And into Zambia

After receiving our negative Covid tests we headed to the Zambia border, where we were soon stamped out of Malawi, and half an hour later after sorting out insurance and carbon tax our Carnet was stamped and we were on our way into Zambia.

There is an immediate difference, in Malawi people are walking or cycling along all the roads, everywhere you go, in Zambia, where the population density is 1/10th of Malawi you drive for kms without seeing anyone. A brief stop in Chipata where we stopped at the supermarket to buy food, (though we get our fruit and veg from roadside stalls) and topped up SIM cards. We headed straight to Wildlife Camp at South Luangwa.

The campsite is right on the river front looking into the National Park and is open to wildlife. We spent the afternoon watching the elephant, listening to the hippo and following the puku impala and babboon out on the promontory. As it was getting dusk a bull elephant made its way round to our campsite, and a hippo came out of the river and walked up beside the van. Both were within 20m of us, but completely ignored our presence.

The following day we got up at 5.30 to be in the park first thing, but were delayed by the bull elephant coming back through the camp.

The roads in South Luangwa park were reasonably dry, so we managed to cover quite a large area. The park is ioncredibly green compared to the last visit with lots of young animals around, especially very cute, unstable baby elephant. Most of the elephant were travelling in small family groups of 5 or 6 animals. A lovely day, spotting two lazy lion sleeping under a tree, but no buffalo, giraffe or rhino, which move away from the river in the wet season. We decided to spend the following day in the camp, and on getting up at 5.45 weere amazed to find four wild dog in the camp, which scampered off as soon as we moved.

Around 8.30 a huge herd of around 50 elephant went past the canp, with the rest of the day spent watching them out on the grassy promontory with the baboon and antelope. The elephant returned in the afternoo, back to their overnight location. Steady rain overnight turned the surface of the campground into a mud bath so we decided to pack and head towards Lusaka. Lusaka is one of the more developed cities in Africa with western style shopping malls, a lot of new building and a real buzz of activity. A couple of nights on a beautiful campsite before heading to Kafue National Park.

We planned to drive down through Kafue, then take a newly built road towards Livingstone where we plan to cross to Botswana. A beautiful drive through a very green kafue national park where the rivers had subsided enough to be below the bridges, and where despite suggestions that the wet season is not good for seeing wildlife we saw huge amounts, including otter and leopard (see photos below) An amazing day. On reaching the southern end we were told that a bridge on the new road had been washed away,

so the only way to Livingstone is back north along a minor road then an 800km diversion back through Lusaka! - That's Africa for you. Having taken three days we are now sitting by the Zambezi just outside Livingstone listening to lion across the river in Zimbabwe while we wait for our Covid test results before crossing to to Botswana.

Some of the wildlife we have been privileged to see.