D&D in Africa

Zambia 3: South Luawanga National Park

September 19, 2008

Since we had already spent a lot of time at the lake Kariba, we decided to only spend one night near Lower Zambezi National Park. It turned out to be very hard to anyway and the canoe tour we originally had in mind would have been very expensive. Never the less I really wanted to do something on the mighty Zambezi and so we drove to the confluence of the Kafue River and the Zambezi where a Lodge offers camping. We also booked a Fishing Guide and boat for the afternoon. We drove out to the Zambezi and started to fish for small fishes which would then be the bait for the Tiger Fish that we were after. But because our worms were not very good, really small and thin, we only had lots of nibbles but no real bite. In the end the guide caught one and we could start to fish for Tiger. We let the boat drift along with the current and fished along the way. On the shores of the river people were busy washing clothes, small children played in the water of a little side stream and fishermen in traditional dug out canoes crossed our path. We also saw many hippos that grunted when we drifted past and here and there a croc slid silently into the water. On a small reed island in the middle of the river we spotted a herd of Elephants that indulged on the reeds. Unfortunately the one bait fish was all the fish we were to catch. I had one bite from a Tiger Fish but it did not hook enough and got away. The mighty river, the landscape and the wild game made up for it though and we were quite contempt when we drove back to the campsite. Tomorrow we had a very long drive to Petauke in the east of Zambia ahead of us.

Returning after a fruitless fishing expediton… at least the sunset over the mighty Zambesi was breathtaking!

We left early and made our way up to Lusaka. We saw the tanker again that we had already seen when we came down as it was just beeing pulled out of the trees on the steep valleyside. Crazy these truckdrivers…
In Lusaka we stocked up on food, money and supplies, tanked for an enormous sum and were off again on the Great East Road. The condition of the road was good and we made good progress. We planned to head up to Petauke where we would decide which route to get to South Luawanga. It was a very long day driving the 550km up from the LZ and when we finally pulled into the only Lodge in Petauke it was almost dark already.

Pulling the truck back up…

Luangwa river (note the car wreck of someone thad did not make the curve…)

Two boys selling big bags of charcoal for cooking along the road.

One of many bushfires we passed that day

Driving at night is nothing special in Europe but here it is outright dangerous. It’s almost impossible to spot potholes, there are always people walking or cycling along the side of the road, livestock can cross anywhere and truck drivers seem to think its fun to drive with no lights on. We were exhausted from the long drive and just wanted to eat and go to bed. Then came another T.I.A. moment when we had just sat down in the restaurant and got the menu. Zack and the lights were gone – power outage. At least they were still able to cook and so we had our first candlelight dinner in Africa . The lodge does not offer camping officially and so we had to camp on the carpark. Next tu us another Hilux was parked and behind it someone had also pitched a tent. It belonged to a Geologist who searches for minerals in all of southern Africa for mining companies. It was interesting to talk to him and he had a few good stories from far off places. He spends lots of time in Mozambique for work and so he was an excellent source of information on road conditions and attractions. He also recommended us not to take the Petauke road to South Luawanga but do the road via Chipata instead. Last time he travelled the Petauke road it took them 10h, they were going convoy and the road was really bad. Facing the prospect of having to wait for up to a week for help should we break down on that road, we decided to go via Chipata the next morning. The road from Chipata to Mfue and the park is a pure nightmare, the worst road by far we have seen until now. We praised the strength of good ol Rafiki that took the hits from massive potholes and bumps like a champ. After more than 100km we stopped in a small village to buy some fruit from the market. Suddenly Dinu notices that we have a flat back tire. We got the local ‘Tyre Mending’ guy working on a bicycle under a tree nearby and he was able to find the hole and fix it. As usual in Africa all we needed to do was to have the necessary parts to fix it, they new how but did not have the material. Having missed one hour we carried on into Mfue and Flad Dogs camping where we set up camp under a shady tree directly on the banks of the Luangwa River.

Some dudes under a tree fixing our tire.

Bunch of fat Hippos lazing about in the murky waters

Luangwa River

Flat Dog Camp is a cool place to stay because the campsites include a wooden platform high up in a tree where you can put up the tent. Because our tent is fixed to the car we took out the mattress and put the moskito net over it. It was great to sleep in the tree right under the stars. During the night Hippos and Elephants walk through the campground and you can hear them chew on trees or sausage tree fruits. One time I woke up in the middle of the night, finding Dinu already wide awake next to me. He whisperd exitedly: ‘An Elephant shaked the tree!’ We listened into the dark, hoping the Elephant would not tear down our hideout. Everything else was quiet and we could hear the wheezing sound of the air blowing through the trunk ot the nightly visitor standing right below us. This was just one of several experiences with the many Hippos and Elephants that roamed the camp at night. Flatdogs als has the nicest security guards. We met Edwin the fist night of our stay. They have a very hard job, starting at 16.00h and going home at 7.00h. We talked to him about his job, his family and our trip. Since we had again a lot of whashing to do we inquired if maybe his wife would like to earn some money by doing our washing. To our astonishment he offered to do it himself, saying that it would be boring during the night anyway and that he liked to do washing! And so we awoke to the smell of a full load of freshly washed clothes hanging on the poles underneath our camp in the tree.

Our Camp in the tree.

The specialty of South Luangwa NP is are the walking safaris. Here it is possible to explore the park and the wildlife guided by a game ranger and watched after by another ranger who is armed. I was very eager to do such a walk because we have always been driving around parks so far and I liked the idea of getting more immersed in the wildlife. The next morning at 6 am we set off into the park. I joined another group while Martin stayed back in camp to chill for the day. The walk was brilliant with the very competent guide pointing out interesting things along the way. Mostly he talked about small things that would be easily overlooked when driving, such as hyena footprints, dung beetle nests, birds, termites or droppings of various animals. It was fascinating to learn about all these things! I loved the walking safari and right after our return booked myself on the next tour the following morning.

On walking safari in the park

Bushsnake – an avid climber

All in all I liked South Luangwa NP a lot. There is a lot of wildlife almost everywhere, the animal visits to the camp were freaky and fascinating at the same time, the walking safari taught me lots about the african wild and the landscape of the park is breathtakingly beautiful.

Sundowners on an old riverbend

Dusk of the last day in the park

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