I'Overlander

South Luangwa - Zambia. A bucket list destination, dreaming and years in the planning finally arrives. It takes us 7 days to drive the 2700 odd km's, 2 border crossings, villages, towns and cities, not to mention traffic police and the lack of speed limit signs but at last we arrive and settle in at Track and Trail camp for what will be our home for 8 nights

No 'wild' camping as elehant and hippo are neighbours

You know you're in the bush when your only light is a fire and the starry sky

We are tremendously excited by the notion that this park has 1 leopard for every 1km of river front and head into the park early. We need to take a photo of the park map pinned to the wall of the official parks board office (they dont have any to hand out to the tourists) and pay our $75 (per 12 hours) then promptly get lost. Some time later we pass a small lagoon, skid to a halt, reverse, look into the shadows and there he is.....

What a start to the morning...

Elephants here seem smaller than their Southern African relatives but the babies have tusks

These grasslands are usually a marsh in the rainy season. This year the rains failed and the surrounding bush is bone dry. It is thrilling to see the gullies that the leopard and lion use for hunting

The rare ground hornbill

Puku family

Crawshay's Zebra. If you look closely at the zebra in the middle, it's foreleg has a huge gash

Pools of water being fished out by the yellowbilled and marabou storks

The Luangwa river is a major tributary of the Zambezi. Its source is in the Mafinga and Lilonda hills bordering Malawi and is one of the biggest unaltered rivers in Africa running for 770kms before joining the Zambezi

South Luangwa is an all season park but the secondary roads and tracks are not maintained, the bush is thick and some are barely passable. Be prepared to have a seriously scratched vehicle by the end of your stay

The forest opens up onto a dry river bed...

and we startle a herd of buffelo. We were pretty startled too

A rednecked francolin and chicks. I see a question on her face

Most tracks are heavily 'potholed' by elephant and hippo from the wet season and the going is slow

The light makes for an interesting composition of this whitefronted bee eater

Luangwa's hippo population stands at over 13000

This gentle giant didn't appreciate our dark grey bakkie and snorkel and charged us before ambling off for some refreshments. We deduce that we look like a large elephant with trunk as all our close elephant encounters resulted in being charged

Maybe some late rains?

The elephant loop started off encouragingly but we had to eventually turn back as the track was totally grown over

A bit of fun to test the new bakkie

Puku are medium sized antelope and are found in southern Congo, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia

Whitefaced ducks take off over a lagoon

Waterbuck rams fight to the death over mating rights

A beautiful saddlebill stork

... and southern crowned crane

An elephant visits camp

He is after a creeper growing over the fence behind the tented camp

Shy bushbuck also visit camp regularly

A lovely lagoon near camp. We walk this way to stretch legs periodically and are asked by passersby "do you know there are elephant here?"

We were'nt lucky enough to find the baobab lion pride but instead...

we spot a redbilled buffalo weaver nesting in this massive baobab tree

Baobab trunks expand to support water storage. Elephants know this and when water is scarce in the dry season, they look for baobabs to quench their thirst. This one has seen its share of elephants by the looks of it

Thornycroft giraffe or (Rhodesian giraffe) only occur in the Luangwa valley. This family wanted to cross the river and we wait in suspense but the mother eventually decides against it and they all turn back

Its fascinating to watch a master at work, the fish have no chance

Exquisite, nature's perfection (lilacbreasted roller)

Our one and only sighting, a lioness on the hunt. Unfortunately for us she disappeared into a gulley some time later and we lost sight of her

An elephant migration. Literally hundreds are moving across a lagoon to a forested area

A hard raptor to identify. Possibly a honey buzzard

A favourate spot to sit and watch the goings on...

and then buffalo arrive, but they also don't fancy a big grey bakkie and we have to move

An interesting observation. A bull will wait for his family to move off, then he'll follow them, the next bull will do the same and so on until they've all moved off

Yellowbilled oxpecker

Love is in the air...

and then there were 3...stunning whitefronted bee eaters

A resident lizard buzzard hunting in camp

Who needs the big 5 when the littlies are about doing their thing? A lizard for supper

Another glorious morning in africa

On the move again...we stay well back

Perfectly plaited tail?

Come across an african rock python stretched across the road with its head and part of the body in the shadows of the bush, wow!

Baboons are fascinating to watch, and they think so too, of us

Wild flowers of luangwa

The sausage tree fruit provides a tasty meal for this (mutable sun or normal tree?) squirrel and her offspring

The baby has a distinct change of colour, the top half being grey and the bottom golden like its mother

And then the vervet twins come out to play and keep us royally entertained...

...until its time to cuddle and take a nap.

So much goes on in camp. Sitting still, looking and listening to what we might think trivial, opens up a whole new world to explore, investigate. Nature quietly getting on with it...pure magic.

South Luangwa is undoubtedly beautiful and we have thoroughly enjoyed our visit and will encourage one and all to visit it. It must be spectacular in the wet season where birding takes preference over mammals and equally so in the dry when you would see the abundant predators. We got a taste of both spectrums. The sad reality is the Zambian Wildlife organisation does'nt look after their signature park. The entrance fee is exorbitant (for SADC members anyway) and one does wonder where the fees go to if not into the park

Onward to our next destination, Kafue National Park....

#nature #wildlife #Gamereserve