Zimanga - April 2026

Wendy was not really planning to go to Zimanga. Then her existing plans fell through and FOMO got the best of her. I added her to the trip and off we went with friends. I had heard about Zimanga and seen video of their hides. 16 hours overnight is grueling, no matter how nice the hide is. I did take a couple of naps each time. The animals come and go on their own schedule it seems.

The game drives were different. We didn't really just wander around looking at plentiful game. Warthogs were certainly plentiful and there was some plains game like Wildebeest and Zebra and others. But it was different than Kenya or Botswana.

When we went out on a drive, it was with intention. The lions, leopards, and cheetahs are chipped. That means that you can use radio telemetry to find them. Note that I didn't say you can see them necessarily. If they are in the thick stuff, you are not going to see them.

We saw the cheetahs up close when they were moving around checking their territory. We saw the lions a few times and watched two females hunt unsucessfully. The leopard stayed hidden during our trip.