Well, hello there. I hope that you are fabulously well. Here in the Luangwa, with a mixed bag of weather, who knows what each day will bring but one thing is for sure the guides are out and about and showing the guests a wonderful time.
Before we crack on with sightings, lets go through a few camp updates. Tisie and the Luangwa Safari House team are in and are busy dusting, polishing, and painting the house getting ready for our first guests of the season this week. I always feel that opening Luangwa Safari House really rather marks the beginning of the season, a thought that gives me just one or two butterflies as it dawns on me just how much still has to be done.
Sarel and the Luangwa River Camp team have not stopped. Whilst we have had a few supply issues, what we have managed to get done despite this has been wonderful and we are so excited to open for the season in 2 weeks’ time. The rooms have been pretty much rebuilt and whilst there are the last few jobs to get through over the next week, we are feeling confident and excited for the season ahead.
Out in the bush Bertie took a break from rebuilding Tena Tena – again with zero road access due to huge quantities of rain getting the necessary materials to camp became almost impossible. We have thankfully managed to get to the Kawaluzi River now, so as soon as the water drops to below the height of the pillars of our bridge, we shall start and there will be no stopping us. However, before I digress too much, like I said Bertie has been busy with leading safaris and has had a wonderful week.
Starting his safari up at Nsefu there was a little less channel exploring as the water levels have dropped a bit however this did mean that there was more opportunity for walking so the guests got to fully explore. Seeing some of our more unusual animals like several herds of Wildebeest and more surprisingly a herd of about 20 Eland who were not that timid and gave everyone time to actually see them which is a real treat. Also, unusually for this time of the year there were quite a few buffalo scattered around – I say unusually as they normally disappear into areas unknown in the rains and start coming back as things dry out.
As always up at Nsefu there are plenty of elephants and the treat of this time of the year has to be the yellow-billed stork colony. The noise and activity is simply amazing but when you take a moment to glance down to ground level you see crocodiles – usually covered in bird poo – waiting patiently for some poor chick to drop out of the nest.
Having heard lions most nights up at Nsefu but not seeing them this was the first port of call upon reaching Nkwali. Having received a tip off from the Nkwali team and of course being an excellent guide, on the first afternoon safari he found 4 lionesses. However, it wasn’t the lions that stole the show, it was the wild dogs. Having some fabulous sightings almost daily for the past 4 days has been such a treat and we hope that we have a far more settled year with these wonderful animals.
Also heaps of birds in all shapes and sizes (watch here) along with plenty of plains game that is all looking so wonderfully relaxed and healthy even if on one occasion this male impala was having a particularly bad hair day.
So, there you have it for this week; I am going to get going with my day and let you do the same and bid you a very fond farewell. Have a wonderful week with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
