The Last Hurrah!

Zambia’s slogan is “The Real Africa” and last week we discovered that it really is. The girls had a term break and so we used our last week of vacation to do a final safari – our first in Zambia as the others have been in South Africa and Botswana. Our usual experience is to drive up to a park gate which is an entrance in a concrete wall topped with electric fencing. As we approached our lodge which is located just outside of the park, we were surprised to see elephants in the shrubbery on the side of the road. When we checked in at the reception desk we read the warnings regarding walking around the camp and how we need to call for a guard to escort us if we need to go outside after dark – we wondered if they were being overly cautious but later discovered that there are no fences around this game park, only natural boundaries such as rivers and mountains which are easily passable by most of the park’s animals.

Our Chalet

Our view of the Luangwa River

Fun in the pool

Our chalet was beautiful and spacious with a second floor balcony overlooking the Luangwa River and the game park on the other side of the river. We stayed for four nights and had plenty of time for hanging out, relaxing and using the pool. The snorts and apparent laughs of the hippos were always within earshot and we discovered first hand that the warnings at the front desk were not unfounded when we stumbled upon an elephant by the pool who nearly stumbled upon us!

An unwelcome and unruly guest at the lodge

After the first day at the lodge we went on a night drive arranged by our resort. Private vehicles are not allowed in the park after dark so we were in a safari vehicle with a driver, a spotter and another couple (who were very nice, and interestingly, he played 40 games for the Florida Panthers last year). South Luangwa Park is very natural, with no fences, rest stops, fueling station, souvenirs or anything of the sort. The roads were all gravel and some would fall under the category of path rather than road but our driver did not even feel confined to stick to those if there were things to see off of the road. Our first sighting was 3 lions and the safari only seemed to get better and better. We saw many animals and very few vehicles. Even though the leopard that we were desperate to see eluded us we were really thrilled with the experience.

On a night drive

Grrrrrr

The next morning we drove through the park on our own and saw lots of stuff, but nothing very major. It seemed that by about 9:00 AM the animals decided to run into the deep bush and all we saw after that were impala (Local Guide Joke: “Even a blind man can spot an Impala”).

We decided that since we were out in the middle of the bush, we had to try one last night drive. We saw a bunch of different animals before we stopped for our “sundowner” break at sunset, on the banks or the beautiful Luangwa river. While we were drinking cokes out of a cooler, it was interesting for us to see the “Norman Carr Safari” set-up, with fancy safari chairs, lanterns, hot and cold hors d’ouvres and so on. It gave us an insight to how the other 0.0001% live. Norman Carr Safaris cost between $500 and $700 per night per person! After it got dark we drove back into the bush with a big spotlight. Our spotter and driver were excellent and we were rewarded with seeing a male lion, a hyena and finally a beautiful leopard right up close. Seeing the leopard completes the big five for us.

Sundown on the Luangwa

Early the next morning we left our chalet and started our long drive ahead home. It took about 8.5 hours which was much better than the 10 – 12 hours we were expecting. As we drove down the driveway just after sunrise we saw 15 giraffe all lined up as if to say goodbye to us.

Goodbye, dear guests