From Deteema Springs we travelled to another of Machaba Safaris’s lodges, this being the newly refurbished Robins Camp which is also in the north western section of Hwange National Park. Various friends had reported that Robins was not in good condition and they were all keen to hear back from us on what it was like now. We were very impressed with how much work has been done. The camp itself is made up of 36 en suite twin/double bed chalets, in 2 different sections/villages. There is also a camp site which has 25 sites, as well as 4 guides’ rooms.
We were met by the management couple Thamu and Nonsele, who showed us to our room number 52 in the Mopane Village section. All the rooms are very comfortable, with fans and en suite bathrooms. We were very lucky to just about have the whole lodge to ourselves, as there was only 1 other family staying in the chalets but the camp site side of Robins was FULL of families from Bulawayo who had come down for the long weekend. Late afternoon we took the opportunity to head up to check out the view from the museum tower block where the late Herbert Robins used to have a telescope with which he watched his labour force out in the fields. Many of his original belongings have been preserved in this three storey tower. Sunsets and sunrises from up here are stunning.
We then went down to the front of the lodge to have sundowners overlooking the waterhole, where we had been told the rare Reed buck were often spotted. Sadly, we never saw any that evening. After sundowners we had a most delicious 3 course meal in the restaurant and retired for a comfortable night’s sleep.
The following morning we had better luck with the reed back when we came through for an early morning game drive and saw 2 females and 1 male quietly drinking. Another bucket list item ticked off as I had never seen one before and Woody hadn’t since he was about 10 years old. For our early morning game drive we were teamed up with the excellent guide Ntando. We shared the vehicle with a family who had 3 children and Ntando made a special effort to include the kids in all our sightings. The cherry on the cake was our sighting of a pride of 11 lion not too far from Big Tom’s hide on our way back to the lodge – what an incredible game drive!
After a hearty breakfast we were soon packed up and in the car headed off to Iganyana Tented Camp near main camp at the entrance to the park. We took it slowly and were rewarded with seeing a lot of game along the way, including a beautiful sable not too far off the road. This is the second time we have been to Iganyana, the first time was shortly after the camp opened. It was great to see the improvements that Terry and Sheona have made including the recently completed swimming pool off the side deck. What a treat to be able to sit and have dinner under the stars, overlooking the beautiful pool.
As before, the rooms at Iganyana were extremely comfortable, one of my favourite features being the “his and her” bathroom basins. It is so relaxing to just chill in your luxurious room before or after an activity, while taking in the view of the animals wandering past the front of the lodge.
Early the next morning Terry took Woody and I on a very informative guided game walk. We spent a good couple of hours walking through the teak and mopane woodland, learning all sorts of fascinating things from Terry, who has a wealth of knowledge stored up that he loves to share. We could have walked for another good few hours, but sadly it was time to head back to camp and carry on our trip. It was a marvellous way to end our superb trip in Hwange and as usual we left feeling like a part of the Iganyana family.
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