Hello there. I hope that you are fabulously well after another lovely weekend. Here in the Luangwa as the temperatures drop and we prepare for winter we have all been moving around making sure that all early morning conversations are being had in the sunshine. More often than not though, the vervets and baboons have found the best sunny spots first and can be seen basking in the rays holding their feet and warming up ready for another day of causing chaos.
Besides our troublesome primates, its been quite the week of sightings including lots and lots and lots of lions. All of a sudden they have come back into our various game drive areas and a recent group had quite an extraordinary sighting of a couple of male lions out in the blazing sun on a buffalo kill. The car parked a decent distance away to watch the lions and as the lions became aware not of the peoples’ presence but of the presence of the shade of the car, one of the males dragged the carcass to 20m or so across the road and was so intent on getting to the shade that he in fact bumped into the car. Needless to say, the lion got quite a surprise and the guide feeling that maybe a little personal space had been invaded slowly and gently moved on leaving the lion to find some more appropriate shade.
That evening the Nkwali team were out on a champagne sundowner for the guests, and everyone was having a fabulous time when suddenly a pair of male lions decided to join in on the celebrations. Everyone dashed into the cars and watched as they wandered through without a care in the world whilst those watching were slightly concerned about the tables full of snacks and champagne, however it would seem that these lions had no interest and were simply on a mission. After all the excitement the team went back to camp to have a lovely, relaxed dinner… but alas, even more lions – walking across the Robin’s House deck whilst the guests watched from inside and then bumbled straight through Nkwali Camp past the dining room with the guests tucking into some chocolate birthday cake. That was quite enough excitement for one day.
Up at Tena Tena the very big bull elephant named George is back making sure that we all know who is boss as he truly believes that fences are not for him and just walks straight through them. A few evenings ago, he was back again and was just chilling some 10 meters from the bar tent whilst the guests were enjoying their G&T. Once he decided to move off it was time for dinner but once again the wildlife experience didn’t stop, and dinner was interrupted by 2 lions. They were first seen by the watchmen at tent 6 and very soon after they wandered along the beach coming towards dinner. John and Bessy carefully moved the guests into the bar and the lions wandered past roaring as they went. It really was a truly magical experience.
Heading to Luangwa River Camp the guests also experienced a lot of lion action and were out on their evening game drive when they found a herd of buffalo and off in the bush a pride of 15 lions. As it was getting dark the guide stopped the car and switched off the lights so as not to either alert the buffalo or assist the lions and everyone sat watching vague shadows and listening to the noises of the bush to see if something was going to happen. And happen it did – but not as they expected!! All of a sudden rustling and lots of noise lights switched on and an impala is coming towards them with a female chasing her. The lions finally settling out in the open the guests drove off expecting more to happen during the course of the night and sure enough the following morning they found them full bellies with a buffalo kill.
So, as you can see its been non-stop action this week and lots of smiling faces so lets see what next week holds for us. Between now and then though, I 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.
