Sleeping with the hippos

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After Lake Malawi, the second of my two big weekends away was to the South Luangwa Game Reserve.

We stayed at Wildlife Camp (http://www.wildlifecamp-zambia.com/) for two nights in very posh tents and had 3 drives into the reserve.
The camp was great- a bit of luxury after Chipata, with proper steak and other decent pubstyle food. It was right on the river, with hippos and crocodiles basking outside; have attached a video of the night noises made by the hippos as recorded from outside my tent. Also had my first ever outside shower (with hot water!) and with the sun in the right position got a rainbow through the water stream which was wonderful.

We went in to the park on a special safari truck with raised seats to ensure everyone got a good view. Was a bit like Woburn in that there were well-defined tracks and that there were considerable number of trucks in a small area. Over the 3 drives (one morning and two night) we saw everything I think except buffalo, including lots of birds. This included a leopard hunting at night about 50 away from a herd of impala. The guides switched from the bright lights they were using to red ones which the leopard couldn't see and we sat and waited. Unfortunately a hippo wandered across close to the leopard which drew the impala's attention so they spotted it, which meant the leopard wasn't going to get any closer on that instance. A slightly sad scene was the one lion we saw, walking along one of the main roads, surrounded by trucks of people. The lion was obviously used to the experience and just kept an eye on us all without changing his pace as he ambled along.

Have attached my best photos, and cropped and enlarged where I can, but am afraid my camera isn't really up to wildlife photography at a distance (apart from the elephants which were in the road right by us). Therefore many of the 120 pics I took are of brown blobs in the distance.

Sadly, this was our last weekend all together- Clare and Julie flew back to Lusaka from Mphuwe at the end of their placements and then on to a spot of travelling at the end before flying home.

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Photos

Elephant
A few steps away behind a tree and he disappeared

Safari truck
(and my new Chitenge trousers!)

'Sausage' tree
The fruit is a favourite of hippos

Our guide 'Sly'
With the fruit of the sausage tree