Day 13 - 26 May 2016 South Luangwa National Park

Day's trip schedule

 Wildlife Camp -> Mfuwe -> South Luangwa National Park

Distance & time taken

80 km
6 hrs

Accommodation

The Wildlife Camp, Mfuwe, South Luangwa (www.wildlifezambia.com)
+/-6km from the village of Mfuwe on the banks of the Luangwa river

Trip Notes

Set the alarm this morning so that we could get an early start in the park (05h30).  We got delayed at the gate as the gate manager was giving me a tough time about giving him a 2006 $100 note - he claims they only accepts from 2007 onwards because of fraud.  Eventually he relented as I was not going to give in & we went into the park.  We decided to head to the western side as we entered.

We had our first sighting of buffalo - a large herd - as well as many more elephant.  The tracks on this side of the park were well rutted as the elephants had walked through during the wet season & when it dried, their tracks were almost cast in concrete.  As the season progresses, I am sure with all the vehicles traversing these roads, they will eventually wear them down to "smooth" dust roads again.

Junior practising for the next Chomp advert

One of the roads we took was quite challenging both surface wise as well as with thick bush squeezing onto the track on both sides.  As rounded a corner, a young bull elephant was in our path & we now had a problem as his avenues to get away were cut down to direction he came from or our left into the thick bush as the river bank dropped away quite significantly on our right.  I slowly went back but was not able to go too far because of the bush restricting my view.  He eventually crashed his way through the bush on our left allowing us to continue forward but we were on the alert for more possible meetings like this on the path.  Fortunately, the rest of the drive was uneventful & we headed back to camp around 11h00.

Grey-Headed Kingfisher

The morning drive proved quite fruitful in bird spotting with new sightings of:

• Red-necked Spurfowl
• Grey-headed Kingfisher
• Village Indigobirds
• Hooded Vultures

We also saw many Blue Waxbills & Pied Kingfishers during this drive on the western side.

Hooded Vulture

Back in camp, we showered, had lunch & then settled down to some reading, downloading photo's & catching up with emails.  After a short rest, we headed off to the park again (around 15h00) - we were definitely going to get our monies worth.  This time we headed east in the area we had seen the leopard the night before but were not able to get another sighting.  Saw many elephant, bushbuck, impala, puku & hippo again on this drive.

Back in camp, I made a fire as we felt like snacking on some Karoo chops for dinner.  Our neighbours from campsite #6, Dave & Marianne, popped round to get more info on the Malawi border post as they were heading through the border in the morning & planned to stay at Senga on the lake.  I had met Dave yesterday & mentioned we were en route to Cape Maclear & we had an insight on the border process from a posting on the 4x4 Community website www.4x4community.co.za/forum/showthread.php/209459-Six-Countries-Comprehensive-Trip-Report-(Solo-Trip)-Botswana-Part-1 by Kierie.  They sat with us for a while as went through the detail & Marianne took a screengrab so that she could refer back to it.  

Dave & Marianne are retired & currently reside on a smallholding between Stellenbosch & Somerset West.  They en route through to Kenya via Tanzania & Malawi & are planned to be away for around 3 months.  They are posting updates of their trip on their blog site www.davmarafrica.wordpress.com.  They have friends who are joining them on the Tanzanian border to continue with the rest of the journey together.

Costs for the day

Accommodation	Wildlife Camp	US$20,00
Park fees	South Luangwa NP	US$75,00