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Hey everybody (apologize for the delay in actually writing this update)
Well, our trip started by switching drivers, we now had Ben who claimed to be the best driver in the world. The roads were a lot worse than in Malawi and it was a very bumpy ride. After several hours of driving in the sun, we were almost to South Luangwa where we would be camping with local hippos, elephants and baboons. On the way up to the campsite (about 2 hours of driving on a separate road), we came along 2 people who were trying to get a ride up to the National Park area...we had just 2 seats left in the truck so we voted to bring them along. I was pretty excited to see the big Canadian flags on their travel backpacks so we hit it off right away. Diane and Patrick (his dad was a full service RCMP officer) were sweet people to chat with for the next few hours until we all got settled to our respective camps. I was a bit surprised to find out that hippos literally eat the grass where we camp. We were told to get a security guard for
Elephant
You can see part of an impala on the side too... the night bathroom visits but I wondered how they would ever hear me call them anyhow, it wasn't exactly the smallest campsite although there were only 6 of us tourists there! It's off-peak time which has made a great experience for us. Anyhow, it would be an early start the next day for our first game drive.
The first night was interesting, we had the loudest cricket camped out in the tree above us so it was impossible to sleep when he was belting out the tunes. Mark and I thought it was a bird until the next day when I got everybody to listen to the sound! We had wondered how it stayed going for so long without taking a breath so it made sense that it was a cricket, usually endured the noise around 15 - 20 min periods. Also, the hippos sound like lawnmowers - really, they have quite a weird noise but extremely distinctive so I learned quickly what it was that was sooooo close to my head! I had to wait for ages to know the course was clear to run for the bathrooms! Sheesh, what an adventure! Also, while I am on the
topic of wildlife adventures, we had loads of baboons hanging out around our campsite who loved to use our tent as a trampoline, great cushioning when jumping from the sausage tree above us. So, I've never seen or heard of a sausage tree before but basically they have big sausage shaped "fruits" that some animals can eat. It's not really something humans enjoy eating but anyhow, we got lucky in the fact that no sausages dropped on us while we were camping out there.
So, the first day we saw a lot of amazing stuff, giraffes, zebras, tons of puku/impala which look like deer, elephants, crocodiles, hippos and a pride of lions. There were loads of baboons as well. They usually hang around the impala, they help each other out in the departments of smelling and sighting danger, baboons hang out in the trees scouting out the areas while the impala have a great sense of smell! Cool eh? So, we followed a bunch of lions and man, that was pretty sweet. The animals mostly just associate the trucks with an object, not danger. If we were to get out of the vehicle or stand up, the animals would
Safari Group picture
Training guide, Diane, Patrick, Godfrey, Chloe and Mark view the situation in a different and possibly scary way but we were safe the entire time in our compeletely open safari truck! There were loads of beautiful birds that we got to see. One of the neatest views was a stork sitting on the head of a hippo under a huge marshy area. All you could see was the hippo's eyes! I couldn't get a good picture of it but it was sweet to see.
All of the drives were different and hard to compare but incredible. The second day was our last to make the most of, we got a flat tire so we lost a bit of time there but all in all, we got going again only to find wild dogs! They only get to see those one or two times per year so our driver was stoked to see them. They are stupid looking hyena type animals but extremely vicious which was surprising to us. You wouldn't think it looking at them but yeah, worse at attacking than most other animals. It was a start to quite an adventurous day, we had a few animals we still hoped to see and told Godfrey, our
Leopard
Here he was relaxing! safari driver what we hoped for. We did an extra hour in the evening drive and by the end, we had seen everything we hoped! It was incredible because some people only see 1 or 2 of the big animals and they could be there for days. We saw it all in 2, amazingly blessed. So, we got to see a leopard - it was eating some meat, they thought it was baboons and then afterwards it climbed up a tree to relax! What a view it was. So, we spent quite a bit of time watching that. We got to see elephants mating, warthogs running around like crazy things, a water buffalo, hyenas, hares, all sorts of stuff. I can't really put all of it in this blog but trying to do the reader's digest version for you. We got to see a male lion, it was really cool. We were headed back to our camp and we saw a hyena running across the road. Our driver guide said that there was a lion nearby just by the way it was running! So, we hung out for a bit and out walked the lion! It was awesome and I
Male Lion
Our last wishlist animal, we got to see it! couldn't believe how he could call every single move that the lion would make. He has obviously watched animals for a good amount of time and knows their behaviours. So, it was super duper interesting and I learned quite a bit during my safari days. Also, we enjoyed great food by Raphael, we had lunch provided during those days so it was 3 wonderful meals a day! We were absolutely spoiled. The weather was still nice, quite hot out but I was still suffering big time from my sunburn. I had sunstroke both the day I got burned and the night I arrived in South Luangwa, it was quite bad but my skin started peeling as we departed the safari section of the trip. So, I didn't get to take advantage of the pool or the gym as I was sore!
We got off to Chipata where we were to be dropped off to catch a bus to Lusaka that night. Well, that was the plan anyhow. When we arrived with Patrick and Diane who had decided to come our way, we found all the buses had left for the day and there was no hope of getting out
Bilbao Tree
Interesting trees that have a weird fruit that is actually rather tasty! without paying WAY WAY too much money to hire a driver/car. So, the only option left was to wait for the next day and attempt the 2 part journey (Chipata to Lusaka and then Lusaka to Livinstone) or try hitching a ride. Mark and I were game for an adventure so we went out to where the locals get their after hours rides. There are several buses that do day drives so there was still hope that a bus would come our way as well. After about an hour of learning the ropes on how to determine whether it was a safe driver/vehicle, whether to actually do it, etc...we got a ride in a huge tanker.
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