Exploring Zambia.
Before leaving Livingstone and the wonderful Waterberry Lodge we visited the railway museum which was brilliant with some ancient British built steam engines on display and went on an early morning walking safari to see the white rhinos.
There are only 8 in Zambia now and 6 are in the Mosi o Tunya park area. They were very heavily guarded by armed patrol but good to stand close to.
Then to two lodges for two nights each in the Kafue national park which is the size of Belgium. At the first lodge we were the only two staying and it was a little run down but lovely to have two cheetahs patrolling the perimeter. On the evening game drive there we sat and drank our sundowner gin and tonic next to a pack of around eight wild dogs and we left them as they got up to hunt, quite an experience. On the way to the other lodge we had another elephant incident, we stopped to let the ellie cross the track as it was intending to do and it started turning in circles before bending to charge us - did we drive through quickly!. The only downside with Kafue is that there are tetse flies and they happen to find me (Sue) very tasty, I picked up around 50 bites but reassuringly it is only in Uganda they still apparently carry sleeping sickness.!!
Down to the lower Zambezi along a road," Leopard's Hill", that even here is described as not recommended, it was interesting at the top over the escarpment but some of the hairpin bends on the way down tested vehicle and driver to the limits. Thankfully we came through OK but did have to do a bit of road repairs to get through some gulleys and in the temperatures here of 38 to 40.. At the Lower Zambezi we stayed at a lovely campsite by the river with hippos, crocs and a multitude of lovely birds and unfortunately one elephant that decided it didn't want us there and semi charged us. We have gone off elephants big time, they are the only animal here to have been aggressive to us and they are too big to mess with. To make the return journey more manageable we cut the camping there by a day and decided to head off to Lake Kariba where we stayed at a lovely site at Siavonga beside the lake and ate in the restaurant, it was like being on holiday in the Caribbean.
A long drive from there through Lusarka to South Luangwa staying one night at a camp site enroute just to beak the journey, around 500 miles in total. The people in Zambia are, as expected, quite poor and probably often hungry. Their diet is maize and apart from the capitol they live in villages, round huts with thatched roofs, the women normally have a baby on their back and a plastic container on their head either full of water just drawn from the well or a bag of maize or a bowl with washing. Their older children, probably from the age of 5 are often carrying water on their head too. Their clothing is a top and a long colouful skirt but shoes are rare. Education is trying to make an impact here and the children are always seen walking to and from school in their uniforms but they cannot all afford to buy the uniform so there are many poor little ones in rags who have no education. Interestingly they are actually more pleasant when you pass with waves and smiles.
The lodge where we stayed in South Luangwa for 2 night is one of the luxury safari lodges in Zambia. It was superb and on our game drives we saw leopard with 2 young cubs and one older cub and a pride of 22 lions, many of them cubs who were calm and full having recently killed a young hippo.
From there we headed north in the park under our own steam again, seeing 200 grey crowned cranes, a pride of 6 lions lying next to a recent buffalo kill and 12 wild dogs, not to mention zebra, puko, impala and kudu on our own game drive to our next resting place. This was a bush camp for the 2 of us away from everyone. I have to admit I was a little concerned, actually the word terrified comes to mind, not least because it gets dark here at 6pm and although there is a big fire you are in your tent by 7pm and cannot get out then until dawn at 5am..We have bush camped before in Namibia but that has less animals, and far less predators. It wasn't too bad as the noises in the night were quite light and, huge relief, we were not visited by elephants. But decided again to reduce the daily mileage by splitting the journey into two so we would cut our 2 nights to 1 and drove back through the national park to the border with Malawi. The drive was amazing, we again saw the huge flock of Cranes but then got really lucky, spotting a vast heard of buffaloes moving through the park, this is only a guess but the must have been several thousand animals in the herd, the dust they raised could be seen for miles. At the back of the herd we spotted a pack of wild dogs hunting, looking for any opportunity to make a kill. In all the confusion they appeared to take a small animal, probably a Warthog then fought over it right in front of us.
We knew we were watching something special as the BBC was parked next to us filming the scene.The programme is meant to be screened in 2 weeks and if it is seen by anybody before our return we would be grateful to anyone who could record it for us. We find it incredible locals cycle through this park to bring supplies to their villages.
We are now at the border town of Chapata planning to cross into Malawi tomorrow morning.
Before leaving Livingstone and the wonderful Waterberry Lodge we visited the railway museum which was brilliant with some ancient British built steam engines on display and went on an early morning walking safari to see the white rhinos.
Then to two lodges for two nights each in the Kafue national park which is the size of Belgium. At the first lodge we were the only two staying and it was a little run down but lovely to have two cheetahs patrolling the perimeter. On the evening game drive there we sat and drank our sundowner gin and tonic next to a pack of around eight wild dogs and we left them as they got up to hunt, quite an experience. On the way to the other lodge we had another elephant incident, we stopped to let the ellie cross the track as it was intending to do and it started turning in circles before bending to charge us - did we drive through quickly!. The only downside with Kafue is that there are tetse flies and they happen to find me (Sue) very tasty, I picked up around 50 bites but reassuringly it is only in Uganda they still apparently carry sleeping sickness.!!
Down to the lower Zambezi along a road," Leopard's Hill", that even here is described as not recommended, it was interesting at the top over the escarpment but some of the hairpin bends on the way down tested vehicle and driver to the limits. Thankfully we came through OK but did have to do a bit of road repairs to get through some gulleys and in the temperatures here of 38 to 40.. At the Lower Zambezi we stayed at a lovely campsite by the river with hippos, crocs and a multitude of lovely birds and unfortunately one elephant that decided it didn't want us there and semi charged us. We have gone off elephants big time, they are the only animal here to have been aggressive to us and they are too big to mess with. To make the return journey more manageable we cut the camping there by a day and decided to head off to Lake Kariba where we stayed at a lovely site at Siavonga beside the lake and ate in the restaurant, it was like being on holiday in the Caribbean.
A long drive from there through Lusarka to South Luangwa staying one night at a camp site enroute just to beak the journey, around 500 miles in total. The people in Zambia are, as expected, quite poor and probably often hungry. Their diet is maize and apart from the capitol they live in villages, round huts with thatched roofs, the women normally have a baby on their back and a plastic container on their head either full of water just drawn from the well or a bag of maize or a bowl with washing. Their older children, probably from the age of 5 are often carrying water on their head too. Their clothing is a top and a long colouful skirt but shoes are rare. Education is trying to make an impact here and the children are always seen walking to and from school in their uniforms but they cannot all afford to buy the uniform so there are many poor little ones in rags who have no education. Interestingly they are actually more pleasant when you pass with waves and smiles.
The lodge where we stayed in South Luangwa for 2 night is one of the luxury safari lodges in Zambia. It was superb and on our game drives we saw leopard with 2 young cubs and one older cub and a pride of 22 lions, many of them cubs who were calm and full having recently killed a young hippo.
From there we headed north in the park under our own steam again, seeing 200 grey crowned cranes, a pride of 6 lions lying next to a recent buffalo kill and 12 wild dogs, not to mention zebra, puko, impala and kudu on our own game drive to our next resting place. This was a bush camp for the 2 of us away from everyone. I have to admit I was a little concerned, actually the word terrified comes to mind, not least because it gets dark here at 6pm and although there is a big fire you are in your tent by 7pm and cannot get out then until dawn at 5am..We have bush camped before in Namibia but that has less animals, and far less predators. It wasn't too bad as the noises in the night were quite light and, huge relief, we were not visited by elephants. But decided again to reduce the daily mileage by splitting the journey into two so we would cut our 2 nights to 1 and drove back through the national park to the border with Malawi. The drive was amazing, we again saw the huge flock of Cranes but then got really lucky, spotting a vast heard of buffaloes moving through the park, this is only a guess but the must have been several thousand animals in the herd, the dust they raised could be seen for miles. At the back of the herd we spotted a pack of wild dogs hunting, looking for any opportunity to make a kill. In all the confusion they appeared to take a small animal, probably a Warthog then fought over it right in front of us.
We knew we were watching something special as the BBC was parked next to us filming the scene.The programme is meant to be screened in 2 weeks and if it is seen by anybody before our return we would be grateful to anyone who could record it for us. We find it incredible locals cycle through this park to bring supplies to their villages.
We are now at the border town of Chapata planning to cross into Malawi tomorrow morning.
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