I hope that you are splendidly well and have had a lovely weekend. Here in the Luangwa, I suspect that last week I may have jinxed everything by talking about the water levels starting to go down and in fact it has been the absolute opposite, and we have been living in a “water-wonderland” and to say that the river has been high would be an understatement. Anyway, before I go on and on about the weather once more, let me hand you over to Mike and Nancy from Dazzle Africa who have been with us for several weeks now leading a couple of groups. Nancy’s words to me before she arrived were “I do hope that the water stays nice and high so that we get some good boating” I believe that this wish came true. Mike, over to you:
“Thanks, Emily. Dazzle Africa is a global leader in tourism-funded conservation, a rare model where tourism, science, and community support are fully integrated. Through our award-winning safaris, we donate 100% of our profits to wildlife conservation and community projects in Zambia, mostly in and around the Luangwa Valley. Through partnerships with the Zambian Carnivore Programme, Conservation South Luangwa and others, we’ve donated over US$3 million to date, funded 83 boreholes and sponsored 46 local students, most through college graduation.
None of this would happen without being able to bring guests out for a wonderful bush experience and that often includes staying with RPS, whom we have a long-time relationship with, especially this time of year, when we love getting out on the river. We’ve brought guests for many years in a row, but this year was the absolute best, when RPS led us on 3 River Journeys safaris with 25 guests in all, our most yet.
Our first trip this year was led by Dazzle’s fearless leader Stacy and featured amazing sightings and sunsets that were just off the charts. Nancy and I followed her lead and brought our guests to Nkwali and Nsefu where we enjoyed 2 more safaris filled with delighted guests and so many laughs with Bertram and Yona. Maggie and Titus from Zambian Carnivore Project joined us on a few game drives to offer predator context and offered fascinating facts to our wild dog sightings.
Our groups took the rain showers in stride and found donning the cozy rain ponchos that RPS provides no big deal, especially when the rain would stop and the birds in breeding plumage showed off all of their colors. There are no flamingos in the Luangwa but the yellow billed storks more than make up for it taking on a slightly pinkish hue at this time of the year and the hundreds of them nesting in the stork colony is a site to behold.
Boating up to Nsefu with Bertram and Yona is always fun and this year was filled with birding, hippos with babies as well as a few beautiful male kudus along the banks. Up at Nsefu as I have already mentioned the stork colony is simply fantastic but on top of that we had some wonderful elephants, Cookson’s wildebeest and even a herd of eland. Exploring all the channels that zigzag across the Nsefu sector is a major highlight, almost as magical as the incredible sunsets as we exited the ebony grove.
Throughout our entire stay we enjoyed some wonderful food and fabulous hospitality sharing so many wonderful memories and moments with our guests and the team and as if things couldn’t get any better on our last night at Nsefu, Bertram spotted the famed Nsefu pride of lions enjoying sunset right on the banks of the river. He moored us on the branches of a partially submerged tree right in the Luangwa, Yona and our friends in the other boat tied to us, and we enjoyed the most perfect sundowner with these gorgeous beasts. We had been hearing them at night during our stay but certainly didn’t expect to see them from this perspective, almost at eye level, while bobbing up and down in the river with no one else around. Just incredible! Thank you so much to the entire RPS team!”
Wow, thank you both so very much for this – what wonderful trips! We look forward to seeing you both later in the season for a totally different experience. After all of that I am left with little else to add, so shall 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.
