South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 6

Pretty cool view from the room on the roof!

It was our last full day in the park and so we were up early morning and buoyed by a couple of hyenas romping around on the opposite bank; our neighbours told us that they had been mating, but we missed that.  

We were eager to get out and left a few minutes earlier than usual getting to the park gate by about 5.45 am.  We had expected to be waved through as usual, but this time there was a wildlife official that would not open the gate, so instead we had our muesli breakfast at the gate watch by the resident troop of baboons.   

Eventually 6 o’clock arrived and we were waved through into the park and quickly headed to the open area of Wamilombe, but unfortunately there were no cats or dogs to be seen, only giraffe at the small waterhole - an unusual sighting on its own.  

Chilling with Ele's at Mushroom lagoon. 

The whole area didn’t seem too productive, so instead we switched it up and headed to the opposite side of Luangwa Wafwa on the eastern side, but we didn’t have any luck in terms of predators either.  We eventually ended up at Mushroom lagoon and decided to chill out there in the hopes that something would come to drink.  

Puku are common but we hadn't seen one in ages.

We were rewarded with a nice herd of elephants under a towering tree and we hoped that they would go to drink, but it was not to be.  Instead it seemed like they wanted to rest and they seemed to fall asleep in the shade, with the youngsters actually lying down while the adults rested their trunks on the ground and closed their eyes.

A Wafwa bull gives the camera a stare.

We were entertained by a bunch of warthogs weaving in between the elephants and going to wallow in the waterhole mud, but otherwise there was nothing else that came to drink. It seemed to be an elephant morning, as we came across small elephant herds all over.  But no cats for us this morning drive and eventually we headed back to camp only to find more elephants at the bar!

These baboons watched over the car while we had a beer at the bar.

And bad news for us we were told when we got back … about 10 minutes after we had left for the morning drive, a pack of wild dogs had run through the camp and killed a couple of impalas near the bar’s waterhole!  The kills were out of sight, but the dogs had come to drink at least 4 times since, giving everyone who had remained at the camp great views of the dogs! And of course we were nowhere to be seen - if only we hadn’t been so eager to leave for our last full day drive, we may have caught them!! That is just so annoying…

Even more annoying, they’d been at the waterhole about 15 minutes before we got back for lunch, so we hung around at the bar hoping that they’d come to drink again, but of course Murphy’s law - they were nowhere to be seen.  Frustrated, we headed back to lunch and then had a few decisions to make - do we go for an evening drive in the park, or do we wait in the hopes of the dogs making an appearance even though we didn’t even know if they were still in the bushes nearby, they could’ve moved off in the dense bush without anyone seeing. Mmm… decisions, decisions…

Luckily the dogs made the decision for us, because while we were relaxing at our campsite, they came out to drink at the river.  It was too far away for us to get any good shots, but at least we knew they were still around, and since dogs was one of the predators we were targeting, we decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth and just hang around the campsite in the hopes that they would come to drink at the waterhole.

We moved to the bar area which was close to the waterhole in the hopes that the dogs would emerge as it got a bit cooler.  Unfortunately, we knew the light would be shining straight into our faces and the photos would probably be poor, but at the same time if we could catch another pack of wild dogs, our day would be made.

We were entertained by a small herd of elephants at the waterhole as well as a few bushbuck but no sign of the wild dogs, and considering our luck for the day having missed the dogs twice in the morning we were thinking that it wasn’t going to happen.

In fact, the camp owner came around to say hi and he too was saying that it was highly unlikely that the dogs were still around.  Ironically, as he was saying that the dogs appeared!! There were 9 dogs in total, including 4 youngsters.  They headed straight to the waterhole and settled near the water - this was awesome and a bit of a relief that we’d made the right call in waiting for the dogs.

Tough shooting with the dipping sun but the dogs did show up at Wildlife camp.

The dogs had only been there for a few minutes, when from the corner of our eye we caught sight of a big bull elephant ambling to the waterhole.  Elephants and dogs don’t get on so we were hoping for some fireworks when the elephant finally noticed the dogs, but he must have had pretty poor eyesight as he didn’t realise they were there until he was right at the water! 

Shot from the Bar - the Ele just seen the dog.

He got a bit of a fright when he finally noticed them, but didn’t pay them much attention and instead the dogs buggered off back into the bushes - oh no!  So for the next 20 minutes he drank and then grazed from the bushes nearby and only after he left did the dogs emerge again.

Back lit pup and looks like he has had plenty to eat. 

By this time the light was getting really poor as the sun had dipped behind the trees, but it was quite entertaining to watch the young dogs chase each other around with a stick - just like domestic dogs.  We spent another 40 minutes with the dogs but eventually they moved off back into the bushes and the light just got too bad to shoot so we headed back to our campsite, happy that we’d made the decision to catch the dogs.

Pup's monkeying about - shot from the hide next to the bar. 

From our campsite, we could actually still see the dogs through the binoculars resting in the open near to the bush but not visible from the waterhole.  We hoped that they would stay around, but with dogs you never know and we’d just have to wait until the next day to see.  

The whole pack came out and chilled in front of the bar.