Chilling in South Luangwa warmth

Saturday afternoon- camping on the banks of the Luangwa river, been here nearly a week already. When we arrived here at Wildlife Camp, which is across the river from South Luangwa National Park, it looked like the place to take a break from all the driving. So we’ve been reading, watching the family life of a pod of hippos directly in front of us, swimming in a pool overlooking the river in the heat of the afternoons, Scrabble in the evenings after the “de rigueur” braai.


Met some really interesting people here too – various lodge owners & guests, several medical students doing prac at hospitals in Zambia & Malawi, a trio of pensioners (not fake ones like us) with a huge caravan who have been on the road for 8 years!
Took an evening and a morning drive thru the park, not lucky enough to see leopards & wild dogs for which this area is famous – but what was interesting was the amazing range of terrain – from riverside to mopane forests, dusty plains to marshes with hippos munching their way thru waterplants. Outside the park, ( and some in the camps at night) hippo, crocs, elephant, impala & puku ( similar to impala).


Every evening is a picture-perfect sunset
( stopped taking pix of them now),
and as I’m sitting in a camp chair
pecking at the laptop, the setting sun is
again reflecting a rich orange off the river,
highlighting the yawning hippos.
They must get pretty tired sleeping all day!












We’ll probably still relax here tomorrow, (can’t do more than a Sabbath day’s journey on a Sunday) and duck early Monday morning, through Chipata/Mchingi border into Malawi, thru Lilongwe for supplies and to the lake at Senga Bay. See you there!

Seen on the road from Lusaka to here….( 2 missed calls? )