South Luangwa Park safari

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Kiboko safari at Track and Trail Camp in South Luangwa Park. Monday 31st August.
Within half an hour of arriving at the Track and Trail camp we saw several kudu, elephants, baboons, an impala, a hippo and a crocodile. The main park, the best in Zambia, and the most majestic in Africa, according to my guide book, is on the other side of the river from where we are sipping cold beers. Tomorrow we'll start at 6am and go on a game drive into the park, but for now we're relaxing after the six hour drive from Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, into Zambia. The terrain on the way here is much the same as in Malawi, perhaps a little more affluent. The houses are built the same way, but more of them here have been painted, and we saw several tractors, while Malawi seems to have no evident agricultural machinery.
We have spent five days in Lilongwe, which I tried to blog, and typed up on my laptop. By the time I was ready to publish, the internet at Mabuya backpackers camp had gone down. (This is on my tablet, so there may be typing errors.)
We are in tents, sturdy ones with proper beds in, and an electric fan. Elephants do come through the camp and we have been told to stay 100 metres from them, and not to leave any food in our tents as it attracts them. If we need to leave our tent in the night we have to call out for 'Jim', the night time guard to accompany us to the loo. I've asked if I can have a bucket in my tent; I usually go about three times in the night, and I don't want to wake the neighbourhood each time.
This safari trip is £350 for four days, though most of the first and last days are taken up with travelling. Tomorrow and the next day we'll go on game drives into the park. The baboons play catch on the hammocks in the camp, and fight for prime position.
Tuesday 1st September
First game drive from 6am to 10am
We see hippos and crocodiles in the river,giraffes, zebras, warthogs and impala in the bush, and elephants crossing the river. Most of the animals accept us as part of the landscape if we stay still in the safari truck. Thomas, our guide, is knowledgeable about the habits of all the birds and animals we see.
Back to the camp for an early brunch, followed by free time. I spent this by the pool, on stilts overlooking the river. The only animals to get up here are baboons; one, too lazy to go to the river to drink came up and drank from the pool, keeping a wary eye on me sitting five feet away. I was keeping a wary eye on him, in case he stole my sunglasses and watch.
The afternoon and evening game drive combined a drink at sundown with nocturnal animals. An extra guide came with us shine a powerful torch around.
We spend a lot of time pointing things out to each other. 'Can you see that owl?'
'Where?'
'There, on that branch.'
'Which branch?'
'That one there!'
'What, that one?'
'No, the one above.'
Thomas is very accomodating and moves the truck, (canopied above, with open sides) so we can all see whatever there is to see.
All our cameras are pretty hopeless, and we see some people with two foot long lenses. Every other truck we come across we stop, and the guides exchange latest sightings while us punters compare cameras, or hats. Some look dressed ready for tiffin. Those going on a walking safari have an extra guide with a gun, usually in combat gear and designer sunglasses. If I was a charging lion, I wouldn't mess with him.
Wednesday 2nd September
This morning was even better than yesterday. Tim, in the next door tent with his nine year old son, said that a huge hippo was rubbing its back against the metal guy ropes of our tent. I'd heard hippo grunting but hadn't realised it was so close. There are all sorts of animal noises in the night; baboons barking, and unidentified squealing and rustling.
Jim, who protects us in the night, has a caterpault and pocketful of stones to ward off elephants and hippos.
Today on the first game drive we saw huge numbers of giraffe, close up so we could see the oxpecker birds on their backs, pecking at the ticks. If the giraffe starts to run, the birds lift off, and settle back down when it slows. Two of the young males were necking, or play fighting. They do it for real when competing for females and will whack each others' necks tremendously hard. Males and females do it more gently when courting too. I suppose with nothing in your armoury but a long neck, it mskes sense to use it for everything.
We heard impala squealing, and some standing stockstill looking in a direction, and panning round with binoculars we glimpsed a leopard walking through the thicket. He disappeared from view, and Thomas said he must have lain down as the impala relaxed and began to graze again. (Or 'glaze' as Thomas says. The Zambians, like the Malawians, cannot say 'r', pronouncing it as 'l'. So impala 'glaze on the glass' and the bush cows are in 'a bleeding herd'.)
The highlight of the day is seeing four lions collecting themselves under a bush. Thomas drives really close, telling us as long as we don't stand up, point, make a noise or any sudden movements, the lions will think we are part of the truck and will leave us alone.
We speak in whispers and photograph them, before we drive away so another group can draw near.
We're learning so much about how the animals live: how the impala and baboons are often close together; they have the same predators and the impala have a good sense of smell, while the baboons have better sight. Whoever sees or smells the enemy gives the wsrninggfor all.
Impala females defecate in the same area so the male in charge of the territory can sniff at the pile and tell who is in season and ready for mating. Now homo sapiens, aren't you glad you don't have to do that?
The River Luangwa level is getting low, as are the lagoons, (formed from oxbow lakes as the river changes course) and the hippos and crocodiles have less to wallow in as the dry season continues. The rains will come in November, but before that, the weaker hippos who cannot compete for the deeper water to cool in, will die. Crocodiles and the scavengers - hyenas and vultures - will eat the carcasses so nothing is wasted.
The hippos look like boulders and the crocodiles look like branches, and unless they move, it takes a keen eye or binoculars to detect them.
A group of hippos is a pod, a group of giraffes is a parade, and my personal favourite is a dazzle of zebras, which is extremely apt. Apparently the stripes of the zebra aren't just camouflage; if the zebras stand still, which they often do, they confuse the enemy who can't see where one zebra ends and the next begins. There are 400 species of birds in the park, ranging from tiny finches to giant eagles and storks, and from the plain grey, crested, lourie to the colourful lovebirds and lilac-breasted roller ('lilac bleasted loller') which has seven different beautiful colours, many of them iridescent.
I have put some photos on Facebook as I can't seem to put any on here.

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