South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 3

Southern carmine bee-eaters on the Luangwa river bank

We were up early as usual and off to the park first thing, passing a self-drive car that was on the bridge taking photos of the sunrise.  We went through the riverside drive just to see if we could find the little leopard again, but no sign of him so we headed off to our favourite area – Wamilombe. 

Carmines resting on the nearby tree

But this morning Wamilombe had nothing exciting to offer us in terms of cats, so we headed to the riverbank to see if we could photograph some bee-eaters in good light.  The Southern carmine bee-eaters and to a lesser extent the White-fronted bee-eaters, come to the banks of the Luangwa river to breed.  

Carmines resting on the bank above their communal colony

They form colonies of hundreds (or in some areas thousands) and burrow into the sandy cliffs of the river and are a delight to watch as they swoop overhead and into their holes to feed the chicks. 

The carmines can number in their hundreds or thousands

Previously, there had been a great spot where you could see the bank and the breeding colony, and also a big dead tree where the bee-eaters would sit which made for some nice photos.  But over the last rainy season that part of the bank had collapsed and the tree had been washed away, leaving the bee-eaters to find a new colony.  They had settled in Wamilombe but the sighting wasn’t nearly as good, and we had to be content with shooting the birds perching on the bank.

Carmines in flight

Instead of going further south, we decided to return to the riverside drive area and look for the little leopard again, but despite driving around we could find any sign of him until…

Showing the importance of listening to what the bush tells you; we had stopped for coffee at a nearby waterhole.  And suddenly in the silence, Dru heard a faint call of a monkey alarm call.  We followed it to where we found the monkeys.  They were surprisingly hard to see, stuck high in the trees and almost invisible.  Monkeys will alarm call for birds of prey too, so we weren’t sure what the reason was, but it was persistent enough for us to train the binoculars on the surrounding trees.  

Can you find the leopard

And after what felt like ages, but was probably only about 5 minutes we finally found him – the little leopard perched on an overhanging branch of a tree a little further away.  It wasn’t a great sighting as he blended in so well (as leopards always want to do) but we were pretty chuffed that we had finally tracked him down again! 

We hoped that the cat would eventually get down and head closer towards us, but with the monkeys calling incessantly and a spotted hyena lounging nearby, it was doubtful.  So after about half an hour, we left him still chilling on his branch with the plan to come back later to see if he was still there.

It was a good spot!

We still had some time before the light got too harsh so we decided to head back to Wamilombe and see if anything had appeared.  We knew that there were lions in the area because we’d seen the tracks on the road, but one of the guides we spoke to said that he thought they’d gone towards the airstrip. We stuck with Wamilombe instead of a wild goose chase in an area that we weren’t familiar with and luckily, we were soon rewarded. 

Hippo family

Next to the main plain, there is a smaller plain where we’ve had plenty of luck with wild dog and leopard sightings.  Shooting off from that plain is a dead-end road that we’d never been on because it had been boggy from the wet season, but now in the dry it was drivable so we wanted to check it out and named it Rod’s road.  It was just a small track around the back of the plain, but as we went down the track something caught our eye.  Movement in the shade of a big tree had us stopping the car and the next moment a big lioness walked straight out of the grass and almost into our car!

She came straight out of the grass towards us

It turns out the lions hadn’t gone to the airstrip after all, but were now emerging from the bush and straight to us.  4 lionesses bypassed our car and carried on through the grass with hardly a glance to us.  In fact, despite it was starting to get quite hot, it seemed that they were on the hunt.  In case we were right, we figured that they would be targeting any animals that were on the small plain so quickly turned around and drove to the plain setting ourselves up in case they started a chase. 

Laser focused on the zebra ahead

And then we lost sight of them.  Not knowing where they were was a bit confusing, so we slowly reversed the car a bit into the shade to wait it out and scan the horizon.  Except we almost drove into a lioness!  Well not quite, but she was out in the open crouching in stalk mode right next to the car.  Turns out they were hunting and she was laser focused on a few zebra that despite her being only about 20 meters from them in the open, they were completely oblivious. 

Sneaking up to the zebras

We quickly moved out of the way so as not to influence the hunt in either party’s favour and watched the show.  The lioness “leopard crawled” – or lion crawled in this case – and got even closer to the zebra, while we could see her sisters further ahead but just standing there watching.

A quick, but unsuccessful hunt

Suddenly she exploded and chased after the zebra, but was just too far away and they quickly noticed her and shot off like rockets.  She gave chase, with the rest of the lionesses following behind, but the zebra were too fast and quickly disappeared into the bush with the lions quickly giving up the chase.  A quick chase but pretty exhilarating for us, and made all the better because there was not another car to be seen.

In the end the zebras got away easily

Eventually the lionesses regrouped and headed to the nearest tree on the plain, flopping down in the shade and promptly went to sleep with the resident giraffe looking on.  And that’s where they stayed even after the first car arrived.  They didn’t move except to follow the shade and eventually it got too hot for us sitting in the sun watching them in the shade with no signs of moving, so we left them snoozing. 

Tired after the hunt

This corner of Wamilombe plain has turned out to be awfully productive with leopard, wild dog and now lion sighting. It also has a landing to the river with lots of animals using it to access the river. We would need to find a name for this spot on the next trip.

Chilling in the shade for the rest of the afternoon

We spent some time with the zebras on the plain using the sand for dust baths which was quite entertaining to watch, along with the baboons sifting through elephant dung looking for things to eat, but soon it was back to the campsite for a couple of beers, lunch and to wait out the heat of the day.

Enjoying a dust bath

Knowing where the lions were and assuming that they wouldn’t move much, we headed back to Wamilombe via the riverside drive to see if the leopard was still there.  No surprise, but he wasn’t there – he must have slipped off when the hyena moved away. 

A baboon sifts through elephant dung for tasty morsels

But the lions had hardly moved so we left them for a bit to look for some things more active to photograph.  And the zebras, puku and monkeys provided plenty of entertainment for us and some nice photos in good light. 

Zebras eating their way through Wamilombe

We figured the lions should be at least waking up by now, so headed back to them, only to find them gone!  Aah!! We didn’t have to look far, although they had actually gone further than we had hoped – down the bank and to the river’s edge.  In hindsight we wouldn’t have had many photo opportunities, but it still annoys us when we miss something happening 😉

Lionesses relaxing at the river

Three of the lions were chilling out at the river’s edge with their back to us watching the hippos and later we found the other female had walked further down and was lying in the sand.  

A lionesses on the sand bank at sunset

Having put our money on the lions, we decided to wait them out to see if they got a bit more active, but an hour later they were almost in exactly the same position that we’d found them, and after catching a flock of pelicans flying overhead during the sunset, it was finally time to leave them and head off back to campsite, with the highlight of the day being the hunt.

Flying pelicans

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