Day 11 - Kafue, Zambia

My gosh it is hard to believe we have been going for ten days already and it is nearly time for our four guys to turn around and go home. We have now traveled 2635 kilometers and this is our third day in Kafue National Park and we will be staying one more day before we leave. We were only going to stay two days in this camp, Mayukuyu (try and say that one out loud), and then move up to McBride’s Camp for the other two, which is far north of us but still inside the Park, however Ernest learnt from other campers here when he was doing his scouting rounds that the road was so bad and the trees so thick and low that we would not have gotten through with the truck. So, we decided just to stay put and not move. It was a well-deserved few days of doing nothing but the activities of this park, after pushing up here and driving the 2000 odd Ks.

The four that joined for a short time, Sonja and Kobus and Ronell and Fritz, will turn around and head back for Lusaka the day after tomorrow and then back to SA via Vic falls. We on the other hand will keep heading north and will stop off in Kabwe where Rouvierre’s nephew works as a missionary. 

In the morning the guys that didn't go on our marathon game drive of last night, went on a game drive and the other 8 split up, four going on a boat trip this morning and four going this afternoon. The water level in the river is dropping and so they don't want too many on the boat at once even though it is a fairly big boat and can take about 10 people at a time.

The guys on the game drive drove for about a kilometer and saw a lion, and then another two Ks saw another two lions plus stacks of general game. The guys on the boat saw a leopard come down to the water to drink, then a lion so it looks like our very bad game drive of the night before was really an unusual thing..... Oh well, we saw one of the little five, they saw two of the big five, that is the luck of the draw. There are no Rhino in this park, they were shot out some time back as is the case in most of the African reserves other than SA which are now being put under huge pressure as you know; but they do apparently have lots of Elephants, lion, leopards and some Buffalo. The bush is pretty dry at the moment and the rainy season only starts in October. Our guide was telling us that the river drops so low that from next month the river, although still about 200 meters wide, will not be navigable by the end of the month.

Fritz, Ronel, Ernest and I did the evening run down the river; it was a wonderful relaxing activity even though we never saw lion or leopard. The river is about 200 meters wide and lined with Water-berry trees. The water has washed away the soil and exposed this network of a gnarled root system that almost looks prehistoric.  The river is full of hippos that bob up and down as you slowly chug past driven by Stanley - our tracker of the night before. Our guide was Harold (pronounced Errrrrrowl, or something like that quite unpronounceable) a guy with very sharp eyes who is constantly scanning for birds and animals. We went up a little tributary which is his birding spot only to be confronted by two mother hippos with fairly small babies on their backs, very cute as long as you don't get too close and as this part of the river was fairly narrow and our guide thought it prudent to withdraw and forsake seeing some of the birds he expected to show us- the Pels Fishing owl for one, so the four of us were not having much luck. Anyway we blamed it all on Fritz as all he was interested in was doing some fishing.

So the drinks stop was spent with a fishing line in the water with a worm on the hook. Fritz had convinced the camp helper to go get him some worms from somewhere. He did catch two little fish during the stop, the strangest looking fish, it was like a mini shark with a leopard print skin and they called it a squeaker. Apparently it has poisonous spikes so it had to be very carefully taken off the hook and thrown back into the river and during this entire process it did squeak like a baby’s’ squeaker toy. It was certainly aptly named.

The river has huge rocks in it and every now and again the prop would hit one of these underwater rocks and we would all cringe at the thought of the repairs. Of course the sun set over the water was the highlight of the cruise and a good compromise for not seeing too many animals. We are lucky that we are able to see game in the Manyeleti but we never see the sun setting from the river like that. It was a big round red ball the size of a soccer ball and the photos we got will tell the story of this beautiful peaceful scene.

We had a wonderful evening around the fire with Kobus singing on his guitar and all of us feeling a little nostalgic as the group will be splitting up in two days’ time and our time together is drawing to a close. 

However we still have a lot to look forward to and the ones that are leaving will follow our progress on the blog. 
Until tomorrow, good night over and out!