First, the lodge we are now at, for the next week, does not have wifi or Internet, so I will not be posting any photos until home. I will upload the journal as its a very small use of my extremely small allowance of data roaming.
We all had a poor sleep overnight due to animal activity: hippos were chatting to each other and later elephants decided that our lodge was a buffet. When we woke up a number of trees had been knocked down, including one across the road! Oops!
We were up early to get our shuttle to the airport. Being responsible travellers we were there 2 hours before our flight, only to find that check in opens 40 min before! Doh! The whole process was a riot- suitcase scan while someone walks of with your passport and another is weighing your hand luggage... Welcome to Africa! Oh, and also, that metal detector, we save on electricity by not plugging it in. You still have to walk through them, of course... Must keep up appearances. Oh, and don't mind the departure gate being a veranda next to a construction yard, and no we will not communicate with you anymore... Who needs to make departure times?!
But I digress. Despite a continuing lesson in African urgency, we eventually made it to Lusaka, and then into Mfuwe. We were met by a very jovial shuttle/guide who drove us in our safari tourin vehicle (aka Landrover with 4 rows of high seats attached at the back) and we traveled around 45 minutes through what I can best describe as 'real' Africa. It was amazing. A tarred road with people living along it, either in concrete/brick homes, some brightly painted, and other homes being traditional mud and straw roofed creations, all surrounding the village well. I saw women with packages on their heads, or with babies wrapped on their back while sifting some kind of grain, and both kids and men riding bicycles, often with a passenger clinging precariously. On the back. It was quite something to see. The scenery too, is beautiful. This area isn't as dry as Livingstone was, so there are more large trees and greenery. Saw a lot of mango trees!
We got to the Marula Lodge and were immediately greeted by the managers who took us on a tour, which included a stop by the Luangwa river, one of the boarders. Again we are staying in a national park, and as such we share the land with the original inhabitants. This time here is a fairly large pod of hippos just in the river, I can hear them groaning as I type. And within 30 minutes of being here a herd of about 7 elephants wandered through the lodge, eating from the tree right next to our little house (we are in a 2 room concrete building)! I sat and watched and one large Ellie walked, not exaggeration, 10 feet from me. That was something else!!
We got settled and went for a lovely dip in the riverside pool... This is THE life!! Then we went and sat in some chairs and watched all the river activity as the sunset behind some trees. The hippos started singing! Well, maybe now quite singing, but they were seriously vocal after the sun set.
Our lodge has meals included, so we had a lovely 3 corse meal and since then have been prepping for a 5am wake up for our first game drive! Ill be tired I'm sure, but how cool is it to be staying at a national park with Ellie's as lodge mates and going on game drives, but also relaxin poolside! Trip of a lifetime!
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