5/18/19
Another transit day for us, up at 5:15AM with a personal wake up call (they come to your door and yell “good morning!”) complete with coffee delivery service. It is dark out but the birds and hippos start talking as usual. We arranged to have breakfast ready for us at 6AM, so we all gathered there on time, groggily saying good morning although I think all of us would have rather been sleeping. Breakfast was finally served at 6:20 and our boat was scheduled to leave for the mainland at 6:30, so we all wolfed down breakfast and headed for the boat launch. A 15 minute ride over smooth, calm waters with the sun rising on the horizon, and we are on the mainland to transfer to our van. Our driver delivers us to Livingstone Airport, about 30 minutes away. We are the first passengers to arrive, the airport is deserted except for the cleaning staff and the TSA-like folks doing the screening. After an hour wait we are on our way to Lusaka Airport on a fully loaded twin turbo prop 30 passenger British Aerospace Jetsream 41, and another 2 hour layover in Lusaka, a depressing airport with no shops and only one food concession. From there we board a 14 person Cessna Caravan for the 45 min cross country flight to the Lower Zambezi River Valley. For the final 10 minutes of the flight the pilot flew low right down the middle of the river which was so beautiful! From the air we could see pods of hippos, herds of elephant, and stunning topography. After landing on the dirt strip, we were driven 20 minutes through the bush to a boat launch where we transferred to an aluminum skiff with 4 directors chairs for seats. We then traveled 45 minutes upstream to our camp - 8 hours of commute time. But so worth it once we were here. Set on the confluence of the Chongwe River and Zambezi River, our camp is maybe the most picturesque one yet. Hippos live right in front of our camp and one in particular, dubbed “Fat Albert”, actually visits the camp almost daily. We had yet to see a hippo out of the water and now we can cross that one off our list. We saw so many hippos in and out of the water in the first 6 hours of being here. Elephants also come down to the water to drink and to play; birds abound, and the Zambezi mountain range sets the backdrop for this beautiful environment. I think this might be my favorite location so far, and each time we leave a camp we think “how can this be topped?”. After a delicious cold buffet of salads, Kalbi pork, along with cold beers, we settled into our new tents on the river. At 4:00PM we set out on our game drive with our new guides “Sam” and “Hugo”. Our drive continued through dusk and into the darkness so while Hugo drove, Sam scanned the bushes and trees on both sides with a muted spotlight to look for nocturnal animals. Score! Again, just when we think we have had the best guide possible and nobody can live up to it, we get yet another set of excellent guides. We saw bush babies, leopard, hyena (a new one for us), large spotted jenet which is a type of mongoose, and many many crocodiles. The waters in this area are truly croc and hippo infested - if one doesn’t kill you the other will. Back at camp at 7:15 and dinner at 7:30, communal style dining where we met lots of interesting people. Great first day!
Croc headed for the water
Hanging around eating the palm tree fruit
Baobab Tree, enormous, also called the upside down tree because the branches look like the roots
More hippos!
Hippos out of water
View from our tent up the Chongwe River
Another Croc
Impala with Ox Peckers
Main gathering area of our camp at Chongwe
Hippos sleeping across the river in front of our room
Cape Buffalo with Ox Peckers
Mama and Baby were so close I couldn’t get them in my telephoto
Shower area in our room
Views from the plane on approach
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