Zambia Field Journal - Day 4

Have you had one of those days when you see and learn so much that the one day seems like it's been a week? Today was one of those days. We started early this morning with an amazing walking safari and by dinner time, that walk felt like it was so long ago. None of us could believe it was all on the same day. We started out at our usual time of 5:30 am and drove a short distance before parking the vehicle in a shady spot and proceeded on foot. Although walking safaris are optional, I always highly recommend them and South Luangwa is especially known for them. They were first pioneered here by conservationist and former game ranger Norman Carr is the 1950s, He established the first commercial walking safari in the early 1960s believing that tourists could support wildlife conservation and benefit local communities through photographing animals rather than hunting them. A walking safari gives individuals an opportunity to see and learn about things in the bush that would almost inevitably be ignored by driving from sighting to sighting looking for the big animals like lions, leopards or elephants. We learned so much information about the different tracks left by various animals and what activities might have been happening when the tracks were left. We learned about the "small five" including the antlion, a tiny predatory insect that digs funnel shaped holes in the sandy ground and waits at the bottom and attacks prey, mostly ants that slide down into the slippery hole. It then drains the ant of it's fluids. We got to see a lot of these small holes and some of the remains of the unfortunate ants that fell prey to the antlion. We also got to learn about various dung beetles common in the area and how and why they roll dung and we got to see some of the remnants of the dung chambers that held the bettle grubs after they hatched, that were dug out and raided by honey badgers. We learned about different trees and plants and which ones could be used to extract moisture from to drink in case you got lost in the bush for instance. We learned about what areas fill with water after the rains and how it affects the animals movement. The entire thing was absolutely fascinating and our guide Sly, is incredibly knowledgable and shares the information with such enthusiasm. And even though the walking safaris are not meant to necessarily get close to animals we did come across numerous ones including impala, water buck, and a big herd of cape buffalo. After a few hours, it was getting warm and it was time to head back to our vehicle and finish our morning with a game drive. It was quite a bit later in the morning by this point so we figured there would not be a lot of animals out. We were very wrong. We came across a large herd of wildebeests on the move and an even bigger herd of cape buffalo. But that wasn't all. As we drove on, we saw several vultures circling. We watched to see if they would drop down, a sure sign of something dead in the area. Sure enough, one by one, they dropped down onto the ground below, behind thick trees and bushes. We drove over to investigate and found some remnants of an impala, likely killed that morning by wild dogs. As we continued to look for what else might be driving the vulture activity, our guide spotted a sub-adult male lion in the distance. We drove over and spent a few minutes photographing him. Because of where he was positioned, the background light and environment were quite lovely even at this hour. This guy was part of the MK pride that at the moment has 8 members, some of whom we'd spotted the previous days. As our guide looked through his binoculars for any signs of other pride members, he spotted his brother a little ways ahead. We decided to go check on him as well and as we drove slowly towards him, we see a leopard laying next to a tree not 50 yards away from that lion! This happed to be the same male leopard that we saw mating on several occasions with a female in the last few days. This was so strange that the leopard would choose to be so close to the lions as they are mortal enemies and lions won't hesitate to kill a leopard. The leopard clearly knew the lions were there but the lions were none the wiser. We watched them for a while but since it was pretty hot and later in the morning, they were all a bit sleepy and not active, although the second lion did walk around our vehicle a bit. I had the front door of the vehicle removed for our safari so that was especially exciting to have the lion so close and with no door to separate us. We left the cats to their rest and then there was a surprise for my guests in store. On this day, the staff arranged to have a bush brunch in an absolutely stunning part of the forest. They all seemed a bit confused for a moment as we drove up. We were treated to mango mimosas and a delicious spread of food including the most delicious apple cobbler I think I've ever had. After our mid-day break, it was off again. We wanted to see if the lions and leopard were still in the same area so we headed that way to check on things. The leopard was there and the lions had moved slightly but were now together which was even better. They remained lazy for most of the afternoon into evening although one of them got up and walked over to his sleeping brother and after some face rubs and greetings, they both stretched out on their backs and were quite comical in their positions and the way each held onto the tree with a paw. We left them as darkness was starting to set in but to our surprise the leopard decided to move and walked over just a bit to a really nice spot on a small island like area in the middle of the dry river bed and then proceeded to walk along a fallen tree and groom himself. Although it was quite dark, with a bit of light from the torch, I think we were all still able to snap a few nice photos. As we started heading back to the lodge, now in full darkness we noticed that the lions had left as well. We stopped and scanned with the torch to see if we could spot them and they were walking away from the leopard into the night. We sat there for a few moments and watched them in complete silence. We were the only vehicle there and the stars had started shimmering above. As we drove away, I could not help but feel grateful for the fact that here we were in this vast expanse of wilderness, with just our guide and my guests with the stars twinkling above and a sliver of moon shining bright and watching as these two magnificent animals walked past in the distance. In those moments, there was nothing else. No news, no e-mails, no calls, nothing. It was just serenity and peace and for the briefest of time, nothing else mattered. As if we hadn't already seen and done enough that day, on our drive back with the torch scanning the ground and trees for nocturnal animals, we came across a bush baby, a genet, a civet and to everyone's delight, a porcupine! I had only seen a porcupine once in Botswana but it was mostly obscured to shrubbery so to see one completely in the open and pretty close was really special. What a day it's been. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store. That's what is so great about being out here in the wild, you never know what will be around the corner and even a non-eventful day out here is a day well spent being in nature and slowing down if only for a short while. Until tomorrow, have a great night everyone!

Wow! Day 3 was a bit of a doozy! I have a ton of photos to still go through even though I feel like I've been at it for a while. The truth is I'm pretty exhausted because I got maybe and hour of sleep last night......maybe. Due to a logistical issue, the usual trip leader /guide room was not available for the first night (last night) so I was put into a room that can best be described as a bit scary. I don't need the usual comforts per say, but this room was quite old and had not been used in quite some time and had many holes in the netting and basically anything the size of a tarantula or smaller could get in. The staff did their very best to have it nice and clean for me but there was nothing they could do to fix the many gaping holes. So......I had many many visitors of the arachnid kind. Those of you who know me, know that I am absolutely terrified of spiders. Yes, yes....I'm told they are all harmless but I don't care how harmless they are to normal people, they terrify me to my very core. I asked for an extra can of Doom Insecticide spray and I tried to spray around the edges just to encourage them to stay out but other than inhale lots of insecticide, I don't think it did much good. Every so often I'd spot yet another intruder and have to go spray vast amounts of Doom on them. I tried as best as I could to sit in the bed, mosquito netting tightly wrapped around and work on photos but at around 1:30 in the morning, I had to go to the bathroom. Armed with my 2 cans of Doom I carefully entered and while sitting on the toilet, I saw a medium sized spider in the corner by the sink and then a very big and very fast spider on the back of the door. Mind you, this bathroom is tiny. Panic set in as I quickly went through the options in my head. The one in the corner was the first to receive a large quantity of Doom. Then my attention shifted to the much larger spider on the door. The way the door hung, it stayed in the middle and basically cut off my escape route. Surely the bigger spider had already seen what was happening and was now ready for a full out battle with me and no, he was not more afraid of me than I was of him. He clearly had the upper hand. I took one deep breath and unloaded the Doom on him but he was so big and fast, he was able to escape to the other side of the door. Now, not only am I stuck in the bathroom but I don't know where he is. He might be on the other side of the door or he might have just went up onto the ceiling of the room. I had no idea. Now my heart and my head are both pounding and my Doom is running low. So the only option left was to lay down a cover of Doom like soldiers do while trying to advance in the field of battle and run through it. So with both cans in hand, I let the Doom rip on either side as I ran past the door and into the room. There might have been some screaming, I'm not sure. After safely crossing back into the room, a full visual inspection was conducted but of course the room is quite dark and the spider blends in well. I could not find him. By this point, it was well past 2 am and my alarm was set for 4:40 am. I got back into the relative safety of my mosquito net covered bed but sleep evaded me. Somewhere, a very angry large spider was no doubt watching and waiting. I sat and read the news for a while hoping that my exhaustion would finally allow me to fall asleep. Eventually it did. I'm not sure what time that was but it seemed like the alarm went off a few minutes later although I'm pretty sure it was longer than that. Happily, today everything was straightened out and I'm in the regular trip leader/guide room which is quite nice and much more insulated from everything that wants to kill me. I got new bottles of Doom just in case and feel at this point that I am single handedly supporting the profits of this company. But back to today. The morning started with a brilliant sunrise, like a ball of flame rising out of the horizon. After a quick stop to photograph it, we proceeded to try to find the leopard lovebirds from the evening before but they had moved somewhere else. We found a bachelor herd of buffalo which was super cool and although none of them were the old massive ones, a couple were quite cooperative and photogenic. Then we passed by another vehicle that reported that they had seen 2 female wild dogs running through the area just minutes ago and the chase was on. Wild dogs are super energetic and move fast and unpredictably. We drove around looking for them until a short while later, we finally found them in a dry river bed next to some remaining water. They clearly had killed and eaten something recently, probably an impala judging from their bloody faces and now they were quite fat, thirsty and tired. We watched them for quite some time and although the area they were in was not very nice photographically, they did eventually go up from the dry river bed into a nicer open area where we were able to grab some photos before they went to sleep. We also had an opportunity to get out of the vehicle and photograph hippos in the water and eye level. There are so many hippos here. It's a hippo paradise. Later we found a lone leopardess who is 13 and pregnant and absolutely stunning. Our guide very skillfully drove us down to the area where she was so that we could be more eye level. While watching her, we got news that the mating pair of leopards that we saw the other day were spotted so off we went to locate them and we did during beautiful golden hour. I have scanned through those photos and I'm ecstatic with what I and my guests were able to capture. As was the case from the previous night, they were quite busy with their mating ritual and gave us many great looks. We also got to watch quite a large herd of elephants making their way across the river and two young hippos playing and chasing each other around which was just the sweetest thing to watch. Driving back tonight brought more fun sightings of elephant shrews, genets, and the very elusive white tailed mongoose which I was personally very excited about. We even made time today for some birding, catching 3 White Fronted Bee Eaters hanging out all together.  Tomorrow, we are wheels up at 5:15 am to go to the Carmine Bee Eater hide. This is a highlight in this area during the fall months as thousands of these beautiful birds fill the cliffside. It's quite the spectacle and I'm really excited for us to watch this. I will have more photos in future versions of my field journal and now it's off to try to catch a couple hours of shut eye. Thank you for following along and I hope everyone has a fantastic rest of their weekend.

It's Day 2 of our Zambia adventure and after a leisurely breakfast and some final packing, we were ready to go! As nice as it was to get a little break at our Lusaka hotel and catch up on some sleep, everyone was raring to get going. We took a quick ride back to Lusaka airport and boarded our plane for a short flight to Mfuwe airport. Getting all of our camera gear loaded into the aircraft was a bit of a challenge but after some good old teamwork, we were able to shove our overloaded pelican cases and backpacks full of gear under the seats and into the very tiny overhead bins. We were met at the airstrip by our awesome guide from Shenton Lodges who goes by the name Sly, which I love because one of my all time favorite movies is Rocky IV. The first half hour drive took us through country villages where children waved excitedly to us. Women walked with baskets balanced on their heads which always amazes me and gives me a bit of a headache just thinking about how one can carry that much weight on their head. Men rode bicycles with huge thick sticks for firewood and shopkeepers sat on their front stoops waiting for customers. And then, what we'd all been waiting for......the entrance to South Luangwa National Park appeared. This park is huge at 9,050 square kilometers with varied landscape and topography and of course the winding and extensive Luangwa River and as it happens our first lodge is on the banks of the river. As I sit here writing this in the wee hours of the night, I can hear hippos around and perhaps even in camp grazing in the coolness of the night. We meandered through the park to camp for the next 2 hours or so stopping under a nice shade tree for lunch and a little leg stretch. We had to keep a watchful eye on the vervet monkeys in the tree who acted like they didn't even know we were there but of course were just waiting for a perfect opportunity to steal our food. This time we outsmarted them and didn't give them the chance to swoop in and grab anything but from past experience, these guys are masters at stealing food from right under your nose. After filling our bellies and having some cool drinks, it was onwards to camp. It was the height of the afternoon and quite hot and the light was bad but still we saw impala, elephants, giraffe, monkeys, and warthogs (this family had such tiny babies with them, we thought they might only be a couple days old at most). Finally we arrived in camp and met the staff and were shown our rooms, which are beautiful and private with an outdoor bathtub and a private deck right above the river for each room. After quickly settling in, it was time to head to tea and on our first safari drive. I try to keep my expectations low since it's our first one and there are many more to come but nature had a little surprise in store for us. We stopped to look at some huge alligators and beautiful male kudu with their large spiral horns, and then we hit the proverbial safari jackpot......a pair of mating leopards! Now the funny thing was, when we pulled up at first, there were 3 adult ground hornbills walking right in front of our vehicle. These are huge ground birds although they roost in trees, which are black with striking red throats and eye areas. They are quite endangered and are always a treat to see. I got so exited and yet as I looked at all my guests no one seemed to be bothered. What I had not seen was the two leopards straight ahead which of course took priority. We positsioned our vehicle to try to have the best angle. These two must have started mating only a couple of days ago and their mating ritual will go on for about 7 days, give or take so being at the beginning of the process, they mated a lot! Much to the delight of my guests, we got to spend quite a bit of time with them as they moved around the area. They got so close to our vehicle at times, that I just had to break out my cell phone. What a way to start our safari! As darkness fell and it was time to head back to the lodge, our spotter shined the light into the trees and brush to see if we could find any nocturnal animals and we did! We saw 2 Genets which I was absolutely thrilled about. Although it was full darkness with a torch light, I was happy to get an evidence shot (see below) Arriving back to the lodge, we were treated to a delicious 3 course meal and it was off to our rooms to download photos, charge batteries and dream of what lies ahead tomorrow. Every day is a new day and around every turn can be an amazing surprise which makes safari so exciting. We will see what nature has in store for us tomorrow so stay tuned!  Have a great night everyone and thank you for following along on our safari adventure.