SafariChick and Sangeeta's Adventures through Kafue and Liuwa Plain National Parks

[graceland]

Thanks for continuing @@SafariChick..seems Phil and Tyrone gave you a bit of diversity between boating, walking and driving.

 

I like switching things up as well. You look quite happy in your bug suit with amarula in hand - next to Phil in shorts ( was he accustomed to tsetses?

or not care!)

[egilio]

Boomslang is also an option indeed. How long and thick was it?

[SafariChick]

@@egilio Ugh I'm not good at estimating those things. It was probably a couple of feet long and not thicker than I could put my hand around? That's not very accurate I know! But I feel like I remember someone telling Jess, the volunteer, back at camp that we'd seen a boomslang and her saying it was her favorite snake or something like that.

[egilio]

I was merely asking because if it would have been longer than 2 meters it would most likely be a mamba. Boomslang could get up to about 2 meters, and olive grass snake about a meter. Olive grass snake often get mistaken for boomslang, and boomslang doesn't come on the ground all that often. I assume you didn't get a shot with the head in it?

[Galago]

@@wilddog @Tdgtoves @@Soukous yes, absolutely right (and I'm rusty) it's a water dikkop now known as water thicknee, aka flat battery bird! It's amusing, isn't it, that the name changed from Africaans 'dikkop' (thick-head) to thick-knee. And if anyone one is wondering why it's called the flat battery bird, it's call it DOO-DOO-DOo=Doo_doo_dooo-dooooooo-dooooooooooooo

[SafariChick]

No, sadly no shot with the head in it. I'm sure it wasn't longer than 2 meters. I've just asked Phil if he recalls whether it was a boomslang - will report back!

 

Sorry for the delay in continuing, had to look at photos from the next day, of which I had many though not all were that good.

 

I forgot to mention something from the day before which played into an adventure the night of day 2 after our game drive. On night one, when we came back from the boat ride, we noticed a swarm of flying insects surrounding us as we walked from the boat up to the dining area. It turned out these were flying termites which had just hatched after the rain. Unfortunately, when we came to the dinner table that night, there were quite a few of them all over the table, having been attracted by the light from the lanterns placed on the table. We all decided it best to remove the lanterns from the table, as the vegetarians among us didn't want to accidentally ingest any termites! Phil said that luckily the termites only last one day.

 

Fast forward now to the night of day two - after the game drive and after dinner, Phil escorted Sangeeta and I back to our tents. I always got "dropped off" first as my tent was closer to the dining area. The only lights used in the tents are two solar lanterns - they put them out in the sun during the day and then before you come to bed, they've hung one over your bed and one in the bathroom. As I peered into my tent, prepared to unzip the zippers, I inhaled sharply and shouted "Um, Phil, could you please come back here after you've dropped off Sangeeta?" The reason for my concern: There were at least a hundred, very possibly more, insects covering the pillows of my bed under the lantern light. Many looked like the winged termites but there were others mixed in. When Phil came back and looked inside, he was pretty surprised and freaked out. I was glad to see that I wasn't being overly alarmist and that this really was unusual! He couldn't figure out how they all got in and was afraid there was a hole in the tent somewhere but we couldn't find one. I think they just were attracted to the light and must have gotten in through the very tiny openings where the zippers close? Of course, I expect a few bugs in my tent but this was a bit more than I knew how to handle, so I was glad he came back to help me figure it out! Phil went to fetch a can of Doom and an assistant, who came with a dustpan and a brush. They sprayed all around the room and the tent "ceiling" and brushed as many insects off the bed as they could. Phil told me it would take a while til they all died and then they'd just be on the floor and they would clean up the tent really well while I was out the next day. Phil apologized profusely, really more than was necessary, and about half an hour later the insects had met their demise. I felt kind of bad as I really don't like to kill things but I guess there wasn't much choice. The next morning when I came to breakfast and was telling the others what had happened, everyone said "Oh yeah, we had bugs on our bed too, we just brushed them off" but Phil said they couldn't have had as many as I did!

 

In discussions the night before, the plan for our last full day at Musekese was to do a day trip up to the Busanga Plains. @@KafueTyrone would be taking us. There was debate about whether the Swedish couple and/or Tyrone's friend would join us. It turned out that the vehicle with the top still could not be fixed so we would have to take the one with no top. This really was a bit of a concern between the chance of rain or, if no rain, the likelihood of sun beating down on us all day. Sangeeta and I were undeterred and said we were going no matter what! The woman of the Swedish couple wanted to go, and her husband said he'd go if she wanted. This vehicle only had two rows of seats other than the driver's row, so it would have been a bit crowded if all six of us went and I think Tyrone's friends decided to stay back. In the morning though, it turned out the Swedish couple decided not to go, and Tyrone's friends were sleeping in so it ended up being just Sangeeta and I going with Tyrone.

 

So I started off the morning a bit tired from the prior night battling the insects. I went to sleep around 10:30 instead of my planned 9:30 and the wake up call was at 4:30. It was going to be a long day! Tyrone warned us that the tracks could be really bad from the rain and we might not make it there at all, but he would do his best to get us there. From meeting Tyrone the day before, he was very funny and lighthearted all the time, while Phil was a little more serious - Phil kept emphasizing that we needed to use tons of sunscreen when we went and drink lots of water even if we didn't feel thirsty! But on the day of the trip, Tyrone became serious about the drive. It was clear this was no ordinary game drive. He warned us that he needed to really concentrate on the roads and perhaps go a bit faster than is usual at the beginning to make sure we got a good start. We were sunscreeened, Bug-shirted, hydrated and ready to go.

[SafariChick]

We left camp just after 5:30 a.m. and took the boat to the vehicle, and were driving by 6 a.m. The drive was exciting. There were many times that Tyrone had to veer around a big puddle to avoid getting stuck. It took us until about 9:45 am. to get to the edge of the Plains. There were plenty of tsetses along the way, some of whom hitched a ride with us and then buzzed around us when we stopped. Here are some of the hitchhikers on the seat behind us:

 

 

We stopped at various points along the way to see animals including these Crowned Cranes. Sangeeta and I found it very sweet that even though they mate for life, they still do a mating ritual for each other.

 

 

 

 

and other things, including the mobile campsite Tyrone and Phil use when they camp near the Plains. It is in the Musanza treeline area. Here's a photo of Tyrone in the campfire area:

 

 

One interesting thing we saw was a collared Puku! No, that's not a new species of puku but this puku actually had a collar on!

 

 

 

Tyrone said that he'd heard the Zambian Carnivore Programme were studying prey in order to determine whether prey in areas with fewer predators were healthier and less stressed due to having more time to feed and drink water rather than always having to be on the look out and run from predators. Interesting. Some other things we saw on the way to the Plains:

 

Large group of impala:

 

 

Nursing Impala, with another impala photobombing on the side:

 

 

Baobob tree with leaves:

 

 

and flowers:

 

 

 

Local men setting up a fishing weir. Tyrone talked to them a bit and then they said it was ok for us to take their photograph. The locals are not allowed to live in the park but they are allowed to fish in it, and they were setting this up for when the park becomes more flooded, the fish will be trapped by being washed into the weir.

 

 

 

Once we had arrived at the Plains, we saw a Roan which Sangeeta was quite happy about as she'd wanted to see one. He was all by himself but didn't seem to mind.

 

 

Also zebra:

 

 

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As we drove around the Plains, Tyrone wanted to drive by the various camps even though they were all closed now, and see if anyone was there who might have seen Busangadude or any of the lions. Tyrone used to work at the Mukambi Plains camp so he knew everyone up here. When we got to Shumba Camp, he went in as he thought there were some employees there he could chat with. There were indeed, and although they had not seen the lions that day, they were very welcoming and said it would be fine for us to come eat our lunch there. It had gotten quite hot by now so we were happy to have a shady place to hang out, even though the furniture had been removed so there wasn't anywhere to actually sit! I will post some photos of Shumba as we saw it in the next post.

[SafariChick]

Here are some photos of Shumba - @@Safaridude stayed there I believe but I can't remember what photos of it he posted and I'm too lazy to go look

 

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It has an amazing view out over the Plains

 

 

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We spent a peaceful hour or so hanging out here and looking out over the Plains. Such an amazing view of them from Shumba - you could really see how vast these open plains were. There were numerous animals grazing out there, including puku, impala, wildebeest, lechwe, zebra, and this cute family of warthogs:

 

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I have also more puku photos but I feel I've posted enough photos of puku and impala already, so i will refrain. We spent some time talking to one of the Shumba employees while we relaxed there. It seems he was going to join some of his friends to gather fish somewhere within walking distance of Shumba. When we left Shumba, thanking the employee for his hospitality, we saw him and his friends walking off across the Plains, and I wondered whether that really was safe?

 

We continued driving around the Plains. Here is the famous One Fig:

 

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We were now starting to head towards leaving the Plains and were surprised to come upon a couple of elephants feeding in an area near the track on which we were driving but where they were almost hidden by trees:

 

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Shortly after, we came upon four buffalo, though I only got two of them in a photo at a time

 

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and what seemed to be a mother warthog and youngster

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And a duiker

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Then we drove through an area of large boulders on top of other boulders. It looked quite different from the other areas we'd driven through, and very pretty

 

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I have no more photos taken on the Plains or the way back after this but my notes say that we saw other animals that I haven't mentioned yet such as:

 

Wattled Cranes

Oribi

Reedbuck

Vervets

Baboons

4 kudu

2 common daiker (one at a time - different sightings)

 

We also saw some birds that are not commonly seen and from what Phil and Tyrone said, some birders would be quite excited to see them:

 

Crested Guineafowl - this kind of guineafowl are not often seen in that area of the Kafue, apparently

Fullerborn's Longclaw

Red-billed Quelea (well they may not be uncommon but I don't believe I've seen them before)

Lady Ross Turaco

AND....

Narina Trogon - and very strangely, we saw two of them on this drive, and had seen one the day before with Phil (I THINK - I have to double-check this with Sangeeta but pretty sure)

 

As we drove back towards camp, we reflected about all we'd seen that day. We hadn't seen any lions or any predators in fact, and this was disappointing. But it still had been an interesting trip and we did see a lot of wildlife. I think the day trip is not the most productive way to see Busanga Plains since we really were only there from about 10 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. which of course are not the best hours to see animals that hide during the hottest parts of the day. Of course, doing a day trip only wouldn't have been our preference - if we'd been able to stay overnight at or near Busanga, we would have loved to but it just wasn't possible. It definitely left us wanting more and hoping to come back and stay on the Plains on another trip.

 

The trip back was relatively uneventful. We were pretty tired from such a long day - we'd left at 6 a.m. and it was now about 6 p.m. by the time we got back to within about five minutes of the harbor where we'd meet our boat to take us back to camp. If we were feeling just a bit sorry for ourselves for not having seen Busangadude or any of the lions on our big excursion, we were about to get a suprise consolation prize ....

Edited December 7, 2014 by SafariChick

[Geoff]

Had the plunge pool at Shumba been emptied? You could have had lunch dangling your feet/legs into the water.

[SafariChick]

@@Geoff ha ha, I didn't notice whether there was a plunge pool, whether empty or full. Since they'd moved all the furniture I would guess it was empty though. We were trying to stay out of the sun so we were happy without a plunge pool though!

 

@@egilio just heard back from Phil about the snake and he said "Yes, it was a boomslang, I do admit the color is quite similar to a grass snake, or even a mamba, but I got a clear view of its head when we first saw it and it was definitely a boomslang."

 

So that solves that mystery

[egilio]

Nice! Phil knows his stuff well!

And correct about the Puku, carnivores influence herbivores in others ways than just eating them. Therefore we'd like to follow some individual herbivores on a regular basis, in the presence, and absence of carnivores.

[Geoff]

 

 

 

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@@SafariChick from memory it is at the back of the deck in the above image.

[Safaridude]

@@SafariChick

 

Really too bad the day trip to Busanga was a bit disappointing. At least you got a small taste. You will need to go back during the dry season proper.

[graceland]

@@SafariChick, May have been a long drive; but there are times a drive across the plains gives you more time to really use all the senses for finding just a tidbit of interest, from a flower to a an empty camp, some fishermen, impala , birds, & elies etc.

 

I enjoyed riding with you and @@Sangeeta these last few posts! Tyrone's shirt was truly buttoned up - warding off the flies, sun and women (perhaps LOL)

 

And it seems some excitement later on

[inyathi]

I’m only just catching up with this report, since I’ve missed out on identifying any of your birds I thought I would say that your damselfly back in post 32 is actually a dragonfly you can tell because its wings are held out from its body, when a damselfly is perched it holds its wings together along its abdomen. I think it’s called a broad scarlet this a common red dragonfly around Africa I’ve seen them a lot in many different places but I confess I’ve never known what they were called until now I had to do a quick Google search to find out.

 

I’m impressed by the bug suits I can well remember how bad the tsetse flies are in the miombo woodlands in Kafue even though I haven’t been there in a long time but I don’t think I’ll be investing in a bug suit they look awfully hot to me. The flies I encountered more recently in Zakouma were much worse but I really can’t imagine wearing a bug suit in over 40 degrees of heat.

 

Nice to see a couple of wattled cranes in the background of one of your warthog photos, I look forward to reading more about your adventures especially in Liuwa.

[SafariChick]

@@inyathi thanks - I am never quite sure the difference between damselflies and dragonfiles! The bug shirts really are not that hot! Just imagine wearing a long-sleeved shirt made of very lightweight microfiber material, like your lightest hiking pants. Then imagine parts of it are actually mesh allowing air to flow through. That's what it's like! Yes, we saw quite a few wattled cranes but didn't manage great photos of them being the star of the photo, but at least they made it into the background of one or two.

 

@@Safaridude I know, it really was a shame. I think being there early in the morning and late in the day would have made a difference but also being there in dry season proper as you say. Next time.

 

@@graceland yes getting to the excitement now!

 

So we were just about five minutes from the harbor, it was getting to be dusk and after 12 hours out on the vehicle I really wasn't looking for animals any more! Just sitting back, relaxing. But Tyrone stopped and sat up tall with his binos, scanning the large open area we'd just come into. After a minute he says: "Lions!" We couldn't believe it that we'd driven all that way not finding any lions or other predators, and then here they were right in our own backyard so to speak. He told us to hang on as he'd have to go quickly to get around to where they were so we could have a little time to see them before it got dark. He radioed to the boat that they would need to hang on a little while for us!

 

When we arrived at the scene we found four lions with a hippo carcass! There were three males and a female. The males looked somewhat juvenile, and Tyrone had not seen any of these lions before - they were not any of the ones he is familiar with in the area. He speculated that perhaps the males were sons of the female and still hanging around with her. We all wondered did they really kill this hippo or did it somehow die of natural causes out in the middle of this grassy area? We decided it probably was out there feeding and they had killed it. It was so dark that my photos didn't come out well, but I'll post a few anyway.

 

 

 

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We stayed with them for I don't know, something between 15 minutes and half an hour until it really was too dark and we had to go. It seemed they had eaten all they were going to for now and were mainly just guarding the kill. They seemed wary of us, and not too happy that we were there, so we eventually left them in peace and headed for the boat. An interesting ending to a long day.

[SafariChick]

The next morning was our last morning at Musekese. We were supposed to meet up with the other participants in our trip to Liuwa at another campsite in the Kafue at 1:30 p.m. And it was raining. Did this deter @@Sangeeta and I? Of course not! We wanted to go back out and look for the lions and the hippo carcass again and see if they were still there. Of course, the vehicle with the top still wasn't working so we had to go in the open vehicle. This time, everyone wanted to go so we all bundled up in our rain jackets and ponchos and set off in the boat to get to the vehicle, and then back to the spot where we'd seen the lions. They were still there. I took some photos which again are not very good being that it was raining, but I'm glad I got some anyway. This time, the female was guarding the carcass and really giving us some dirty looks so we tried not to get too close so as not to upset her.

 

 

 

 

One of the males lying by himself

 

 

 

This one's a bit graphic, but I thought it was interesting to see the inside of the carcass when we moved positions to be on that side of it:

 

 

Suspicious Lioness:

 

 

We hung around watching them for about 45 minutes I'd guess. Not a lot was happening but it was still interesting to watch them. Eventually, the Swedish couple had to leave as they were going to drive with their guide, Paul, back to Lusaka to catch their international flight. So we drove them over to the boat. Sangeeta and I intended to go back to the lions with Tyrone, but it was raining very hard by now and we were all cold and wet and decided a nice cup of tea back at camp sounded good! Sangeeta and I wanted to leave by about 10:30 - even though the other camp we were moving to wasn't 3 hours away, we wanted to leave extra time due to the rain and also we wanted to stop by Mukambi to (1) check our email/phone as we'd had no service for 3 days and (2) check on a small phone Sangeeta had given to the Mukambi driver who drove us from Pioneer as he was going to take it to Lusaka to get unlocked when he was there to pick up other people. She had purchased a Zambian SIM card to try using with it but then realized her phone wasn't unlocked and it wouldn't work.

 

Of course, once we got back to camp and had our tea and showered and packed up, the sun came out! We sat and chatted with Tyrone for a while, and he offered us to try these little sour plums that he said were good. They were not good! After I couldn't finish one, he tried one and agreed that they were just too sour! Here he is showing the bowl of plums:

 

 

Then it was time to leave, so we took photos with Tyrone

 

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and headed off in the vehicle with Cecil and a ZAWA ranger to be driven to our next camp. The next part of the adventure, the trip to Liuwa, was about to begin.

Edited December 7, 2014 by SafariChick

[SafariChick]

I do agree that if it were 40 C or more, I'd probably prefer not to wear one of those either! It was not that hot where we were. But I'm telling you, I run hot - Sangeeta will vouch for this - but I still managed to be ok in it most of the time though I admit at times I did take the face part off!

 

Back to the report. We did the drive to Mukambi (where we were stopping on the way to Mayukuyuku) a different way than we'd come. It was a very curvy track for about an hour and a half, until it joined the main tar road. Some of it was a pretty, wooded area:

 

 

at one point, we passed a spot where we saw vultures, and pulled over to see if we could see what was going on. It turned out to be the remains of an impala carcass:

 

 

one of the vultures landed and was stretching his wings in such a way that he reminded us of Count Dracula, and we had to giggle:

 

 

 

Much of the drive was spent chatting with Cecil and the ZAWA scout and asking them about their lives, and their asking about ours. We discussed the presidencies of both Zambia and the U.S., who they hoped would win their next election and who we hoped would win ours! (They brought up this topic by the way, not us - I would not have presumed to bring that topic up for fear it could be sensitive or inappropriate). We also asked about their lives. They were both married with children. Everyone we met seemed to be married and have four children, including Cecil. I think Cecil said his work schedule was 30 days on then 2 weeks off, but the scout said his was 30 days on and 2 days off which seemed really difficult.

 

The rest of this day was full of minor mishaps, which seemed to be a theme of the trip! We arrived at Mukambi an hour before we were to meet the rest of our group at Mayukuyuku Camp, and it was only about 15 minutes away from it. But the internet didn't work so we didn't get to check any email. The next thing that went wrong was the small cell phone Sangeeta was hoping to pick up, unlocked, from the Mukambi employee was not there, nor was the employee. It was Sunday and the manager couldn't reach him - thought he was probably at church. Sangeeta said it was not a big deal, she'd gotten the phone for free anyway. So we went ahead over to Mayukuyuku where Cecil and the ZAWA ranger left us after we confirmed that this was indeed the place where our tour operator was meeting us (they had a reservation). But they were not there yet. And they did not arrive for 2.5 more hours! Sangeeta and I were a little frustrated as we could have stayed at Musekese longer doing more activities, but while we were waiting for them, we had a nice chat with the woman who owns the camp. She was very helpful and kind, giving me some snacks and inviting us to sit on the deck of her personal tent because it had better phone reception for Sangeeta to call the office of our tour operator to find out why they were so late. The view from her deck was very nice so at least we had a pleasant place to sit and chat while we tried to call and waited for the others to arrive.

 

 

Me being the worrier I am, I was worried they might have had an accident or something. But no, It turned out that the other two safari participants (my friend from home, a woman I'll just call A and our fourth participant, a man I'll call J) had wanted to shop in Lusaka for some special food (my friend) and look for internet (both) so we had to tease them quite a bit about this when they arrived. A and J had never met until the day before but they had clearly become good friends already, joking around and teasing each other about who was responsible for the delay, etc.

 

The company who were taking us on the Liuwa adventure, Bundu, does this trip all the time - it seemed they were there every week in November this year. The staff consisted of Biggi, the driver - so-called since he was a baby because he was, well, a big baby (and he was still very big - tall that is), Andrew (the cook) and Gregory (the camphand). We left Andrew and Gregory setting up the tents and went off to try to fit in a short game drive. We didn't have a lot of time, so we drove down the main tar road to start. On one side of the road it is the park and on the other it is a game management area. We had a sighting of some elephants:

 

 

 

 

and a nice sunset:

 

 

 

 

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and then it was time to head back to camp.

 

Andrew and Gregory had gotten our tents all set up. We each had our own (we'd paid a modest $90 single supplement to cover each having our own tent for the 7 nights) and they had camping cots with double mattresses, sheets and pillows in them. They also had a solar lantern and, once we got to a place we'd be staying for more than one night, a set of shelves which was helpful to put some items in. The set up was that we'd use the community campsite toilets - I think at this place they had a men's and a women's room and each had two toilets - but they'd brought bucket showers for us to use. However, these did not end up getting set up until we were at a place we'd be staying more than one night. There were cold showers at the community campsites we could also use. The toilets were not that close to our tents and unfortunately, to get to them we had to walk on a dirt track through a big depression that went all the way across the road and which was filled with water and mud from the rain. In order to avoid it, one had to walk into the treeline on the side of the track. Once it got dark, I forgot about this and walked right into the muddy water. Then I had to try to rinse my water sandals off in the bathroom sink, but walking back to the tents they only collected dirt again. It was just the beginning of a week of feeling like my feet were never clean!

 

We were all rather floored by how good the food was that Andrew made. I should explain that Biggi was driving us in one vehicle and then Andrew and Gregory drove a second. We had in ours a refrigerator and they had in theirs a freezer. This way, we could keep cold drinks and snacks with us in the fridge during our game drives. They also had a little propane-fueled stove and Andrew cooked everything with this and over the campfire. The first night's meal included delicious lentils in a creamy tomato sauce, like a dal, and homemade chapatis! Sangeeta was duly impressed. We were an all-vegetarian group just coincidentally so Andrew was further challenged by needing to only cook vegetarian meals for the week, but he met the challenge admirably. Seriously impressive food! A and J had found a bottle of wine they found amusing as it was called Naughty Girl, and we drank it with dinner. It was actually pretty good sparkling white wine from South Africa but the name made us all laugh. They'd bought a second bottle which we saved for later in the week. By the end of dinner, it seemed we had all pretty well bonded as a group.

Edited December 15, 2018 by SafariChick

[TonyQ]

@@SafariChick

That hippo was a bit gruesome! But you did see lions.Good of you to go out in the rain (as we would expect)

And impressive vegie food!

[pault]

I am beginning to get the picture now. Rain, rain and wilderness make for a demanding environment. I feel a sense of foreboding about what is going to happen next. Hope I am wrong. You are getting very wet but still smiling.

 

Your hippo shots were graphic enough without the flip side! I can smell it. Fortunately, the rain washed out some of the colour and detail from the photo, and no doubt helped with the smell on the ground too.

 

It's good to have a bit of an adventure. I think you are having one. We didn't see a single tsetse in Ruaha this year. Pussy cats!

 

After getting over the initial shock of Sangeeta and you as some kind of strange bush ninjas, and after some pages of reading and reflection I think I agree with you that the bug suit would be cooler than many shirts. Doubters are clearly just outing their metrosexual tendencies. They'll be growing beards and wearing plaid shirts next.

 

(pault ducks and runs for cover, messenger bag flapping behind him).

[Atravelynn]

"She said one of the things they do in training is to make the trainees stay up all night drumming and singing. She said it is to teach them to handle any kind of adversity as they may encounter very difficult situations while on the job. We found this quite fascinating - these people do need to be really tough and apparently their training prepares them well for it." Really fascinating. So were the red velvet mites. Do they come out when it rains?

 

With the kind of mud you had, an experienced driver is a necessity and also points to how things could go terribly wrong for an inexperienced self driver at this time of year.

 

"a woman I'll just call A and our fourth participant, a man I'll call J" I am anticipating some difficulties in the upcoming journey with A and J, adding to the intrigue of it all!

 

Isn't there a saying, "dirty feet, warm heart"? There should be.

 

Looking forward to more dirty feet, downpours, mud, and a real adventure here!

Edited December 8, 2014 by Atravelynn

[Marks]

I've been enjoying following along so much that I didn't notice the absence of predators until you pointed it out. Of course, by the time I caught up to page 4, you had already found lions. I am glad you persevered through the tsetses and delays to bring us this TR!

[SafariChick]

@@Atravelynn yes, the red velvet mites come out after the rain in abundance. It reminded me of the Osa Peninsula area of Costa Rica after the rain when tons of red crabs came out and were crawling all over the roads and paths! @@TonyQ yes, the hippo was a bit gruesome - and actually it smelled quite bad as well - but I found it very interesting to see. And we were determined to go out, rain or no rain! @@pault strange bush ninjas we were indeed! Now I'm curious about what your sense of foreboding is ha ha - you'll have to tell me after the report is done if it's what you think. I doubt anyone could guess what the next thing to go differently than expected was - it happened when we reached Mongu - but I am getting ahead of myself! @@Marks thanks for the encouragement!

The next day the plan was to do a morning game drive in the Kafue and then head towards the city of Mongu, where we'd camp on the edge of the Barotse Floodplains. Since we were in two vehicles, we left Andrew and Gregory to pack up and go ahead of us while we did our game drive so they could get us all set up by the time we arrived at the campsite. Sangeeta wanted to try the Shishamba loop (Spelling?) which she'd heard was good, but I think Biggi wasn't exactly sure which loop that was. It was a little unclear, but we gathered that usually Biggi has one of the guides who work for Mayukuyuku come with him when he does a morning drive before heading down to Liuwa but for whatever reason they did not give us one. We did have a rudimentary map they gave us so we set off to find it ourselves. However, we got rather lost and ended up at a ZAWA headquarters in the park - I believe that area was called Chunga. We went in to ask if they could direct us and I am not sure the person Biggi spoke to really knew where it was either! There was a lot of chatting and hand gestures between them and eventually we drove off again. We did see some pretty landscapes, dry riverbeds, waterbuck, impala, puku, warthogs, raptors, and a nice group of elephants, but never were sure we were actually on that loop! @@Caracal I saw in your report that you were there so I was trying to see if the landscape looked the same as where we were but who knows! Some photos from the drive:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The various stickers on our vehicle's windshield:

 

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qm9L8g]

 

When we wended our way out of whatever loop it was we were on and reached the main road again around noon or 1 p.m., we decided we ought to start heading towards Mongu,

Edited December 9, 2014 by SafariChick

[SafariChick]

@@Atravelynn oh and re this:

 

 

"a woman I'll just call A and our fourth participant, a man I'll call J" I am anticipating some difficulties in the upcoming journey with A and J, adding to the intrigue of it all!

 

No, not at all! The four of us all got along really well.

[SafariChick]

After having some lunch under some trees at the side of the road, we were off to Mongu. The drive was I think about 3-4 hours and I actually napped a little in the vehicle. Along the way, as we got close to Mongu we saw many different people selling food items along the side of the road, especially mangoes. We decided we would like to buy some, so we stopped and a woman and her children ran over to get our business. One girl in particular, who looked about 12 or 13, was very friendly and smiling and wanted to talk to us and ask us about ourselves. Sangeeta asked her a bit about herself too, while Biggi and Jason were negotiating the price of the mangoes. I think we ended up with about 30 or 40 mangoes for a couple of dollars or something ridiculous. To make it even funnier, when we eventually met up with Andrew and Gregory again, Andrew told us he'd just bought ... some mangoes! (Not as many as we had though) These mangoes were absolutely delicious, and not stringy as some of the ones we get in the U.S. can be. We were joking about the mangoes the rest of the trip, and telling Andrew he had to put them in every dish he cooked. But mostly, we ate them as snacks and I think we actually did end up eating most, if not all, of them by the end of the trip! I wanted to take photos of the mother and children, as the children were so cute, but when Biggi and Jason asked if we could, the mother got very shy and laughed and seemed not to want us to do so, so we respected their wishes.

 

Finally, we pulled into Mongu. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect there, though I knew they would have a market where we could stock up on any supplies we were short of before driving into Liuwa. It was an interesting mixture - some of the streets were paved and we saw people who seemed to be walking around and shopping after work. Some men were in suits and ties. But then some streets were dirt and much more rundown and basic-looking. But when we first pulled into town, we came upon Andrew and Gregory and their vehicle. We thought this a bit odd, as we thought they'd be at the campsite, not here in town. After Biggi talked to them a few minutes, we got the explanation: they had gone to check in at our campsite but were told that despite our reservation, we could not stay there because at the last minute, one of the political parties had decided to have a convention or gathering there (the President of Zambia having just died a couple of weeks before our arrival and the funeral having been held the day Sangeeta and I arrived in Lusaka) so all the campsites were being given to them that night! Therefore, we had nowhere to stay! But never fear, Andrew and Gregory had taken the liberty of booking us all rooms at the Hollywood II Motel (apparently there was also a Hollywood I Motel but we never saw it), which we were parked in front of at this very moment! This sounded an unlikely name for a motel in Africa and I really wasn't sure what this place would be like. But Jason said he'd stayed there before and, in his experience, it was clean and fine. He mentioned that the showers might not work though or, if they did, the water might be cold. On the other hand, it did have air conditioning, which sounded quite nice at this point. So we said sure, why not. (what choice did we have, after all) It would be another part of our adventure.

 

 

We were glad to learn that the rooms would be "self-contained" and not open to everyone in the place to come in and out of.

 

Jason told us that the restaurant is notoriously slow getting food out, so that even though it was only about 5 pm, we ought to put in our order now for dinner and they would give us a specific time it would be ready. But he said we should be prepared for the fact that it would not be ready at that time. There seemed to be two choices: either the fish dinner with Nshima or the vegetarian dinner with Nshima. So we put in our orders (I think they told us it would be ready at something like 7 or 7:30) and, before even going to our rooms we went to check out the supermarket to stock up on a few supplies.

 

 

The Shoprite supermarket was quite modern. We were all rather taken aback when we walked in and were greeted with a garish display of Christmas commercialism. The entire front of the store was packed with toys for girls, toys for boys, signs promising low prices, Christmas decorations. And what we found most incongruous: over the loudspeaker was playing "Feliz Navidad." I couldn't make this stuff up. I managed to snap one photo:

 

 

and was trying to take a video in order to get the full effect of the western Christmas music and the spectacle of the store, but an employee sternly admonished me "no photos in here." I was sad but felt I must comply with their wishes. We started walking around the store and I almost fainted when I spotted an African woman wearing a shirt advertising "Pizza My Heart Capitola." Pizza My Heart is a local pizza chain that is very popular in my area of California. Capitola is a town next to Santa Cruz, "surf city," and on top of this, we are friends with the owners. I really wanted to take a photo of her, but when I was trying to explain to her that I lived near the place the shirt was advertising, she didn't seem to understand and I didn't want to bother her any further. It seemed that most people didn't really want their photos taken and I can understand that. After all, if someone came to my town and kept wanting to take photos of me as I was going about my daily life, I might not appreciate that either. But I really enjoyed telling my friends Chuck and Mary about the sighting of Pizza My Heart in Mongu, Zambia!

 

They had some interestingly named products there:

 

[url=https://flic.kr/p/q4AT2b]

 

We stocked up on Amarula and other alcohol as well as snacks and soft drinks. (Bundu included in the price of our trip all meals but no alcohol or beverages other than coffee, tea, juice and water). We then headed back to our motel to check out our rooms.

Edited December 9, 2014 by SafariChick