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Week 1: Zambezi River Canoe Expedition
As you navigate your way down the Mighty Zambezi River in a canoe, your days will be filled with various exhilarating team orientated tasks as well as breathtaking sightings of elephants, hippos, crocodiles and a plethora of other wildlife. Your evenings will be spent around the campfire enjoying the delights of the wild African night. Your river challenges will include the use of compasses, maps and various navigational tools to enable teams to find their way to the next stop-off point.
Expedition Activities:
- Navigational bush and nature walks
- Canoeing downriver through grade one and two rapids and fast currents
- Exploring channels and small Zambezi islands
- Game viewing and animal identification
- Camping at the enchanting Chundu Island
- Spend the last few days at Victoria Falls town, enjoying the many activities on offer
- Experience the Tribal Council, where you receive awards and presentations for your expedition
Week 2: African Culture & Bush Awareness Course
This course is an excellent foundation for the rest of your time spent on this expedition. We believe that anyone traveling to Africa as a volunteer for any length of time should be orientated properly and this course will enable you to make the most of your African experience through a deeper understanding of the environment and cultures in which you will be living and working. The course will introduce you to the flavours and tastes of Africa’s food, create awareness and understanding of the sites and sounds of the bush and instruct you on how to survive, to adapt, and appreciate the temperament of this tremendous continent.
Your course will involve the following:
- Cultural Familiarisation
- Logistical Planning, Basic Tracking and Navigation
- Edible Plants and Animals
- Animal Identification and Tracks
- Basic Safety and Dangerous Animals
- Finding Water, Gathering Food and Building a Fire without Matches
- Basic First Aid
Week 3: Hwange National Park
From the Victoria Falls you will be transported 2 hours to the world famous Hwange National Park, which covers over 14,000 square kilometres and abounds in wildlife, including the Big 5. Hwange’s elephant population alone is in excess of 40,000. There are over 20,000 buffalo and approximately 300 lions as well as rhino and leopard and our volunteer camp is ideally placed right on the boundary of this park.
Due to our recently acquired Permit, this programme allows volunteers to work inside the Hwange National Park, where snare sweeps, game counts, visual observations and the darting of snared animals and the subsequent removal of these snares are all important aspects of wildlife conservation. Imagine the thrill of being able to work off road and perhaps even at night, in the presence of Hwange's Big 5!
Volunteer Activities:
- Wildlife population counts and snare checks on wildlife
- Spoor transects and Boundary patrols, which involves the assessment of what game has been in the area and assisting trackers in searching for signs of any illegal activity from possible poachers
- Removal of snares from animals and the bush
- Assisting our game scouts in the darting of snared animals and the removal of snares
- A deeper understanding of large-scale wildlife management and in-depth exploration of Zimbabwe’s most famous National Park
Week 4: Lion Breeding and Rehabilitation Project – 4 nights
We have included this four-night stop as a holiday section of your programme and you will be transferred from Hwange National Park to this project, which is approximately 6 hours by road. The Lion Breeding project is the perfect place to relax after your time in the bush. Along with canoeing the river, horseback riding and game viewing, you will be able to:
- Walk alongside lions as part of the pride and enjoy the exhilaration of being part of a hunt as the young cubs learn to stalk their prey
- Visit younger lion cubs if there are any in camp at the time
- Experience the African bush in a very special way on this private reserve. Explore the savannah grasslands on horseback or whilst riding on African Elephants
- Have horse riding lessons from our experienced guides
Week 4 and 5: Black Rhino and Elephant Conservation Programme
From the Lion Breeding project, you will take our specialised coach service through to Harare, where you will be met by the project coordinators from this new rhino and elephant programme and transferred a further 1.5 hours by road to the conservancy where you will have the chance to experience the bush through the experienced professional guides’ eyes, as well as work hands-on with the rhinos and elephants that the conservancy is so proud of.
The Safari Ranch is honoured to be the custodians of Zimbabwe’s black rhino - So far they have returned 10 Rhino successfully back to the Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe: This is a massive feat! The females have bred successfully within the park and so the black rhino project continues, as does its population.
Join this world-renowned programme, saving rhinos from extinction. You will play an important role in rehabilitating these endangered animals back into their natural environment whilst gaining the rare privilege of getting hands-on contact with this exceptional species.
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