Well, hello there. I hope that you are well and have had a wonderful weekend. Here in the Luangwa as we watch the water levels in the river drop daily and start panicking even further over how much we still need to get done before opening Tena Tena and Nsefu for the season. We are going to take a moment away from that and hear from the Cousins crew who were recently here for a long weekend.
Something slightly different this trip though as a couple of hours into the journey here from Malawi, Simon realised that he had forgotten his camera at home, so all the photos are by Isla who has taken up her father’s passion for photography. So, for this week Simon and Isla over to you:
“As Emily knows, I forgot my camera kit – disaster was my first thought then I came to terms with the fact that I was not turning back to get it and decided that this was going to be the perfect opportunity for me to spend time with Isla and teaching her little bits and pieces about her camera and it was simply fantastic.
As you can see from the photos we had some great sightings. The Valley was extremely dry for this time of year, but it kept on producing the goods.
We had great lion viewing with the highlight being a young, restless cub that was clearly bored and needed to do something. Firstly, it used the bull bar of the land cruiser as a scratching post and then, after harassing the adults, decided to climb a nearby sausage tree.
It was easy enough going up but coming down was a whole other matter! It spent ages up the tree, turning around and around trying to find the best way to get down. The images do not do the exercise justice but needless to say the young lion eventually got itself out of the tree in a very ungracious way!
There was plenty of other game dotted throughout the bush but a standout aside from the rather restless lion had to be of a huge tortoise crossing the road (I can’t remember ever seeing one this size, in the Valley, before). Certainly, one of our highlights.
As a family we really enjoy and spend a lot of time birding and chalked up some 142 different bird species over the weekend. Some of our more memorable bird sightings were of a hamerkop trying and eventually swallowing a young catfish.
From a photographic point of view, I think Isla’s photos of the Collared sunbird on the leonotis flower was the highlight – great photos. The juvenile Martial Eagle, having just missed taking a guineafowl, posed beautifully for us. Another goodie was the Marsh Sandpiper, which are not frequently seen.
Another wonderful break in the Valley that never fails to thrill us as a family!”
Wow, thanks so much Simon and Isla. I am sure we shall see you all again very soon.
After those fantastic sightings and photos, I think that my job has very much been done for me so I shall disappear off for this week and hope that you have a fabulous week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
