Well, hello there. I do hope that you are well and have had a splendid weekend. Here in the Luangwa well its been so busy with such a wide array of amazing and different sightings but today we are hearing from Simon Cousins who recently spent a few days up at Nsefu and once again had some simply incredible sightings. Simon over to you:
“Thanks to the wonderful crew at Nsefu for looking after our group so well. It is one of my absolute favourite camps in the Luangwa and the wildlife, as usual, did its bit to entertain us.
On arrival we were quite surprised to see the amount of water flowing down the Kauluzi stream, as you enter the Nsefu sector, and even more surprised to see the water levels in the Mtanda stream, which has branched off to also flow through fourways crossing.
With a lot of water around game viewing can be a little tricky at times… but not so!
On our first night drive we were lucky enough to find Olimba, the famous leopardess, along with a bigger male leopard, on a zebra foal kill. Sadly, for Olimba, she had done all the hard work and made the kill, only for the bigger male leopard to come in and take the kill off of her. He was sitting in the tree, with the kill stashed in the thick foliage, and she was sitting at the base of the tree, waiting patiently for an opportunity to feed.
The following morning was one of those epic starts to the drive that Luangwa sometimes dishes out. Not 5 minutes out of camp we came across two beautiful big male lions walking down the road. We had seen a few buffalo a few hundred metres back so thought that they might show a bit of interest in hunting but they were more concerned with scent marking etc. so did not give the buffaloes a second glance. As we were watching the lions, a herd of Impala started alarm calling a little way behind us.
Realizing that the impala we too far away to see the lions we could only assume they were startled by another predator. We went back down the road and found the impalas staring at a leopard!
The two lions were still on their patrol down the road, and a couple of hyenas, also crossed the road in front of us, and began calling! Where to look…?!
At one point we had the leopard, the lions, a hyena, buffalo and some now hysterical impala all in one panorama – madness! When the lions came into view of the leopard she decided that it was best exit the scene and she headed off rapidly. The hyenas, upon seeing the lions also slinked off into the thickets.
And it had just gone 06:30am!
Another sighting of Olimba, and the sounds of a grumpy male leopard, growling at us from the thicket, followed by a lovely lioness roaring just across the river from us rounded off the morning drive.
The afternoon drive was equally rewarding, when Benias, our eagle-eyed spotter, picked up one of the resident little leopard cubs, not far from camp. The second cub soon appeared, giving us the most wonderful sighting of them. Not wanting to startle them too much, we left them to be and headed off for sundowners. Our search for a suitable spot for drinks was rudely interrupted by yet another leopard, we seemed to have impala on the menu. Not wanting to disturb the hunt, we drove off, not too far away, and had our well-deserved drinks and snacks, within earshot of any potential action should the leopard be successful, but the resident troop of baboons spoiled the hunt and gave up the leopard’s position, unfortunately for her.
Another beautiful little leopard cub came into view, on the night drive… a different cub from the 2 we had seen earlier. It was raining leopards!
Olimba finally got a little bit of her kill the next morning when the grumpy male left the scene but not the reward she deserved for her efforts.
A final sundowner in the Luangwa valley and we were treated to a pack of wild dogs chasing a herd of puku around the sandbank, on the opposite side of the river, although unsuccessful in their efforts.
What a memorable trip… again!”
Wow, what an epic safari! Thanks so much for sharing this with us Simon and we look forward to seeing you back in the Valley again soon. As for me, well after all that, I really think that the only thing left to add is bidding you a very fond farewell and have a fabulous week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
