A visit to Mutusadona- a rare adventure into the wilderness
Mutusadona National Park is situated on the shores of Lake Karina, it became a Game Reserve in 1963,and in 1975 it became a National Park. The Park comprises of 1400 square kilometers of diverse flora and fauna. Before the lake was built Mutusadona was a vast, rugged wilderness with limited access. The coming of the lake brought ecological changes as the lake contributed immensely to the increase of large mammal populations in the area especially buffalo an elephant. With the abundance of a unique grass species which needed only fluctuating lake levels to be replenishing its nutrients.
With this ready food source, the buffalo, waterbuck,, zebra and impala thrived and hence the predators. Mutusadona has three distinct ecological areas. First is the Lake and shoreline grassland, second is the Zambezi Valley Floor- a mass of thick jessa and mopane woodland and then the Escarpment. The Jesse / mopane area is sparsely grassed, but provides habitant for browsers, notably the Black Rhino, elephants range throughout the Park, seeking a shade of jesse in the heat of the day.
The Escarpment rises some 700 meters above the valley floor and is extremely rugged. Animal species that are found in abundance are include elephant and buffalo, and other common species are those of the night like honey badger, civet, slender mongoose, reedbuck, bushbuck, zebra, jackal, hippos, sable antelope, eland, clawless otter, whitetailed mongoose, chacma baboon, roan and bush squirrel. Animals that are present but only sighted on rare occasions include wild dog, cheetah, roan and pangolin.
Several spacious lodges are within the area include Tashinga Camp on the lakeshore, with ablution block equipped with hot and cold water, showers, toilets and baths, firewood and braai facilities are available. Sanyati Camp consists of six sites, each with Braai stands. Changachirere Camp site is an exclusive campsite that caters for one party of maximum of 10 persons. There are two undeveloped bush camping sites at Jenje and Kanyedza for up to 10 persons per camp.
