It speaks volumes about the South Luangwa as a destination when guests visit again and again over many years. On this trip, I was looking forward to welcoming back 4 repeat visitors and one new face on this 10-night safari in South Luangwa’s prime time of late August.
We started at Zikomo, on the edge of the Nsefu Sector, which is an area that has given me some of my most memorable sightings of recent years. Our first morning drive began with some early encounters with giraffes and elephants and then some incredible bird sightings. Lunga Lagoon was full of storks, egrets, spoonbills, pelicans and hamerkops, so we settled in for a while to enjoy the view, take photos and watch the interactions between the water birds and the fish-eagles who were keen to steal anything they could pirate from the storks!
Later in the morning, we met with a small herd of bull elephants and were approached very close by one! It was a case of sitting still and keeping quiet while he worked out that we meant no harm…..! Thereafter guinea fowl and bee-eaters gave us some fun before coffee-break and giraffes and elephants afterwards!
While watching 3 wild dogs in the afternoon and waiting for them to rouse, I heard baboons alarm calling about 2km away. Their calls were certainly warning of a leopard and I was excited to think that we might find one on our first day. It felt strange to drive away from wild dogs at a time when they might start to hunt, but the allure of a leopard was too strong! After a bit of tracking, observation of the baboons and some intuition, we found the young leopard cowering behind a bush. He’d clearly had a bit of a tangle with the baboons as he was panting heavily and seemed quite distressed. We spent the rest of the afternoon with him as he relaxed and prepared for an afternoon hunt.
We took a short break as the light was failing and moved off a short distance. While using the bush bathroom, the 3 wild dogs ran past us, just 100m away, ignoring the leopard just 300m away!! They examined us for a while, decided their were tastier things on offer, and headed off into the thickets to hunt. We followed for a while, using a red filter on the spotlight to avoid disturbing them, but lost them in the bush. An afternoon that had started with no particular plan had ended with a stunning young leopard and a small pack of wild dogs! We planned to revisit that area in the hope of tracking the dogs and the leopard the next morning.
As is often the case in the bush, our plans to track the dogs and the leopard were interrupted by alarm calls that led us to a leopard moving through very dense thickets – no photos this time – and 4 lions who were resting on the other bank of the river. While watching them, we heard a lion call on our side, so we moved quickly to find him, but that was his final call for the morning and we were unable to track him down. Such is life in the bush sometimes. With the golden light turning to white, we moved to Lunga Lagoon hoping to find the water birds from the day before, and enjoyed great fly-bys from the pelicans. One of them even tried waterskiing just at the moment that I set my camera to panning motion blur mode!
Our second afternoon started well with beautiful giraffe sightings along the Kauluzi stream; thereafter we gave the afternoon to a small pack of 3 wild dogs, hoping that they flat stomachs would translate into a hunt before dark. However this was not to be, though they partly made up for it by leading us to a black-necked spitting cobra after dark – the dogs began sniffing and harassing something in the bush, but keeping well clear, and it turned out to be a mid-sized cobra out on the hunt!
The following morning was very quiet; we tried moving through different areas, I stopped and listened to the bush for long periods, hoping for an alarm call, but there seemed to be no headline species moving around. Soft morning light on impalas was followed by a small elephant herd, but it was not until 09.30 when I spotted impalas looking twitchy that the bush revealed a magic moment! Following the gaze of the antelopes, I heard squirrels calling in alarm and quickly tracked down a leopard in a sausage tree!
She had been waiting for impalas to feed underneath her tree, but they caught wind of her, snorting in alarm and then moving off. She descended and wandered through the bush. A bit of sleuthing allowed me to track her to another sausage tree, and there we enjoyed a superb “lounging leopard” scenario!
That afternoon, we decided to head north and look for the Nsefu Pride. We found them in one of their favourite resting spots along the Crocodile River. We had only just arrived when one of the youngsters climbed up onto a fallen tree giving us a great view. Over the next couple of hours, we sat with the pride, chatting about their dynamics and watching for photographic moments in between the slumbering. The joy of private areas of the National Park is that we can sit on a sighting such as this and leave only when we are ready.
Our second day in the Nsefu Sector gave us great game sightings, the
highlight perhaps being a massive collection for yellow-billed storks and great white pelicans at the Luangwa one morning. The crocodiles seemed keen on pelican as a meal but the birds were too quick and escaped!
The evening safari focused on hippos at sunset and, while the rich colours were perfect, the hippos seemed less keen to co-operate with large yawns and displays. The water level in the river is much higher than normal this year, so competition for space is much less fierce, resulting in a more peaceful coexistence for hippo pods.
An early morning trip to the Nsefu salt pans is always a interesting adventure. Set inland from the river, the permanent water brings in lots of game from surrounding grassland and is often a hotspot, particularly as the day warms up. We were lucky to encounter a herd of elephants at sunrise on the plains, and then lots of crowned cranes at the marsh, but the waterholes at the pan were quiet.
On our last day in Nsefu, we moved through the stunning forests along Lunga Lagoon, hoping that lovely light and good sightings would coincide. The resident giraffe herd were in their favourite spot and when all the youngsters congregated very close to us, we had a chance to play with close up compositions. Elephants at the river bank and an inquisitive hyaena pup – attracted by the sound of one of my guests dropping a beanbag out of the vehicle! – finished off our day!
Arriving at Lion Camp for lunch, we heard stories from the guides there of lions, great leopard sightings and heavy density of game along the river. I was very keen to get started! Straight out of the front of the camp, we found a mating pair of lions which set the tone for the rest of the trip. Sightings flowed and each day’s outing gave us some special photo encounters.
Our first full day was filled with the sightings and light that I’ve come to associate with the northern part of the park…soft, golden bush with a great density of game. Giraffes, elephants and buffalo were all seen on the morning drive and we gave the afternoon drive to a short but stunning leopard sighting and then a young male lion in the ebony forest.
We always leave Lion Camp early in the morning, long before sunrise so that we can be in among the best sightings before the warm pink light starts to show. This morning, we found a leopard in a tree, very close to camp; impalas were approaching the tree, so we kept well back but the antelope spotted the cat and alarmed before running into the distance! The leopard swiftly left since a disturbed area will never yield a kill for an ambush predator.
Moving on from there, we had a superb morning with the Mwamba-Kaingo pride who had recently finished eating a kill from the previous night, though we couldn’t find it, and were lounging on the beach. As we arrived, they got up and started moving towards us and we had a chance to shoot as they came up over the bluff. Thereafter, they lay down and licked paws, groomed and then fell asleep!
The afternoon safari revealed the MK pride close to the river, out of reach of vehicles and cameras. So we moved on and enjoyed time with an elephant in a scenic spot against zigzag markings on the beach, and a swift encounter with a bushbuck that are normally very shy. I hoped we would catch up with the MK pride in the morning and, leaving camp early, we spotted them on the beach at Fish Eagle lagoon. However, before we got there, we found the resident Chipadzuwa leopard in a sausage tree. She was high up, waiting for antelope to come and feed under the tree, but few came and those that did were too large for her to tackle. After 2 hours of waiting and hoping, we moved back to the lions but found them in the shade of a large tree…we had given the whole morning to the leopard but it was worth it to have had the chance of seeing the moment when she leapt from the tree to take on an antelope 4 meters below!
Returning to camp, we found a couple of buffalo bulls coming to drink at the lagoon in front of camp so moved to the low-level hide to enjoy the view!
We had a very busy and successful final day on safari. We spent time with the MK pride who were resting on the banks of the Luangwa, and also with a large number of plains game coming to drink at small ponds close to the main channel. Zebra, kudu and warthogs are all common at this time of the year, concentrated together in fantastic numbers.
As is so often the case, our final morning ended with a flurry of sightings as a finale! Early on in the morning, we found two warthogs feeding on the gut contents of an antelope that had clearly been killed and eaten in the night (probably by the nearby MKs). A hyaena wanted in on the action and was repeatedly trying to shift the hyaenas but they chased him away each time! While watching, we heard baboons, impalas, puku and kudu calling in alarm nearby so I located the sounds and rushed over, just in time to see a young male leopard being harassed by 10 large male baboons! He took cover in the thickets and didn’t emerge again, but it was a great sighting! Later in the morning, we found Chipadzuwa high in a tree waiting for approaching antelope but she didn’t present a good photo so we left her to her hunting in peace!
Once again, 10 days in the Luangwa had proven itself a worthy competitor to any safari destination anywhere and had given us fun, excitement and lots of great photo opportunities. Thanks to my guests for travelling with me again, and I look froward to seeing you again!
