The minibuses at the bus station across the road started parping their horns at 4am so we were awake early and while we were eating our breakfast at 6am the bus driver came to tell us he would pick us up at 7 sharp. We thought it was rather strange that he was waiting for us when we walked in to the car park outside the rest camp building. We loaded up and then he drove round and round picking up groceries to take to the village of Mfuwe which is outside the national park and we didn't leave until 9.30am. If we hadn't taken this minibus we would have had to wait until 3pm when the Lusaka bus arrived and then we still would not have been able to go until the minbus was stuffed full so we didn't complain too loudly!
The road from Chipata to Mfuwe is under construction in parts so the bus drives on the badly corrugated donkey road. We were later told that a Chinese company was constructing the road and it had taken a year so far as the local government officials kept taking the money allocated for the road. The Japanese vans are not 4x4s so they rattle and vibrate and could only average about 25 kph so it was a long, hot, dusty ride.
We passed lots of small villages with the farm name on a sign as well as the chief''s name. There were a few fields of peanuts and dried up cotton plants. A lot of tobacco is also grown in this area. The road was again lined with sacks of charcoal for sale and lots of people walking to and fro with hoes, tubs of mangoes, or sacks of mealie meal.
The local bicycle spare parts shopWe had to renegotiate with the minibus driver to take us the 5kms further on to the Wildlife Camp outside the national park where we planned to camp. We met up with Linda and Patrick again and we both camped at the complex. It was a lovely relaxing place with a clean pool, bar, thatched shelters with power points and tables as well as clean ablution blocks. A short walk along the river took us to the main restaurant/bar where we ate our evening meals.
The camp is owned by the Zambian Wildlife Society and 60% of the income goes to the society for various projects and it is leased by a Swiss lady, Dora, and her husband who run it with a South African couple. It was well run and organised. We were not allowed to walk along the river's edge after dark and would be picked up by a driver in a safari truck and taken to dinner at the restaurant further along the river from our camp.
Our tent is the wee one in frontWe could see and hear hippos in the river and the first night we had 5 or so elephants eating grass and drinking water in a small stream beside our tent. It was pretty nervewracking hearing their feet squelch in the mud only 15 metres from our heads in our wee tent.
One of the workers told us that a lad pitched his tent under a tree and woke to see the sillouhette of an elephant astride his small hiking tent with its trunk in the tree above. He coughed and the elephant stopped eating and after a while it continued and when finished it went on its way without harming him! There are no fences between the animals and the camp so they roam from the park into the camp and off into the village. Being mango season, it is the time when the elephants cause problems and about 3 or 4 deaths a year in the villages as they go after the ripening fruit.
We were able to order a fresh loaf of bread baked by the chef each day and at US$5 a loaf it was pretty expensive but cheaper than taking a taxi to the village 5kms away for US$20 return! We also had enough food to prepare our own breakfasts and lunches.
On our first night drive we were lucky enough to see a leopard in a tree on dusk and another at a waterhole. We also saw lots of elephants, hippos, kudu, impala and puku antelopes, zebra with black feet, genet, mongoose, crocodiles and spotted hyena.
The next day we did a walking safari with Patrick and Linda and two Spanish guys. We headed off early in the morning and were accompanied by an armed scout and a park guide. We learnt a lot about animal droppings. the hyena has white droppings because it eats the bones of dead animals. We were able to tell the sex of the girrafe by the shape of its droppings and Patrick even joined in a spitting competition with the guide- a game the village children play when they are bored- seeing how far they could spit the girrafe droppings. The elephant poos and wees at the same time and we could tell by the position of the urine if it was a male or a female. We passed several places where there were skeletons of buffalo and learnt o tell if tehy were male or female as well.
John, Patrick, Linda and the two Spanish boys later went on an afternoon hike and stayed the night in a bush camp further up the river from the camp. They had to have a bush shower and had to take the armed guard with them when they wanted to go to the toilet at night.
I chose to stay at the camp and go on another night drive and was lucky enough to see another leopard. He was in a tree eating an impala that he had caught earlier in the evening. We also saw an old lion who had been in a fight and lay without moving as we took photos of him.
All in all it was a great place to rest away from noisy cities and touts, enjoy some nice food, and spend more time getting to know Linda and Patrick. It was the International Schools' holidays so several ex pat teachers passed through the camp as well.
Took the crowded minibus back to Chipata and checked into a backpackers on a hill overlooking the town rather than spend another night in the rest camp with its lack of running water and crawling bugs.
