South Luangwa Safari
We had visitors this month. Gabe and Rob are friends from Seattle that now live in London. Jason is a friend from Seattle that now lives in Seattle. Bret, a friend from Lewis, also came out with his girlfriend Nicole. It was great to hang out with friends and take time off work. It made returning to work pretty difficult, maybe it was too much fun. We went to Lake Kariba for a couple days and then Livinstone for 3. I might post some pictures from that but you've seen all that before.
South Luangwa is one of the best safari destinations in the world. It is still raining in Zambia so it's considered the "Green Season" in Luangwa. I guess this means that you don't see as much wildlife. It must be ridiculous in the dry season because we saw more than we've ever seen before...and this is the low season.
We stayed at Mfuwe Lodge which sits on a lagoon full of hippos, crocs and one snake. We listened to hippos moving in and out of the water and also heard lots of hippo conversation. They were just off the back porch.
The highlight of the trip was seeing the big cats. All in all, we saw about 7 lions and 1 elusive leopard. On our first night, we came up to an open field and saw zebra running one way and kudu running the other. As we scanned the field with the spotlight we saw a big female lion scanning her potential dinner. We pressed on a little further and saw the rest of the lions come together. We sat with them for a little while and quietly watched them hunt. It's a strange feeling to be sitting in the middle of a dark field with hungry lions.
The next morning we found the remaining member of the pride. This male lion had been separated from the other for the last couple days. He was out making sure that no other males were encroaching on his territory. When we were with the rest the night before, this guy was up near the lodge. We found him not too far from the lodge on this morning.
On one of the night drives we stopped for Sundowners. The lodge made a spread of appetizers and set up a minibar. You can see the bartender in this picture. He assured us that if you drink the gin, you'll see the leopard. We took his word for it but didn't see any leopards that night.
Bret and I took his advice on our last night drive. We were sitting conveniently close to the cooler. Long story short...we saw the leopard. This guy was spotted further up the road. We shut off the light on the truck and waited. He slowly walked up the road toward us until he was right in front of the truck. He walked around my side and then around the back. He cooly walked off into the bush. To see a leopard at all is a big deal. Michelle and I had only seen one partially in Chobe National Park and unfortunately Michelle was back in the room when we saw this one.
South Luangwa is one of the best safari destinations in the world. It is still raining in Zambia so it's considered the "Green Season" in Luangwa. I guess this means that you don't see as much wildlife. It must be ridiculous in the dry season because we saw more than we've ever seen before...and this is the low season.
We stayed at Mfuwe Lodge which sits on a lagoon full of hippos, crocs and one snake. We listened to hippos moving in and out of the water and also heard lots of hippo conversation. They were just off the back porch.
The highlight of the trip was seeing the big cats. All in all, we saw about 7 lions and 1 elusive leopard. On our first night, we came up to an open field and saw zebra running one way and kudu running the other. As we scanned the field with the spotlight we saw a big female lion scanning her potential dinner. We pressed on a little further and saw the rest of the lions come together. We sat with them for a little while and quietly watched them hunt. It's a strange feeling to be sitting in the middle of a dark field with hungry lions.
The next morning we found the remaining member of the pride. This male lion had been separated from the other for the last couple days. He was out making sure that no other males were encroaching on his territory. When we were with the rest the night before, this guy was up near the lodge. We found him not too far from the lodge on this morning.
On one of the night drives we stopped for Sundowners. The lodge made a spread of appetizers and set up a minibar. You can see the bartender in this picture. He assured us that if you drink the gin, you'll see the leopard. We took his word for it but didn't see any leopards that night.
Bret and I took his advice on our last night drive. We were sitting conveniently close to the cooler. Long story short...we saw the leopard. This guy was spotted further up the road. We shut off the light on the truck and waited. He slowly walked up the road toward us until he was right in front of the truck. He walked around my side and then around the back. He cooly walked off into the bush. To see a leopard at all is a big deal. Michelle and I had only seen one partially in Chobe National Park and unfortunately Michelle was back in the room when we saw this one.
posted by Michelle and Bob - Zambia @ 5:01 AM
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