Mel Kinder and Family in Zambia
Mel Kinder and family took advantage of the children's extended October half term holiday to take a 10 day trip to Zambia. Having been to the country 12 years earlier, before the children arrived, expectations were already set high. The trip took in two popular areas - the South Luangwa and the Lower Zambezi, staying in lodges rather than remote camps due to the children being just below the age for walking safaris (which is 12). As it turns out the children matched or even surpassed the parents in terms of stamina and sometimes photography skills!
First Stop the South Luangwa and Norman Carr Safaris
We flew to Lusaka and then onto Mfuwe for our first stop at the legendary Norman Carr Safari lodge of Kapani. We arrived in time for brunch on the deck, followed by a welcome dip in the pool and relaxation before the evening game drive. At tea-time we were introduced to Rose; our wildlife guide for our stay at Kapani. Rose is something of a legend in Zambia (as Chris mentioned in his recent blog). She has worked extremely hard to gain her position as not only the first and only female guide in the South Luangwa National Park, but in the whole of Zambia. Rose is not for stopping and is currently working to gain her walking safari guide status.
Our first evening out with Rose and Francis (our spotter) was very special. We went to the Luangwa Wafwa (Dead Luangwa) and saw many elephant and giraffe amongst other things but Rose seemed to know exactly where to take us to spot a family of lions; a lioness and two four month old cubs who appeared in the beam of the spotlight. The mother was growling a deep call - apparently meant for her older cub which was in the vicinity.
Barely had we left this first amazing cat sighting when we stumbled on another - a huge male lion fast asleep in the middle of the track with his sleeping lioness at his side. They couldn't have been more than a few feet from our camera lenses! The wildlife wasn't just confined to the National Park. On each short journey to and from the park entrance we caught sight of something - tonight it happened to be a pregnant hyena, several genet and some elephants.
The next morning we were off at 6am and spent a considerable amount of time just watching the numerous zebra, and all the beautiful birds - the Lilac-breasted Roller being a favourite. We stopped for coffee and Maddie was intrigued watching a dung beetle at work. Rose enlightened us with the numerous tree species and we made sure that we were parked well away from any weighty potential sausages falling from the sausage trees.
Shortly, whilst driving, we had a wonderful sighting of two Giant Eagle Owls, who were hopeful of preying on some unsuspecting guinea fowl, until we accidentally ruined their element of surprise. In the afternoon we encountered a small herd of elephants eating Nile cabbage just near the road into the park. We stopped to get cameras to hand but the herd were suddenly startled by a truck engine starting on the other side of the pool. Unfortunately we happened to be parked in the elephant escape route and they were heading speedily our way, all ears flapping! Rose quickly manoeuvred into reverse and backed up enough until the situation calmed.
Saturday was unforgettable; the morning brought an exciting morning viewing of the lion pride we had spotted two nights before. The family were on the move and ambling back to their favoured thicket hideout. His time brought two lionesses, the lion and two cubs. They were completely unperturbed by our close presence and strolled past, the cubs scampering to keep up with mum.
We then drove to a bank on the edge of the Luangwa and parked for a coffee stop. We walked back along the bank for a view and realised the significance of this location; the slightest vibration of footsteps on the surface, near the edge of the bank and hundreds of vibrantly colourful carmine bee eaters took flight out from their bank side nests and surrounded us with their grace in the air. What a sight! I had been longing to see these little birds and they astounded me with their abundance and beauty.
Rose had of course left the best to last. In the evening, she took us to Norman Carr's favourite location - Elephant Loop. In fact, Norman is buried in this very spot. It is truly beautiful. We continued to the edge of the river bank in time to watch a huge herd of elephants marching slowly along the riverbed and heading off towards their nightly visit to the town to steal mangoes from the trees there. Rose explained how this has been a big problem for the local people who have been learning how to cope with this nightly influx.
On our final day at Kapani we went to visit Yosefe primary school. We went loaded with pencils, footballs, skipping ropes etc. and were given a tour of the school by headmaster Edwin. We knew that facilities would be basic, but were amazed by the achievements being made under such circumstances and the friendliness of staff and pupils.
Onto Tafika
Our drive to Tafika camp - Remote Africa Safaris - took us north through the South Luangwa National Park to the far northern and east side. We were amazed by the range of landscapes, from wooded to open plains, green scrub and bare dead stumps in the space of a few hours. Finally we said goodbye to Rose and canoed across the river to meet our new hosts. Stephen, our wildlife guide for the evening, and Alex, welcomed us and took us back to camp for a delicious lunch with John and Carol Coppinger, owners and permanent residents of Tafika along with their other guests.
We were keen to see Mkasanga school in the local village and Carol made a quick call to the headmaster. Little did we know that we would have a welcoming committee of the entire school, who had stayed after the end of the school day specifically to sing and dance for us. What a humbling and emotional experience. We were also given a demonstration of how to make the local flour paste - shima. This is a 5 hour procedure which involves pounding and grinding of the maize with pestle and mortar and flat stones followed by mixing of the flour with water to form the paste.
Having extracted ourselves from the smiley faces of the village children, Stephen drove us into the Park, where we saw vast pods of hippos in the river, another colony of carmine bee eaters, hyena and a solitary leopard, spotted with great skill by Alex in the dark with the roving spotlight.
The next morning saw Max, my son, up earlier than he's probably been in his life before, all in the anticipation of a promised micro-light flight with John Coppinger. What a flight he had - apart from the excitement of the little vehicle itself, the wildlife he spotted included a pride of lions, hippos galore, and a seemingly endless train of buffalo heading down towards the water. I had to have a go!
Our evening game drive heralded the change in the seasons as Bryan, our wildlife guide, skilfully avoided the downpours we could see in the distance as he raced us away from the dramatic black and towards the patch of blue sky. The scenery was bathed in a beautiful vivid light. Another leopard was spotted briefly in the distance but we weren't close enough for good shots and so departed so as not to disturb her. Our morning drive back to Mfuwe airport brought excitement in a pride of vultures swooping down over a fresh kill. Unfortunately we were racing to our flight out and couldn't stop to investigate!
Leopards again in the Lower Zambezi
Our journey continued with a flight back to Lusaka and then a tiny plane to a dirt strip on the edge of the Lower Zambezi - a short drive and then boat ride downstream to Chiawa Lodge; situated on the banks of the Zambezi. All the early starts had finally taken their toll and we opted to relax at the lodge rather than race out for the evening game drive. We received a call on our walkie-talkie to say that a leopard had been spotted by the banks of the river - about 400m from the lodge - sometimes the wildlife just comes to you! We jumped into a boat with Grant, owner of Chiawa, and all had a marvellous sighting.
While Max and Maddie, our children took off with guide Mike for a boat safari, Neil and I joined Daniel for a walking safari. We were treated to a sighting of a turtle, trying to make its (long) way back to the river. We stopped and watched army ants as they crossed our path, found a baobab home for bats and edged cautiously away from some nearby buffalo. Daniel is a walking encyclopaedia.
Our final night in Zambia was the finale to a marvellous trip. Mike asked us if we wanted to drive some distance to try and find a nearby pride of lions. We did, and so bumped along for mile after mile until we came to the intended location. No lions could be seen but Mike was undeterred, and eventually we came across a feast of wildlife - literally. The pride had recently killed and all but the male lion had feasted to excess and were lying resting their stomachs, while he continued to gorge on the buffalo carcass. He was not to be left in peace, however, as a herd of elephants, protecting their young advanced and charged the lion from his space. Luckily we moved location only briefly to avoid confrontation but continued to watch the frisky cubs and family gathering all around us from a privileged position.
Heading back to the lodge we were amazed by our encounter, only to be confronted by another. The spotlight caught sight of a leopard drinking at a waterhole. As we approached, a tiny cub (less than 2 months old according to Mike) sprang out of the undergrowth to greet its mother. She lifted it in her mouth and walked to the safety of a termite mound, where we continued to watch them only a few feet away as the cub jumped over the mother and scampered to and fro, braving our company.
Max had another treat in store that night thanks to Lisa, our hostess, in the form of a birthday elephant dung cake surprise followed by the real edible thing in the shape of a lion's head. The perfect ending to a superb trip.
For details of our fabulous Zambia itineraries please click here