Adventures with Julia

August 25, 2016

Last night’s game drive netted the same lions as the morning drive plus an unexpected new male, also with a full mane on our side of the river. The lone young female stood staring forlornly at her family across the river. Julius thinks the pride has not come across to rescue her because they are afraid of the males, who could kill their young and mate with them. It is unusual to see 4 males so close together, especially two large one. As we drove away from them, the two large ones sat about 300 yards apart intently watching each other, while the young female walked slowly way from the river. She is a sub-adult with no hunting skills. What a dilemma for them all. And we think we have problems.

Later on we got a fleeting glimpse of a female leopard on the prowl. We could not find her in the thick brush and gave up looking. After our sundowner stop, we continued driving. Julius and Bottle finally spotted her. We followed for awhile, weaving in and around the bushes until it was quite dark and Julius thought we should let her hunt in peace. I imagine our spot and car lights can be pretty distracting. We saw nothing else of interest except a lone, very mangy hyena, also on the prowl.

Hyena on the prowl

After another pleasant, but unremarkable dinner, we retired to pack and get a good night’s sleep in a good bed with no wind or sand. Success. This morning we both feel fully rested and ready to move south to Lower Zambezi National Park. Breakfast and good byes to the staff are followed by our outbound game drive with Charles, who had provided a super experience when we arrived in the park. And a lucky drive this last one was. First we spotted a solo hyena in the lovely morning light and then three more relaxing together.  We usually see them only in the evening or after dark and on the move. Then, as we passed by a very large and beautiful tree in an open meadow, Charles spotted a leopard laying high up on a branch and the remains of an impala on a nearby limb. What a super photo opportunity.

Leopard and impala in a tree.

She may be relaxed, but her eyes were on us.

We both took lots of images and hope a couple turn out. This was a memorable end to our 6 days and 5 nights in South Luangwa National Park. Our final count was 43 lion, 4 leopard, 6 hyena, 2 monitor lizards and 1 aardvark plus all the other animals found in abundance. Absent from our list were wild dog, honey badger and chameleon. We still have a chance at the next park.

At Lusaka airport we finally had internet for two hours. I had just enough time to answer some email and send the Rwanda post, although it was missing some photos I planned to send. Our flight to a place called Jeki, on the lower Zambezi River was a treat too. We were the only passengers on an old and tired Britten-Norman Islander and the pilot let me take the right seat for the 35 minute flight. We had a bumpy ride with a headwind, but still fun for us. The south central part of Zambia was very hilly, tree covered and uninhabited. As we passed over the escarpment, the Zambezi River valley came into full view. No wonder all the people and animals are here with so much greenery and water. It looks a bit like Palm Desert with flat terrain, sand and palm trees surrounded by hills. We landed on a short dirt strip with nothing but our vehicle to greet us. It reminded us of the Clarke ranch.

A red tailed monkey. Luck shot this wa

Our transport was a Ford 150 truck with the top cut off. In 10 minutes we were at the river and got into a T-Craft speed boat for the 35 minute ride upriver to Sausage Tree Camp, deep in South Zambezi National Park. We were met by the assistant camp manager, Ashley, and Richard, our new guide.

Male water buck sparing-for practice or for real? Hmm

Our accommodations were way beyond our expectations, thanks, we are sure, to our agent, Stacey. It was a modern 5-star apartment under a tent in the jungle, complete with our own plunge pool, dining room and outdoor shower. We considered not leaving the suite, but were drawn out by the afternoon game drive in one of the camp’s Land Cruisers. The drive was pleasant, but netted us only one new animal, two porcupine in full needle. There seems to be fewer animals than in South Luangwa Park, with the exception of elephant.

Ellis facing off with a hippo trying to get to the river.

Richard told us there are well over 1000 elle’s in the Lower Zambezi with plenty of food to sustain them. On the way back in the dark, we saw some lights and wondered what they wer

A nice eye to eye close up.

A charming youngster passes by

To put us off, Richard said they were from a different camp. Shortly, we came to a sudden stop at the edge of the lights and realized the whole camp staff was there to greet us with cold towels, drinks and a long table set for a banquet. The other 4 guests arrived at the same time and we all sat down to delicious hot African ground nut soup and buffet BBQ. It is so much fun to have wonderful surprises. The atmosphere was quite convivial.

Hippos fighting for supremacy with the ladies

By bedtime at 9:30, we had had a game drive out of South Luangwa, a commercial flight to Lusaka, a private/commercial flight from there to Jeki, a boat ride up the Zambezi, a game drive around the Sausage Tree area and an unexpected dinner in the bush.

August 26, 2016

This morning we had 6am breakfast at the railing, overlooking the river, while watching a resident Giant Kingfisher and hippo. Having had a good experience on our walking safari in Luangwa, we opted for another here. We drove a short distance and then walked to a very large water hyacinth-choked watering hole and experienced a feast of birds and a few crocs. Our favorites included the Saddle-billed Stork, African Jacana, Goliath Heron, Squacco Heron, Glossy, Sacred and Hadeda Ibis and White-faced Whistling Geese.

A Saddle Billed Stork

Blacksmith Lapwing

Yellow Billed Stork in flight. Another lucky shot

Truth is we like anything we can correctly identify without help. Then we continued walking and observed more of the same poop and foot prints. Saw a number of baboon, impala, wart hogs, bush buck and several elephant. Our best sighting was a pair of Giant Eagle Owls high in a tree.

Giant Eagle Owl

One flew off, but I took some photos of the other one. Wish we had a longer lens at times like this, but we did not want to carry the extra weight. Back in the vehicle, after having completed a loop on foot, Richard added a game drive to the walk. We saw a few more birds, but nothing unusual. Time to quit. We decided to have no activities during the afternoon. Mark wanted to read and nap by the pool at our suite and I wanted to work on the blog. I learned that internet was available on a limited basis, so I took advantage of the opportunity to complete a post and send it off. Very slow process with low speed internet. Not sure when I will get caught up. At 8pm we enjoyed a quiet dinner for two on the camp veranda and went to bed.