Well, hello there I hope that you are fabulously well. Here in the Luangwa, we are charging full steam ahead with our game viewing that’s for sure. This week we are hearing from Simon Cousins who with the rest of the family leapt straight into the car after the girls finished school for half term, with no chance to change out of uniform and to the Luangwa they came. As always, they had some incredible sightings so before I digress into my usual conversation with you about the weather, I shall pass you on to Simon.
“Amazing as always – those are the only words that can describe our latest trip. Having had the distinct feeling amongst the entire family that it had been far too long since we had all been to the Luangwa, the excitement in the car was palpable and as always, the Valley did not let us down. The usual game as we descend into the valley is what animal are we going to see first and usually it is those pesky little baboons causing havoc in the village or some magnificent elephants as we get further out of town. Either way, whatever it is it is always fantastic.
As always, the game viewing was incredible, but it has to be said that the highlight was a young male leopard, from opposite Nkwali, fishing a piglet out of its burrow.
We found the young male finishing off a meal but couldn’t quite tell what he had caught as it was clearly at the end of his meal. He then got up and walked off to a nice shady spot to clean himself, of which he spent a good 15 minutes doing so. I suggested that after his bath he would take himself off to the deep shaded grove of Mahogany trees right in front of him.
To the surprise of us all he got up and turned and walked in the other direction. Then, at the base of a small bush he started to scratch around in an almost playful manner. He then turned 180 degrees and dived down a burrow, that was hidden from our view, by some long grass. After a brief skirmish he emerged from the burrow with a very young piglet. My feeling was that these piglets had not yet had the chance to venture out into the big bad world yet as the one we saw was fairly light in colour so probably hadn’t seen any sunlight yet! Unfortunately for this little piglet the big, bad world came to it, and probably its sibling, earlier!
It was quite an amazing sighting and an emotional one for all on board. Shanie, my wife, having briefly looked after a little abandoned piglet when previously working at Tena Tena, was particularly distraught! Apparently, she wasn’t actually crying… just some emotion coming from her eyes!!
October in the Luangwa is a phenomenal game viewing extravaganza, if very warm. There were numerous sightings of all species relaxing in the shade during the heat of the day, either fast asleep, or taking the opportunity for some general grooming.
The population of wild dogs in the valley continues to grow and prosper, with the big pack in the main area numbering over 30! We spent a lot of time simply watching the latest set of pups play fighting over various bits of whatever their family had recently killed (in this case an impala). A lot of this so-called play is, in part, working out which young dogs will end up dominant dogs when they reach adulthood.
Our bird count for this trip was over 130 and our daughters’ keen eyes and ever-growing knowledge of the birds contributing heavily to the count. With all the carmine bee eaters around and the arrival of other migrants into the region, chances to spot something a little different keeps any keen birder interested.”
Wow, incredible! Thanks so much for sharing this with us Simon and as always, your incredible photos. We cannot wait to see you all back again for Christmas.
After that, I am left with very little to say, so I shall gracefully bow out of this week’s Its Monday. I wish you a wonderful week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
