Return to the homeland

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Leaving Lilongwe we dropped Nadav off as he needed to begin to make his way back North to get his flight home to Israel. We were sad to see him go.

We headed for the Zambian border. We had made arrangements (we thought) with Wild Dogs Camp (just outside South Luangwa Park in Zambia) for a VISA waiver for the border. It should work something like this: With enough advance notice of around 12 hours you give them the names and passport numbers of the people crossing into Zambia, they send the info to the border with the next truck or car leaving the camp for the border, you arrive at the border and your names are on the list, you pay $0 instead of $65 per person. Worth it if it works.

Flat Dogs gave us their mobile number and we sent a text message containing all of our names and passport numbers with a note at the bottom saying please could you reply to let us know you have received the text message. A few minutes later we get a text saying “yes I have received the text”. Fair enough except when we called Flat Dogs the next day to confirm they had got our numbers they hadn’t received the text at all. So some completely random Zambian berk had got a random text message from a number he didn’t know, with names of people he didn’t know, lists of numbers… and instead of replying saying “I think you’ve got the wrong number” he followed our instructions to the letter and texted us to say “yes I got them”, wasting us an entire day. RAAA!

We tried to sort it out again with Flat Dogs but either the trucky forgot or didn’t bother giving the border our names and numbers and we ended up paying a slightly reduced fee to the border guard who we’re sure pocketed the cash. Anyway we got into Zambia, country number 6 and Adam’s birthplace.

We had been told by other travelers that Flat Dogs is a pretty cool place, tents up on platforms in the treetops etc, but tends to be overrun by the dreaded trucks and can be a bit of a party camp, not too good if you actually came for the wildlife not the beer… again. We decided on Wildlife Camp which we had had recommended to us and as it turned out had a much better view of the river than Flat Dogs.

The campsite sits on top of the outer bank of a meander in the Luangwa river giving an amazing 180 degree view of the river and the wildlife that come to hunt in, cross, and drink from it. Herds of Elephants would make a daily appearance crossing the river in single file drinking as they went, then with surprising agility climb the nearside bank and disappear into the scrub. A herd/pod of Hippo had taken up residence further downriver but were still very audible from close to a few hundred metres away, their deep, booming, Jabba-the-Hut-like “HUR HUR HUR!” laughter echoing around the valley. One either lost or just a bit more adventurous than the others sleeping in the water right infront of our tents. Bright Green crocs would laze around on the sand banks in the river a stones throw from the camp site with Storks cautiously treading the shallows nearby, and it was common to see enormous Fish Eagles also coming down to the river to drink. It was also the first time we saw giraffes drinking - no man feat when your head is about 5m from the water.

The camp site is separated from the restaurant and bandas by a short walk through some trees and scrub. When we asked if it’s OK to walk between the two at night the receptionist actually covered her face with her hands and said “Oh God no, please don’t do that!” OK….. It seems it’s a fairly common to have Elephants and/or Hippo wandering about at night and you have to be really careful just going to the toilet when it’s dark. This is more of an issue for pea-size-bladder Marianne. On a couple of occasions she got up and asked Adam to wait and check she got back to the tent ok - only to find him snoring loudly when she crept back. Ever the gentleman. Our second evening we were woken at some time during the night by an Elephant a few metres from our tent making very short work of a tree. They’re quite noisy eaters.

We did a day and a night game drive in Luangwa. The day drive was worth it just for the scenery and we found it to be one of the more picturesque parks we had been to. One of the highlights for us a colony of Carmine Bee-Eaters nesting in the river bank, certainly one of the more brightly coloured animals we’ve yet encountered.

During the night drive didn’t really see that much -a giraffe looming out of the dark looks quite odd, and we did catch our first glimpse of a Civet which looks a hell of a lot like a Raccoon - but apart from that we saw a lot of eyes. And I mean a LOT of eyes. We did get closer to a couple of Spotted Hyena than we had done, one with quite nasty bite marks on the back of its neck looked like it had been in a bit of a tussle with a Lion or Leopard over a kill, and another either concerned or hungry looking on from close by.

We had been trying to decide for a few days about which route to head South: we could either double back on ourselves then head South (all on good roads) or we could drive a few hundred KMs North off-road through the park to the Great North Road then head South. The problem with the park route was that it entailed a few river crossings, sandy roads and a substantial climb of a few hundred vertical metres up an escarpment via a “road” that was pretty much a boulder strewn track. The 4X4 had been showing signs of the years of abuse it had suffered and we had already had two flat tyres in the space of a few days. Breaking down, or getting bogged or stranded in the middle of the park was really not an option, and it wasn’t certain whether the Nissan was up to getting us over the escarpment. But we fancied a bit of adventure so we decided to go for it anyway.

A few KMs in we were flagged down by an open topped safari jeep from one of the lodges inside the park which was going the other way. “Stop, stop. A few kilometers from here there is a funny elephant which has just charged at us. If you see it just drive and keep driving FAST.” “OK then. Thanks!”.

Shit. So ‘funny’ angry, not ‘funny ha ha’ then.

Raz was a 4X4 driver during his military service so he’s a dab hand at the driving in sand malarkey, but one particular scenario they don’t train you for in Israel is the Funny Elephant. We especially didn’t want to find said Funny Elephant standing (or worse, running) in the middle of the road in front of us, as ‘just drive’ then becomes a tad more complicated. We continued on, all nervously glancing around so we saw him before he saw us. All wondering whether the Nissan in reverse in sand would outpace the Funny Elephant (probably not).

Then Uzi says with surprising calm “Oh. Look. There he is. And he’s running.” And crumbs was he running. Uzi followed it up with (still calm) “Oh there’s two of them”.

We had seen elephants mock charge before, they get a bit nervous of a vehicle coming too close or they have a calf nearby, but these were both at full tilt, trumpeting loudly and doing the whole ear flapping thing. It’s quite impressive when you consider that they probably weighed 5 - 7 tonnes and were doing in the region of 30 KMPH. Crashing through trees. At us.

Raz put his foot down and on relatively firm ground sped away from the two elephants - which had altered course to follow us along the road - and we soon outpaced them. Took a while for the blood to circulate back through our knuckles and the adrenaline levels to drop.

The drive through the park was spectacular. The track follows a ridge North, overlooking yet more of the gargantuan Great Rift Valley to our right. The section up the escarpment was a bumpy one but one which the car and Raz were easily capable of. We stopped for a picnic by the road in the forest at the top of the escarpment. As if charging elephants were not enough, we were then chased by a swarm of killer bees. Well, ok, not really, They probably weren’t killer and they didn’t actually chase us. But they made a couple of fly pasts (one while Uzi was otherwise engaged “behind a bush”) - the loud hum that they make gradually gets louder and then fades as they pass, almost like a small engined plane, very weird noise.

Next stop at the end of the long drive was Mutinondo Wilderness...

Here is our travel map: AdnMaz Travel Map

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Photos

Watching the Giraffe come to the river to drink
the view from our campsite at Wildlife Camp, South Luangwa

Sunset from the campsite
Wildlife Camp, South Luangwa

Comments

[Maria Capellades]

So many elephants!
Hey guys, Just finally finding the time to get up-to-date with your fantastic blog. I can't believe how many elephants you've seen, and how close they've been to you at campsites. So cool. They are amazing. I will update your Google Earth Map this weekend with all the new sites - so you can expect a new one coming next week. Keep posting :-)

[Maria Capellades]

One quick question...
What do you guys do for water? Do you filter river/fountain water or treat it? Is it easy to find good water at the campsites?