A Special One Year Celebration

 

This past week we enjoyed celebrating our first year wedding anniversary in one of the best-rated National Parks in Zambia. Needless to say, it was amazing. However that doesn’t mean we didn’t hit any bumps on the way. The park is about 6 hours away from our village. We needed to arrange for transportation thru the common “mini-busses”, which are very well packed vans. Our first “mini-bus” was arranged by one of the local brothers and came and got us early Saturday morning. Thankfully they let us be keepers of the front seats. Throughout the next hour the van became filled with lots of people, chickens, large bags containing charcoal, cotton, potatoes etc. The ride was fairly pleasant and we arrived safely to our first stop, Chipata (The largest city from where we stay, about 200 km).

Next we boarded another “mini-bus” and when Kalila asked “so what time do we leave?” the answer was “When it gets full.” We spent a few hours just waiting for people to board, and finally we were off to the small village of Mfuwe, Zambia. Just outside the National park. This road made us realize how luxury our first ride was to Chipata. The road has been under construction, so the road is extremely uneven ground with lots of large rocks and potholes (and there are no rest stops along the way).

About 4 hours later though we were dropped off at our camp- Flatdogs, just on the border of the park. We were greeted by the managers, and given a safety talk for the camp. The rules are: 1) Do not approach the animals 2) Always have a watchman with you at night when you walk to your tent 3) Do not feed the animals

Sounds pretty simple…

Our lodging consisted of a heavy-duty tent, with a bamboo fenced in outside shower, toilet and sink. We were spoiled with the view of the hippo-infested river just outside our tent.

The first night we decided to enjoy ourselves by the fire. Not five minutes later we were greeted by a larger-than-expected hippo right across the fire from us. That’s when we realized that the safety talk did not include “What to do if you are approached by the wildlife.” Later on that night when we went to bed we were awakened by the Elephants feeding on the trees just above our tent. Like little kids, we were poking our heads out the tent trying to see the Elephant as close as possible.

Over the next few days we did game drives throughout the park early in the morning and in the evening. Some of our highlight sightings included: Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, Baboons, Leopards, Impalas, Puku, Kudu, Waterbuck, Bushbuck, African Fish Eagle, Water Buffalo, Civet, Genet, Zebra and even Hyena, among many species of birds.

The Elephants were always impressive. We were able to even drive right up and next to the Elephants. Almost able to reach out and touch them. We saw many of large herds with there calves cross the road right in front of us. This was a daily sighting.

The Giraffes and Impala’s were very beautiful animals. They were often in close quarters with each other along with Puku and Baboons. All of them helped each other stand guard against the carnivores. The park was so full of these animals, was started just driving past them like they weren’t even there. On one occasion we were able to walk towards the Giraffes and appreciate to true size of the animals. Riding in a truck you forgot how small we really were compared to the animals.

We were able to drive right up the pride of Lion resting peacefully in the bush. Many of the Lions were passed out with large bellies full from a kill just a few days earlier. The male Lion gave us quite a show, walking right up to the truck and then resting along side us, with a female rolling in the dirt behind him.

One of our favorite sightings was the Leopard. We came across a young Leopard in a tree with his breakfast with him. He was munching on an Impala, which was killed probably the night before. While watching him we discovered that a Hyena was waiting for anything from the Impala to drop down for an easy meal for himself. The young Leopard’s mother and sibling were not far off and had already had there fill on the Impala. Eventually the Impala fell to the ground and the Hyena quickly dragged it off. Meanwhile the Leopard slowly came down the tree and rested within 10 feet of the vehicle. Soon he was joined by his mother and sibling. While watching the 3, the mother soon saw more Impala walking towards them and quickly went back into hunt mode. Though the Impala noticed her efforts, it was still very exciting to watch.

We enjoyed our stay at Flatdogs camp very much.