Well, hello there. I hope that you are well and have had a wonderful weekend wherever you are. Here in the Luangwa, it has been a little bit toasty that is for sure with temperatures happily creeping into the 40’s and with that the first signs of the rains as we hear some distant rumbles of thunder and some wonderful cloud build ups in the afternoon. Given, we have had a couple of early showers but nothing that has put a full stop on game drives, and I must admit I am rather relieved of that as Tena Tena only closes tomorrow and we still have another 3 weeks with guests at Nsefu. However, before I delve too deep into the weather lets get some stories from the bush.
Waking up in the morning with a grey cloudy day is quite unusual and rather pleasant and everyone has a distinct spring in their step. On our way into Nkwali Camp, we pass Kiki who has not managed to get very far as he is sitting watching a lovely leopard on the side of the road which had it not been for him, we would have totally missed as we were busy watching the various different hornbills hopping around happily.
However, the clouds soon burnt off and the day warmed up leading to all the animals doing whatever they could to get a little cooler including this wonderful sighting which Obi had of some lions in a tree. Something that does not happen all that frequently here. The impala and warthogs are all looking rather pregnant, and a few have not been able to hold off on giving birth and Tena Tena has had some very energetic and excitable little piglets bouncing around camp and can most afternoons be seen from the hide annoying mum while she stocks up on lovely green grass and cools down in the little watering hole that Bertram has created.
Bianca our Luangwa River Camp host has also managed to get out into the park as she recently had some time off and had some incredible sightings including a rather dramatic wild dog sighting which is best, she tells you about – so Bianca over to you:
“As my alarm sounded nice and early on my day off, I wondered to myself whether I should sleep in or get up and go. Thankfully I chose to get up and join the game drive as I would have been rather cross with myself if I had missed out. Grabbing a quick coffee and rusk we set off from camp towards the pontoon ticking off plenty of bird species on the way. Then just before getting to the pontoon ahead there was a large herd of buffalo wandering through the thickets. Suddenly one of the guests says, “wild dogs” and there they were 4 adults and 4 youngsters. It seemed that we had stumbled across a hunting lesson! As the dogs start to chase the buffalo, they crash through the thickets with the youngsters following behind and us driving along the road trying desperately hard to keep up with what was happening. But as one would expect 4 adult dogs are not really a match for a buffalo, so they casually end the lesson do some territory marking instead and saunter off to find another opportunity to continue the lesson.
Meanwhile we continue our journey towards the pontoon but soon hear some alarm calling and turn around once more to see what is happening and just a short drive away, we find two male lions, two females and a bunch of cubs full and happy after last night’s dinner with the cubs still chewing on a bone. As we sat to watch them suddenly one of the females stood up and walked towards us realising that the shade from our vehicle was far better than the shade from the tree they were under and so a couple of the cubs joined her and we were really spoilt with a fantastic sighting.
Gosh if this was what we saw before going into the park can you imagine what was waiting on the other side of the river… that shall need to wait for next week I think when I shall continue with sharing some of our wonderful sightings with you.”
Wow thanks so much Bianca, amazing sightings! We cannot wait to hear more next week. So, between now and then we shall bid you a very fond farewell and hope that you have a smashing week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
