South Luangwa - giraffe fight, wild dogs, leopard

The power cut from last night lasted all through the night, and we have to get up by torchlight at 5am this morning.

Breakfast

The breakfast isn’t much to write home about, just some toast with either jam or butter, fruit and cereal. I’ve never been a lover of cereals (I don’t like milk), so I just have some fruit and toast with peanut butter. David has cornflakes but misses his full English breakfast.

Safari time

We are allocated a driver for our safaris here in South Luangwa, a nice chap called Andrew.

Giraffes fighting

Just along the track from the camp, before we even hit the main road, we see a couple of male giraffes trying to establish dominance.

The fighting involves mostly banging their neck against the opponent with a real thud, audible to us in the car.

After several minutes, there is still no clear winner, and they just walk off in unison.

These are Thornicroft Giraffe, a subspecies of the Masai giraffe, although some people believe it to be a species in its own right. It is certainly a new (sub)species to us.

Warthogs

Elephants

The elephants on this side of the park entrance get chased by the villages, who antagonise them. As a result, many have become quite aggressive and can be dangerous. They are right by the road and are eyeing us suspiciously.

When one of them starts to roar, I find it quite scary, and Andrew moves on hastily.

Luangwa River

We cross the river in the company of a troop of Yellow Baboons.

South Luangwa National Park

While we are waiting for Andrew to sort our permits out, we can hear a lion roar. It sounds like he is quite close. How exciting!

Elephant mama with her one-year-old baby

Andrew explains that because of the relatively small size of South Luangwa National Park, inbreeding is common, leading to the animals generally being smaller than they are in other parks.

Crowned Hornbill

Impala Dung

These common antelopes produce dung middens when mating – males create piles with strong chemicals warning off other males, and droppings / urine from females gives off signals to males that they are sexually active. As Andrew says: “These areas may only look like a pile of poo to us, but they are the centre of communications for Impala”.

Warthog

Lilac Breasted Roller

These stunning birds – one of my all-time favourite African birds – have got their name from their unusual courting actions: they roll in the air to attract a mate. As they are not songbirds, they have to show off their colours (seven) in order to let the opposite sex know they are interested and ready to mate.

Tree Squirrels

These cute little rodents are very territorial, although one male usually has several females in his harem.

Mangola Lagoon

We stop for a while at these wetlands with their rich birdlife.

At 1.5 metres in length and with a wingspan of two metres, the Goliath Heron is the largest of all herons, not just in Africa. They are monogamous, and both parents help raise the chicks.

African Open Billed Stork

Egyptian Geese

African Jacana are unusual in that they are polyandrous: the females mate with multiple partners to ensure successful breeding. After laying the egg, she leaves the male to raise the babies from eggs to young. These birds have a couple of different nicknames: Lily Trotters for their ability to walk on lily pads, or Jesus Birds as it appears they can walk on water.

Meve's Starling - also known as the Long-Tailed Starling

Yellow Baboon

Lions

In the distance, we see two male lions on the move, and from further away Wild Dogs are calling. These two species are enemies, and the dogs will vacate any area where lions roam. So that is my chance of seeing Wild Dogs scuppered this morning, my main target species for this trip.

Black-Faced Vervet Monkey

Puku

While this near-threatened antelope is not completely new to us, we have only seen one briefly some 22 years ago, so I am very excited about this sighting.

Hippo out of water

Although they tend to spend most of the daylight hours submerged in rivers and lakes with just their eyes and noses visible, you sometimes do see them on land. Their hairless skin is susceptible to sunburn, but they have the ability to create their own ‘suntan lotion’: they secrete a thick, reddish, oily substance from their pores which protects them by absorbing ultraviolet radiation. This is why hippos look pink when out of the water.

Namaqua Dove

Crawshay’s Zebra

This subspecies of the Plains Zebra is new to us, so one to tick off the wish list. They live in harems with one dominant male.

Tea Time

Andrew stops the car at a wide, open, flat area overlooking the Luangwa River where we have a short break with tea and biscuits while watching the wildlife in the water below.

Crocodile

White Crowned Lapwing

African Pied Wagtail

Hippo squabble

Andrew gets a call on the radio and quickly packs up the picnic stuff and we head off. He won’t tell us where, or why, we are going, just saying “You’ll like it”.

On the way, we spot an elephant in musth, as seen by the secretion of liquid from his temporal gland. This means that he is actively looking for a sexual partner, and elephants can be extremely aggressive at this time, so we hastily move on.

We do have to stop at the Zebra Crossing though.

In the distance, we see a gathering of safari vehicles and realise it must be an important sighting. Maybe a big cat? Andrew pulls up and we strain to look at a huddle of animals across a ravine in a small patch of shade under a tree. My eyes take a few seconds to realise what they are: Wild Dogs!

The wild dog is one of the world’s most endangered mammals and these are monitored by the Zambia Carnivore Program, and several of the dogs are fitted with collars for that purpose.

Photographically, these dogs are an enormous challenge, as they are in the darkness of shade with very bright grass in front and behind (and took a lot of editing in post-processing). There are also grasses on this side of the ravine that partially obscure their faces and bodies.

As hunters, Wild Dogs are the most successful of all the African species, with a success rate of somewhere between 70% and 80%. In comparison, lions have a mere 45% hit rate, with leopards a slightly better 50%.

This pack has obviously made a recent kill, judging by all the White-Backed Vultures gathering nearby.

We stay with the dogs for around an hour, and in that time many vehicles come and go (which means we can change our view point occasionally), including one safari truck with 16 (!) people whose occupants take a few snapshots with their phone while the driver doesn’t even switch his engine off before driving off after two minutes. When I comment on it to Andrew, he simply shrugs his shoulders: “They’re Indian, they’re only interested in seeing lions”.

African Wild Dogs live in packs of up to 27 – here there are seven of them.

We reluctantly say goodbye to the dogs and head back to the lodge for lunch, which we are already late for. It is worth it though, I am ecstatic to have seen the animals at the very top of my wish list. What a morning it has been!

Back at the lodge, we are asked how our morning has been and I quip: “It was boring. We only saw fighting giraffes, a couple of lions, hippos squabbking, and a baby elephant.” Everyone laughs, but when I add “Oh, and we saw a pack of seven wild dogs”, gasps are heard from other guests who are most envious as they too spent the morning looking for the dogs, but never found them. They are on a self-drive, however, so don’t have the added advantage of radio communication between drivers. That is why I would always have a local driver when I go on safari.

Lunch

Lunch is a creamy chicken stir fry which is very tasty (apart from the ubiquitous cucumber).

David, however, is not feeling great. He puts it down to drinking the tap water, which we were assured is safe as it comes from their own borehole. I have been drinking the same water, with no ill effect, and it is usually me who suffers (due to my severe IBS), while David’s cast-iron stomach normally protects him from tummy upsets.

After lunch, we spend some time sitting on the balcony, cleaning our cameras while watching a herd of elephants walk by.

The amount of dust after just a few hours in the bush!

It is slightly unnerving when an elephant looks straight at you like this

TrailCam

We also check out the movement-triggered camera we set up yesterday, to see if anything interesting walked past our cabin in the night or early this morning. All we’ve captured is a couple of Yellow Baboons and a service worker moving the chair on our balcony.

Afternoon game drive

Before this evening’s safari, we are offered tea and coffee and some cakes in the bar.

The bar is decorated with drawings of wild dogs

Coffee and Cakes

African Fish Eagle

At first, he looks relaxed on his lofty perch, then starts getting ready to fly.

We are quite surprised when he lands on the ground.

Hopping about, he finds a higher viewpoint, obviously looking for something.

We are not quite sure what he has caught – could it be a squirrel, or maybe some building materials for his nest?

Waterbuck

Often found near water or in marshes, these antelopes can splay their feet so that they don’t get stuck in mud.

Sacred Ibis - the Egyptians consider this bird the Goddess of Wisdom

Elephant Tracks

Andrew explains that the elephant has passed through here very recently, from right to left, dragging his trunk on the ground in the process. He goes on to say: "Although it could easily have been his ‘fifth leg’ as sometimes they bring it out to help cool down as it has such thin skin".

You can tell it recently passed by, as its footprint is on top of the track made by the last vehicle to come through.

Sundowners

We stop at a place overlooking the river for drinks and snacks as the sun goes down.

From here we can see the much more basic bush camp across the river, which is part of our lodge, some 1.5 km from the main lodge area where we are staying.

Crocodile in the river

Grey Headed Kingfisher

Not a bad sunset

Night Drive

This evening we have a spotter called Mago with us, who has a powerful spotlight to illuminate any animals we may come across after dark.

The first thing we see is a few hippos.

Leopard

Andrew stops the car and Mago shines the light into the long grass. I can’t see anything. “It’s a leopard”, Andrew says. Really?

OK, now I can see it. Just.

We move nearer, joining a couple of other vehicles.

The excitement soars when she starts to walk towards us.

She walks alongside one of the other vehicles before crossing the road in front of us. What a glorious sighting!

There is something really exciting about seeing animals in the dark, it adds mystery and the unexpected.

After settling down in a clearing for a few minutes, the beautiful cat disappears into the bush, probably to go hunting.

We start to make our way back towards the lodge, stopping to shine a light on various animals we see on the way.

More Hippoz

This one looks like it's had an encounter with a less-than-friendly crocodile or big cat

Large Spotted Genet

An elephant right by the side of the road just outside the park border

On return to the camp, we head straight for bed, giving dinner a miss, as David’s tummy is not feeling well at all.

Just as happened yesterday, there is a power cut at 22:10, but thankfully it is restored at 00:15. I hate having to fight with the mosquito net when I go to the loo in the night at the best of times, let alone by torchlight.

Thank you to Undiscovered Destinations for arranging this amazing trip for us.