Zambia

---

It took us 2 days to get to Lusaka, Zambia's capital, and to be brutally honest, not worth it at all! Along the way we did two bushcamps, one of which was at a police post, at least we felt safe! We only spent a day in Lusaka to start the process of applying for Sudan visas and doing some shopping, we then drove along the Great East Road to make our way to South Luangwa National Park. The drive was beautiful, we passed through rolling hills and mountains with lots of little villages and communities. The vegetation and crops grown along this stretch certainly showed signs of increasing lushous tropical environments. We pulled over for lunch at a quaint catholic church where all the villagers started turning up, any left-overs that we had we gave to the children, they were so grateful. That night we bushcamped and got surrounded by more local people who were inquisitive to what we were cooking! When we woke up in the morning it was as if they hadn't moved as they were still there although the crowd was growing to about 50 people. It took us another day and another bushcamp to get to the NP as the roads were in quite bad condition which slowed us down to about 10mph!

Eventually we got there to a very nice campsite on the outskirts of the NP. This national park was so different to the previous ones that we visited because there were no fences so the animals could wander in and out of the park as they pleased, this also meant they could wander in and out of our campsite as much as they pleased too! We put our tents up in an area which had a viewing platform up in a tree for viewing; it wasn't long before we could make use of it! Most people went off to the pool to chill out for a few hours but while I was doing my washing by the tents with a few others, we spotted a heard to elephants in a clearing which could be easily seen from out viewing platform. The elephants ranged in size and were only a few meters from the edge of the campsite boundary. It was fantastic to watch them grazing and getting on with day in their natural environment. We watched two little ones having a play fight and the adults getting on with more importing things such as eating! Later on in the day, after having lunch in the campsite restaurant I headed back to the tent to get my swimming stuff, only to find some of the others watching an medium-sized elephant in the campsite right by our tents! We were all watching it from about 20metres away and then all of a sudden the elephant started to get agitated and was swinging its trunk around, we started to back off but two of the girls on the truck got caught inbetween him and a tree. He was trying to hunt them out as they hide behind the tree, he was swaying from side to side and we just stood back helplessly watching the terrified two. After a few minutes, when it was a good time, a park warden told them to run but this just upset the elephant more and it charged at all of us!! It ran towards out tents and the warden just shouted "RUN", so we all turned and ran as fast as we could onto the truck (the only robust thing around!). It was terrifying but at the same time a once-in-a-lifetime experience. After that it cooled down and went back into the bush, and we all caught our breath and began giggling - amazing!
Another experience that we had in the campsite when we were there was that one night at 2am a few of us were woken to a hippo outside our tents! The campsite is located alongside a river where loads of hippos spend there days chilling, and during the evening they get out of the water walk through the camp to the bush and then in the early hours they return back through the camp to the water. This is what happened one night. I was woken to the chomping sound of the hippo chewing a sausage tree fruit (their favourite apparently). When I looked out of my tent I saw a huge female hippo 3metres away. My heart was pounding as I watched it for about 10minutes before it moved further away towards the water. One of the campsite wardens spotted me looking and came over and explained that it was mother and daughter. He chatted to me until about 4am, he said that one time they had over 200 hippos in the camp in one night! I'm glad we weren't there then, I would have been terrified of being trampled!

We stayed three days in the South Luangwa NP, and it was one of the most awesome experiences so far. I did two game drives whilst there, one early morning and one evening drive. On both I saw lions! On the evening drive we saw 5cubs and 2 lioness' - so cute! We also saw a leopard too, amongst all the other mammels and birds that we saw. It was the best game drive so far and the most gorgeous NP (lakes, plains, forests, bush). I was sad to leave, so many memories and awesome experiences.

---