South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 6

The magnificent African crowned eagle

Our last day in South Luangwa and as usual we were up and at the gate just before 6am.  Nothing of significance wandered into our path and soon we were headed to the Mfuwe lodge area where surprise, surprise the lions hadn’t moved more than 20 meters from where we’d seen those full lionesses the previous evening.  Except that the males and the lionesses that we’d seen the previous day had joined up with the 2 females and now the pride was 8 strong.

Southern carmine bee-eater

We had arrived a bit late after having detoured towards the south so by the time we got there they were already starting to settle for the day.  Unfortunately we had to leave soon after finding them as one of us needed an emergency toilet break 😉 So we headed off down an unused path to remedy the situation.  While there, we heard monkeys alarm calling and although we were hopeful for a leopard it turned out something we’ve only seen once before – an African crowned eagle. 

The lions hadn't moved far overnight

Ironically despite searching for one we’d never seen this charismatic bird of prey in all the time we’d been in the bush until about 2 weeks ago when we’d finally spotted a nesting pair in Liwonde NP. And now suddenly we’d seen another one soon after and this was a much better sighting so we were able to get a few shots of him.

Only our second ever sighting of this bird of prey

Knowing the lions were settling down for the day, we decided to investigate the northern part of the park with the idea of going back to the lions a bit later.  We came across an alert hyena but couldn’t see why he may be some watchful.  We also came across a “live kill” – a great egret had managed to get breakfast in the form of a frog which he gulped down quickly.

Alert hyena

We found some carmine bee eaters on the banks of the river but were unsuccessful in managing to shoot them in flight and then found a nice scene – a couple of giraffes were crossing the Luangwa river from the game management area back into the national park.  It was quite an unusual sighting so we were glad to capture them in good light as well as some statuesque grey-crowned cranes.

Beautifully colourful grey-crowned cranes

Besides that we couldn’t find too much on the northern side, so we crossed the road and went back to the riverside drive area, a really nice forested spot that always has plenty of plains game and elephant.  And soon enough we found a nice big elephant bull that had come to drink on the other side of a waterhole, but once he started crossing the water and heading towards us we decided that it was probably time to leave him 😊

Unusual to see giraffe crossing the Luangwa river

The rest of the morning drive was pretty quiet so it was back to the campsite for our last Mosi beers in Zambia and then lunch and relax before the afternoon game drive – our last drive of our trip.  We were lucky to be treated to a small herd of elephants crossing the plain in front of the camp to get to the river – this campsite really is magical!

He made us a bit nervous when he started to come towards us

The afternoon we first went to check on the lions and they had hardly moved from where we’d seen them in the morning except to follow the shade.  There didn’t seem too much point in hanging around as it was still too hot for the cats to be moving.

Jacanas hitching a ride on a hippo

Considering it was our last drive, we wanted to get some photos of some of the more common animals that we had paid no attention during our trip.  We have seen so many waterbuck in Liwonde that we tend to ignore them, so we had to find a nice male waterbuck in this park just so that we had at least a record shot of one 😉

A suitably handsome waterbuck

We were cruising around the riverside drive area when we rounded a corner and there was a lioness just chilling next to a bush.  And hidden in the bush nearby was another lion, a young male fast asleep.  

A live kill - great egret catches a frog

We couldn’t figure out who these 2 lions were as the pride was only about half a kilometre away but we hadn’t seen these lions with the pride at all, so maybe a breakaway or even a different pride – we’d heard that there was a small pride of 3 that were across the river. 

Chilled out cat

Whoever they were they didn’t seem to be inclined to move anywhere.  While the female yawned and groomed a bit, the male hardly moved from his spot so we were left to wonder who they were and if they were going to do anything. 

Big yawn!

Turns out they weren’t going to do a thing, and now we had 2 sets of lions and had to decide which group to hang with.  And quantity won out at the end of the day – 8 lions is much better than 2, and so we were soon headed back to the big pride.

Crowned hornbill

We sat with them for quite a while until they finally started to move around as they do – one at a time.  They didn’t do much but at least they did come out into the open a bit more and so we sat with the lions as the sun started setting.  While they didn’t do too much, it was a nice enjoyable way to finish our trip in South Luangwa national park, with a pride of lions as the sun slowly set.

The lions were pretty lazy

Our final night at the campsite was actually in a different camp spot.  The camp had been so busy that our campsite had already been reserved.  As a result we moved from the river side spots to one at the back.  It wasn’t too bad as our final camp site was next to the hide which is quite busy, especially at the height of the dry season. 

The 2 pride males finally got up

We set up our trail camera for the afternoon and night for the hide, but not much except resident genet, a couple of elephants during the afternoon and then the resident troupe of baboons were caught on camera. 

Bushbuck is an antelope we rarely have chance to photograph

Better than a few nights previously where the trail camera captured a pair of eyes just at our campsite, despite us flashing around regularly.  We suspect leopard but we never saw or heard it and it was while we were braaiing, so you just never know what is around!

Lions finally starting to get up

The only downside of the camp is that it is right next to the road to the next-door bush camp, so when the safari vehicle drives past to drop off guests there is dust everywhere during the dry season!  

Freaked us out when we saw the footage the next morning!

Luckily there weren’t too many drive-bys except for when a 3 car convoy drove up in the dark looking for their campsite; turns out one of them had our previous spot.  Otherwise, we spent a peaceful evening reminiscing about our awesome trip trying to decide which were our favourite moments.

Playing with light while waiting for the lions to move

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