Well, hello there. I hope that you are fabulously well and have had and are still enjoying a long weekend. Here in the Luangwa, we have been flat out with guests and have been spoiling them with all sorts of treats including hot cross buns, breakfast in the Park and, where we have had children young enough, easter egg hunts.
Luangwa River Camp has enjoyed its first full week of guests for the season and the camp is looking absolutely fantastic. The team is also very excited to be open for the year, so smiles are certainly aplenty. Game drives have been incredibly productive with heaps of wild dogs and leopards as well as all the plains game. With the rains slowly coming to an end, the concentrations of wildlife are certainly picking up.
Nkwali has, over the last week now started boating straight across from camp and the guides are loving accessing that part of the Park. One of the first sightings that they had was of our female leopard who calls that area her home, and amazingly her cub is still with her. Although it has to be said he can’t really be called a cub any more… just a mummy’s boy! Speaking of the leopard with her “cub” the Luangwa Safari House guests had the most amazing first drive with Yona. Within 10 minutes of getting in the car they heard some alarm calls. Assuming it was the leopard they went to take a look but low and behold it was the dogs. However, after 10 minutes of relaxed behaviour their agenda changed, and they got up and went on a mission. Knowing that there was no way he was going to keep up with the dogs Yona decided to head to a lovely open area towards the pontoon enjoying a variety of sightings on the way. His guise to the guests was “lets find a lovely spot for sundowners” but he was actually thinking the dogs looked like they were sort of heading in this direction. No sooner had the gin and tonics been poured than a herd of impala came barreling out of the bush at top speed passing only a few meters away from the car closely followed by 14 dogs. Guests and Yona were all wide eyed as this amazing event unfolded before them and the chase continued off into thick scrub. As the drinks were already poured focus shifted to that as well as sudden conversation then no more than 10 minutes later a herd of elephants came strolling past very relaxed knowing that the car and the guests were there but feeling totally relaxed by their presence and just wandered past. Wow, what a sundowner! But the afternoon wasn’t finished as on the way back to the boat there was a treat of a leopard sighting waiting for them – surely the icing on the cake and an incredible 2 hours in the bush.
After that one can only assume that expectations had been raised and so to take pressure off of Yona, Tisie and the team put on a fantastic bush breakfast on Easter Sunday for the family along with an Easter Egg hunt. Which let me tell you, out here is no mean feat as you have to take into consideration ants, baboons and the heat! But mission accomplished and lots of fun was had.
From the Nkwali team, the sightings have been equally as fantastic but in very exciting news Kiki was driving back into camp with some guests a few nights ago and found 2 lionesses with 3 cubs. Seems the Nkwali pride is back in the area and have 3 new members of the family. Kiki did try very hard to take a video for the researchers, but he was so excited that he kind of got all terribly muddled. But not to worry, we know they are around and so shall certainly be keeping an eye out.
All in all, what a wonderful weekend for everyone!
So, there you have it for this week’s update. We look forward to seeing what happens in the next week. For now, though all that is left is for me to bid you a very fond farewell and have a wonderful week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
