Its Monday and another spectacular Luangwa safari

I do hope that you are well and are ready to once again be made green with envy when you hear this week’s update from Simon Cousins. He recently brought a group of work colleagues through to the Valley for a stay at Luangwa Safari House. So, for this week Simon over to you: “As always it was…

I do hope that you are well and are ready to once again be made green with envy when you hear this week’s update from Simon Cousins. He recently brought a group of work colleagues through to the Valley for a stay at Luangwa Safari House. So, for this week Simon over to you:

“As always it was a spectacular trip to the Luangwa. When you start the trip by introducing guests to Luangwa Safari House, who have never been to the house before, you are starting on the front foot. The house was spectacular, as always, with wonderful elephant, warthog and baboon viewing throughout the lovely, lazy afternoons either by the pool or on the deck. One of the nights, whilst having dinner, we had a leopard wander past the deck!

A beautiful Pel’s Fishing owl was sitting in the branches overhanging the lagoon one morning, to start the day off – all these sightings were from the house! We hadn’t even got onto a game drive vehicle yet!

When we did venture out into the bush the Luangwa Valley really came to the party! Guiding people who enjoy it all and take pleasure from just being in the bush makes the whole safari so easy. Baboons going about their daily lives provides hours of entertainment, watching lilac breasted rollers dive bombing brown hooded kingfishers who were feeding too close to the roller was a great sight. Meve’s starlings harassing a slender mongoose and guinea fowls fussing over very little all adds to the day out.

There are always a number of highlights that will stay with a person forever and we certainly had a number of such sightings. A lovely leopard rolling in the Katete sand river, before getting up, stretching, and then wandering off in the afternoon light is always going to stick in the memory bank for a long time.

But the sighting of the trip was seeing wild dog pups at the den, being fed by the alpha female… I have never seen wild dog pups this small, and it was an absolute joy to see the dogs, adult and pups, over and over again, interacting, feeding and hunting throughout the stay.

Thanks again to the RPS team and the wonderful crew at the house for spoiling us all.”

Amazing, thanks so much Simon! We look forward to seeing you back in the Valley again soon. In other news Luangwa River Camp has had a very exciting week with wild dogs making a kill on the beach opposite camp and a seemingly constant stream of elephants wandering through camp. They also have a HUGE crocodile who sits on the bank glaring menacingly at the guests as they cruise past in the boat, and one can’t help but wonder what is going on in his mind!

Up at Nsefu and Tena Tena let me say that this last week has been absolutely amazing for wildlife… from curling cobras to crashing crocodiles, its been non-stop. The lions took their time coming back into the area after the rain, as with all cats, wading through the water is not top on their list. Now that they are back, they are back with a vengeance, and we have been seeing lions at both the camps including a somewhat exciting sighting of the wild dogs chasing off a big male lion to keep him away from their den.

Tena Tena has also had some wonderful sightings of leopards who seem to have been scattered all over the place including a lovely mating pair which was certainly a highlight for the guests.

I could very well go on; however, I shall keep you in suspense for more stories next week. So, between now and then, I 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.