Zambia - treehouses and waterfalls!

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We entered Zambia via Lilongwe in Malawi, having stocked up on souvenirs from the many craft stalls which in true african style should be delivered in about 6 months (we were too tight to pay for airmail!)

The serengetti seems so long ago so we needed a wildlife fix and South Luangwa national park was ideally situated by the border wo we made our merry way there... we found the coolest campsite here, next to the river that borders the park. The river was full of hippos which come on land to feed during the night... dotted around the campsite are various wooden platforms in the trees where you can pitch a tent, our very own treehouse!!



We spent a fantastic 4-5 days there, during this time the campsite was visited by elephants several times (one of which i nearly walked into in the dark - they can be surprisingly quiet - luckily the nightwatchman was on hand to prevent me from being squashed!) a giraffe took a shine to the trees next to the storeroom and kept us from our supplies for a while! Not to mention the countless cheeky vervet monkeys trying to steal your lunch as soon your back is turned... every night we heard the hippos munching the grass but didnt see any, so we decided to go our own mini-safari and find some one night... we asked a nightwatchman if he would help us find some hippos, "no problem" he said, without getting out of his seat he casually shone his torch behind him to reveal 3 of them chomping on the grass! Lions are regular visitors too but unfortunately/luckily we didnt stumble accross any in the campsite!



And this was all outside the main park... in the park itself we went on several night drives, the last of which we requested "Yotam" a guide who everyone raves about... he didnt disappoint, we found a male lion relaxing by the road and then as we were leaving a leopard sheltering... he got frustrated by another vehicle that was hogging the best spot.. when they refused his polite request to move over he proceeded to drive off the road, into the bush until we were practically ontop of the leopard!!



Met some cool people here including a dutch couple; Hugo + Hannika, a British couple; Jez + Amanda... (all of which we have travelled with/randomly bumped into and got drunk with since) there was also the slightly strange Ozzies (Luna Lovegood and Worzel Gummidge - i may have got there actual names wrong!)

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