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An African Experience (of Note!)
How quickly
June 2004 arrived after June 2003! This is a personal special time
of year because it’s my birthday present trip to places wild and
wonderful!
The three hour
layover at
Lusaka
airport between arriving from Ndola and leaving for Mfuwe was long.
The menu at the tatty restaurant promised a decent meal until the
three items available were pointed out and the cooked-to-extinction
meager, expensive meal arrived. The culinary disappointment was
somewhat alleviated by watching metres of red carpet being rolled
onto the runway, cadres of musical and marching soldiers parading to
the vicinity and colourfully dressed interested parties collected to
await the arrival at the airport of Nigerian President Obasanjo.
Those of us
actually going somewhere were rushed to the front of the security
queue and hustled onto our plane as soon as the last person checked
in, to the relief of grumbling passengers expecting to be delayed
for an indeterminate time while the pomp and ceremony of the
departing dignitary got into full swing. Which meant we arrived at
Mfuwe early and our lift had not yet arrived. It’s a quaint airport
and this time I had time to take the pictures I’d missed out on two
years previously!
The drive to
the game reserve showed much development in the last two years.
There are more shops and homes and patches of cotton fields and
sunflowers than I remember from my first trip. Not as much ground
was yet burned for the winter and the roadside markets showed many
more imported goods and fewer locally manufactured goods. (My
opinion on this fact is not favourable)
Kaingo Camp is
a three hour game drive from the airport, involving a sundowner stop
on the way. Our greeting sighting was an elephant having a dust
bath, who completed his ablutions with little regard for we humans
on a schedule. In fact, once in the bush schedules are blissfully
forgotten and time becomes meaningless.
Kaingo means
leopard and the website promises nine out of ten visitors see one.
In my usual mode of optimism I fully expected to be the one out of
ten that doesn’t. I was extremely pleased to be proven wrong! And
the poor fellow who bumped into the male leopard between the bush
kitchen and the dining room was probably not quite as excited with
his experience as I was with mine!
It appeared
South Luangwa had a really good summer. There were lots of all the
game on the viewing list and all but a few giraffe looked like well
tended zoo kept animals, fat tummies and shiny coats. The only
diurnal mammal we didn’t see was the Eland and the only nocturnal
mammals that eluded our talented scouts were a few types of
mongoose, serval and porcupine. (I have evidence that there are
porcupine in the area in my suitcase.)
We saw all four
of the African big five that are present in this part of the valley;
herds of buffalo, many groups of elephant, mating and roaming lion
and the elusive and beautiful leopard guarding her kill from a
hungry hyena. Some of these were at closer quarters than a city
slicker like me is generally comfortable with: thank goodness for
the guy with the gun! We were never in any danger, even on the
walking safaris, except perhaps when we barreled (in the jeep)
around a corner to find a cobra in spitting position. My first
thought was ‘photograph’, the guide’s was ‘don’t look’. The guide
won.
Tree squirrels
jumped and bounced all day and elephant shrew covered the roads at
night.
Apparently
tusked elephant have been rare sightings in the last few years
because the gene has been in the process of being bred out due to
poaching for the ivory. The game management areas around the valley
are obviously doing an excellent job of keeping the poaching in
check. Whereas, according to my Zambian Luangwa Valley fundi, up to
five or so years ago one in ten elephant had tusks, this year two in
ten did not.
There might not
have been as many birds as I was hoping to see – based on the vast
variety from two years before – but Kevin was thrilled to find the
very rare albino drongo. My photographic skills are not yet
sufficient to provide proof of this awesome find, but hopefully
Marianne Shenton had better luck.
The plane
leaving Mfuwe for Lusaka was an hour late. This was no little cause
for concern as we had a twenty minute layover to catch the next
plane on to Ndola! Fortunately that large plane waited for our
little plane. As we disembarked, we were asked to identify our
luggage and herded across the concourse onto the waiting plane.
Somewhere between one set of stairs and the next someone remembered
to check plane tickets.
On my last
night in Zambia I was indulged in a Jacuzzi fed directly from the
local pond, which might seem to be a decadent city slicker kind of
thing to do. Finding the leach behind my knee in the morning put
paid to that idea!
Would I have
changed a minute of this trip? Not even a second. Africa is not for
sissies and each and every experience is a metallic thread in the
tapestry of the richness and fullness of every second of every
moment of living here.
Where to in
2005?
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November 2004