South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 5

Morning stroll along the river bank.

The plan was the same as the previous afternoon - look for the male lion since we’d hardly seen any lions on our trip. So it was off to Luangwa Wafwa first thing in the morning.  It took us a while, but we eventually located the male basking on the river bank at the base of the cliff.  He looked really fat - like he’d eaten a buffalo ;)

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 4

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.

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 3

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.  

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.

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 1

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.

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - the place of leopards

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.

Majete WR, Malawi - A remarkable recovery

Elephants at the Shire River

If you’re unfamiliar with AfricanParks, it’s an NGO set up in 2000 to rehabilitate and manage national parks that had been neglected and poached out of animals.  After 3 years of negotiation, Majete became the guinea pig - the first reserve in AfricanParks’ portfolio. 

Liwonde NP, Malawi: A hidden gem

Cheetahs in Liwonde

This is a story about a national park that punches above its weight. So far it is a conservation success story and hopefully it will continue to be so. The park is Liwonde National Park, located in the East of Malawi, about 2 hours drive from Blantyre and about 3.5 hours from the capital Lilongwe.

Kibale NP & Budongo Forest - Tracking our closest cousins

Chilling out

Uganda, referred to as the pearl of Africa, is the premier destination for chimp trekking in the world. Uganda is also home to other great wildlife including Africa’s big five. Uganda boasts some great national parks including Queen Elizabeth (QENP), Muchinson's and Kidepo, with the first two also being home to chimpanzees. Chimp tracking is done in a number of other parts of Uganda with the premier destination being Kibale NP in Western Uganda.

Mabamba Swamp - Searching for the Shoebill

Shoebill - One of the most unusual birds to be seen

The search for the shoebill was aroused by its strange appearance more than anything else. We first became aware of the bird once we got to Tanzania and got our edition of the Birds of East Africa which claims that its stronghold in the region is the Moyowosi – Kigozi wetland complex in Western Tanzania. This is pretty much the wild west of Tanzania located in no man’s land between Kigoma and Tabora and not a place to be messing about in, as not even tour operators venturing into the area.