Well, hello there. I hope that you are fabulously well and have had a lovely weekend. Here in the Luangwa, it is hot and dry but how long for that is the question. The tell-tale signs of the rains being around the corner have started to make themselves known with the red chested cuckoo being back and we have started to hear the familiar if somewhat slightly irritating call. The clouds have started to build a little in the afternoon and whilst we are yet to hear familiar rumbles of thunder and flashes of lighting it can’t be far away.
The female impalas (well some of them) have started to get a little round around the middle and we even had our first sighting of piglets a few days ago. The cicadas have started, and they are even more annoying than the red chested cuckoo and it is a matter of time before the frogs start to chirp.
That being said let’s move our attention back to some wildlife sightings which have been absolutely amazing. Up at Tena Tena it has been a busy week with some wonderful moments shared with an elephant cow and her brand-new calf. A baboon mother with a very white little baby – quite often we do get white baboons, but this youngster really did stand out from the crowd and a fabulous moment with a giant eagle owl.
With the river levels dropping the hippos are really becoming very close and inevitably the occasional fight is breaking out which makes for a lot of noise and posturing before they finally make the decision to interact (WATCH: Epic hippo fight). And the buffalo herds are moving towards the river (Watch: Buffalo herd on riverbed) to get whatever water they can which means that the lions don’t have to go far. A few mornings ago the Tena Tena guests had the extraordinary luck of watching the entire hunt. Jonathan Archer who was up at Tena Tena last week has very kindly shared all the wonderful images with us of all of these sightings so thank you very much indeed.
Down at Nkwali it has also been a week of absolutely incredible with sightings and over the last 6 days it has been non-stop. Giraffes and elephants are aplenty and making the sightings even more special are the numerous little ones that have popped up all over the place. One group of male giraffes have set their eyes on a particular female, and she is needless to say getting really rather fed up with the attention.
Buffalo herds are all over the place, but the Nkwali pride may well have reduced the population by 1 as they stuffed their faces and then spent the next few days panting like crazy in the shade trying to digest and cool down.
The wild dogs are also fully back in action, and the 10 puppies cause mischief whenever possible. Some lovely sightings of the pack together also one of their favourite past times seems to be chasing hyena and on one occasion they really did take on the poor hyena because it was unrelenting and with the puppies around the adults were determined to teach it a lesson.
The birdlife has been wonderful with the carmines both white fronted and carmine just all over the place and brightening up the skies with their wonderful colours. The fish eagles are making the most of the very low water levels and can often be seen swooping down in an attempt to catch a fish – some successful and some not so successful but a lovely sight all the same. Then finally to end the game drive how about a sighting of a porcupine with 2 youngsters just before arriving at camp from the evening drive.
So, there you have it how about that for an incredible week. Let’s wait and see what the next week holds in store for us we will be ready and raring with more updates. But for now, I shall bid you a very fond farewell and hope that you have a lovely week with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
