Well, hello there. I hope that you are fabulously well. Here in the Luangwa as it heats up and the water levels drop, the game viewing intensifies. The trees are dropping their leaves making crunchy crisps for the elephants to snack on and a major headache for the camp teams as they literally spend hours sweeping them up. As soon as the job is done you can pretty much be guarantee that a gust of wind will rise, encouraging yet more to fall to the ground and with that a simultaneous sigh from the groundsmen.
Up in the Nsefu Sector the four ways stream and the Kawaluzi stream have now dried up and the animals are making full use of being able to expand their domains. Croc river still has a bit of water and is only really for the brave or foolish to cross but soon it will be free reign for all as it continues to dry out.
The elephants now litter the shady patches during the midday heat and it’s only the puku that seem to happily sit out in the sun. As the lagoons dry out there is some very cautious drinking in the river happening and the hippo pods are starting to become a little less spread-out. Several more months of no rain so let’s see how things unfold.
Truth be told it’s been a pretty hectic week with some amazing sightings as well as some rather distressing ones.
Up at Tena Tena Sebastian was out on a morning game drive when a female lion burst out of a bush crossing the road in a huge rush in front of the car. She headed straight towards a male lion that was attacking one of the cubs. The male was far too big for the female to chase off the cub on her own and it wasn’t long before another female joined her to come and help. A third female subsequently arrived, and they were all mobbing the male he pinned one of them down but the other two were biting his behind until finally he gave up and started running away with the females chasing him.
The females returned to the cub by which time it was already too late and then the rest of the pride arrived, they all took turns to sniff the cub and display flehmen before they all just sat down around the dead cub as if they were mourning its passing.
Meanwhile in a slightly more bizarre turn of events Perry was out on a game drive and came across a sleeping hippo in the shade of a bush and just a couple of metres from the sleeping hippo was a leopard just seemingly taking it easy in the remaining shade!!
From the sad to the bizarre and now to the entertaining with one last sighting for today’s Its Monday… As the bush dries up the Luangwa Safari House hide becomes more and more productive and a few days ago a herd of elephants came in and the youngsters in a moment of “mum why did you make us walk so far” just sort of launched themselves into the muddy water regardless of the rest of the herd wanting to be a little more civilised over the matter and just flopped. Tips of their trunks working as snorkels as they submerged the rest of themselves in very muddy water.
So, there you have it for this week, plenty happening and plenty more left untold, so more stories to follow that is for sure. However, between now and next week 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.
