Well, hello there. I hope that you are fabulously well and have had a lovely weekend. Here in the Luangwa well its been non-stop and after all the hard work it has been fantastic to open both Tena Tena and Nsefu camps for yet another season.
The question now is where to begin with the stories of the sightings so lets start upstream at Nsefu which literally opened with a bang and a roar with a female lion and young cub being seen not far from camp. The elephants waiting for the guests to arrive before starting to cross the river in front of camp and also to take some nice big drinks from the lagoon.
The hide in camp is already proving incredibly fruitful and we can only imagine what a hot spot it will become as the season progresses, and the bush dries up.
Whilst speaking of hides we have also put in a hippo hide this year and it is a bit of a gamble as its very early and we obviously have no idea what will happen to water levels however, it is proving a lovely spot for a sundowner as well as some hippo watching. Not to mention some skimmers on the opposite bank and plenty of crocs.
Our resident movie star Olimba has been spotted on a few occasions, but the birdseed is so high and the bush still so thick that it really has been a bit of a challenge for everyone however the occasional glimpse has been incredibly rewarding and enjoyed by all. Driving deeper into the bush there have been loads of buffalo, giraffe, zebra and of course antelope. This year the stork colony never flooded, and the storks never nested so we have small groups of them gathered at random along croc river so it shall certainly be very interesting to see what happens next rains with them.
Removing the spotlight from Nsefu lets head downstream to Tena Tena where there have been plenty of plains game sightings although it has to be said that strangely very few elephants but now that they are back at Nsefu I am sure that they will start venturing towards Tena Tena as well. The tree hyrax population seems to be on the up and the family has expanded and yesterday 6 were spotted so that’s really quite exciting.
Lions are heard often but haven’t yet been sighted however the two little leopard cubs that we saw at the very beginning of last season are still doing really well and whilst the one is still rather shy the team have had a couple of sightings of them as they disappear in and out of the tall grass.
Continuing our journey down river and to Luangwa River Camp where the beach has now dried up beautifully in front of camp which gives the most perfect opportunity for Friday night dinners out under the stars. This is incredibly special as the enormous night sky stretches out above and the cool night air warmed by the fire of the BBQ as the chef prepares a delicious meal for all the guests. The game viewing has also been pretty fantastic with plenty of sightings of – well – everything including loads of zebra and elephants and even a quick glimpse of a baby leopard.
And finally, as we reach Nkwali where the lions have been camped out behind camp for a couple of days causing chaos amongst the baboon and impala population as well as for all the team making sure that we keep our eyes wide open when moving around. But lets face it how special and how lucky are we to be seeing these magnificent creatures.
So, there you have it for this week as you can see no slowing down, in fact just speeding up as we get ready to welcome our first guests into Luangwa Bush Camping as well so we will have updates from John and his team very soon. I shall now bid you a very fond farewell, have a fantastic week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
