Flatdogs camp where we spent much of the past week is right outside the national park gates of South Luangwa National Park. As such any animals seen in the park can be seen at the campsite. Hippos are particularly prominent with around 200 visible at any point from the campsite. My new theory is that the reason hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal is not due to their ferocity but just sheer numbers of them and the fact that the campsites are set up in the middle of their feeding ground. After dark you are supposed to have a night watchman with you to help you avoid the hippos, elephant or whatever else is around... but frequently it was just you and your little headtorch hoping not to get trodden on. The last two nights we camped on the ground very close to the river and the sound of a hippo eating next to your head is a little disturbing - and then I turned on the torch to have a look at it seeing as how I wasn't sleeping anyway only to startle it and see a stampeding hippo. Elephants were also fairly common in the campsite and surprisingly quiet (unlike those hippos who never shut up and can be heard 3km away). So quiet in fact that the first time we saw them in camp they were about 3m behind Jason and he didn't hear them. As I was walking towards him and called out elephants he started coming towards me to find them not realising all he had to do was turn around. The other highlight was the tower of 17 giraffes (tower is the name for a group of giraffes) that came into camp one day. We missed the day the four lions came into camp and as we were leaving this morning we found out that leopards come in most mornings to chase the baboons outside the chalets!!!! And the watchman didn't think to mention this until this morning! ARGH! Oh well, we are yet to see a leopard, but here's hoping.
We went on three game drives at South Luangwa and all were amazing in their own way. Just being in Africa and watching impala, puku, zebra, giraffe etc from metres away is incredibly special. But some of the main highlights were:
- watching two 3 month old lion cubs playing whilst the rest of the pride slept on unawares.
- hearing the angry trumpet call of an elephant. The guide stopping turning off the engine and the angry elephant appearing through the trees 5m from the car (it was a mother protecting her baby). She didn't look very happy and took a few menacing steps towards us, whilst the 6 of us encouraged our guide to turn the engine back on and be ready to go - he ignored us. Then another trumpet call and she charged... stopping a little bit short. The guide remained relaxed whilst the rest of us were convinced we were about to die. She charged one more time before withdrawing and only once she was out of sight did the guide start the engine again.
- hearing a male lion roaring into the night and then finding him,
- all the baby animals - hippos, elephants, zebra, giraffe etc.
- coming across a buffalo on foot (the only animal the ranger had ever had to shoot) and having him stand up and watch us whilst the guide and ranger tried to stop us taking photographs to get to safety.
- seeing a dazzle of zebra, tower of giraffes, raft of hippos, parade of elephants, obstinance of buffalo (ok, we didn't actually see the last, but I want to remember the terms).
We saw nearly everything South Luangwa has to offer, except the leopard so here's hoping we'll manage later.
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