Zambia

Our last full day in Malawi began with a 12km round trip walk to a waterfall. In order to do the trip before the heat of the day we left at 6:00am and drove for 15 minutes to the starting point.  We walked through a village and about 10 boys joined us. Apparently they do the walk to the waterfall whenever the guide brings a group past. The route varied from thin tracks to dusty roads and went up hill and done dale. The boys were mostly in 'crocs’ but some had bare feet and they ran ahead sometimes through the bush with seemingly no problems.  We apparently are fairly quick, getting there around half an hour quicker than most groups (They probably say that to everybody) The walk was very worthwhile with quite a magnificent set of falls at the end. It was much higher than the picture shows, but we couldn't get the right angle.

The rest of the day was spent lounging by the pool and relaxing.  Next day was another 6:00am start with 11 hours on the road, including a border crossing into Zambia.  Malawi had been quite interesting and while it is a poor country the houses seemed to be much better built than in Tanzania.  Most people make their own bricks, then get a bricklayer to build them a house. The roofs are mostly thatched but occasionally corregated iron.  The cars so far have been 95% old Japanese models. Japan have very strict roadworthy rules and people tend to sell their cars within 5 years. Seems most of those cars come here to die.  (Africa is right hand drive, the same as Japan) In one of the larger Malawi towns we saw a bunch of bicycles with a padded seat where we would have a packrack and a small registration plate underneath. These were taxis! (They also have motorbike and car taxis, no doubt bikes are cheap)

The border crossing into Zambia was relatively straightforward and much quicker than into Malawi.  Our first two nights are at a Wildlife camp on the banks of the Luangwa river, where we can see elephants, hippos and monkeys. This is one of the camps where we are warned not to get out of our tents late at night. We could certainly hear hippos most of the night and as I sit at the bar writing this there is a herd of 6 elephants (including a couple of babies) about 200 metres away - and walking towards us. Incredible. This morning we did another game drive, though this time we stopped the car once inside South Luangwa National Park and walked for about 2 hours. We had a guide and a hunter, who carried a gun - just in case. Apparently his first shot is a warning shot, though he never looked like needing it on our walk. We saw the usual zebras, giraffes and elephants, but it was very different being on the ground instead of a car.  Our guide also pointed out footprints and various flora and fauna, explaining which are eaten and how some trees attempt to not get eaten - by looking unpalatable or even creating a bad tasting secretion.

BTW those elephants I mentioned earlier came to within 20 metres before turning into the bush. There is an ‘elephant hide’ in the camp next to a waterhole and we had earlier hidden in there to watch 3 elephants drink and splash mud on themselves. We showered and ordered a margarita cocktail from the bar, getting ready for a night Safari that was due to leave at 4:00pm.  The Safari left late because those pesky elephants returned and walked through our campsite. The people staying in rooms had to wait for them to pass so they could come and join us. The elephants then walked between our tents and the river, a distance of only a few metres. Lucky none of us were in the tents and trying to get out!

The night Safari took us back into the National Park where we saw the usual suspects including a large herd of elephants very close to and on the road.  We stopped and looked at them for a while, then our driver started revving his engine and creeping forward. Most of the elephants moved off slowly but one young male took offence.  He looked at us for a while flapping his ears - a sign of agitation - and wobbling his head, then as we drove past he put in a little charge. Well I was on that side of the car - a very open one - but I wasn’t the only one to get a fright.  Everyone jumped back a bit, but our driver seemed to know the young elephant wouldn’t fully charge and I think was chuckling. Wonderful.

We continued on, stopping to have a drink as we watched the sunset, then the co-driver hooked up a spotlight and we went hunting again.  We saw a lot of antelope and quite a few hippos. The hippos were interesting because during the day they are usually in the water or at most on the banks.  At night they go roaming so it was interesting to see them walking on land. We also came across a leopard that was lying on the ground, probably quite full from a recent kill.  She stayed there despite spotlights from multiple trucks being trained on her. Some hyenas came from the bush behind the trucks and all lights swung onto them. When the lights returned the leopard was no longer there.  That was a little bit of a concern until the spotlights found her again. It was certainly an interesting night.