South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 4

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. 

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. 

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 2

Male lion at Twin Baobabs

Wamilombe is an area in South Luangwa that is easily accessible from the gate, only about 15 minutes drive.  The beauty of the place is that it’s an open plain and perfect for photographing early morning if there is anything special on the plain.  Although we haven’t had great luck (having said that we’ve seen leopard and wild dog there on a number of occasions during previous trips) it is an area that is hard to look past first thing in the morning, and our hope is always that we will find a leopard on the plain in morning light.

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 1

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.  

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - September 2022

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.

Nyika NP, Malawi - "where the water comes from"

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.

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 7

The local bush buck takes to a morning drink.

Our final morning in Zambia and we were up early as usual as it’s just too hot to sleep in.  We also needed to make good time to get through the border, but when we looked outside we found that the wild dogs were in the same spot that they’d been the evening before - they hadn’t moved at all.  

South Luangwa NP, Zambia - Day 6

Pretty cool view from the room on the roof!

It was our last full day in the park and so we were up early morning and buoyed by a couple of hyenas romping around on the opposite bank; our neighbours told us that they had been mating, but we missed that.  

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.