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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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| Roan in Nyika NP |
Nyika is not a name that immediately conjures up any distinct images – not like vast open spaces when mentioning the Serengeti or the beautiful palm dotted landscapes when thinking of the Okavango Delta. In fact, I didn’t know anything about the national park nestled in the middle of Malawi, except that it had roan antelope. And that was our primary reason for finally visiting this little-known reserve. But it really delivers so much more and is well worth a visit for hardened safari goers that are looking for something a bit different.
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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.
