FIELD NOTES | Rhinos
Our plane comes in to land on a dusty airstrip, A vast, dry, open landscape rises to meet us. A lone male wildebeest looks skyward, his tail and mane billowing in the wind, before turning and cantering off toward the perceived protection of a knobbly acaria tree. The sky is hazy. Smoke from a fire burning on the horizon tints the world below the sepia tones of an old photograph. Beneath us are the Ngamo Plains, on the edge of Hwangs National Park, Zimbabwe's largest national park. A game drive vehicle is parked on the side of the airstrip, and as we touch down, its occupants alight, waving and walk towards the plane. It all feels a very long way from the crowded tourist town of Victoria Falls, 200 km to the north, where we departed only 45 minutes earlier.
In the southwest of Zimbabwe, and with more than 14 600 km2 of sandy soils, grasslands, acacia woodlands and teak forests, Hwange National Park is home to one of the densest concentrations of wildlife in Africa, especially elephant and buffalo. The park has more animals and a greater variety of species (has any other park in the
