Well, hello there. I hope that you are brilliantly well and had a lovely weekend. Here in the Luangwa, it’s all systems go with getting Luangwa River Camp ready for the new season, so the team are all in place and busy scrubbing, polishing, painting and preparing. There is a sense of great excitement around the camp as everyone looks forward to opening the doors to this year’s guests. But before I digress too much, today we are having a roundup from Frauke Groth who late last year took a round trip to most of our properties to gain first-hand experience. She is part of the DiaMonde team who represent us in German speaking Europe. Frauke over to you:
“I took a most wonderful, albeit slightly hectic trip around RPS properties with 7 camps in just 10 days, 13 safari experiences, wonderful people, animals and food… what an experience! My itinerary had been perfectly planned – landing in Blantyre it was not long before I was scooped up and travelling down the incredible escarpment road but a mere 2.5 hours later, I was welcomed to Mkulumadzi Lodge with a lovely cool towel, refreshing drink and mesmerising view and sound of the river.
Soon the sound of the river became background noise and the bird calls started to be heard and then the crackling of the bush as a waterbuck appears and all this around the room, making no mistake that you are in the African bush.
It’s no secret that a safari day starts early, so after a light breakfast off we went, being immersed into the natural treasure that is Majete. Birds around every corner never failing to keep you enthralled and in between our avian friends there are elephants, zebras, impalas, Nyalas, Hippos and crocodiles.
After the most wonderful couple of nights, it was time to pack my bags and head to Kuthengo Camp. My first impression was one of astonishment that this was the same river that rushed past Mkulumadzi Lodge. Here it’s a huge wide river with sandy banks and countless hippos and elephants reaping the fruits of life on a floodplain and just loving the grazing.
This camp is in wonderful contrast to the last with the rooms being spacious and extremely comfortable tents and instead of the sound of rushing water lulling you to sleep after a delicious dinner and campfire night cap it’s the sound of hippos munching away at the grass around the tent.
The morning game drive took us straight to 3 lions who had spent the night very close to camp who were lying lazily in a shady patch wandering just how much sleeping they were going to do that day. Leaving the lions to their hectic plans we carried on immersing ourselves in the birdlife and mammals that were dotted all over including the joy of watching countless elephants which are always a pleasure to stop and watch.
Sadly, my time in Malawi was up but I was thankfully still going to be on African soil, heading across the border to Zambia where more adventures were awaiting.”
Wow, wonderful thank you Frauke for sharing and so looking forward to hearing the next part of your explorations. However, we shall have to hold fire and wait until next week. For now, I shall bid you a very fond farewell. Have a fabulous week with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
