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| Elephant family at the hide |
We didn’t need to get up at 5am to do a game drive, but habits die hard and we were up not long after that to catch the sunrise. Our plan was only to get across the border, not all the way home to Blantyre so were weren’t in a hurry to get going.
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| 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.
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| Male lions watched on by the zebras |
A good day yesterday, so could today live up to it? There was no question about where we were heading to first – Wamilombe! So it was through the gate past the same self-drive car that was shooting the sunrise again and straight to the plain.
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| Highlight of the trip! |
Every evening we sit under the stars with a glass of wine, listen to the sounds of the bush and decide for the route for the next morning. And as usual, Wamilombe was at the top of our list. It’s just too difficult to let it go knowing that if we see something first thing in the morning it would be special.
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| 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.
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| Male lion at Twin Baobabs |
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| Luangwa leopard |
We woke to the sound of something big crossing the Luangwa River – it could only be elephants. And sure enough, a small herd of elephants had just crossed the river and were on the plain in front of the camp. We were up and had the roof tent packed pretty quickly as we wanted to get to the gate as soon as possible to do the paperwork for park entry.
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| The Luangwa river at sunset |
Five months after our last trip to South Luangwa and we were back at it again. In contrast to our unexpected trip in April (a story for another time) this would be in the dry. We'd actually have preferred to do it about a month later when the dry season was at its peak, but sometimes work gets in the way and we decided to do it in September while we could get away and then hope we could cram another trip in before the seasonal rains come.
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| The local bush buck takes to a morning drink. |
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| Pretty cool view from the room on the roof! |
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| Morning stroll along the river bank. |
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| A big bull enters the river for a morning drink. |
Buoyed by the fantastic dog sightings we’d had the day before, we were off at 5.30 am from our campsite to get to the gate just before 6am as usual. Our plan was to go back to the same area that the dogs had been just in case for some reason they were still there. It was a long shot, but it was also where we’d seen the leopard cub so it seemed like as good a place as any.
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| Wild dogs on the Luangwa river |
An early morning start saw us at the gate again just before 6am where we were waved through. Again, we decided to head into the Luangwa Wafwa on the eastern side of the park in the hopes of potentially catching a leopard again.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
