ZAMBIA : THE REAL AFRICA

ZAMBIA : THE REAL AFRICA

 

We boarded a plane for Zambia this morning. Now it’s a funny thing, if I mention I’m going on safari in Africa they all think it’s cool. The next question is always : where a you going ? I answer : Zambia, and almost everybody asks: where the hell is that ? It is a pity for all those who do not know, for it is one of the most amazing countries I’ve visited, and I will surely return here one day. It is not as well known as South Africa with its Krueger Park, nor as diverse as Tansania, with the Ngorongoro crater, Kilimandscharo and lots of other spectacular parks. Kenya with Amboseli and Masai Mara is 100 times better known….and yet, this country has so much to offer. Slightly beside the usual well trodden tourist routes, a little wild and unpredictable, as they say here, the real Africa !

We arrive in Lusaka 06:30 in the morning on the direct flight from London ( which isn’t anymore, you have to go by Johannesburg or Nairobi ). The airport is slow, small, typically African. Four desks are open, and it was a big plane so we stand in line for ages, our line of course being the slowest. As there are only 4 people left in the whole customs area, the couple before us and Juerg and me, a nice lady opens an extra desk to help us. Now that there is nobody else to be helped in the whole place, and we would willingly have waited the 3 minutes more…welcome to Africa ! We get our picture and fingerprints taken, pay 50U$ for the visa and that’s it. With only a booking confirmation, no E-tickets or so, we head for the Proflight desk for the onward journey. We are sent to pay the departure tax, still no tickets whatsoever, then at the departure gate we receive a boarding pass. Must say, didn’t expect it to work so well, but it did !  Booked this whole trip with  a company called Africa Travel Resource, must say, everything worked perfectly !  The plane is a lot bigger than expected, a 29-seater, not the little 6-seater I had hoped for. Two seats on the right, one on the left. The seats are very narrow ( or we are too big ) and slightly tilted towards the middle so you keep sliding out. The noise is deafening and the whole machine vibrates, who cares, it’s just one hour.

For the Africa Travel Resource webpage click here

 

SOUTH LUANGWA NATIONAL PARK – central

SEPT 15^th – FLATDOGS CAMP

We are met at the airport by Geoffrey who drives us, and another couple, to our first camp: Flatdogs. Flatdogs is actually the nickname they have here for crocodiles ! The trip to camp is already to my liking. Lots of huts, brick buildings the size of our garage with Shopping Center written on them, located in the middle of no-where, who’s going to shop there, and what ?

 

People of all sizes and shapes are travelling on bicycles, transporting whatever a bicycle will hold. I just love the women with colourful cloths wrapped round their big bottoms, carrying huge bundles on their heads. The best one had firewood, a branch about 4m long ( that’s almost a tree, rather than just a branch ) on her head. She almost wiped 3 people down, when she turned her head to see if she could cross the road.

We see a few giraffes beside the road, and once in camp there’s an elephant family “walking through”. We are told to keep a safe distance. Boy, I love it here !

To see the Flatdogs Camp webpage click here

There’s a restaurant open from 5:30 am till late, eat what you like, when you like is their motto. Beside that, a lounge and dining area, a small swimming pool, and beautiful views of the river. We are in tent #5, with direct view of the river in which a small pod of hippos is right across from our deck. They splash and “laugh”, this deep bariton : ha-ha-ha, I love the sound of it ! The first baboons are coming to check us out too. Better keep the tent closed when you’re not there ! It is by now 11:00 am, hazy, hot and humid, easily over 30°C, never matter, we’re not doing much. Get settled in, unpack, go for a swim and lunch. Just as we leave for the pool the elephants walk into camp again. Regardless of my fear of hights we climb on the first platform we see. They have these cool platforms in the trees all over the camp grounds. When the elephants arrive, which is rather often as we notice in time, you just climb up there and sit and watch them walk by. They really are not so big from up here ! Lunch is great. Juerg has a ham&cheese sandwich, I have a sweet chilli chicken wrap. Food in British Airways is not recommendable, this place is !

After lunch we are sitting in front of our luxury tent watching the hippo family, and wait for our first safari to start. A short drive gets us to the gate, just cross the river and we are in the park. Dirt roads only but they are rather good. We see elephants, the little ones are so cute, yet another group beside the road, this baby elephant is so small. Geoffrey thinks it is only about 2 weeks old. After that we see impala, puku, zebra, hippo, crocs…well I don’t really see those, I must have some eye problem because everyone sees them just me, I honestly don’t. I do see the really big ones on the sandbank, I’m not totally blind ! The 5 lions sleeping in the grass, you could unfortunately hardly see them.

Shortly after that another lion couple, mating ! We saw on television back home they copulate every 15 minutes or so, asked our guide if it’s true, and he confirmed it. So we stayed a little, and yes ! They are at it again !

Only 10 minutes later I must add. This time they even turned to us so we could take some better photos, much preferred as to just seeing the whole thing from the back side. Lasts about 30 seconds, then they roll over on their sides and fall asleep, very romantic !  Juerg got it all on film !

I am by now very, very tired, didn’t sleep well on the plane. The night drive was as always, very dark ! You only see eyes when they are lit up by the light from the torch, besides its beam is total darkness. Must admit, we saw two hyenas and the lion couple again. They’re still at it ! No matter if there are three cars and lights on them, here they go again, the men on our jeep seem rather impressed by their endurance….Since they were right in the middle of the road, and we are not allowed to leave the road, we were sort of “forced to watch “ again and again. I think they got fed up with us after a while, they walked past the car, on my side, I could have touched them so close and left. I almost expected the lioness to put her gigantic paws on the jeep and take a look inside, would have been easy since there are no doors, but she didn’t, good for me. After a lovely dinner we went for an early nights sleep. Didn’t work out so well,

just as we turned the lights off about 20 horses came galloping towards our tent, thought they would run right through ! Couldn’t see much in the dark, but it turned out to be only 2 hippos, chasing each other and starting a fight right behind our tent.

Then there’s baboons, some sort of geese, and other birds, it’s really loud here ! Never mind, I love all these sounds !

SEPT 16^th

This is the only hard part of this holiday, the alarm goes off at 05:30. Got “ run over “ by hippos a few more times last night. I didn’t notice, was sleeping, but Juerg heard and saw them. It’s just past full moon so it is not too dark in the night, and we have all the tent windows open to let the breeze, any breeze, in. Stampeding hippos aren’t easily overheard ! After a cup of tea we leave at 6:00.

Don’t see much this morning, evenings are definitely better ! Saw two giraffes and two lonely buffalo, a few impala and puku, three zebra in the distance. Coffee break at the riverside, we watch one hippo being chased out of the river by another, and there’s a lonely giraffe which, after thinking it over eally long, crosses the river to meet with some other giraffes on the other side. He was met halfway by the tallest of the other giraffes, and they sort of kissed as they met in the middle. Searching for lions we met THE couple again, we left them in peace and went back to camp. At last a real English breakfast with eggs, bacon, toast, sausage and some more Zambian coffee. I am really getting to like this after the first shock. This is my third helping and by now I know how to drink it : 2 big spoons of sugar and half the jug of milk in it. It’s still dark as night, even with all the milk in it, but I like the taste, it’s special.

At 16:00 the next safari starts. The other very unlikable guy that was with us on the jeep this morning is leaving, we’re still stuck with Mr.T, a bit a pain in the ass, know it all, seen it all type, he is getting better and trying to show his nice side. He is also very desperate to find leopards, and so far no luck at all !  The night drive was fine, the highlight was a lion which had just killed a buffalo. The poor lion was on one side of the road surrounded by jeeps, the dinner on the other side. He got fed up with us and left, disappeared in the shrubs and bushes behind him. I like the part till sundowner time the best, the light is great and you usually see a lot. The dark is not so spectacular, just eyes….but not today ! First two hippos crossed the road right in front of us, we saw a couple of gennets, and then, the lion. It disappeared in the bushes, so Geoffreys plan was to go round and meet him again on the other side. He suspected the lion was going to the river to drink. So far all went well, we actually found the lion, were a little off road, really just a little, so we could see the lion better. The lion was going straight for the road, so were we. About 5m before the road we got stuck in the sand, the lion kept moving, we dug in dug in deeper and deeper…..cool ! Now what ? Lion gone, stuck in the bush in the pitch black night ( the moon hadn’t risen yet ), let the adventure begin. We offered to help push, but Geoffrey and Robert, the spotter, wouldn’t let us leave the car. They lifted the car as if changing a wheel, put something under the wheels and backed out.

Juerg during that time had taken over the spotter job, just in case the lion returned and was hungry. He didn’t.

All back in the jeep and the chase continued. We found our lion again, just before he went down to the river to drink. Back to camp, we’re late already, supposed to be back by 20:00. Dinner with the British couple and Mr.T. was good fun, after that drinks at the bar, then off to bed. No hippos tonight.

SEPT 17^th

Up at 5:30 again and in the jeep by 6:00. The mornings are the coldest, you almost need a jacket. From 9:00 on it starts to get hot. Again, no leopards today, but just inside the park, at the pond across from the Mfuwe Lodge, we see 3 lionesses and one rather big cub ( at least a year old ). Unfortunately we are car Nr.4, so not too well positioned, but we saw them. After that a few more elephant herds, baboon families, puku, giraffe and zebra. By 9:30 we stop at a lovely spot for coffee and biscuits. Tennis biscuits, we love those ! Back in camp we head straight for the restaurant, we’re hungry ! During breakfast one elephant walked right by our table, honest, at about 5m distance !  Two others stand about 10m before the restaurant in the shade. They haven’t moved till now, make great photo motives. At the moment little elephants and zebras are my favourites, after lion cubs that is, but those are no-where to be found. I’ve set my hopes on Kaingo.

Evening drive again at 16:00. Since the leopard sightings have been very rare Mr. T. has a Plan B : we are now taking along a leopard print suit. It just happens the british lady has such a swimsuit….  If we don’t see a leopard today, Robert our spotter, will have to put on the suit, and climb up a tree with a dead impala in his mouth and we will we photograph the whole thing. Robert is not quite as exited about this plan as we are, as you may understand. Well, this was the worst evening drive ever ! Just 10 minutes into the park we got held up by an elephant in the middle of the road. It stayed there for at least half an hour. As soon as we approached his backside too close he would turn his head, flap his ears…so we fell back again and followed and followed. Too bad we are not allowed to leave the road here.

By now, I swear, I know every detail of an elephants ass. Mr. T. is almost going nuts, light is fading, no leopard, and the chances of seeing one are shrinking with every minute, we are stuck behind this elephant.

When we finally got past the elephant we saw just about nothing till sundowners. We stopped for drinks near a gigantic Baobab tree. Geoffrey said it is at least 1000 years old, maybe a little exaggerated, but is definitely old. The trunk is so thick you need about 10 people holding hands to stand around it.

The nightdrive : in the dark we saw eyes, a herd of buffalo, gennet, civit and the odd hippo. I don’t like the night part :

1) you only see eyes

2) you can’t take photos

3) because of (1) and (2) it’s boring

4) if you don’t find a leopard by day, you’ll never see it in the dark

5) my backside hurts after 5 hours of sitting

Dinner was good as usual, we had a bottle of wine to go with it, then drinks at the bar. My new favourite is Amarula and ice, Juerg had a fancy one , a pinacolada. In bed by 23:00 which is really quite late.

SOUTH LUANGWA NATIONAL PARK – north

SEPT 18^th – KAINGO CAMP

Boy it was hard getting up after the wine and the drinks and going to bed late. Pack our last stuff and after tea and toast we leave, Kaingo here we come. Hardly saw a thing, then 3 lions dozing in the riverbed, that was cool. Not much more till we reached Kaingo. There’s a lovely ebony forest just before you reach camp, all quiet and peaceful, a very special, dreamy atmosphere. The camp is so lovely, even the restroom is cool ! The chitenge, which is the main sitting area, is under a thatched roof, seating on cool sofas and chairs, a big table set for 12 is ready. Outside a sitting area for morning coffee and tea. Our room is the first beside the chitenge, we’re the only ones who can go back and forth without a guard because it’s so close. They had lions and a leopard walk through camp yesterday so beware ! We are used to elephants, baboons and hippo by now, this is new.

To see the Kaingo Camp webpage click here

At 10:00 the drums sound to announce it’s time for breakfast. The other guests show up. Boy, there are mostly fat people here. The two wives are thin but the rest…the men are gigantic, the boy and girlie huge, the daughter XXL, I feel so thin ! But they are really nice. Tell us there are lions killing buffalo here on a daily base, leopards, elephants and of course the hides. At 12:00 we’re going to the Hippo hide, can’t wait. Oh, I’m so glad we’ve gotten rid of Mr.T. and his endless complaining. The thing with safari is you never know what you’ll see, no guarantees for nothing. I don’t like people who don’t appreciate what they see, whatever it is big or small, be grateful.

A five minute drive gets us to the hide, there’s a 10m long tunnel to the first viewing platform, 5-6m further along is the second platform, almost at water level. It just has cushions on the floor but that’s fine with me.

The whole pool is full of hippos, they yawn, fight and the funniest thing… they shit. Whilst doing this they stand up, wipe their tails from left to right to spread it, like a windscreen wiper at full speed. Shit flies all over the place,

kind of like a farmer putting manure on his fields. We are so close we’re lucky not to get “sprayed” on. It starts to get rather cloudy which is good for us, one after the other the hippos get up, leave the pool and stand on the sandbanks like big brown statues. The last to leave is a little crippled one. It can move its front legs, but cannot stand on them. To move forward on land it supports itself on its chin and hind legs. Our guide Ian explains it will probably die as soon as the mother stops suckling it ( at the age of 3 ). If this poor fellow has to go on land to find its own food he will have no chance, and even if he does get to food, if something attacks him he can’t run away, sort of a sitting hippo ( as in sitting duck ). Time flies when you’re having fun, we only get back for lunch at 13:30, it is already waiting for us in the big wooden box on the deck. A wonderful small salad with chicken and parmesano. Relax, read a book, and at 15:30 we meet at the big platform for…guess what ? Tea of course ! Gamedrive starts after that. The clouds have all gone and the skies are clear now, the light is fabulous. Anything looks good in this light ! We get some lovely photo of zebra, elephant and giraffe. Kennedy our guide, even finds us a group of 6 lions, they are supposed to have cubs, but these are nowhere to be found and the lions don’t move an inch, so we move on. Sundowner time, Mosi Beer what else, we always drink the local beer, really like this one.

Night drive starts, I tell you, this was the worst one ever ! Okay, I said that before but this one really was ! Not because we didn’t see a thing, but because of what we saw !  At first the usual, eyes, eyes, eyes, a hyena, the lions still sleeping, lots of eyes. A waterhole with 3 crocs in it… and at the end of the waterhole, stuck in the mud, a young buffalo. All of its legs were in the mud, the body lay on its left side, the crocs are approaching, silently gliding closer. On the other side of the road we see a hyena with blood on its mouth. We drove past the poor buffalo and saw a gaping hole in its right buttock. It moved its head and looked at us, it was still alive !

After a while the hyena cried out, more of his friends arrived, they went back to the buffalo and started eating it alive, biting out big chunks of flesh. The poor buffalo was screaming, scared to death, wriggeling to get free whilst being eaten alive, I couldn’t watch anymore.

If it had been dead allright, but this ! I know it is nature but this was awful, I’ll remember his screams forever. The rest of the drive was no fun anymore, I’m having something vegetarian tonight ! At dinner I sat next to the Scottish lady which was good fun, the more wine she had, the faster and the “scottisher” she talked, I had to concentrate like crazy to keep up. The good thing was it kept me from thinking about the buffalo.

 

SEPT 19^th

The fatties are leaving today and we are walking to Mwamba Bush Camp. We didn’t see much, but it’s the little things that count. It was very special, like in my Wilbur Smith novels set in the early 1900’s. Me, my guide and a tracker with a big gun, walking through the bush ( okay, and a lot of other people with us, but that’s details ).

We saw two buffalo, two elephants and lots of baboons and impala. They race off as soon as we approach, sending out alarm cries. In the jeeps they let you get much, much closer ! Lovely scenery and I love the smell of the wild gardenia which flowers everywhere around here. We look at flowers, fungi and leopard footprints and reach Mwamba after three hours of easy going, that was nice ! Derek, the boss drives us back to camp. On the way back we see a leopard in a tree, yes, yes, yes, at last a leopard. They seem to know her and tell us this is her favourite tree. There should be a young one around too but we didn’t see him.

Well, let’s be humble, I’m glad I saw this leopard !  That was, till we got back and the other couple, who had had a private tour whilst we were walking, told us they had seen lion cubs, aaaaahhhhh !

Kennedy promised we’ll try and find them again this afternoon. Okay, short break, breakfast, another short break and off to the hippo hide again. It was totally different from yesterday. There were only half as many hippos in the pool and they hardly moved. None went out on the sandbanks and shit only rarely flew. Even the yawns were hard to get. Back in camp we were greeted by Izzy with a camera in her hand. About 13 elephants were about to cross just beside our main deck, fabulous ! The river is so quiet the elephants are reflected in the water, makes for some cool photos. Juerg was so smart as to race to the last private deck which was almost straight across from the elephants. With his 600mm zoom he got some cool shots and a prize winning video of the little elephant lying down and kicking its legs. So cute ! Lunch was postponed a little because of this sighting. We allowed ourselves a glass of white wine to go with lunch, and lots of water, it’s bloody hot again !

Afternoon drive at 16:00, we’ve got some new people on our jeep. We are by far the youngest, but they are really nice so who cares. The fabulous day went on, got photos of an elephant at about 5m from our jeep, kudu on the plains in beautiful light. Kudu are rarely seen on the plains, they are usually in the bush, but we got lovely pictures and they didn’t even run away. No giraffes today but a few buffalo, loads of impala and zebra etc. We found the lions, about 8 or 9 of them, with two cubs. Real tiny, cuddly ones, just about 2 months old, are they cute !

All the big lions, in which nobody was interested in anyway, were sleeping. The cubs weren’t !

Every time a jeep started, drove there or away, they would sit up, look around. They went to their mum to suckle, as she rolled over on her other side they just kept at it and leaned over her. They bit daddy’s tail till he growled, played with elephant dung, chased a butterfly, teased each other. I am going to adopt one !  This is the best safari day in my life. We missed the sundowner because we stayed at the cubs till after dark and went straight into the night drive. On the way home we didn’t see much, never mind, still got yesterdays buffalo screams in my ears. The one special tonight was a honeybadger, it walked straight towards us. Cool, I’ve never seen one of those before.

Of course I had to hug Kennedy when we got back for finding us the cubs. He’s kind of short, so it looked rather comical and everybody laughed, Really, this was such a fabulous experience, no matter what comes tomorrow, I’m a happy person.

Back in bed by 22:00 already. This is rather a quiet group, no crazy people with crazy stories…  I‘m probably the craziest here. So if all goes well I will get 7 hours of sleep tonight.

SEPT 20^th

Up and at it again at 06:00. We’ve started to take our malaria medication at 5:30 before we leave camp, we tend to forget it less often this way. I suppose we forget because there are so few mosquitos here. There are some other mean biters, I’ve still got a big red spot from day one. Almost all the staff is in Mfuwe today because it is Election Day. The queues are expected to be very long, and most of the staff left yesterday evening, hoping to get back some time today. Our luck because now Derek, the boss, is taking us. The big hits today were a group of wildebeest ( which I spotted ), coming towards us in a dry riverbed and then walking through the mahogany grove, or was is ebony ? It’s splendid, whatever it is ! Lovely light and both the close up and scenery pictures must turn out great. After that a group of 200 buffalo, wow, there were so many ! Add a few zebras for contrast and we got another lovely shot. The best was yet to come. We got a radio message the Mwamba lion pride was near the Mwamba waterhole, very close to that camp. They have two prides here, the other one with the cubs is the Hollywood pride. Believe it or not, there were 20 lions ! Only three on the other side of the riverbed, all the others on our side, all close together under the bushes to get some shade. And again, we got to about 10m distance, unbelievable.

Got some more great shots of two or three together, yawns, close ups, you name it. Boy, this is so special, and so close.

We stayed for an hour hoping they would prey on something, but as it got hotter and hotter, they just moved more and more into the shade. Back to camp for breakfast, unless the elephants start to cross it’s hippo hide again after lunch. Since I’ve been such a good girl my prayers have been heard and the elephants arrive just as we are to leave for the hippo hide. Change of plan, we are now going to the elephant hide. It’s a big platform up in a tree with a wonderful bench to sit on, the breeze was blowing, we are sitting in the shade at 4-5m above the ground, and right in front of us 5 elephants start to cross.

In the background the next group is arriving. It was so totally peaceful to sit there and watch these giants drink, then carefully start crossing the river. The first group went straight through, the second group of 7 or 8 individuals stopped halfway, submerged, splashed, always keeping the two little ones in their midst. In the end they all together almost raced out. back to camp for lunch and another glass of white wine, oh, oh, bad habit Asi…

Back in the jeeps by 16:00 for the afternoon drive, let’s see what tonight brings. At first just the normal stuff, but there are no non-spectacular game drives here ! Derek found us a single male lion on a sandbank at the river. There was also a lone elephant bull close by. These two kept watching each other which was great for us, sunset pictures with the elephant and lion in lovely light. We take our sundowners close by, and as we are drinking the whole 400 head strong buffalo herd came to drink at the river, they sort of stampeded down to the water, there were so many, they kept coming and coming, throwing up clouds of dust. What a sight at sundown ! As you by now know , I don’t like night drives, but this one was special… again ! First there was one hyena, then two, they started running. Derek said they are not just going for a drink, they’re after something.

Seconds later we heard a yelp. They got an impala and started eating it alive. Oh no, not again ! At least this one didn’t scream, it didn’t have time to, this whole thing happened so fast.

Three more hyenas turned up and started tugging at the impala carcass. One ran off with a leg in his mouth, you could hear them eat, smatch, smatch and hear the crunching of bones, wah ! Another one ran off with what was left of the impala, and then the lions came and stole the carcass away from them. Lots of screaming from the hyenas but they kept their distance. Back to camp for dinner. New people have arrived, old ones of course, no-one is under 60 here. And by the way, we are definitely the poorest here, but they don’t notice because we’ve travelled so much and done lots of crazy things, so we can comment on almost everything, and that at our age !

SEPT 21^st

We’ve gotten used to getting up early by now. Just as well because today we are leaving extra early and taking the tea with us. A photo stop for the classical “ sunrise over the plains with an elephant in the foreground” photo. On to the next hide, the carmine bee eater hide. When we got there a big hippo was standing at the water watching us. We had to cross a dry riverbed and climb up a bank whilst he was watching us. Derek had the gun ready, but lucky for us the hippo decided to move into the water and disappeared. We moved about 50m on top of the bank, then down a wobbly ladder, through two canoes which were somehow attached and into the hide. It is actually a boat with a camouflage tent on it. It’s fabulous, awesome, incredible !

Imagine a 100m long riverbank, about 5m high, with holes every 10cm or so, and in every hole a bright red bird.

The whole scene was red and blue, the noise was deafening, incredible ! They are quite hard to catch in flight so we concentrate on the sitting ones. We stay for about an hour and have our tea in the hide. On the way back there’s kudu and a lioness, followed by an old elephant bull. Derek backed up to him, less than 10 m away I tell you. But you know what happened, the elephant came closer and closer, till it was maybe 1m behind the jeep, that’s what I call a close encounter ! We were so close you could count the wrinkles around his eyes. There are vultures hovering over the plains, must have been a kill, let’s go check it out. Three lions beside a dead buffalo, the vultures are eating, the lions get up and chase them away.

We decided to do one more time in the hippo hide since it is our last whole day here, enjoy them as long as we can ! They are getting lazier by the day, hardly a move, hardly a yawn, and even less hippos in the pool then the days before. After lunch, pizza yummy ! We relax a bit before our last game drive. We went to see the other buffalo kill site near camp, the lion had had his lunch and was lying 5m from the kill, a big buffalo with a gaping hole in his rear end, that is where they all start eating, must be the best part. Juerg counted over 40 vultures in the trees around it. The lion was not showing the least of interest in moving, so we decided to come back later and moved on. At the riverside we found two big male lions, neither of those was interested in us either. Derek said they are the two males of the Hollywood pride, they sure look content and self-assured, real stars. Now it was time for the leopard, they had heard her roar at night and seen the prints. Baboon alarm cries led us right to her. You could only see what was in the beam of light from the torch but we saw her clearly, a beautiful animal !

From there back to the lazy lion, the two others had also arrived and the hyenas had been by to have their fill. Most of the vultures were gone, or maybe we just didn’t see them in the dark. One lion started to eat, his whole head disappeared into the buffalo’s belly. Hope the photo turns out right. We sat with the American couple, both retired doctors. Lee, the younger guy with them, is their private guide from Wilderness Safaris, boy they must be really rich ! But see it this way, they are 20 years older than we are, so we are pretty cool and rich too ( in experience ). It was a fun evening, at first I thought Lee was a little snobby, but he’s allright, suppose you have to be a bit snobby to travel with all the really rich people all the time. Boy, I love this place, and Derek is as of now my favourite ranger and guide in the whole of Africa. It was incredible to drive with him, he would often stop and just sit and listen to the sounds of the bush. He was a great tracker and always found us spectacular sightings, one could feel he really cares for this land, and all the animals on here. I don’t believe in halo’s , but if there are…    this guy definitely has one, and it glows and says I love these animals, I love this land.

LOWER ZAMBEZI NATIONAL PARK

SEPT 22^nd – CHONGWE RIVER CAMP

So we have to leave, shit. We reach the Mfuwe bridge in 1:45 hours, another 30 minutes to get us to Tribal Textiles.

Husbands stay close to your wives here, if you start shopping here you can’t stop.

There are so many textiles here, and in dozens of colours and designs. It’s not quite cheap but I think it is a good thing, employment for a lot of people in the area, and they make lovely souvenirs that don’t take up too much space in your bag.

We arrived at the airport exactly on time but the flight was late, I believe Juerg was happy to have gotten me out of the shop before I exceeded the budget or the credit card limit, whichever would come first. The flight is only 1:30 hrs, but a very bumpy ride, once we’re over the clouds it gets a little better, but as soon as we start decending we are almost thrown out of our seats. Luckily we’re only five so there’s room enough to sit. I’m going to be sick !

Just as the pilot says 7 minutes to go, you can see the Zambezi on your left hand side, I throw up. Who cares about the Zambezi, get me down !

Juerg, who normally has no problems like this, looks rather green too, and grabs a sick bag from the seat in front of him, but he manages to “keep it down”. Glad we have arrived. There are 5 or 6 jeeps under a tree, waiting for guests, another plane is to arrive shortly. We go with Chris for the 20 minute drive to our next camp Chongwe River Camp, boy, it’s another gorgeous one ! They have like a platform to get in and out of the jeeps, probably for all the pensioners here who can’t climb in themselves… ! On the platform we are greeted by Florence and Joseph with a wet towel to wipe off the dust ( and vomit remains in my case ), it feels good.

They have a sitting area at the waterside, a lounge and a bar a little further land inward. Lovely seating areas beautifully decorated everywhere you look. Our tent is great too, a big bed, all the cushions in red, brown, beige and the outside bathroom is almost as big as the tent, so cool ! We go for a late lunch at 13:30 or so. Quiche and salads, one of my favourite meals, I like it here !

To See the Chongwe River Camp webpage click here

Unfortunately we are paired up for the game drive with the French old and very old lady, at least they speak some English. They are extremely boring, grandma has all these extra wishes and is half blind ( this is not official, but I think so because she always asks her daughter what ? where ? where is it ? and sees nothing till the daughter points it out to her ). We go on a motorboat cruise, it’s nice on the river, a cool breeze, nice views. The Zambezi is extremely wide here, it must be at least 1 kilometer across and has lots of little islands in it. On these islands are elephants, hippos, crocs and we even saw two buffalo. Got a lovely shot of a big bull elephant standing on a sandbank near the shore, quite a different angle from the boat, is really nice for a change. For sundowners we had a Mosi and roasted peanuts and let the boat drift, and then we got stuck. The alarm on the motor kept going, took him a while to get all the sand out, then we had to paddle into deeper water, where at last, it sprang back to life again.

Back in camp we dressed up for dinner and had quite some time to spare. Talked to Chris who had picked us up from the airstrip and Levi our guide. Gemma the hostess turned up. Not really the hostess I would expect at a bush camp, looks more like someone’s forgotten to take their granddaughter home. Dinner was very good and very amusing, the people seated opposite us wouldn’t stop talking, the Dutch on the contrary are very quiet, the French are boring. Found out Gemma went to school in Kenya too,

so at one point, after some wine, the two of us were singing the National Anthem of Kenya, in Swahili I must add.

We had a good nights sleep, it’s not so very hot here. Am having the game drive dreams again. Am constantly surrounded by 20 or so lions, leopards on the hunt, elephants charging. Just lay vey very still, keep your head down, they will pass. Till I realise I’m in bed, in a tent, there are no animals inhere. I have to sit up, check out the surroundings, I am okay again, lie down to sleep and it all starts again. Well at least it’s always different animals to keep it interesting. Remember me, I must go and take a picture of the public toilet her, it’s so cool. This is the best toilet ever ( so far ).

SEPT 23^rd

Knock, knock. It’s 05:15. It’s the watchman calling, no drums, pity, that was so nice. New camp, new drill. We have breakfast at 5:30, yoghurt, fruits and a piece of toast. The british are having marmite, we are definitely not ! We leave at 6:00. That was the plan but grandma is a pain in the ass even early in the morning. Just as we are about to drive off she suddenly does want an extra bottle of water from the coolbox in the back. We had offered it to her 5 minutes before…  Silly old goat, suppose she’ll be stuck in the jeep till we get back, no way she is getting out without the platform !

The drive is a disappointment, Levi is nice but he just drives, we have to spot our own game. No big groups of elephant as they promised, either they come one by one, or in small groups, five maximum. It took over an hour till we saw baboon and impala. At one point we encountered elephants in the lagoon,

submerged till only their heads came out of the green waterplants, that was an unusual sight !

In the end three came out of the water just behind our car, flapping ears, mock charging, cool. The stupid roof kept me from taking some really good shots, another one of grandma’s extra wishes since it is too hot for her in the blazing sun…aaahhh ! The roof may be nice to keep out the sun but is a nuisance to a photographer. On the way home, already on the camp grounds, we saw some more elephants, kudu and wart hog. You see more in camp than on the game drive ! And the jeep broke down too, after some wiping and hitting everything was in working order again. The other jeep had a flat tyre so they also got their share. Well, dinner was very good to say something positive.

Wanting to go back to our tent after dinner we were stopped, elephant walking through camp. It walked right up to the bar and lounge area, round the side, between the dining table and the circle of chairs at the water, throwing down a few of the dining chairs in the passing. He left for the boatramp. Since we had to wait anyway we enjoyed an Amarula on ice, had the rest back at our tent, sitting in the dark, listening to the sounds of the bush and watching the stars.

SEPT 24^th

Hurray, we’ve got a new jeep. This one is the most commfortable of all the jeeps we had so far. Nice seats, thick cushioning, enough space for the legs, a pouch to put your stuff in at the back of the seat in front of you, a  gigantic roof…  and the back is now also closed.

A photographers nightmare, a disaster jeep, no back view, horrid poles on the sides to support the roof, which are always in the way when taking photos !

Other than that,  it’s pretty good and didn’t break down once !  The wildlife viewing was slightly better than yesterday, saw some guinea fowls, impala and baboons and loads of elephants. We even found a big group. Not that it was of much use, since they were all split up, so we still only had lots of little groups instead of one big group as I had hoped for. Back in camp I was desperate for a cup of coffee, the hot water was empty, took them 45 minutes to refill it, who cares, we’re in Africa and I had gotten myself a glass of wine. Juerg went to put our things back in the room and had to stay there for quite a while, two elephants are walking around again. Lunch was very good again. New guests at the table, three approximately 60 year old Zambians, here to do some fishing. At first they didn’t seem very interested to talk to us, or anyone else for that matter. But it got better and better. In the end they showed us photos of the Vic falls, gave tips how to bargain at the curio stalls and had lots of wild stories to tell. We must do the micro-light flight when we’re there. I am not a fan of that sort of thing, am really scared of hights, but am considering.

 

This afternoon we’re in for the canoe trip but it’s blowing like mad, no chance in this weather. We’ve still got 2 hours to go, let’s hope the wind dies down. The one Zambian, who is a pilot, and has his own air charter business by the way, said it wouldn’t. Well, I’m not going on a boat trip again, had enough of that, it’s too boring and you don’t see much. Yesterday wasn’t too bad though. We got to the back of a small island, really close to the shore. On the shore were elephants, on the island some more. We let our boat drift silently till it hit the shore and stuck in the sand, had our sundowners there. It was so peaceful and absolutely wonderful to watch them walk about. Got the picture I wanted, a baby peeking out from under its mums belly, and great sundowner shots with elephants in the background. The Zambians suggested we go fishing with them tomorrow, too late, we’re leaving tomorrow. With these three I would go, it would certainly be fun, even if I don’t have a clue about fishing. The one Zambian lives near Kafue, the other two live in Australia and are visiting him, one of them actually lives in Port Hedland where Juerg’s brother lives. No how can you go live there when you come from such a wonderful country ? That town sucks. We went for a swim in the pool. At one moment the security guy came and sent us to our tent, once again the elephants are coming. Why do we go on game drives here ? The animals come to you ! We shower, get changed and just as we want to leave two elephants arrive at our tent.

There is about 1m of space between the veranda and the bushes on the top of the riverbank, but the biggest one had to squeeze right through this little space.

He stood there munching, chewing, backed off again, and shit right beside our tent. Thank you ! He then tried to get under the veranda roof to scratch his back, almost lifted it off.

George came and chased him off so we could leave the tent. I wanted to put one hand outside the door and photograph his backside on our lounge table, but Juerg wouldn’t let me. So I had to take photos through the mosquito proof mesh windows, not so good for the photo quality. Why do I have such a serious, rule obeying husband…

After tea we went to the canoes and went up the Chongwe River, it’s still much too windy to go out on the Zambezi. Never mind, we see more here anyway. We watch a young elephant play in the mud, some others are drinking, the obligatory impala and baboons ( what else did you expect ). Back at camp we change to the motorboat and have sundowners on an island in the Zambezi . Cool spot, cold beers, yeah !

LIVINGSTONE

SEPT 25^th – WATERBERRY LODGE

It is so beautiful here in the morning light. We get to sleep late today, our flight leaves at 9:50, no time before that for a game drive or boat ride. Instead we’ll have a big breakfast. There are clouds hanging in low over the mountains, never had that before, as long as the weather is clear in Livingstone I don’t mind ! I really look forward to seeing the falls, not so much to the flight.

It’s alright to leave here, I’ve seen enough. It is very beautiful, wonderfully decorated, but far too civilised, not enough Africa or bush feeling, and the game drives are boring.  The scenery is lovely, the elephants cool, but I’ve seen enough elephants for a while now. And the people here… some more “shortly before dying” , have arrived, this is worse than living in a retirement home. Glad to get rid of grandma too, she should be wheelchaired through London Zoo, nice and cool, no sun and the animals are all very close, so at last she can see them. Let’s hope there are some nice people at Waterberry. The flight turned out to be fine. We had to do a stop at the Jeki Airstrip a little further east. At first I thought, oh boy, another start and landing and it’s so windy, but it was great.

The pilot flew very low, we could see the hippos in the river, sandbanks, islands, different colours in the water where the water depths changed, so beautiful !

After a test run to check for wind direction and see if there were no animals on the airstrip, he put her down so softly we hardly noticed, well done ! From there to Lusaka another 30 minutes. We are experienced Zambia travellers by now, we know what to do, and head straight for the departure tax desk to pay the domestic departure tax of 22U$, after that wait for the flight. This was a big plane again, even had a flight attendant. In Livingstone we were picked up by Morrison and had to drive about 40 minutes to reach the lodge. Had a welcome drink, put our bags in the room… well room, we have a whole house to ourselves, 3 bedrooms to choose from. This place is quite different again, much greener, lots of flowers, cute cottage and a pool which we are definitely going to use.

To see the Waterberry Lodge webpage click here

The Zambezi is only half as wide here, but twice as deep they say ! There are no islands right here so we clearly see the other “Zim” side.

We do the sundowner cruise with a group of Australians, see some tiny crocs, a monitor lizard and a few birds and a lot of beers. Back to the lodge at full speed which was cool, but it was so very cold. The people at the lodge were a great help in booking whatever we wanted and had good tips. We booked the falls hike and micro-light flight for tomorrow, oh, I am so brave ! The day after we do the combo : go to Livingstone Island in the morning and stand under the spray in the afternoon. We dropped the river rafting, it’s bloody expensive, takes up a whole day, and we will lose that time to go see other things. Besides, everybody does it, and hardly any-one goes for a shower under the falls, we prefer to do the special things ! Dinner was good, has been good at every lodge we stayed. This time it was butternut soup, one of my favourites, followed by beef stroganoff and home made ice cream for dessert. The waiter telling us the menu was really cute, he pronounced it a little different : butter nutsoup followed by beef stugnuf and ice cleam.

SEPT 26^th

Still windy, let’s hope the wind dies down again as it did yesterday afternoon, so our flight can take place. Had a real big breakfast, that should keep us going till lunchtime. This is very much back to civilisation here, we’ve got electricity for the first time in 10 days, can use our mobiles in the lodge, what a luxury ! I’ll miss the oil lamps at dinner ! Morrison took us to the falls. On the way we picked up two of the Aussie gang at the Thorntree Lodge. They did the elephant back safari and were absolutely delighted. Now that I think of it, we have a morning to spare… We get 2½ hours to spend at the falls, that should leave us enough time. We didn’t take a guide, just followed the track.  Even now, at low water it’s an impressive sight. It is 1688m wide, 100m high and an average of 550 million litres of water cascade down it’s lip every minute !  There are viewpoints all along the way, we stopped at every one of them. At the furthest viewpoint you see the Zim side of the falls from a side angle, it has lots of water and spray there, much more than on the Zam side. No worries,with a good lens you can take a good picture from here too, and we’ll be closer tomorrow.

Back to the parking lot and the shop that thunders. Beside it are about 20 curio stalls. I bought my hippo, bargained hard and got him down to 50U$, otherwise a guy a few shops down had me one for 30U$ ( but that one wasn’t as pretty ). Juerg then bought two little bowls from the guy which would have sold me the 30U$ hippo because he had given me a good price, plus a somewhat bigger bowl from the guy beside him, from some other ones we bought two masks, a small hippo and one cloth. They must love us here. I did see two big black & white masks… got him down from 40 to 15. Must make a deal tomorrow, 2 for 30 or so ( I’ll start at 25 ). I know I’m mean, but I am not a stinkin’ rich American !

We put our hippo in Morrison’s van, it’s bloody heavy, must weigh at least 10 kilos.

We’ve christened him Mvuu Kaingo Mosi: Mvuu is the local word for hippo, Kaingo our favourite camp, Mosi our favourite beer. Relax at the lodge till it was time to get airborne.

We drove to the Bakota Aerodrome for our micro-light flight, shit what have I done, why am I doing this, I hate hights. The micro-lights are something like go-karts with a piece of cloth on top. You sit right behind the pilot on a plastic chair without armrests and the safety belt is a strap around your hips, this is the only thing fixing you to this contraption. The Zambians at Chongwe talked me into this, me and my big mouth, now I must do it ! Will do almost anything for a good photo, so here we go. At the start it went really fast, lifted off, and at that moment I turned into a marble statue.

I held on to the sides of my plastic chair as hard as I could, and sqeezed the back of the pilots chair between my legs, a miracle I didn’t squash it. It was very windy and the little thing bumped through the air as if it was a rubber ball, up and down, left and right….help !

The pilot did seem to be enjoying himself, and seemed in full control, so I relaxed a little. The falls are sensational from above but I didn’t see much, was just looking straight ahead, past the pilots helmet, didn’t dare even move my head. My curiosity was killing me, I had to see more ! I did  move my head. It’s not so bad after all, the views are spectacular, especially the last part of the river and the falls, and also the gorge where it winds down through the landscape after passing the falls. We saw elephants twice, buffalo and impala, he even went down and circled around them, they didn’t seem to care. After 15 minutes the trip was over, I might even do this again on a not so windy day ! They take pictures all the time during the flight and you can buy the CD afterwards for 20U$, it also has photos of the falls in all seasons on it, not such a bad deal. No private cameras allowed on board, so we were forced to buy a CD, must have some proof of this !

SEPT 27^th

Believe me, this is our crazy day ! Really, really crazy and adrenalin filled. We left the lodge at 6:30, back to early rising again, were still good at it. Morrison took us to the Royal Livingstone, very posh place ! Some confusion at first, the guy from Tongabezi is in charge of the Livingstone Island trip and wanted the voucher, the Under the Spray Tour is run by Bundu and without a voucher they won’t take us, now what ? We go on the first tour and will see later. You can see the spray from the hotel grounds, Livingstone Island is just about where the most of the spray is. There is a lovely rainbow over the falls, which isn’t always there, so we are lucky once again. We take a short boatride and are dropped off on Livingstone Island. This is a historical spot, it is here Dr. Livingstone stood when he first viewed the falls. A welcome drink, a little walk, strip to our swimsuits. Let’s go, it’s freezing ! The part where the Devils Pool is, is actually on the next little island and we have to swim there, swim zig-zag between the rocks and away from the falls, the current will pull you closer anyway. All went well and all of us reached the island. Now we had the choice, jump in or go in gently. The pool is about 4x6m, behind it 1m of rock from there 100m straight down and a lot of water ! So better make sure you aim right and hit the middle of the pool ! Juerg did a cool jump, I chickened out and slid in like a lady. One of the staff had all the cameras, virtually stood one foot from the drop and took pictures, hope we have some good ones. There were only six of us, so it wasn’t too crowded. In the end you could lie on your stomach on the last meter of rock, the guide and your partner held your feet, and you could take a peek over the edge, straight down that is. I did it, I’m proud of myself again. The water is okay, quite nice, but once out of the water it’s freezing. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and sweater this morning, and now we’re standing on the cliffs in a swimsuit, soaking wet, goose bumps all over, shivering. Juerg is shivering so badly that it looks like he is doing some sort of breakdance, my teeth clatter so hard you could dance a flamenco to it. Did I mention the rainbow ? It is so crazy and absolutely breathtaking here.

This is the best moment in the whole holiday, I feel so small, I am nothing, standing in such a historical spot, swimming in the mighty Zambezi, a rainbow over my head.

They brought us towels, nice, soft, fluffy ones, it took a while till they arrived but now we really enjoy them. After this we had breakfast in a big tent. Muffins and delicious scones, followed by a bagel with spinach, egg benedikt, bacon and sauce hollandaise, mmmmm ! Good coffee too !

From here back by boat, and on to the next adventure. We walked from the Royal to the falls entrance, after a while got hold of the right guy, Eddie. Life vest on, plus a horrible helmet, take a paddle and down we go to the Boiling Pot. It’s 222 steps down, not so bad, but we’ll have to go the same way up again in the end. At the bottom is the starting point for the river rafting. There are guys in canoes who film the whole thing, boy, they could ride those rapids ! We had to walk, rock-hop for quite a while ( to put it mildly ). It got narrower and more difficult the further we got, the last 20m there was a rope to hold on to, which we gladly did, 10m below the water swept by, don’t look down, don’t fall in !  The guys let the boat down, it’s one of those they use for rafting, but only Juerg and me, Eddie and two other guys in it. We start above the first cataract and paddle upstream, paddle hard, the current is pulling ! We are half as many people as usual on the boat and we are definitely not going with the current. We crossed the part we photographed yesterday, short photo stop, it looks spectacular from down here. We tie the boat to the rocks and scramble on. We cross a small pool, Eddie just jumps in and starts swimming, so what the hell, we follow. Swimming with clothes and shoes on, that’s a while ago I did that. Happy to have the shoes on, the going gets tougher and tougher, and it’s a lot more slippery as well. Another pool to cross and at last we are under the first part of the falls. It’s like a gigantic shower, all of us are soaking wet, Eddie feels we are up to another pool. The water is freezing here, much colder than in the Devils Pool on top. I slip, my foot gets stuck under water, my knee crashes down on the rocks, I pull my foot out, we continue.

We are now under the middle flow, it’s like sitting outside in a major rainstorm. You can’t look up anymore, there’s so much water coming down you can’t keep your eyes open.

On the way back, shortly before we reach the boat Eddie jumps in main Zambezi currents, he’s mad ! Beckons us to follow, the current is very strong but 10-15m on it pulls you to the left, around the rocks into quieter water, Juerg jumps in. I have to go get the camera, make some cool pics, someone has to do that! Some more scrambling on slippery rocks gets us back to the boat. Going back the crossing is easier now we’re going with the flow. Soaking wet and still with life vest and helmet on ( what you wear you don’t have to carry ) we do more rock hopping for 30 minutes, followed by 222 steps going up this time. We make it to the top, are still slightly wet, so go change then I will buy my masks. Juerg just shakes his head as I return with them, I had told him they were big, but quite how big ! I’m so exhausted we scratch the trip to the market and go back to the lodge to lie at the pool, what a day. At lunchtime I was still shaking ! Imagine, me not going to a market… it must have been tough !

Juerg insists I write he saw a rhino on the drive back. They have some in Mosi-oa-Tunya national Park each one with 24 hr protection, there is always an armed guard walking beside it, to protect it from poachers. One kilo of rhino horn will bring you 20’000 U$, and there are not many left, I hope and pray these guards are successful. Anyway, whilst driving we saw people stop and take photos, and there was a ranger with a gun, so there must have been a rhino. Juerg saw it, I didn’t, so he got his big 5 this holiday and I don’t.

SEPT 28^th

I gladly take the blanket they offer me at breakfast, it’s freezing ! Juerg says I’m crazy and that it is at least 15°C, I am cold it’s 5°C at best. We leave early once again for the Elephant Back safari. First a coffee and some explaining, then the elephants show up. We are  8 people and only 7 elephants, one couple has to share. For that they get to pick their favourite elephant. Next is Bop, who won’t go to the ramp for people to get on, because he thinks he is too big. Volunteer ? I really like him, he is huge and has fabulous tusks, so I volunteer, yoh, let’s go. They heave me up, I put one foot in the stirrups and hops up I go. Boy, he is big ! Juerg gets Madinda, he’s the cheeky one which always goes off to eat as soon as he sees something edible. My Bop has to be right behind him to get him back in line again. Good, this way I can keep an eye on Juerg too. First we go through bushland, then across the river to some little islands.

We stop, hand in the cameras and get our picture taken whilst the driver feeds the elephant some “doggy biscuits”, or whatever it is, this way he lifts his trunk till it curls nicely over his head. It is absolutely amazing how these big animals can move so quietly, and how strong their trunks are when breaking off branches. I really enjoyed the ride. In the end we all had to get off at the ramp, all except me. We could feed the elephants the rest of the goodies right in the tip of the trunk. I looked Bop in the eye from maybe 1m distance, he blinked as if he greeted me. I know he probably didn’t, but it was a special moment, standing so close to such a huge gentle giant. There are lots of discussions if one should do this sort of tourist trips. I don’t know which side to believe, probably both are correct. Here they say the elephants are okay with their “job”. One ran off and spontaneously came back a year later with a baby at it’s side, was it because she missed her family or because the life here isn’t too bad ? At least they are safe from poachers. Back to the lodge and one more hour to relax before we leave for Johannesburg.

I am so sorry this wonderful trip is over, I love this country and it’s people and wildlife.

I promise I will return !

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story and photo copyright by Asi@bluemelphoto.ch