The Gorongosa Experience

The closer our bush plane approached Gorongosa National Park, the less evidence we saw of human habitation.  It is a very remote place.  As we walked from our two planes, our group of 19 people was warmly welcomed by the staff of Montebelo Gorongosa Lodge.  Each individual or couple was handed a key and pointed in the right direction.  We were exhausted and ready to settle in for the week.  As we walked through the compound we noticed warthogs, baboons, and vervet monkeys; they mostly ignored us as we passed by.  We were delighted when we finally found our bungalow, a round, thatched-roof building that was split in half, forming two rooms.  Annie and Paula were on one side and we were on the other.  The room was dominated by a large bed which was decorated with mosquito netting.  We had our own small bathroom and one chair.  We did have electricity but the lighting was dim.  This was home.

Why did we travel halfway across the world to this remote place?  My husband and I are volunteers for Zoo Boise, as are five other people in our group.  Two staff members were also on the trip.  Zoo Boise has a relationship with Gorongosa.  I won’t go into the details about how this came about but I can tell you that we help raise money for the park.  Why does this African park need American help?

Under Portuguese colonial rule, Gorongosa became a national park in 1960.  During the following decade, Gorongosa became a popular spot for Portuguese tourists.  The animals!  Famous people also made their way to this park—John Wayne, Joan Crawford, and Gregory Peck.  And then in 1977, two years after Mozambique won its independence from Portugal, civil war broke out.  The war lasted until 1994.  Over a million people died in the violence, and with them the majority of the animals of Gorongosa National Park also perished.  In 2008 a public-private partnership was formed between the government of Mozambique and the Carr Foundation (a U.S. nonprofit) to jointly manage the park. On the park’s website they proclaim, “By adopting a 21^st Century conservation model of balancing the needs of wildlife and people, we are protecting and saving this beautiful wilderness, returning it to its rightful place as one of Africa’s greatest parks.”  Our little group was privileged to see in person what is happening in and around this beautiful park.

People have asked me about the food.  The food we ate was raised locally, part of the partnership the park has with neighboring villages.  We had plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables which were safe for us to eat.  There was always fish, chicken, and often beef.  Our meals were served buffet style in an open air restaurant.  In the morning there were all sorts of delicious rolls and baked goods, plus meat or eggs.  And the desserts!  We had our choice of four or five desserts every night.  Dessert became a habit which was probably not good for our waistlines.  Meals were included with the cost of our lodging but wine was extra.  Bottled water was available in the restaurant and in our rooms.  We never drank the tap water.

Beginning with the day we arrived, we went out on game drives in two open safari vehicles.  For the morning game drives we had to meet anywhere from 6:00 to 6:30 a.m. (after breakfast) and we would be out until at least 10 or 11 a.m.  We would take a break for coffee brewed by our guides and supplemented with some little cookie or other goodie.  Some days it would be longer so we would eat a late lunch.  The afternoon game drives began around 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. and we would stay out until just past dark which was 5:30 p.m.  (It is winter in Mozambique right now.)  These usually ended with a sundowner.  The vehicles would stop together in an open area and the guides would mix gin and tonic for us all.  (There were other beverages also.)  There are no paved roads in Gorongosa and often our guides didn’t even bother with the dirt ones.  In the effort to find certain animals, they would take off cross country with all of us bouncing around in the back.  There are no facilities in the park outside of the camp.  No toilets.  If somebody drank too much coffee they would use the bush toilet.  Often this would simply be on the road behind the vehicle.  It was not safe to step into the grass on the side of the road in some areas.  Usually the only other vehicle we would see would be the one carrying the other half of our group.  No private cars are allowed to drive through the park. 

Our guides were amazing.  To be a guide in Gorongosa, a person must go through extensive training and pass tests.  These guides provided a wealth of information about the birds and animals in the park.  They even knew all of the Latin names.  Guides would find the animals we wanted to see by tracking them—they examined tracks and dung along the road.  Most of the guides we met are from Mozambique, except for the one in charge who is from Zimbabwe.  As of now, all of the guides are male but that will change soon.  Two young women, Carol and Gabby, rode along with us often and shared their knowledge.  They are studying to become guides.  Carol will be the first woman guide and she proclaimed that she plans to eventually be in charge.  (All the women cheered.)

When we returned from our sundowners, we would usually have some time to go back to our bungalows and then we would gather for dinner around 7 p.m.  After dinner people would usually head back to their rooms fairly soon to get a good night’s sleep before our early morning outings.  However, a favorite stop before bed was the open-air reception area, the park entrance.  This was the only place in the park where one could hope to connect online, although it wasn’t always reliable.  Upon arriving at this area in the evening you might see a dozen people or more staring at their cellphones, trying to connect with the outside world.  I often did this but sometimes after a few minutes of news from the U.S., especially politics, I was ready to log off and walk back home past the baboons and snuggle into bed, ready for the next day’s adventures.