South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 2

Leopard cub, a prize sighting 

Up at the crack of dawn and we were at the gate just before 6am. They seem pretty relaxed about gate times, and let us in a few minutes early. After seeing the eastern side yesterday evening, we felt that the western side had more to offer, and so retraced our steps from the morning before, although we stuck more to the river roads this time around.

A quick glance before running off

And it paid off within half an hour - we came to an open area called Wamilombe right on the river and spotted something small ahead moving in the grass.  We stopped and put the binoculars on it - leopard!  But a small one - a leopard cub!  

On the run!

The cub looked like it was actually stalking, crouched low to the ground, but in reality we think it was just trying to cross the open plain and get into cover.  Its mother was nowhere to be seen and it quickly crossed into the nearby bushes after being discovered by a lapwing who began to alarm call. 

A last look before sneaking into the bushes

Once it had made its way into cover, it soon disappeared and despite a search we couldn’t locate it again.  We figured it had gone into hiding, especially if the mother wasn’t around, so we left it and headed further along the river for the morning drive.

Helmeted guineafowls drinking

Not seeing much, we stopped around 45 minutes later to have coffee under a huge tree overlooking the river.  While having our coffee, we were entertained by a herd of elephants coming down to drink from the opposite bank. 

Ellies in the Luangwa river

That side is not in the national park, but rather where all the lodges are situated, but for animals there are no boundaries, so the elephants came from one of the lodges, had a drink and then we watched as they crossed the shallow water and climbed up the bank, just about 50m away from us.  

Time to cross the river

After finishing coffee, we came across our first closeup of the Thornicroft giraffe - an endemic that only occurs in South Luangwa, along with its hangers on - a flock of red-billed oxpeckers.

The Thornicroft giraffe

We started heading back to the same open area that we’d seen the leopard cub in the hopes of catching the little cat again, but despite searching we couldn’t find it anywhere. 

Red-billed oxpeckers feeding on the giraffe

Instead we caught sight of two elephant bulls drinking at the river, so waited for them to head back towards us, which they duly did, giving us nice headon shots from an elevated perspective on top of the cliff.

The big boys of the Luangwa river

Some more Creyshaw zebras and then we ran into one of the guide vehicles that told us about some lions in the opposite direction but further down the river. 

Elephant head on

We had been told about some lions earlier but the directions were so vague and we were unfamiliar with the park so had not pursued it. 

Hungry zebs

With these more precise directions, we decided to give it a go and after getting some further info from other guides we eventually found them - sleeping…

A poor sighting of a sleepy lion pride

It turned out to be 3 lions - a male and 2 females - and as luck would have it, the only one that was awake and had her head up was collared.  We have had a lot of frustration with collared cats as they’ve collared most of the lions and cheetahs in Malawi and they don’t make for good photos, so it was pretty disappointing to find our first lion in Zambia was also collared. 

A puku mother with baby

We found out later that they only collar one female per pride, so it was just our bad luck, but we only hung around for a little while before leaving.  Those lions had found their spot and were going to see out the heat of the day in that shade.  

Elephant wallowing in mud

Meandering back along the river, we found the baby elephant and her herd again, before leaving through the gate back to our campsite for lunch, via the bar for a beer and to check out the animals at the waterhole.  

The Baby is really small.

The beauty of being at the campsite is that we can spend the heat of the day in the shade of the trees and then just before heading for the evening drive, we can have a quick shower so that you feel a bit refreshed for the afternoon. 

Bushbuck on a termite mound

There is also a pool which most of the other campers staying there used.  Surprisingly there were quite a few campers during our stay; we had assumed that it would be quieter thanks to COVID, but it was mostly people that were overlanding through Zambia from South Africa.

These two didn't appear to be too happy to see us!

For the afternoon drive, we decided to give the eastern side another go and headed for Luangwa Wafwa, but this time we didn’t want to go so far east.  We found Mushroom lagoon, which is a really nice waterhole that houses a big pod of hippos and where elephants come to drink. 

African jacana

We spent quite a bit of time enjoying the animals and photographing the birds that were amongst the water hyacinth.  

Saddle-billed stork

We were at the lagoon for a while hoping that a cat would come and drink but we weren’t that lucky, so finally moved towards to the main road with the intention of crossing over into the western side for the rest of the drive as it was only 4 o’clock.  

African Fish Eagle on mushroom lagoon.

We passed another vehicle who also hadn’t seen any predators yet either and had probably gone about 200m where there walking in the middle of the road towards us was a leopard!  She must have got onto the road just after the other vehicle had passed her and we were just in the right place at the right time!

It's magic - Leopard on the road in daylight

She sauntered right towards us while we stopped and tried to get a few shots, before deciding to go past us on the passenger side of the car and carry on walking. 

Deciding whether to cross the road

We quickly made a u-turn and tried to follow her, but she soon cut into the bush and after walking for a bit longer parallel with the road she turned off and disappeared from view.   

More walking while ignoring us

She seemed to be on a bit of a mission so we drove ahead to try and catch another glimpse of her but she was nowhere to be seen and there were no animals in the area to give her position away.  We tried for a bit longer to find her, but in the end we couldn’t find her and had to give up in the end.  

Right past the car

Buoyed by that sighting we headed back to the western side in the hopes of catching the smaller leopard cub that we’d seen the morning, perhaps with its mother as well. 

Looking for grass on the open plains

We headed to the same area that we’d seen the leopard cub but from a different road, and soon we found a bit of a traffic jam at a junction - only leopards cause traffic jams like this ;)

That's one way to sleep

And we were right - the little cub had found itself a tree right next to the road and was sleeping in it.  The cub had chosen a really awkward spot in that only a couple of cars could see him (or her) at a time, causing a line of vehicles waiting to catch of a glimpse.

Curious cub

Eventually, it was our turn to see the cub as other cars moved out the way.  And it was very cute - lying on the branch surrounded by leaves peeping out every now and then or snoozing, completely ignoring the cars.  

We were in a good position when he finally moved

Ahead of us another car was parked and refused to move, taking the dominant position.  We could see why they weren’t moving - in the car were at least 3 guys with huge cameras; they were definitely trying to get the best shot.  Of course, that meant the pressure was on us as we were the only other car that had a view of the cub. 

 

Just chilling

Luckily for a while it was quiet, with only our 2 cars there and we were able to shoot the cub in peace.  But it wasn’t moving much and its face was obscured by a branch. 

Getting sleepy

But eventually, the little leopard moved a bit giving us some nice views.   But predictably, other cars started to arrive and we gave way to other guests wanting to see the cub, but not before getting some nice close ups of the cute cat.

The sight of the bee-eater colony

With a queue building up to see the leopard, we decided to leave that sighting and go look for the carmine bee-eater colony.  Our neighbours had told us about “hundreds of carmines” that they’d seen, but we hadn’t been able to find them yet, not that we’d been looking for it too hard. 

The colony on the cliff face is a must visit

We headed in the general direction that we thought we’d find then and soon got to the edge of cliff at the river where we found quite a few carmines flying in the air, but a few metres further on and we found the colony - hundreds of bee-eaters perching on a fallen tree in the river along with dozens flying in the air. 

Southern carmine bee-eater in flight

And when we parked on the edge of the cliff, we could see the actual colony - stacks of holes in the side of the cliff with bee-eaters flying in and out of the holes.  

It was a cloudy evening and we had left with plans to return in the sun

The bee-eater colony, comprising of both carmines and white-throated, is a spectacular explosion of colour and sometimes they would all take off from the tree at the same time, resulting streaks of pink and green across the sky - it was absolutely spectacular but unfortunately very difficult to catch in a photo!

Plenty of white-fronted bee-eaters at the colony too

It was getting towards sunset and soon we needed to be out of the park, so we reluctantly left the bee-eaters and headed back out the Mfuwe gate and to our camp for the night. To locate the colony, take the first left from the Mfuwe gate on to river side road and stick to the river bank. It is very close to the gate but not visible from the main road along the river but you need to take a side track that hugs the river bank to catch the colony. 

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