainy season. We have not received any reports of a poached elephant since mid-October 2016, which is an incredible achievement and a fantastic way to start the year!

With the National Park still being very wet with all the rain, the elephants have been enjoying spending time on the flood plain where the lush green grass is being devoured daily.

One of the projects we are currently working on with Bushlife Support Unit is the identification and collaring of some of the iconic bull elephants which are well-known in Mana Pools. The Parks ecologist will be using data collected from this collaring project to work towards a Ph.D. You can keep updated on the progress by following the BSU Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/BSUmanapools/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf

To end off on a high note, we will be attending Africa’s largest travel trade show, Indaba, on the 16th – 18th May this year. We would love to see you all there so please contact us to make an appointment or pop by our stand, M04, in the ICC where Desiree will be representing us. We have an exciting addition to our stand this year! Bushlife Support Unit (BSU) will be in attendance as well, with Lara England, available to update you on all our anti-poaching and conservation work in Mana Pools. We have officially registered BSU as a trust in Zimbabwe through a non-profit company, Bushlife Conservancy, 501(C)3, based in the U.S.A. BC has been