After renting a four wheel
drive truck, my boss at Habitat said, “You are driving yourselves? You should
have hired a driver!” Not the best information to hear from a local before
starting a six hour journey into the bush!
In any case, all went well; we only got lost once and are back in Lusaka
in one piece.
I have to say it was one of
the most amazing experiences of my life.
Only 2 hours of the journey were on a paved road, the rest was on dirt
roads that varied from acceptable to awful.
We took a paved highway out of Lusaka to a small city called
Mumbwa. Along that highway we stopped
and bought ripe mangoes and a huge bag of charcoal, which is not like our
charcoal at all – it is actually pieces of slowly burned wood.
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Mangoes for sale along the highway
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| Charcoal for sale along the highway |
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Once in Mumbwa, we got more diesel on board
and took off on dirt roads from there to the end of the trip – about four more
hours. The first bit takes you through a
very bad stretch of road with huge potholes and many roadside stands where we
bought fresh tomatoes and fritters. We
have both developed a liking for fritters which can be purchased from roadside
vendors all over Zambia.
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vendors outside of Mumbwa
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| Buying tomatoes and fritters outside of Mumbwa |
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At this point off the main
highway, the directions literally involved a hand drawn map with “markers” at
various kilometer points on the road, like “big granite rock”! Unfortunately, we didn’t realize until after
we got a bit lost that the truck’s odometer was in miles and not kilometers –
even though it was right hand drive. We
did find our way after asking for directions twice, once at a school and once
with a truck driving by whose passenger happened to be a policeman in a beret. The whole time Nigel was outside our truck
talking to him I had no idea he was a policeman and with the green beret he was
wearing, I thought he could have been some insurgent paramilitary guy! It was reassuring
though to know that unlike in the US, my husband is not afraid to ask for
directions here!
After hours of jouncing,
weaving and swerving around on the worst roads you can imagine in the heat with
a/c that didn’t work, we arrived at Kafue River Camp, on the banks of the Kafue
River. We stayed in a rustic but very
comfortable tent cabin with its own en suite toilet and outdoor shower.
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view from deck of common area
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view from deck of common area
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view of our tent cabin from the river
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We brought all our own food which they cooked
for us. There are four tent cabins and
we were the only guests - it felt like our own private retreat. The manager, Austin Weinand and his friend
visiting from South Africa, Anne McCallum were the only other people there
besides the ten staff members, who were only around when needed.
After a lovely dinner and
falling asleep at 8pm the first night from sheer exhaustion, we were up at 5am
for a 6am game drive. Every morning we
woke up to the sounds of the hippos on their early morning journey from dry
land into the river – they sound like they are groaning and grousing, and never
fail to make you laugh with their funny sounds.
There are also a remarkable number of birds and their unique songs were wonderful.
I cannot describe how wonderful it is to wake to the sounds of hippos, birds,
lions and hyenas!
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Everisto and Kunda
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Our morning and evening entertainment
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Kunda
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Our game driver was Everisto
and his assistant was Kunda. Both were
wonderful men who did their very best to make the drives successful. Unfortunately, the Kafue National Park and
its surrounding Game Management Areas have been some of the most relentlessly
poached areas in Zambia. The area we
stayed in was supposed to be still quite good for game viewing, but that is
often a matter of luck, left up to the gods. On our first morning drive, we had
not gone far when Everisto stopped the vehicle and Kunda jumped down and walked
over to a pile of dried elephant dung.
Much to our surprise, he picked it up with his bare hands, broke it into
smaller bits and pushed it into a large tin can hanging behind the seats by a
wire. He then lit a match and carefully
started it burning. They explained to us
that the smoke helps keep away the tsetse flies. I actually grew to like the smell – certainly
more than being bitten!! Nigel did get
one bite, which got rather red and swollen quickly, but it didn’t last
long.
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elephant dung in the smoker to keep tsetses away
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We did not see any cats, zebras or
giraffes, but did see warthogs, puku, impala, kudu, eland, bush pig, baboons,
vultures, kingfishers, hippos, and we heard lions, elephants and hyenas.
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Bush Buck
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Puku
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Impala
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Warthog
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On the night drive we saw the
eyes of bush babies as the torchlight from the Land Rover caught their eyes in
the trees, and saw lots of the puku and impala.
We did a morning and night drive on our first day and spent the second
day being lazy - reading, etc. and on the third day did another morning drive. After not seeing anything new that morning, we
decided to forego another night drive.
On our “day of rest”, lounging on the
deck over the river, Nigel suddenly gave a shout – I thought he had dropped his
camera in the water. Fortunately he hadn’t,
but a lion snake had dropped out of the tree over his head and landed two feet
from his lounge chair. I ran off to find
help to get rid of the snake, but because it was midday no one was around. Nigel took a picture of it before we decided
we best get back to our tent cabin in case it was poisonous. Later that evening he showed Austin the
picture. He identified it as a lion
snake and said yes indeed, it was poisonous, but not aggressive! Needless to say, when we returned to the deck
for drinks before dinner, Nigel was on his hands and knees’, looking under all
the furniture to make sure the snake was gone!
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lion snake
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The cooks were wonderful and with an open brick oven made the best home-baked bread and
roast chicken. We had heard before we
left that they would bake delicious bread and if we brought flour and
yeast. We invited Austin and Anne to
join us at dinner our last two nights there and they were great fun. We heard some wonderful stories from Austin,
a former guide for game hunting, and from a family who has been in Zambia since
the 1800’s. He told us that Kafue River
Camp is owned by a former CEO or CFO of Microsoft (and of course, I can’t
remember the name or title) who bought it for himself. When he visits once a year or so, he and his
family/friends are the only ones there, all other times it is available to the
public. Austin seems to have a great job
because he doesn’t have to worry if the camp makes money or not.
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James baking bread
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Dimas with papaya
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We left on Monday morning and
as soon as we got about ½ hour away, we saw the most magnificent elephant
eating leaves at the side of the road.
He tried half-halfheartedly to charge us a couple of times, and after we got
some photos (staying inside the truck!) we left him to it.
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Lubungu pontoon
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In order to get to and from the camp, you
have to put your vehicle on the Lubungu pontoon to cross the Kafue River. It is operated by three men, two outboard
motors, and is on cables that guide it across the river. Each time you cross you must wait while they
write out a receipt, even if you don’t want one. When we reached the other side
on our return journey, Nigel played a little football (soccer) with a little
boy who lived nearby while we were waiting.
The kids are amazing; all you have to do while driving or walking by
them is wave and they get the biggest grins on their faces and delightedly wave
in return!
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downtown Mumbwa
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It was a fantastic experience
and a much needed rest for Nigel whose big advocacy event was a few days before
we left. I had never been in the bush
before and understand now why people refer to it as “the real Africa”. I can’t wait to go back when the kids arrive
and share their excitement of the experience.
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ingenious way to water the lawn
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Nigel and Austin
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Anne and Austin
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crossing the Kafue on safari
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| sunset from the deck |
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sunset from the deck
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| on game drive |
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