2024 - South Luangwa, Zambia - 25 June - 1 July

Описание: South Luangwa was a gem. One that isn’t on the standard African Safari tourist trail: too far out of the way. It is known to have one of the highest populations of leopard in Africa. It delivered. 3 sightings in 3 days. All very different.

We had our favourite leopard sighting here so far on our trip. We were heading out of the park (pushing gate times again) driving along the Luangwa River right on dusk. Paul spied the head of the leopard in silhouette. Skulking through the grass, the birds began their warning calls. We stayed with him as long as we could. Quiet, no one else around, a great view of the river and a predator doing their thing.

Independent travellers in the less frequented parks, really help each other out. We got directions to a sighting of female lions and their cubs. Turn left at the dead giraffe. Ridiculous you’d think - but the dead giraffe was there, right in our path. We returned the favour, gave GPS coordinates of the 2 male lions we’d just seen.

The landscapes of South Luangwa were stunning: oxbow lakes and the mighty Luangwa River. The quiet African bush sounds slowed us down or perhaps this is because we didn’t feel the need to move on from a sighting expecting the next to be better. Particularly not in this park.

The journey to South Luangwa from Livingstone (Victoria Falls) was ~1000km - we’ve shared a bit of the Zambian road experience. Potholes slowed us down. The checkpoints numerous but we were waved through them all. It was only when Ruth didn’t see the non existent Right Hand Turn only sign in the middle of Lusaka, did we have (a quite reasonable) interaction with the police. I am still not sure whether not being a missionary helped me or not.
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Effervescence by Scott Buckley
Creative Commons CC BY 4.0