August 22, 2016
Our morning game drive was quiet and rather uneventful, especially after yesterday.
In less than 12 hours, this is all that was left of the buffalo.
We found the head, spine and ribs of the buffalo being picked over by 2 vultures, but only a pile of dung where the event had taken place. No trace of the lions. On returning to the leopard kill, we found it lounging nearby and very full. We could see only the liver and legs of the impala. Whatever else was left of it was hidden under leaves. The leopard will surely return unless other animals beat him too it. I busied myself taking photos of the scenery and a few birds.
An ebony forest in the park
The ebony and sausage trees are plentiful and attractive. New spottings of birds included: Double-banded sand grouse, a Western-banded snake eagle and a Marshall’s eagle. There were also a number of Egyptian Geese.
A dazzle of zebra
We had a discussion about what different groups of animals are called, such as a pride of lion, and learned some unusual names—tower of giraffe (if standing still), journey of giraffe (if on the move)—crush of rhino—pod of hippo—sounder of wart hog—parliament of owl—troop of baboon—confusion of guinea fowl—dazzle of zebra. Perhaps this info will help you in some trivia game.
Today at lunch there were a couple of extra day visitors, but no Mark. When we returned from the game drive, he went straight to bed. Somehow the tourist bug got to him yesterday and he spent more of the night in the bathroom than in bed. Hopefully, he will feel better when he wakes up. We were scheduled to sleep in the bush tonight under the stars. I was looking forward to the experience, but there is no way with Mark feeling under the weather. We will stay at Mchenja tonight and move to the next camp tomorrow. Sorry Stacey. The good news for me is that I have another afternoon soaking up the cool water and writing poolside. This area is known for walking safari’s, but so far we have seen nothing interesting enough to motivated us to do one. We would rather be up where we can see longer distances and cover more ground. So far it has paid off.
Enjoying the Mchenja pool and the view over the Luangwa River
After sleeping several hours, Mark
A 2 month old kitty next to its mother attentively watching me.
was up and ready for the afternoon game drive. Having heard about a bunch of lions in a certain area, John headed for it. Sure enough, a large pride was napping alongside the road. We counted 4 adult females and 7 babies—2 only 2 months old and 5 about 8 months. The babies were not sleepy and romped around disturbing the adults, chewing on Mom’s tail, playing with each other and sucking on any teat they could reach, Mom’s or an aunts. It was fun to watch in the late afternoon sun. Having had enough of that, we drove off a ways and had our sundowner. John has now learned our favorite drinks and has them with him—Vodka tonic for me and scotch for Mark. We then drove around pretending to look for wild dog, knowing it was a fruitless effort. We satisfied ourselves with a few minutes in a lovely ebony forest, then drove back to the cats to see if they might have gone hunting. They had shifted positions only slightly and showed no inclination for hunting. By then it was dark so we headed back to camp.
Dinner was a delicious outdoor B-B-Q. With three couples now in camp, there were 8 at a long table and the conversation was lively, with one couple from Austria, one couple for DC, us and the managers. It was a pleasant evening, but Mark and I excused ourselves a bit early so we could get packed up and into bed. Mark still needed more sleep. Thankfully, he slept well. I seem to sleep like a rock every night, a blessing from being deaf in one ear.
August 23, 2016
Up at 5:15, we are finally going on a walking safari from Mchenja to Kakuli, our next camp, 8 km away. Pioneered by Norman Carr, a visionary, explorer, philanthropist and conservationist, who established the first safari camp in Luangwa in 1950, the aim of the walking safari was to emulate the traditional safari adventure of tracking big game on foot with a camera and binoculars rather than a gun. Although we both thought the walk would be tedious and boring with few animal sightings, we liked the idea of getting some exercise. The time had come.
Curious wart hogs
At 6:45 we finally got underway with Kelvin and his gun in the lead, followed by John, me, Mark and Kennan on sweep with the snacks and drinks. We meandered for over an hour looking as different scat, footprints and other “small things”. In spite of ourselves we enjoyed the “small things” as John called them and spotted a fair amount of game as well, including giraffe, buffalo, wart hogs, impala, Puku, kudu, 2 prides of 7 and 5 each (John said there were more that we did not see), hippo,
Inside a dead termite mound. Reminds me of the Anasazi Indian dwellings in Arizona
croc and quelea, a small bird that flies in large unified flocks, as waves in the wind. John said we were lucky to see any lions on a walk and especially lucky to see 2 good size pride. Our total cat count is now 31 lion and 2 leopard in three days. Pretty impressive. We arrived at Kakuli around 9:45. The day was just beginning to get hot. Wet towel and welcome drink in hand, we said goodbye to John, Kelvin and Kennan and hello to the Kakuli staff. Our walking safari was a success.
Gunea Fowl. Hard to get them in focus. Confusion is an apt name.
Delivered ahead of us, our bags were in our new digs, which are very similar to the Mchenja chalets, as the ownership is the same. This place, however, is considerably hotter, very windy and there is no pool. Although it is technically on the river, the water is a long way off and the hippo are out of earshot. The riverbed kicks up dust with each gust of wind. As I write, leaves are blowing every which way and the laptop is getting gritty.
August 24, 2016
Mark felt up to sleeping out yesterday, so at 5pm, we drove to the campsite on a large dry, sand-filled riverbed where our overnight “kit” was piled up waiting for us. Julius, our Kukuli guide, Bottle, the security guard, and Jones, the chef, all helped assemble the camp, starting with the toilet, wash stand and screen, followed by chairs, tables and the drink chest. Then they set up large, square mosquito nets and threw our bed rolls inside. Julius joined us for drinks, while Bottle and Jones finished setting up their sleeping gear, lit fires of preset logs around the perimeter of the camp and started getting dinner ready. By then it was dark, although only 6:30pm. The timing had been close. We sat in our chairs and talked and laughed with Julius about his family and ours, African culture and customs, traditional African weddings, Zambian politics, death and dying and estate planning. We had 2 drinks with appetizers, then split a bottle of South African Cabernet with dinner, chicken stew over rice. Most booze I’ve had in a long time, but it seemed like the thing to do given the night ahead. Were in bed about 9:30, hoping to see the promised stars. No such luck. Between the netting, the fires surrounding us to keep away animals and the half full moon, we couldn’t see any stars.
Our camp experience. Too much wind and sand and not enough stars
I managed the night with only 3 trips through the sand to the toilet. Mark said he was up only twice. The wind blew constantly until about 4am, with gusts now and then that sent sand everywhere, including our bedding. Twice, the staff re-hammered the net stakes while we were in bed to keep the contraption standing. Mark said the experience reaffirmed his assessment that there is no value in camping. Too bad for me.
Breakfast the morning after
This morning we were up with the light. Coffee was ready along with oatmeal, eggs, bangers and beans and toast. Pretty impressive for the bush. Julius, Bottle, Mark and I drove off on a game drive, leaving Jones behind to clean up the camp. Did not envy him that task, but he waved good bye with a smile. On the drive, we saw a large male lion with a full mane. He was quite handsome as he sat staring at 7 females on the other side of the river. A little further along we came upon 2 slightly younger males, with their mane’s just beginning to show. They too were staring at the females.
One handsome male
Not far from them was a very wary young female, who had somehow gotten separated from the group across the river. She made a wide circle around the males, but was still stranded when we moved on. Julius thinks the large group will come across the river to get her as it is too dangerous for her to cross alone to them. A croc would get her for sure. At this point our lion sighting count is up to 42 in the few days we have been in the park. Further on we encountered another giraffe, several zebra, waterbuck, kudu, wort hogs, buffalo and the usual herds of impala and puku, Many, but no new, birds. The best bird sighting was a fish eagle, who flew right over our heads.
Back at camp, we went directly to the shower. As soon as we were clean again, I forgot the bad parts of camping and enjoyed the memories. Wish Mark felt that way.
Now we have had lunch, Mark is asleep and I will work on sorting some of our photos, while we wait for the heat of the day, only slightly less hot than the day before, to pass. We have two more game drives in this park before flying to the South Zambezi National Park tomorrow.
Adventures with Julia 