10: Mukambi - Bangweulu (Zambia)

Zambia Pictures Here:

Week 10 update:

Day 64:

We were invited to join a nature walk with some of the lodge’s guests, so we were up before the sun crept over the horizon. By the tent door we were met by Simba, the wildcat who escorted us through the dark to the lodge. We were obviously the first people to arrive as not even the kitchen light was on yet, but the tranquillity and silence of the morning was immense! We watched the grey sky flood with colour and the sun’s first rays hitting the water of the mighty Kafue River. There are simply no adjectives to describe what we saw.

The walking party consisted of the two of us, the guide, a trainee guide and a man from ZAWA (Zambian Wildlife Authority). He had to accompany us and with his rifle as only official people are allowed to carry or use rifles in the park. This was all in case we were charged by Elephant or Lion or something else that could kill us… we were informed. We boarded a boat to cross the river, had a short briefing and commenced our walk. Catt and I had been on many walks in many different places and realized long before that you rarely, if ever saw any animals when walking. However, if you have a good local guide that was willing to share the wealth of information these guys have, it can be a very rewarding experience. Our guide on the day, Akim, was one of those rare people. He was often challenging to understand as, like many other Zambians, he often swopped his L’s and R’s around... So the Lilac Breasted Roller would become “The Rirac Bleasted Lorrel” or something to that effect.

We learnt about the local trees and plants, the way the Hippo trails turn into rivers and the life cycle of Elephant poo… It was brilliant! Because Elephants don’t digest their food well, their droppings are full of moisture and undigested seeds, berries etc. So after they do the thing, some antelope would lick it to get the moisture and minerals from it. After them the Mongoose would come around and steal some fruit. The termites would then come along and cover the dung before the Guinea fowl would scrape it open again and start the cycle all over…

About half way through our walk we saw some Puku around some water and while watching them, noticed some other animals around. It was a couple of Bush Pig. I could only remember ever seeing Bush Pig once before and that was in the dark, so this sighting, at 9am was pretty special! Even Mr ZAWA was impressed! He tried to edge us a little closer, but the pigs soon fled the scene, retreating into9 some much thicker bush where it would have been a little hazardous for us to follow.

Back at the lodge we spent the rest of the day with some more, and much needed housekeeping. The Freezer was defrosted, the washing done (By the lodge staff as they can do it much better than we can) and Jacques and I tried to sort out the shock absorber bush and engine number problem. The shock bush proved insanely difficult as the retaining nut was holding fast, but we eventually won with the help of a Monkey wrench and long reach sockets. From the buried evidence it looked like a few years of salt air welded the nut onto the top of the shock. We were unable to locate the number punch, so the engine number had to wait for another day. While this was happening Catt used the older vegetables to fry up a relish which we could then freeze and use later.

For the evening meal we were invited to Linda and Jacques’s impressive house. Jacques built this place over a fair amount of time, but even did all the masonry and carpentry by himself. The kitchen is suited to Linda’s chef training and the water hole right in front of the house provides constant entertainment by animals coming for a drink. We feasted on a truly South African Braai which consisted of WAAAYYYYY too much meat, very little vegetables and some pap and salsa. This was accompanied by copious amounts of Mosi Beer and red wine.

It was a great end to a great day in Africa’s bush, shared by new and already great friends!

Day 65:

We joined the game drive for the morning. Once again up before dawn and at the lodge before anyone else. We took the boat across the river and boarded the lodge’s game drive vehicles there. The guide, Gilbert obviously knew his birds well and thought us about the Capped Weatear which I had never heard of before. The bush was really quiet and the mammals seemed to be hiding. It was bitterly cold, so I did not blame them. We saw the usual plains game, some Elephant and a lot of evidence of activity in the area. We passed a few other self drive vehicles only to be told that no one seemed to have much game viewing luck.

Back at the lodge I offered to do a 360 deg image for Linda and that had to be discussed and set up for the afternoon. Catt and I spent the rest of the day relaxing mostly. The housekeeping was well under control and Joseph, the camp site manager even offered to give Magurudumu its first wash since the alarm clock of the Lion and Elephant almost a month earlier.

Heather and Alastair, a couple from a farm just outside of Lusaka came back from their afternoon drive with beaming smiles and excited voices. They had spotted a large herd of Elephants, followed by a larger herd of Buffalo, followed by a Lion Kill. What more could one ask for on a drive in Africa?

Linda came into the lodge all excited and asked if I had my camera handy, which of course I did. She walked us over to the house and pointed out Basil, the resident wild Hippo who had taken refuge on their patio while Jacques and Tyrone were watching the Rugby match. That sight had to rate very high in my “weirdest things I have ever seen” O-meter. Basil was not a baby hippo, but the dominant males apparently did not like him, so he was hiding from them. His hind legs were almost touching the glass patio doors and the couches with the rugby fans on were less than two meters way. No one bothered anyone else and everyone was pretty much happy with whatever it was what they had been doing.

After the photography was dealt with we offered to make dinner and drove over to the house to abuse the kitchen. Catt makes the best Bobotie (Pronounced Boobwoutee) ever! It’s a sweet, Malayan Curry with mince, baked in an over with egg on top of it. Catt had figured out the perfect mix of spices for it a few weeks before. She made the whole dish in a cast iron flat bottomed pot on a Weber braai on coals. Linda stir fried a fine selection of veggies and Jacques, Tyrone (The Plains camp Manager) and I got stuck into the Mosi. Everyone was suitably impressed with the meal and everyone managed to over eat to the point of bursting. The wine and beer was flowing freely and before we knew it, it was past 11PM… again!

Sometime in the middle of a very dark night I got poked in the ribs by Catt asking if I was awake. I had been for a few minutes as I was woken up by the vibrations caused by a Lion’s roar. The sound was also defending and it was so close to our tent that I could hear its footprints fall into the gravel path. I was lying perfectly still and did not dare move or make a sound. Yes, I was awake…

Day 66:

We had decided to drive up to Lufupa Plains Camp for the day. Tyrone and his two friends were also on their way in that direction for a two day holiday for Tyrone’s birthday. They left about 30 minutes before us. At the gate to the park we were met by Princess, the tiny female ZAWA official, with her AK47 over the shoulder. She told us how she had been chased into her house by a Leopard the previous evening and how she couldn’t chase it away. She was forced to stay indoors the whole night.

We followed the well marked and newly graded road towards the camp and were astonished by the amount of animal activity in the park. The tracks told many stories of many animals crossing the road and Lion footprints the size of dinner plates were clearly visible over the tracks of the vehicle driven by Tyrone. We were honestly expecting to see Lions at any second. We did see some interesting birds, including a couple of Wattled Cranes and a Roan antelope, the highest antelope in the world. We spotted some Yellow Baboons and bizarre Waterbuck without the right on their bums. NAMES>>>>>>

Driving along with the windows done up in the later part of the morning to avoid the Tsetse flies, Catt shouted HALT and pointed at two fully grown Cheetah happily wandering towards an oblivious herd of Impala. We opened the windows, let the Tsetse flies in and tried to take some pictures. I was once again astonished at the speed at which these animals move, without even trying to go fast. That counted for the Cheetah as well.

At Lufupa Camp we were met by the receptionists and introduced to some staff members on the way to their deck and lounge area. We enquired about Tyrone’s party and after being pointed to him were promptly invited to get onto their game drive vehicle. This was being driven by Phil, their general manager. We were driven to a place where the morning game drive had spotted some Wild Dog earlier and had no trouble at all locating them on the open and dry plains. Phil explained that it was three adults who broke away from a pack of 38 dogs in the area. This I found unbelievable as I always saw the Madikwe dogs in packs of 23 as large packs! Phil’s story informed us that dogs needed to be at least 4 or 5 in a pack to be viable, but for some reason these three were doing fine. This was evident by the size of their recently filled bellies and their reluctance to move more than absolutely necessary. The most activity they could muster was to lift their heads lazily when we arrived. It was clearly a hard Dog’s life in Africa!

Back at the lodge we joined the group for a Pizza lunch, our first Pizza since leaving Pretoria, and possibly the most expensive Pizza I had ever had. The lodge in managed by Wilderness Safaris and they are not known as a budget travellers dream. However, they do offer camping at standard and affordable rates at Lufupa and any visitor was apparently welcome to use their facilities and free WIFI internet. On the other end of the scale, their solution to the problem of impassable roads on wet flood plains was to helicopter their guests around. I did not ask the cost! We also spent the time chatting to Luke and Bettina, a managing couple from a lodge in Malawi. We made a definite decision to meet up with them when in Malawi.

As the gang went fishing we started heading back to Mukambi. We timed it well and left ourselves a pleasant afternoon’s drive back filled with sightings of Puku, Impala, Hartebeest, Roan and those waterbuck without the white ring on the backside. We reached Jacques and Linda’s house just in time to see a Side Striped Jackal drinking in between the Puku and Impala by their waterhole.

Mukambi had a full house that evening consisting of ZAWA officials, nature lovers and people from the World Bank. They were meeting to discuss the possibility of a massive cash injection to establish much needed infra structure in the park with the aim of boosting tourism and making the park financially viable. We joined a table for dinner consisting of personal friends of Linda and Peter, an elderly gentleman, obviously British (Cambridge accent I thought) who had been born in India and had spent most of his life in Kafue… He was busy writing a guide book on the park which had been commissioned by a Danish sponsor.

Our last night at Mukambi ended by the fire place in bar, finishing just one more bottle of fine wine with Jacques and Linda, our fantastic hosts and seemingly great friends. Maggie was in the car park, so we drove back to the camp site. A brief stop at the loo revealed a couple of Elephant on the water line. They were a little close for comfort, but we snuck to the tent and just before climbing into it I heard another noise. When I directed the mighty beam of the Fenix light in that direction I saw the tail of another, bigger Elephant less than 10 meters away from us with his feet in the river. We snuck into our tent, without any light and silently went to bed, hoping that the big boy was not bothered by our obvious presence. His answer came in the form of a dull, but loud THUD as his droppings hit the ground right next to the tent before moving off in search of more food. I fell asleep wondering which antelope would come investigate the poo before the termites covered it.

Day 67:

It was time to leave Mukambi. I did not want to, so getting out of bed proved more difficult than usual. Joseph the camp site manager had the fire in the boiler going before we had even asked so we managed one last visit to the fine tiled bathroom. We managed to get all our things sorted out, said our sad good byes to Linda and hit the long road west by 8am.

Lusaka was a very manic place! Not as manic as we had expected, but if ever there was a city that could do with a ring road to alleviate the through traffic, Lusaka would be it. Jacques had directed us to the windscreen fitters they use, which was our first port of call in the fair city. Traffic was moving slowly, but steadily and we found the dodgy part of town and the windscreen shop without any trouble at all. It seemed that you had shops supplying the glass, and other guys fitting them. There was no space for buildings or big workshops, so the fitting took place on the street. I was a little sceptical at first, but by the fifth car that arrived to get a new windscreen I relaxed and let the experts do their job. Two hours and only K900 000 (About $175) later we hit the road with a brand new shatter proof windscreen, expertly fitted on the dusty streets of dodgy Lusaka. We briefly stopped at a spares shop for a new radiator fan. The radiator fan had been damaged by the second Aircon fan belt breaking a few weeks earlier, so it really needed replacing…

We stopped at another shop for a local Cell phone simcard, a garage for some fuel and wine and left the city as quickly as reaching it, barely surviving the complete lack of traffic rules and being shouted at for stopping at a red light.

Every person helping us, or stopping us in a roadblock or police checkpoint wanted to know about the Football World Cup for which we could offer no information at all! It still proved an easy topic for initializing small talk and much easier than producing documentation or having the vehicle inspected by authorities. By and large all officials were as friendly as the ones in Zimbabwe and no one ever asked anything more than a little resp0ect, a little friendliness and a short chat.

Heather and Alastair, whom we had met at Mukambi, had invited us to stay with them for a day or two. Alastair was a manager for a massive Zambeef farm outside of Lusaka which happened to be right across the road from Fringilla Farm where we had planned to stay overnight. Zambeef also had a massive mechanical workshop to tend to their mass of vehicles with a very talented mechanic and workshop manager who could help us with our little engine number problem. Alastair was still on leave, so he met us the house with Heather and their two young children: Ethan (4) and Abigail (2). Heather, from Wales and Catt connected like two old friends with friendly banter about Mud Island (The UK) and the rivalry between the Welsh and the rest of humanity. Alastair and I helped to pick two massive Paw-Paws and a bag full of lemons we were not allowed to leave without.

With Alastair and the workshops help all our remaining vehicle related issues were swiftly dealt with before sunset and with ruthless efficiency. Catt accompanied Heather across the road to Fringilla Farm, the post office and inspected the butchery. It was instantly established that Fringilla is a place no traveller should ever pass by.

Back at the house we had an amazing meal prepared by Heather, lots of beer provided by Alastair and wine we had bought in Lusaka earlier. It was agreed that we would take a day to regroup and make our further plans. The evening’s conversation was dominated by hunting stories Alastair and I swapped. He told me of a recent trip he went on and the ridiculously low fees they paid for the privilege. I was promptly invited to join them on a trip and vowed to return in a year or so to do just that.

Although not surprised that much, we were still impressed by the incredible hospitality Africa’s people have to their kind. There we were, apparent strangers in a house in a different country, acting like friends of old and extending future invitations. It was fantastic to be part of it!

Day 68:

Man farmers get up early! I heard Alastair leave before 5am and Heather had to attend to some business in town. She left by 6:30. We got up at least an hour later and relished in the luxury of an en suite bathroom. We spent half the morning planning our next few weeks incorporating some very handy tips we got from Mukambi. Shortly after we ventured back across the road to Fringilla farm’s butchery and free WIFI.

The butchery was brilliant! They offered all the meats and cuts you would expect from a modern butcher at very affordable prices and packaged the way you prefer it. We almost got completely carried away with our new purchases and remembered our limited space just in time. We ventured over to the Jolly Farmer which is their restaurant and enjoyed an hour of broadband, complete with Skype to England before heading back to the McCloud’s house for lunch. We heated up some of the relish Catt had prepared a few days earlier and invited Heather to join us. She was suitable impressed and the recipe swapping ritual commenced. This was followed by the viewing of the second Jungle Book movie with their two small children. At the same time a staff member had decided that the lack of cleanliness of our vehicle was unacceptable and for the third time Magurudumu received a truly African bath.

Heather and Catt swapped a few more recipes and she told us about her lucrative home business of making jams, marmalades, pickles and a few other products. The house was a buzz of people cleaning and preparing things for the evening’s feast and getting small children ready for bed. It was clear that the daily life of the farm manager and his wife was a lot more hectic than ours. I was pleased and appreciative at the ease at which we had managed to overcome all our previous vehicle issues and I was ready to move on the next day.

Dinner was a grand affair complete with the introduction of the 5 minute chocolate cake Catt and I have come to appreciate every chance we got. For those who do not know it, it works like this: Take one large coffee mug and ad; 4 spoons flower, 4 spoons sugar, 2 spoons coco, 3 spoons milk, 3 spoons oil and one egg. Stir vigorously to mix all the ingredients well and pop into the Microwave for 2 minutes on high. Seriously! Try it! But be aware that once you have seen the success you will never be more than 5 minutes away from chocolate cake ever again.

We once again said our good byes to our newest friends with promises of future visits from both sides and retired to the comforts of the guest cottage with en suite bathroom. It had been great to spend the little time with another family of good people!

Day 69:

We left the farm before 8am, but at least 3 hours after Alastair and headed north. Our destination was the Kasanka National Park which we reached by lunch time. The park is famous for the location of a massive bat population, which was not our reason for visiting. Jonathan Taylor, the scientist from Potchefstroom had told us about a tree house/hide in the park where you are almost guaranteed to see the very elusive Sitatunga. We had seen Sitatunga once before from a boat in Botswana, but the prospect of seeing one again, and close up excited me greatly!

National Parks in Zambia are not cheap! At the Wasa Lodge we were informed of the rates: K108 800 for our camping and $10 each for park entry and $15 for the car (Blasted car fees!!!!) This amounted to about 15% more than what we used to pay in Botswana Parks, so not entirely ridiculous. Rhoda, the extremely well dressed and model like reception lady explained that the pontoon was out of action. This made more than half the park inaccessible, but we could still reach the hide at Fibwe without any issues. She recommended the Pontoon Campsite. When I enquired about the camp site by the hide she said that it was still to wet to be recommended to stay there, but that it was only a 15 minute drive from the pontoon site.

Satisfied with this information we headed towards our camp site with the plan of having lunch fairly urgently! The camp itself was in a beautiful setting next to open water with a “lounge”, shower and toilet. The “lounge” was a round thatched roof with sides three quarters the way around and concrete floor which obviously provided shelter from rain and sun. The shower was a bulkhead inside a reed enclosure. This bulkhead was used to hoist a bucket up on to use for showering. Set bucket could be requested from the camp manager and would be heated up before it arrived. The toilet was a long drop. Everything was neat, clean and in perfect working order. I loved it!

After a quick, yet well needed bite we left for the hide. The drive was indeed only 15 minutes. Once we had arrived we were met by that camp site manager, Emanuel who was clearly very excited to see us. We asked to see his camp site and like a proud father he gave us the tour. It seemed dry enough to us so we asked him to contact reception via radio to inform them of our change of plan. His biggest concern was that the shower had no sides. He had not finished it yet as the season was only about to start. I tried to explain that this shower was in the middle of a very thick clump of bushes on an island in a dried up wetland and we were the only people there. He was satisfied by this and asked what time we would like to take our shower. I secretly felt a little like Livingstone with his 300 porters and some slaves doing all the heavy lifting…

The afternoon was spent on the platform. It was at least 30m off the ground in a massive Marula tree overlooking the vast “dombwe” or floodplain far below. We were armed with cameras, extra zoom lenses, tripods and binoculars, but as soon as I saw the setup I was absolutely convinced that we were wasting our time. As with so many of our other possible plans in Zambia, it was simply too early in the season and there was simply too much water and too much bush to have successful viewing from there.

A couple of hours before sunset I started hearing something in the thick bush below us. I suspected people at first, but then birds, or perhaps a shy Bushbuck. With or without the binoculars I could not find any movement or sign of life so gave up after a thorough search of the bush and a lengthy scan of the wetland. Catt persevered and an hour later excitedly announced that she was seeing something. Deep in the bushy shadows below our perch you could see the long grass move and every once in a while we could hear a twig break and eventually, and only with the help of the binoculars we managed to see him. It was a massive, elusive and powerful male Sitatunga gracefully and almost silently moving around the undergrowth. I could not believe my eyes and even managed to take a bad photograph of one of his horns.

Just before sunset, but with happy feelings of great success we climbed down from our tree top throne and arrived back at the camp site to the welcome sight of a nice camp fire and the news of the shower water arriving imminently. The 20l bucket was hoisted into position and the steaming hot water provided a quick but enjoyable shower to us both. The rest of the evening was spent chatting excitedly about our sighting and how we were looking forward to sleeping in our tent again after 7 nights of luxury.

Day 70:

Flexibility is one of the main ingredients to a successful overland trip. We had decided only a day before to stay in the park for at least two. At the cost, and with the limited access, and thanks to our successful Sitatunga sighting we had decided to move on after day one. We got up at the crack of daw and cameras and coffee in hand ascended the ladder to the platform again. I did not take all the toys as I though it unlikely to: 1: Spot another Sitatunga and 2: Be able to photograph one successfully. I should have known better!

Within half an hour of arriving, just as I took the last slurp of my coffee I saw a movement in the long grass and spotted an adult female, not too far away and half in the open. This sparked a wave of excitement in me and I started the intensive search with the binoculars. I found one more, even closer and she ventured into the open for a few seconds. I snapped away with the camera wishing that I had my 1.4x converted with me to provide a bigger zoom. I handed over the binoculars, climbed down the ladder, sprinted back to the car and returned as swiftly with the converter in hand. Catt was manning the binoculars and although she managed to keep track of the female, she was very hard to spot and impossible to photograph. I disappointedly took over the watch and scanned the whole dombwe for signs of life. I briefly spotted another female about a kilometre away, but by the time I tried to explain to Catt where to look, she had gone. I was about to suggest that we call it a day and move on when Catt spotted a male. Then another… and another female and by the time we had scanned the area again we counted a total of 7 Sitatunga! There were 3 males and 4 females, completely oblivious to our existence. It was incredible!

A while later we had to move on. We briefly stopped at Rhoda’s reception desk at the Wasa Lodge, paid our dues, bought a paper map of Zambia and started driving on. While investigating the map we noticed a camp site sign on Lake Bengweulu. This had not been part of our travel plan before, but it seemed like the perfect place to stop over and hang out for the afternoon and the evening.

We found the Samfya Beach Hotel and Camp site without any hassle and it took no more than one brief look to make the decision to stay there! The buildings were primitive, they were busy building a new bar, but they did indeed offer camping and at a fraction of the cost of National Parks. We handed over K60 000 ($11) and parked Magurudumu on the beach and next to an olive tree. We packed out the chairs, the table and strung the hammocks. This set the scene of the rest of our day.

A few hours after lunch we were joined by Collins. He was part of an outreach program and insisted on chatting to us about nothing in particular. We learnt that he had a Masters in Algebra from the University of Botswana and that he had been to Texas and Australia on Varsity Rugby tours. He wished to one day work as a Mathematician in the UK while doing his doctorate. We also chatted about how safe and friendly Zambia was as a country, which we felt was a just observation and after giving us a few tips on roads to travel on our journey north, he left us.

Our biggest urgency for the rest of the day was to cut into one of the paw-paws we got from Heather and trying to figure out what to do with the mass of fruit we could not manage to eat that day.

Around sunset I got all the cameras out and started taking some photos. Everywhere you could point a camera another breathtaking scene was unfolding in front of the lens. The mixture of blues, purples and yellows reflecting off the vast lake in front of us disappeared into a grey mass as soon as the sun dropped behind the horizon, but I was still pleased with the results of images for the best part of the day.

Over dinner we were joined by the local village dog. Every African village seemed to have at least one and this one, although looking fairly hungry, wasn’t daring to get too close to our table. With a rush from somewhere in the darkness another guest chased it away, shouting some obscenities in the local language and the poor pup ran off looking horrified. We packed everything away and went to bed early. Still awake and reading books, the wind suddenly came up. It was strange in a way. It just came from no where, for no apparent reason and forced us to close most of the tent flaps. We eventually fell into a deep sleep, listening to the waves caused by the wind. Nothing of any other importance seemed to be happening in our entire world.

If I had to do it again:

For the first week I can honestly say that there was nothing I would have liked to do differently…

Mukambi was fantastic and comes highly recommended! They have a $10 per person camping rate and the lodge’s facilities are phenomenal! There is honestly nothing I would have done differently there.

I think that Lufupa Plains Camp warrants at least one night of camping, at similar rates.

It became very apparent that Zambia is a country best travelled from August to November. The dombwes will be dry then and the animals would concentrate around the more permanent water. Saying that, it’s not like we did not experience our fair share of wildlife!

We were happy to stay at Alastair and Heather’s house. If that offer was not there, Fringilla would be the place for sure!

Kasanka National Park is a little known paradise, but parks are expensive. If you have the money, and the time, it is also an absolute must! If you go there only to see Sitantunga, I doubt if you will be disappointed.

Samfya Beach Hotel, which is on T4A is a perfect place to stop over and a welcome beach break from the other scenery. Hopefully their beach bar will be open within a month and hopefully they will build camp site ablutions soon. We were using the bathroom in one of their unoccupied rooms, with the hottest shower water I have ever experienced!