South Luangwa - stork fishing, scary elephant, leopards

When David flushes the toilet this morning, he notices our little resident frog swimming for his life against the tide. Thankfully, it survives the toilet-bowl-cyclone, and David manages to rescue him, creating a makeshift ladder with toilet paper for it to climb out.

Just as we are getting dressed, the electricity goes off. I really don’t enjoy putting my clothes on by torchlight.

Game Drive

We have a different vehicle this morning, this one has a larger front seat, and the tiered seating in the back is properly shaped seats rather than benches. It is classed as a Photographic Safari vehicle, whatever the difference is.

Giraffes

As we have done every morning here at South Luangwa National Park, we see a tower of giraffes just along from the lodge. There are seven of them this morning.

The light is gorgeous this morning.

Waterbuck

White Crowned Plover

Blacksmith Lapwing

Look at how well the chick blends into the environment

Warthogs

Impala

Saddle Billed Stork

Unlike many other safari-goers, who are only interested in seeing big game, I take great delight in watching this Saddle Billed Stork catching a fish and then stabbing it to death and washing it in the pond, before eating it.

Here you can see a short video of how brutally the stork stabs the fish to kill it.

Goliath Heron

Another warthog. It looks to the naked eye like she (you can tell it’s a female because she only has one wart, males have two) is eating sand, but if you look really closely, there are some tiny tufts of grass in the sand. It looks like too much hard work for very little reward to me.

Crowned Eagle - we see him swoop down to the ground and fly back into the tree, where he settles down to eat the baby baboon he just killed

More warthogs. These are digging for roots, tubers, and lichen. They leave the outer parts, which are then eaten by the baboons.

Yellow Baboons finishing off what the warthogs left behind

I love the way nature works in that these two species do not compete for food, they live happily side by side in a symbiotic relationship, both looking out for danger for each other.

Impala

Southern Ground Hornbills

Crawshay's Zebra

Temmick's Courser

Little Bee Eater

Baby Yellow Baboon

This little guy, who Andrew estimates is just a few weeks old, is full of life, much to his mother’s chagrin.

We even see a unicorn

Otherwise known as a Puku with a damaged horn

More Puku

South Luangwa National Park is traversed by a multitude of tracks crisscrossing a small area multiple times fairly close together. This means, of course, that we can see so much more in a small area, as it is more difficult for any animals to find somewhere to hide.

Map showing all the paths just inside the park entrance

Tea Stop

We stop in a safe place overlooking the river for our morning picnic with tea (or coffee) and a muffin.

Me, covered up against the dust

Before we left home, we invested in a foldable chair with a toilet seat for those awkward bush stops. Today is the first time I am using it, and it works very well.

It folds down flat and fits in my suitcase, which is very handy.

Egyptian Geese

Crocodile

African Spoonbill

It is time to move on to explore more of the park.

Andrew and I are in the front, David is in the back

Lilac Breasted Roller

White Fronted Bee Eater

Elephant Dung

Andrew explains that these droppings come from a young elephant, as the animal has not developed good teeth yet, and has ended up eating a lot of soil, making the excrement rather dark.

He proceeds to give us a fascinating insight into animal poo vocabulary: Droppings from a carnivore are called scats, from a herbivore they are known as dung and an omnivore’s droppings are called faeces.

Hippo

Further along the river, we spend some time watching a pod of hippos (also known as a bloat).

With so many animals in close proximity, there is bound to be some disagreement, either over (lack of) personal space, or dominance.

Yellow Billed Oxpecker and White Crowned Lapwing

Leopard

While we are busy watching and photographing the hippos, Andrew hears baboon warning calls and we swiftly head in the direction of the calls, where we see the tail of a leopard disappearing into the long grass.

He’s a young male and very skittish, but we follow him through the long grass at a respectful distance.

He briefly comes out into the open but we can tell he is very nervous.

A couple of other cars have turned up now, and one of them gets a little too close for his comfort, and the leopard sprints off into the undergrowth, not to be seen again.

Time for us to head back to camp, where we meet up with Jim, our usual driver, who we have not seen for the last couple of days.

Jim at Wildlife Camp

TrailCam

Back in the room, we check out the memory card of the motion-activated camera we set up facing our chalet, and are quite excited about what we find.

The first animal we see is David going down to get the card out of the camera.

Yellow Baboons

Lunch

Aubergine bake - it is not as gross as it looks, but it is still not my favorite meal on this trip

Yellow Baboons

The whole area around the restaurant is full of baboons this lunchtime, and they are cheeky as anything, eyeing up our food.

The barman does his best to keep them at bay, by scaring them away with small stones and a catapult. We wondered what the catapult on the bar was for.

As soon as the barman goes back to his real job, one of the baboons sees his chance, and in one fell swoop he steals a bread roll from someone’s lunch plate.

David in the elephant chair in the lounge

Afternoon Game Drive

More giraffes in the usual place, they obviously like it here

Scary Elephant Encounter

Where the track from our camp joins the sealed road from other lodges, there is a bit of a traffic jam. We soon discover the reason for the hold-up: an elephant in the road, eating happily on the shrubbery next to the track.

The elephant appears to get a little angsty as a result of all the vehicles, so the park rangers are called for.

Fearing the safety of the cyclists on the road, as well as tourists in open safari vehicles (an angry elephant can easily turn a large car over, and with so many cars packed into a small space, we are like sitting ducks), the rangers try to get the animal off the road and back into the bush where he belongs, by firing their guns in the air. Sadly it backfires on them (pun not intended), and it makes the elephant even more agitated, sending the drivers at the front into a panic.

Several more shots are fired, sending the now-terrified animal into a complete spin, and the frenzied safari drivers jamming their vehicles into reverse gear and trying to move backwards at break-neck speed. We are all holding on for dear life while our hearts are beating nineteen to the dozen, as we hope no vehicles hit the one behind them in the mad scramble to get away from the marauding elephant. They don’t, which is a miracle in itself. Some tourists are screaming hysterically, while others, such as myself, are trying to record the pandemonium – unsuccessfully, I hasten to add, as I had to delete most of the footage as it was way too shaky. Not sure if that was the movement of the car or my jittery nerves.

We all breathe a huge sigh of relief when the overwrought elephant escapes back into the bush, unfortunately in the wrong direction – towards the village, where he will no doubt be further harassed by humans.

With our adrenalin still running high after the intimidating encounter, not much is spoken in the car on our way to the park entrance. It certainly makes me appreciate who is in charge of the jungle, and it is not us humans. We are mere guests in their universe, and should show them the respect their deserve. I am sure the rangers know what they are doing, after all, this is their life, but I feel uneasy about how the unnerving situation was handled.

Mind you, they can’t be too careful – we read this in the news last night, it happened a few days ago (NOT in South Luangwa, though):

And now for something much more sedate

Crocodile

The Metatarsal Glands on the Impala's back legs (the black patches on their legs) are unique. When distressed, the impalas kick their legs, which makes the gland give off a pungent musky aroma. When a group of impalas reacts to a threat from a predator and they scatter in all directions, the scent makes it easier to find each other again once the threat is over. Ain't nature grand?

Puku

Spotted Hyena

Not a frequent sighting, Andrew gets quite excited when a hyena casually strolls over fairly close to our vehicle.

He walks straight past a group of impala, while a couple of giraffes look on with curiosity.

As the hyena rolls in the sand to mark his scent, the giraffe comes closer to check him out.

As do the zebra

Hippo

Hippo skull

Lucy, the Queen of the Valley

We join a few other vehicles to admire the most famous leopard in South Luangwa: Lucy.

She seems quite content as she looks out over her domain before sprucing herself up a little ready for tonight’s hunt.

When she feels clean enough, she has a good stretch and gets up, much to our delight.

Initially, she heads to our right, and we lose sight of her behind the other vehicle.

She then reappears right in front of our vehicle and proceeds to walk past our car, almost within touching distance.

She is too close to photograph successfully, but more than that, I feel extremely vulnerable, sitting in the front seat of an open car, with no front screen, no side wall, and no door, just completely open to the elements (and a dangerous predator). Realising the potential threat, Andrew starts the car engine ready to make a quick getaway should it become necessary.

Full of trepidation and a pounding heart, and with chills of awe running down my spine, I wonder how much more excitement an old girl can take in a day.

We leave Lucy to do her own thing as she slinks off into the bush, and we head for a suitable place to have a sundowner.

Savanna and popcorn, but no sunset to speak of

As we’re packing up the car to move on, Andrew says: “The leopard has followed us, I can see her”. What??????? Here we are, outside the vehicle, in the dark, and he just casually mentions that he can see the leopard close by. I wish I felt as cool and collected as he does.

We follow her for a short while as she is illuminated in the lights from the vehicles and spotters, then let her be to do her nocturnal hunting.

Dinner

We are late getting back from the game drive, and I go straight to dinner while David pops back to the chalet with the camera gear. He comes back telling me he saw a scorpion on the doorstep. I, in turn, can share that a genet walked through the restaurant while David was in the room.

Mixed samosa with a bit of a kick

Lamb curry

Caramel pudding

Freddy the Frog is still in our room when we get back, and we hope he has learned his lesson about taking a bath in our toilet.

And so a thrilling day comes to an end, and I want to thank Undiscovered Destinations and their local teams for making this trip happen.