After living in Chipata, Zambia one year, this past weekend Kyle and I took advantage of our location and made the 2 hour drive to South Luangwa National Park for a one night visit to see the park and local wildlife.
The first animal sighting was a hippo we could see from the porch outside our room.
This is the vehicle we took out on our game drives. We took two drives while at the park, the first was called a "night drive" because you start at about 4pm and drive until 8:30pm in the evening. When driving in the dark they carry a huge spotlight to shine to see animals. Many of the animals are nocturnal and hunt during the night. If you're lucky you get to see a kill...but we did not see a night kill...
However, one of the first animals we found on our drive was a pride of 16 lions that had just eaten a zebra. They were all ridiculously bloated from overeating and were lounging near the river. If you look closely, the lion in the back is holding a zebra leg in its mouth!
In case you are wondering how close we were to these lions, here is a perspective. They pretty much walked right up next to our vehicle. You could have reached out and touched them. It was incredible. These animals are so powerful to watch, I think we could have sat there all night watching them.
Next we stumbled upon another rare sight in dry season. These are one of the most endangered animals in Zambia, they are called wild dogs. Our guide said it is incredibly rare to see this animal anytime but rainy season. He said people have come during rainy season and stayed a whole month looking for them and never found them. However, God was good to us and we had an opportunity to see this pack of 8 resting in a dry riverbed.
Some of the not-so-local wildlife!
Most of our night pictures did not turn out all that well, but here is a beautiful sunset to bring a close to our night drive. In the night, we managed to see a black spitting cobra that fell out of a tree onto the ground as we drove by!
We woke up on day 2 to start our "day drive" at 6am. It was beautiful to see the sun rising over the landscape and watch the mist dissolve in the warmth of the early morning. This is a picture of two male Impala.
This was a zebra that came awfully close to the vehicle to wish us good morning!
Our guide did not think that the lions would have finished eating yet, so we headed back to the same area we had found the pride the day before. We were delighted to find the entire pride sleeping with swollen bellies. The most wonderful surprise was to have a chance to see lion cubs, which are usually hidden in the tall grass and brush. The small lion with the humongous swollen belly at the bottom of the picture is a lion cub. There were 3 or 4 cubs and they all looked as ridiculous as this one. The unique thing we learned about cubs is they have spots on their bellies that disappear as the lion grows bigger.
After watching the lions for a bit, Kyle asked the driver if we could visit the largest baobab tree in the park. Kyle remembered it from his last trip, 2 years ago. And he was not kidding, this tree is huge!
This is a shot of us standing near the trunk to give you some perspective on its size. Bees have built hives in the trunk of this enormous tree and a special bee-eating bird have built their refuge in its' branches.
Our next big find is my personal favorite, the giraffe. This beautiful, elegant creature is a pleasure to watch. We learned that the giraffes in the Luangwa valley are special kind that are only found in that region and no where else in the world. This is a picture of a young male.
As we turned around to drive down another road, a family of elephants walked across our path. This is the largest female and therefore the leader of the family. We learned that the males in elephant families are forced to leave and live in "bachelor herds" and are only with the family while growing up or for breeding purposes.
This is a hyena. Hyenas are scavenger animals and we found a group of them in an area where we also found vulture flying overhead. We were sure that there had been a kill nearby but failed to find it.
After an exciting morning in the open spaces we headed closer to the river and lagoons. There we found this group of three male buffalo. These are incredibly powerful animals and a choice meal for lions.
At the waters' edge we were able to see a variety of wildlife. In the picture above are birds, crocodile, and two families of hippo. Can you find them all?
Crocodiles are common animals in the Luangwa Valley. It is a very hot climate and we learned that since crocodiles do not have sweat glands the only way to release excess body heat is through their mouths. We found many crocodiles sitting in this pose with their mouths wide open.
After such an exciting ride we thought our adventures were over. We headed back to our lodge to rest before lunch. However, nature was not finished with us and as we sat on the porch outside our room, a family of elephants came to eat nearby. However, they kept coming closer and closer until actually climbed up the retaining wall and walked right through the center of the lodge yard to the reception entrance. It was unbelievable.
I hope you enjoyed a peak into the awesome and powerful animals God created in this part of the world. We are excited to come home for our visit. The next week or so we will spend packing and preparing for the long journey home. We hope to see you all very soon.
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