Well hello there. I hope that you are splendidly well and have had a fabulous weekend doing all the awesome things that weekends are about. Here in the Luangwa its exciting times as Luangwa River Camp has opened its doors for the season and is looking absolutely awesome. Willie, Bianca and the team have done a wonderful job of at getting camp open. The team has leapt into action, and everyone is really excited for the season. It may have taken a moment or two to get into the swing of things especially for Willie as one morning pre coffee he was heading up to the bar and saw something moving around on the tiny sand bar in front of camp. Scampering up the steps and grabbing the scope to assist his early morning vision he zoomed in and low and behold there was a honey badger!!
Completely not what he or anyone would have expected slightly shocked he watched as the honey badger madly ran around the island then waded through ankle deep water to the next island then leapt off the next island and swan over a good 10m stretch to the next bigger island where it disappeared in the long grass… Well, what a way to start the day and the season.
Its not just Willie who has been treated with sightings from Luangwa River Camp, the team has also been showing the guests some of the absolute best that the Luangwa has to offer. The guests were welcomed into camp with enormous warmth and smiles and were overwhelmed with just how much comfort the wildlife and the camp offered them. Everyday so far has been different and we eased our guests in with lots of birds, giraffes, and impala before building up to elephants and zebra and then finishing with the carnivores. In between the wildlife sightings the guides filled every moment with stories of the plants or the bugs and moved with ease from sighting to sighting.
The leopard remained a shadow with only a fleeting glimpse of one as it peeked out from the bush and disappeared almost immediately into another showing just how incredibly camouflaged, they are.
The lions have also been around and were slightly less nervous as John found them in the morning with full bellies fast asleep. After a few minutes everyone decided to move on and come back in the afternoon. Finding them later, they parked the car in the shade and just sat and watched. They chuckled to themselves slightly as they could hear other cars looking for the lions, but they all failed and soon the bush was silent once more and the waiting paid off as the lions started to stretch and wake up moving around some getting a lot closer to the car and having a little play. A completely magical half hour was spent in awe of these magnificent beasts. Stefanie Vuylsteke was one of our first guests and has been kind enough to share some of her images of the lions with us.
Next, all that was left were the wild dogs and just after crossing the river heading to a spot where they were going to park the car and head out for a walk suddenly bursting out of the bush came a puku with dogs hot in pursuit – watch it here.
Adrenaline was pumping through every one of the guests, dogs and puku – there was a sense of nervousness coursing through the bush but everyone disappeared and so the walk began. However, that afternoon back in the game viewer the guests set out to find the dogs, this time they had managed to make a kill and whilst it’s never a pleasant thing to see it is nature and it is survival of the fittest as you watch these magnificent creatures both predator and prey going about their lives.
Wow, what a first week! Thanks so much for sharing this with us Stefanie and we hope to see you back in the valley again soon.
After all of this there is very little I can follow on with, so I shall gracefully bid you a very fond farewell and hope that you have a fabulous week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
