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Published: August 7th 2007
Today I’m in Lusaka, Zambia. I seem to have traveled in a circle. Funny how stuff works out. Here in Lusaka I’m kind of taking a break from “Africa” and am spending some time in the westernized, expat area of Lusaka. Strange since I just took a vacation in Malawi. It was surreal almost for me to walk into Arcades the other day. Arcades is one of the large shopping malls in Lusaka. Last time I was there was New Years Eve and we went bowling late at night.
I arrived here via a slight detour through South Luangwa National Park. This is regarded as one of the best parks in Southern Africa and one of the better parks in Africa for animals. It is also one of the few that you can do a walking safari in. I figured it was worth the mission to get here. We left the hostel at 0630 and arrived at 2200. We spent 4+ hours in Chipata waiting for the bus to fill up and then 6 hours driving to Mfuwe, a drive that only takes 3 hours in a private car. Oh well, TIA. .
I really wanted to do a
walking safari in the party, but unfortunately I missed the one the first morning and there weren’t enough people wanting one on the second day. That is ok though, the trip was made by the spotting of a leopard on our night drive, very special and lucky indeed. I have to say the spotters on these drives are amazing. The can find stuff that I have no idea is there and then stuff I see that I would stare at they just pass over. They know that it is just an impala and not worth the time to focus on. I guess just practice.
Another amazing thing about the park was how Hippos could still impress me. I figured I had seen enough hippos already but even here it was something different. We came across this pond filled with lilies and Hippos. The Hippos were just eating away. It was like watching a real life game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos. In the posted photos, there is a series of 4 or 5 pictures that if you look at quickly in series you can see the Hippo chomping away. Also look at the size of the heads, there are a
couple of baby Hippos around.
In the realm of other unusual things that we saw, well in the x-rated category anyway. We saw giraffes and impala courting and preparing to mate. We also saw several Hyenas on the road. Saw a porcupine which is rare and lots of small “cats,” genets and civets.
When I got back from the morning drive there was fresh elephant dung under the platform where my tent was pitched. Oh yeah, you can pitch you tents on platforms up in the trees. That was pretty cool.
I’ll be here another day or so and then I’m headed up to Northern Zambia. I plan to take a ferry up Lake Tanganyika. I’m headed into Rwanda for the gorillas and then Uganda for the White Nile. I’m sorry to report that it might be a month or so before I really get online and catch up with blogs again. I feel like I’m in a hurry to get to Kampala by July 15th. I only have 3 or 4 weeks to get there, that is a rush for me. But don’t worry, I’ll be fine.
Click here for S. Luangwa Pictures
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Rich Magill
non-member comment
Awesome!