Today’s 5am wake-up call was rough. We all slugged our way up to breakfast where we caffeinated up for the first 4 hour game drive. We left in two large land rovers – Kristen, Shandi, Eric, Dorothy & Harriet in one; Chifundo, Hugo, Mary-Beth, Kip & Rob in the other. Our drivers, Martin and Billy, drove us through the entrance to South Luangwa National Park and into the wild. We first came across more baboons, impala, and buku, each of which can be seen in large groups all around the park.
After trekking deeper into the park, we came across the bigger animals. We were mere feet away from families of giraffes, elephants, water buffalo, wild dogs, zebras, water bucks, and warthogs. In every river and lagoon we passed we saw numerous hippos and crocodiles lounging in the water. At one of these locations we took a break at the “hippo café” which consisted of coffee, tea, and muffins on top of the land rover. After our break we were lucky enough to see a leopard resting high in a tree, just a few branches away from the hanging impala it had caught that evening.
A zebra in South Luangwa National park.
A thornicroft giraffe, from which are resort was named.
An elephant in South Luangwa National park.
Hippos hanging out in the water during the day.
We made it back to camp at 10am and sat in the lounge until our lunch was served at 11am. We were treated with salad, pizza, beef moussaka, bread, slaw, and fruit. Since some of us still had a lot of Malawian Kwacha to spend, Chifundo took Harriet, Dorothy, Eric, Kristen, Shandi & Hugo down to a craft market a few kilometers away. This remote market consisted of 5 or 6 booth set up with a variety of hand-made items such as wooden carvings, jewelry, maps, wooden utensils, and metal/wire art. Chifundo helped us convert Zambian Kwacha into US dollar and back into Malawian Kwacha so we knew how much the items cost. He also helped us make sure we got the best quality products. After shopping, the group – including Dorothy and her new wooden giraffe cane – headed back to Thornicroft where we had about an hour before our evening game drive.
A bit before 4pm, the team once again loaded the land rovers and headed to the national park. In addition to seeing more of the animals we had seen previously, we got an up-close view of a pride of female lions who were just waking up and about to hunt. Five of them were a frighteningly close, maybe 30 feet. The group also saw a few hyenas, one of which got so close we thought it was going to try and join us in the truck! We had another tea & coffee break at sundown next to the river. We arrived back at the resort at 8pm and had another wonderful meal which included potato leek soup, beef stroganoff, mashed potatoes, veggies, and lemon cheesecake.
The entrance to the lobby of Thornicroft.
Chifundo & Hugo posing next to the land rover.
Game drive sunset in Zambia.
A female lion waking up from the day’s sleep to soon join her pride for a hunt.
Tomorrow we will have another early morning to go on another game drive.
Love and Blessings,
Manja a Machiritso