Elephants, Hippos and Lion roars!

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Imagine pulling up to a campsite and being greeted by a herd of elephants, roaming around right where you want to pitch your tent! That was just the start of our animal adventures on the border of South Lwangua National Park in Zambia. The same evening, we were cooking dinner when the same herd of elephants decided to pay us another visit. As quick as we could, we all jumped on or under the truck or climbed to one of the platforms up a tree. Eventually, they decided they had seen enough of as and about five minutes after they cleared off, a lion roared, far too close for my liking. We finally got round to eating dinner after all the disruptions and then had to contemplate sleeping in a tent surrounded by all these beasties...can't say I was overly excited by the whole concept! No sooner had I drifted off to sleep, I got woken by a peculiar rustling sound. Feeling brave, I slowly unzipped the tent, and found myself gazing up at another flipping elephant! In fact there were three surrounding our tent (we had stupidly pitched our tent under a tree which these great creatures were quite happily munching the leaves off without a care in the world!) I lay in my tent for what seemed like an eternity, admiring these great beasts while at the same time wondering if one of them was going to stamp on my head! Eventually I fell asleep, apparently missing the lion who also decided to wander through our camp that night! I woke up the following morning incredibly tired and wondering whether I was going to survive the day and then the following night at this place! As it turned out, I did, despite visits from more elephants and a giant hippo!

Am now back in safer territory in Lusaka and later today we cross the border into Zimbabwe where we stay in a house boat on a croc infested river!

Love from Claire who, just for the record, still has all her limbs in tact!

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