I go home to Zimbabwe at least once a year, partly to visit friends and family, partly for a holiday and partly for “work”… and when I say work, there is a whole lot to do – you see for another website that I run (The Safari Guide), it is vital that I have as many good quality bird and wildlife photographs that I can lay my hands on and I can’t think of a much better place in the world to get them than in Zim.

Travel

So every year I “have” to travel all the way across the globe to one of the best places in the world to view birds and wildlife and then whilst I’m there, have to load up the Landrover with all my gear and drive all around this stunning, beautiful country.

Terrible I know!

Patience

But that is just half the “job” done, the next bit is to capture the images and this is where the real “work” begins. Photographing birds and wildlife takes loads of patience as you usually “have” to spend hours and hours relaxing waiting in stunning wild places like Kariba, Hwange, Inyanga or on the Zambezi for the perfect moment to arrive so that you can then take a few photographs of the wildlife you have come to see.

A few examples of this “toil” include the many, many times that I have spent hours and hours on a boat in Kariba in the boiling heat with only cold beer, a fishing rod and my camera to keep me going whilst waiting for the perfect opportunity to photograph a Fish Eagle, Kingfisher, Swallow or an Elephant.

Or there are the times that I “had” to camp in Chirundu or down the river at Mana Pools to get some more Elephant, Buffalo, Wild Dog and Little Bee-Eater shots.

Then there was the trip to Vumba and Inyanga where I spent the cold evenings curled up in front of a log fire in my cabin to keep me warm, just so I could go out in the morning and get the chance to photo a Samango Monkey, Blue Duiker, a Purple-Crested Lourie (or Turaco as they are now called) or even a Redfaced Crimsonwing (Cryptospiza reichenovii).

Ogh and not forgetting the trips all the way to Hwange and Victorial falls for those all important Ele, Giraffe and Trumpeter Hornbill photos.

I also distinctly remember spending hours in Hwange National Park watching and waiting for a lioness and her cubs to get up from under the shade of a tree so that I could get a decent photograph of her walking through the long grass.

But wait, there was also the time in Matopos, with the Rhinos…

I think you get the idea, it’s a tough job and I have to do it!

Equipment

To get really great close-up photographs of wildlife, especially birds means I have to play with use loads of toys complicated equipment – things like cameras, tripods and binoculars, which are incredibly mentally demanding…

Ok, ok…I think I have to stop there as I can’t keep this up any more. Visiting Zim is something that I really look forward to every year and my wish plan is that one day soon… I will stop having to visit and will spend all year round in such a beautiful country.

Until then… my next visit is in a few weeks time. I have a few incredible trips lined up whilst I am there and a whole bunch of new equipment toys to play with, on top of that I am taking my four month old daughter to visit her grandparents for the first time and to spend some quality time with friends and family and I can’t wait!

For those who are interested – I have a shiny new camera to play with and hope to come back with a whole bunch of new Elephant, Hippo, Imapa, Kudu, Crocodile, Hornbill, or any other birds and animals that will hang around long enough for me to take their portrait! You can read my Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR Review here.

You can aso take a look at a few of the photos I took last year: Beautiful Zimbabwe – March 2010

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• Flame Lily (Gloriosa superba)

This morning I was looking for interest and found that you can get a return flight from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Harare for £578.96, which is these days an excellent price.

What’s the catch?
No catches, just compromises:

Generally I try and keep the amount of stops needed to a minimum, but this usually means much more expensive tickets. If you are looking for the very cheapest fares, you may need to stop more than once. In this case it is two times, if you fly with Ethiopian Airlines, but they are offering the cheapest fares.

My quote of £578.96, was for travel between Sat 19th June and returning on Thur 1st July, which obviously changes depending on what days you choose:

I got this quote through Ebookers.com that makes it very simple to not only compare the prices of flying on different days, but quickly compare prices between different airlines.

Another on-line travel site that game me a quote of £583.81 for the same days also with Ethiopian Airlines is Lastminute.com:

The good news is that on the way to Harare you will only stop once at Addis Ababa for just over 2 hours, but on the return leg to London, you will stop twice, Lusaka for an hour and then Addis Ababa for 4 hours.

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• Cheap Flights to Zimbabwe from the UK

I try to go back home every year, so every year I am on the look out for cheap flights to Zimbabwe. I have been doing this for over 10 years now and so I would say that I have looked at pretty much every option and travelled on most of the airlines that fly to that part of the world.

So I thought with all this experience, I would pass on a few tips that I have picked up over the years and hopefully make your trip to Zimbabwe not only as cheap as possible, but also hassle free and enjoyable.

Cheap vs Convenience
When you travel anywhere in the world there is always a trade-off between the price of flights and the time it takes to get there. Cheaper flights tend to take you all over the world with many stops and the more expensive ones have less stops or are direct.

Direct Flights to Zimbabwe

With British Airways stopping their direct flights to Zimbabwe from London Heathrow a few years ago, as far as I know the only other way to fly direct to Harare is on Air Zimbabwe who fly from Gatwick airport. What is unusual is that this is often also the cheapest way to get there. Sounds perfect! The problem is things are not as rosy as they seem. Sure many, many people fly every week on Air Zim with no problems, but I have also heard of many instances where the airline has either had to cancel flights or redirect the flight to take certain dignitaries somewhere else without warning, leaving paying customers stranded. How often this happens I am not sure, but I personally know of a few instances and it has also been reported in the press more than a few times: Air Zimbabwe leaves passengers stranded at Gatwick

One Stop

The most common one-stop route to fly to Zimbabwe from the UK is to first go to Johannesburg in South Africa and then catch a connecting flight on to Harare international airport. Other than the direct Air Zim flights these are the least hassle, but are often more expensive than stopping more than once. You can take this route with South African Airways, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic (Swapping with SAA in Joburg). I have also sometimes seen that you can fly from London Heathrow, stopping in Addis Ababa and then onto Harare with Ethiopian Airlines that tends to fairly cheap.

Two or more stops

Two or more stops can be a real pain, but it can save you loads of money. One way to make the pain more bearable is to actually stay in one of the countries on route as part of your holiday. I have done this before with Kenyan Airlines, stopping and spending a week in Kenya, which I highly recommend. Options here include London – Nairobi – Johannesburg – Harare with Kenyan Airlines, London – Amsterdam – Johannesburg – Harare with KLM Airlines, London – Paris (CDG) – Johannesburg – Harare with Air France and London – Frankfurt – Johannesburg – Harare with Lufthansa.

Where to Book Cheap Flight Tickets to Zimbabwe

I have always found that the easiest and quickest way to compare prices is with on-line travel sites like Lastminute.com and Expedia. There are many other sites publish really cheap ticket prices, but never show you the dates and you have to phone them only to find out that the price they are advertising is no longer available or you have to fly between certain dates and often involve at least two stops.

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• Cheap Flights to Zimbabwe: London to Harare £578.96