South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 1

Vultures and marabou storks fight over a buffalo carcass

We knew that the park opens at 6 a.m. so we were up at 5 to get sorted in time to be at the gate by opening time. It is about a 20-minute drive from the camp to the park gate and we were there at about quarter to 6. We were surprised to find that the park officials were already there and working and that the gate was open but surprisingly no vehicles were around. We had expected that they'd be a queue of cars waiting to get in but maybe a combination of the pandemic and relaxed attitude to gate times meant that we didn't need to stand in a queue.

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - the place of leopards

Luangwa river in the dry.

Zambia had been on our mind ever since we moved to Malawi. Unfortunately for us the COVID pandemic had put a stop to any travel internationally so we had been spending most of our time traveling in-country, but finally the pandemic was starting to lessen and we decided to take a chance and head to South Luangwa in Zambia.