Not your Average Tent!
South Luangwa National Park, Zambia
November 14, 2011
We did not wake up before our 5:15 wake up call again today & we both slept very soundly. Apparently the buffalo was crashing about last night & we did not hear him.
We had toast, apricot jam & locally made peanut butter with tea & mango juice before driving to a spot to begin our walking tour.
We parked near a sausage tree, you have to be careful walking under these trees as the sausages are quite dense & will knock you unconscious if they hit you in the head. Near the spot where we parked there was a shrub with some white flowers. The flowers look like a sunny-side up egg, so it is called the egg tree
. This is the lovely fragrance that I occasionally get a waft of when we are walking or driving. Also, right by the vehicle was a decent sized termite mound; they are all pretty big, & we have seen them everywhere we have been so far in Africa.
We are walking in the area where we saw the leopards the other night. If they are still mating they will be in this area.
Lots of bugs busing around my head. It is a type of bee that does not bite, but likes to find moisture in your eyes, ears, mouth & nose. Very amazing, sort of like gnats back home, but louder.
We saw an egret at the top of a tree & hear many other birds like the hadeda ibis. Fannuel explained that women will collect the fresh mud from the side of a termite mound. They use the mud to make clay pots. As a mischievous young both he would use this clay to make pellets for his slingshot! He also explained that the mud is somehow waterproofed & the mounds are not destroyed during the rainy season
.
Funnuel dug an ant lion out of the conical hole in the sand for us. The ant lion is one of the little five, & he captures & eats ants that fall into his hole. He also showed us a wooden pear which is also known as the laughing hippo.
We came upon a bull elephant. He was quietly munching & it was John, in the rear of our group who spotted him first. It could have been very intense if we had gone up close & startled him. He had not detected us yet because he was busy eating & we are downwind of him. We carefully detoured around him & did not disturb him.
We saw two massive strangler figs that had taken over the sausage trees. The fig is started by an animal like a baboon pooping the seeds onto another tree.
Fannuel explained that impala mothers hide their young during the day
. Later, they retrieve them with calls that sound like grunts. It is not cruel to leave them like this, they are actually quite safe because their scent glands are not yet developed which makes them undetectable by predators unless they move.
Shortly after our tea & snack break I spotted a dying baby impala. The poor thing was lying in the sun & was struggling to stand up. He has either been injured & abandoned by his mother or his mother has been killed & eaten by the pair of leopards that are nearby. Either way, this little guy is going to die. Fannuel & John did the most humane thing that they could & picked up the struggling baby & set him in the shade so he would be more comfortable. Hopefully he dies quickly or is eaten sooner than later.
After that, we had a short walk back to the vehicle, then a brief drive back to camp
. We did not see any new animals or birds this morning, but it was a great walk nonetheless.
We had time to go back to the room to cool off one last time in the plunge tub before packing up.
Brunch with Brinsley & Fannuel was fantastic. We made our own pizzas with dough that the staff had made. We had to cut off a piece of dough, roll it out, then add our own toppings. We could choose from peppers, chicken, bacon, blue cheese, parmesan, cheddar, grilled onions, olives & mushrooms. Then, Chef Davy placed it in the wood burning oven & baked it for us. We also had fresh tomatoes & cucumbers & fruit for dessert. What a great lunch!
Everything at Kapamba has been absolutely wonderful! Brinsley, Fannuel, Chef Davy & Benjamin have all been fantastic. They are all very passionate & take a lot of pride in their jobs & the camp & it really shows
. They have treated us spectacularly & we will never forget our stay here.
It is another really hot day today. It felt a bit cooler yesterday, but not any longer. Do you know what it feels like to turn an electric space heater on the highest temperature setting, turn the fan on high, then stick your face in front of it? Well, that is exactly how it feels when riding in the vehicle today.
Fannuel drove us by their airstrip & delivered us to the care of James, Daniel & Sam at Chindeni.
Chindeni is a tented camp overlooking a lagoon. From the entire camp you overlook the lagoon. There is a huge array of wildlife to be seen this afternoon. We saw four new birds: 3 pelicans - which were really neat to watch, an amazing flash of blue from the woodland kingfisher, a little stint & lots of African spoon bills (white body, red face & wide bottom part of the bills)
. We also saw crocodile eating fish, baboons calling to each other, waterbuck eating fresh grass, wartys, impalas, southern carmine bee-eater, great egret (white with yellow bills & black legs), Egyptian goose, grey heron (white head with a black stripe & yellow bills), African sacred ibis (black & white with black bills), African jacana, African open bill (all black with a opening in the middle of the bill), common ringed plover, marabou stork (grey body, reddish head, a huge double chin & yellow bills), saddle-billed stork (black & white bodies, red & black bills), & yellow-billed stork (white & grey bodies, red head & yellow bills).
We did not nap much because it is so fascinating watching all the birds & crocs! So, we headed to the common area for some cold drinks & to look up all the birds in a book. We have seen most of them before, but normally they are passing us by or we are passing them by, so this is our first opportunity to study them more closely
.
The yellow-billed storks are all standing around with their wings open. They do this for several reasons: to dry off, to cool down & to aid digestion.
Gilbert is going to be our guide for the next couple of days. We met him at tea time along with our new traveling companions Heidi & Olli from Germany. The first thing that we saw immediately, before we were barely out of the camp, was a baboon with something bright red in his mouth & he was running to hide behind a tree. It is now very apparent that baboons are omnivores. Gilbert said that bushbucks inhabit this area, so it is likely that the baboon killed a baby bushbuck. Baboons will snatch a small animal & kill it by tearing it apart. It does not sound like a pleasant way to go out.
We did not see any new animals on our drive to the sundowner
. We were able to see some monkeys with their babies which are always fun to watch, 3 go-away birds & impalas with red-billed oxpecker on their backs (this was a first for me to see). We did see a herd of puku with the Chindeni Hills in the background that was very lovely. I may have spoiled the moment by pointing out the puku going poo poo though! Tee hee!
We did see some interesting behaviour from a male impala. He was stopped in the roadway eating a sausage pod & thoroughly enjoying it. Gilbert said he has never seen this, he has only seen them eat sausage flowers.
We parked by the riverbank to watch the hippos wake up & splash around. I may have gotten a decent photo of a hippo yawn as it is a bit more light out than when we usually stop for the sundowner. We did see a new bird, a little bee-eater, which is green & yellow
. We could see the hadeda ibis standing in the water with the light reflecting off to clearly show it's green-tinged feathers. Overhead a huge flock of Abdim's storks flew over looking for a spot to roost for the night. They swooped down low & freaked out the hippos. It was pretty funny! Before we left before the night safari, the skies became very dark & there is a lot of lightening all around us, but not over us. The wind is gusting, but still really hot.
We did not see many animals along the night drive after our sundowner. I don't think I have explained how this works yet. Gilbert our driver guides us along the road, it is normally very dark & is especially dark tonight as a thunderstorm is rolling in. The spotter, Ted, uses a 800 watt light and stands in the passenger seat & shines the light on both sides of the vehicle on the ground & into the trees to try to spot some nocturnal animals
. The spotter tries to avoid shining the light at hippos, impalas, & other animals that are not nocturnal because this often confuses & disorients them.
After freshening up we were escorted to the common area for dinner & drinks. The flaps have been put up on the lagoon side because the distant storms are causing high winds. We enjoyed a candle light meal of pork chops, snap peas, fresh bread, salad, potatoes & white chocolate mousse.
On our way back to the room James spotted a African barred owlet perched outside our room. They will sometimes come out during the day to avoid competing with their larger relatives for food.
New birds that we saw today in South Luangwa National Park:
little bee-eater
woodland kingfisher
great white pelican
little stint
African spoon bill
Abdim's stork