Friends of Hwange

The Friends of Hwange https://www.friendsofhwange.org is a private, very trustworthy organisation financed by donations, which does exemplary work to protect nature in Hwange National Park. Among other things, they take care of the maintenance of the wells, the paths, the protection of the animals by supporting an anti-poaching unit, but also the medical care of the inhabitants bordering the park. They maintain very good contacts with the official bodies of the park, but also with the lodges with their private concessions. We have given them also support recently within our means.

fltr. Dave Dell, Paula Dell, Gisela Hennig, Wolfgang Hennig

The last donation of € 5000 that we had given to the Friends of Hwange this year came from the Heidi Goetzl Wildlife Trust (https://heidi-goetzl-wildtierstiftung.de/). Heidi Götzl had given us the funds to pass on to the Friends of Hwange. This money helped to create a new water supply for the waterhole (called Kennedy I). It was a 1.8 km long pipeline and therefore a very elaborate job. How this reconstruction of water supply succeeded can be seen well in the following pictures., as pipes had to be laid in the ground over a long distance.

 

 

The new water intake has created a large lake in an otherwise dry environment.

Because of its size, I did not get this water pan into a single photo.

The elephants that have just arrived first stay at the fresh water inlet and say THANK YOU to the Friends of Hwange and Heidi Goetzl!

The reconstructed water inflow

Our heart's desire was to see "our" borehole, called Ray's pan, again. It was once built by African Bushcamps and is located in the Somalisa Concession, which belongs to them. We had financed it in 2015. Now the workers of Somalisa Camp are taking care of this well together with Friends of Hwange. We visited it in the afternoon, a time when the elephants tend to take a nap. Nevertheless, there was an eerie bustle there. Elephants were going to the pan, others were already there and others were just leaving. At no other well did we see that the mud is so popular with the elephants. The elephants come to drink fresh water. Then they smear themselves with the mud, both to protect themselves from the sun and from insects. Especially the smaller elephants take a complete mud bath. As a result, the waterhole gets bigger and bigger. Accordingly, the water supply had to be increased again and again.

A constant coming of the elephants to Ray's pan ...

... and going away.

First, water is drunk.

Per sip with the trunk about 10 l.

Then comes the obligatory, all-important mud bath.

We have also heard a lot about Gary Cantle so far, but have not met him in person. This is the Friends of Hwange man on the ground who does the work. He was born there and knows every borehole, every tree, every path by first and surname.

fltr. Wolfgang Hennig, Gisela Hennig, Gary Cantle, Dave Dell

Ray's pan

... and we are happy that the borehole is working so well thanks to the help of Friends of Hwange and the staff of Somalisa Camp.