We were woken at 5am, but I was already awake, as hippos were chatting with each other. We had a light breakfast of cereal and toast and met up with our guide Pious. We were on the road by 6am, passing the official gate a couple minutes after.
Our game drive lasted 4.5 hours, and WOW!!!! Just amazing. The terrain is quite varied in the park, depending on how close the water is. Some areas were dense with grass and trees, others very dry and barren. With such a long drive we had lots of time to stop and observe, and to be instructed by our guide about the animals and their habits. I have been taking lots of notes!!
The South Luangwa is famous for its hippos. The park is 9500km^2 and has the 1000km Luangwa river flowing through. They have 60 to 80 hippos every kilometre, so approx 70,000 hippos here!! No wonder we have such a large pod in the river at the lodge!
Entering the park you cross the river, so we stopped and watched sunrise and examined many hippo specimens. This continued for quite a while as we entered the park. Over time we added in various antelope, such as Kudu, Puku and Impala. The Impala have an M with their rear-end striping, the joke being they are the original McDonalds 'fast food' as all predators are fond if Impala.
Then we came across some Zebra, hiding behind some trees. Apparently one of the reasons for the black and while is that Zebras don't swear or pant, so the two tones assist with their heat reflection or absorption as needed. Also, when threatened, Zebra will clump together and lions etc won't be able to see to single one out. Smart!
Then we were by a section of the river and saw pelicans and two kinds of storks, the black an the marub. Seriously large birds! Would not want one of those coming near me!
Saw some water buck and more impala, warthogs in the distance, and then came across a herd of Ellie's! 2 fun facts: baby elephants can walk 15 minutes after birth. And, Ellie's have 6 sets of molars, each set lasts around 10 years. After the molars are used up, they can only eat really soft foods, and generally live till around 70. Males live with the female herd until they are 10, and are then solo till 17, when the join a make herd. They are mature enough to mate at 34!
So we watched the herd bumble around, and then started hearing some elephant trumpeting sounds. Drove a bit, and saw vultures circling. Didn't see any caracas, but determined later that a leopard had taken something down. However, by waiting and listening, we discovered the real treat of the day:
LIONS!!! We drove our vehicle right up to them. I was, quite literally, 20 feet away from 20 lions. 10 were cubs, about the size of a very large house car. 8 females were ruling the roost, and 2 males eventually showed up, one old, one young. The young one had some facial scars... Couldn't help but think of the Lion King! We stayed and watched for between 5 and 10 minutes, it was amazing. The mums were so tender with the cubs, giving then baths and chiding when needed. The cubs were very mischievous, and one was quite bold, coming out from their shady thicket to investigate. The dads were lazy, but the cubs were still playful with them too! I know how lucky I am, this was a very rare and special experience. Fingers crossed my photos and video turn out!!
After we left the lions behind we stopped near a huge baobab tree and had a little leg stretch, and I got to meet a few hornbills (Zazu from Lion King).
The majority of the rest of the drive was spent near a river gully, as a Leopard had been spotted. We watched him wandering through the gully and were amazed when a whole herd of impala walked past with little concern. We drove to a number of vantage points and ended up seeing 2 different Leopards, both relaxing in the shade, breathing heavily.
So I've seen 4 of the Big 5 this trip (Ellie's, Buffalo, Lions, Leopard and Rhino). Not sure if we will see any Rhino this trip, but I did see when I was 14, so technically I've seen them all now!
When it was time to head back we got our last spoiling of the morning: a tower of giraffes! Looked like there was a mum and dad, maybe a few siblings, and then a bunch of babies. Oh wow baby giraffes are cute!!!!!
So, that was my first game drive in south Luangwa. This evening we meet at 330 for an evening drive, part of which will e in the dark with a spotlight.
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Evening Drive report:
Our guide Pious was joined by a spotter named Iza. We left at 330 and immediately spotted Ellie's in the lagoon near our lodge. Good start!
The evening drive in general was much less 'active' than the morning one, which is apparently quite strange. Certainly there were large chunks of time where we don't see any animals a all. But it was still lovely driving around the bush, looking at the lovely trees in the light.
We did see water buck and warthogs, and went back to the lions den from this morning in the off chance they were still there- nope. We did get to see a Zebra who had had some level of run- in with a predator, based on the serious scars on his rump.
The real highlight of the evening involved a very amenable Leopard who decided that he would tease us by stalking through grass, but rewarded our patience by finding a beautiful river bank to lay on while considering his dinner menu choices. We had about 10-15 minutes just watching him hang out, cool as a cucumber with all these pesky humans in their big trucks took photos. Quite the draw!!
After this highlight we had a break further down the riverbank to watch the red sunset. So lovely, especially when a line if hippos, including babies, walked through the light bean on the water.
When the sun sets here, within 15 minutes it is full dark. Our spotter Iza was put to work shining his spotlight around, hunting for predators. We didn't see many, but did manage to add mongoose, small spotted jenet (little fox like critter) a scrub hate, a scrub hair and an elephant shrew to my list. A late drive highlight was seeing a baby hippo with his mommy- so cute!
Oh, and there are SO many more stars here, looks like a big smudgy thumb print in the sky (is actually the Milky Way). Very cool!
We got back ready to hit the hay, but first it was dinner served around the campfire! We had some traditional foods such as ntshima, rape salad (very strange name for a spinach like green) and boerevors which we eat at home lots.
Now, it's bed, as we are up at 5 again tomorrow, this time for a walking safari!!!
