The government changed the country's slogan back in 2011 so we know it is older than that as it contains 'Zambia, The Real Africa' which was used for 30 years before the change.
With this map, the book Zambia Self-Drive Guide: Edition 1, and Pastor Benson [Dean of Academics, seen in the photo] we headed out before daylight on Wednesday morning for the southern entrance of the park.
About a four hour drive from Jembo to the southern corner of the park.
Established in 1924, it is the oldest and largest in Zambia, bigger than Israel.
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| hartebeast |
So, to celebrate the guy's October birthdays we set off on our first trip not for Immigration or shopping!
We entered the park around 9:44 but only saw goats, cattle, and 3 Vervet monkeys as we drove, questioning if we were even in the park....until 11:47 when we started to see wildlife.
We stayed in the Southern part of the park, mostly the Nanzhila Floodplains.
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| Unhappy bull elephant at the end of the herd, we were NOT moving |
Impalas, reedbuck, helmet guinea fowl, a large sunning crocodile, bathing elephants, warthogs, a herd of hartebeast, roan antelope, saddle bill storks, reedbuck, hornbills. steenbuck, baboons, zebras, marabou storks, fish eagles, mongoose.
We headed out of the park just before 6 pm, heading to our lodge for supper and bed. We added one new animal as there were not only monkeys in the parking lot but rock hyrax-something we'd not seen before.
The Itezhi-Tezhi Dam is on one side of the lake.
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| The dam was completed in 1977 so these trees have been dead for 45 years - very rot resistant! |
Thursday, another early start, we jumped in the truck and checked out the Itezhi-Tezhi dam before returning to Musungwa Lodge to turn in our keys and eat breakfast.
By 7:15 we were back in the park. We spent the day driving around [not always knowing where we were] seeing: monkey, waterbuck, bushbuck, more impala [ including a newborn that could not yet stand, meaning less than 30 minutes old] spur winged goose, malachite kingfisher, Kudu, steenbok.
The down side was the biting flies that entered the truck almost every time we put down the windows for photos or or to remove a branch from the two-track roads...and a hard branch added some long scratches to the left side of the truck, an unwanted souvenir of our first Zambian safari.
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| fish eagle, related to bald eagle |
The guys worked hard on killing them but I mostly herded them to the top and then out of the window that I opened just a bit.
Lots of photos!
Trees too...lots of trees! Live, dead, big, little, hard, soft, tall, short, pretty, weird....
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| fortunately no branches we couldn't move! |
We headed out before 4 pm with the plan to travel to Namwala to overnight.
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| waterbuck |
Something we hadn't noticed on the map was the little orange symbol indicating a ferry!
When we arrived the ferry was just pulling in to shore, however, the first truck hauling cattle could not make it up the river bank and we wondered if we would be able to cross.
The tour book said that no trip to Kafue was complete without a boat ride on the Kafue river..so all-be it very short, we fit it in with the ferry trip.
After a while of folks trying to push it, they asked Cory to help out by towing via a chain, which added enough power to get the truck up the bank.
So we made the short river crossing and crossed the flood plane while the sun was setting.
We received serval thank yous but no discount for helping as the government sets the prices..it cost $5.50
So we filled up with gas, connected for a few minutes with past Jembo students who also connected us with supper- chicken and 'chips' (french fries).
Had to get the photo for our other MK friends!
If you don't know MK is short for 'Missionary Kid".
We continued south to Monze.
Pastor. Benson called ahead and reserved rooms for us at Safari Family Lodge - much better than more driving!
So after a good night sleep we enjoyed some close up, walking around enjoying the animals: ostrich, emu, zebra, Impala, lions, crocodiles, turtles, peacocks....and a good 'English breakfast'.
We dropped Pastor Benson at the bus station so he could head to Lusaka for meetings after he joined Cory at the internet/phone office trying to figure out some issues with our internet renewal.
Today three guys worked on the thorny overgrown lantana hedge behind the house, much to my delight!
In just a few hours they opened up the backyard enlarging my view.
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| just a cow |
I worked on office work: in-box, communications, my classes for this upcoming week.
We didn't teach this week so will be teaching both on Tuesday and Wednesday this coming week.
Just received word that Dr. Marilyn Hunter has passed away.
What an amazing lady!
'Aunt Marilyn' knew my folks before they knew each other.
She is why our family traveled to Haiti when I was in kindergarten.
I told her when I was eight that I wanted to do her job when I grew up...be a doctor on LaGonave.
With the Lord's provision I made it.
Pastor Joe, who served with us on LaGonave as WISH director also passed on to his heavenly home this week.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families.
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| just a stump |
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| kudu |
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| strangler fig tree |
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| Baobab. Cory enjoyed the variety of trees. Some of the two tracks and lack of signs not so much, this is one of the better roads in the park. Some Kalahari sand areas required 4wd. |
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| kudu |
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| impla |
1 comment:
Beautiful!
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