Day 13 – Kasanka, Zambia

We didn't have to cook breakfast this morning as we went to the restaurant and had a slap up full English breakfast. (Gosh dinner and breakfast I am being spoilt and could get used to it) No cooking, no washing up, oh boy a trip like this really makes you appreciate the comforts of home.

We set off at about 8am without Ken and Rouvierre, they hadn't arrived from their Kabwe stay yet so we decided just to push on and let them catch up with us. They are so much quicker than us so it was better for us to leave. We didn't have too far to go but we wanted to get into Kasanka early. Ernest and I had visited the park about 15 years ago and really loved it and we only had the afternoon and one day there so we wanted to make the most of it.

We had about 220 kilometers and then some 49 K’s inside the park till we reached the campsite. We were on the great North road and got behind a rather mad tanker driver who paved the way for us, he was obviously empty and was high tailing it back to Dar Es Salaam. Ernest figured that nobody would mess with him so we just sat on his tail and went like hell.

We arrived at about 12pm and when we signed in, the campsite that we wanted was apparently already occupied so they sent us to one way the other side of the park. Trying to navigate our way down this very narrow road between huge trees was quite harrowing. Again Ernest of course never slowed down so it was a case of " wow that was close" or Ernest's favorite when I said that he had missed some tree by inches his standard reply is "well I missed it didn't I". They obviously don't have many trucks our size in this park and when we arrived at the camp site we had about a foot deep of leaves and branches on the roof. When Ken and Rouvierre arrived they said we had left a whole heap of broken branches in the road behind us.

At one point we had to cross over a newly built bridge, it was very narrow and had huge rebar spikes sticking up along the edge of the bridge on either side. We had to cross with Steve directing Ernest and I kid you not we had a Max of 4 inches on either side or one of the spikes would have gone through the tire. My head was hanging out one side and Steve was on the bridge going, left, now right, now straight, little left etc. that was some good driving and good directing.

After navigating the bridge, we went for another kilometer and then the bush just closed in and there was no way we were going to get through, it was just too thick for the truck, so we got Kim to turn around and go back across the bridge and ask if we could camp at the campsite there, maybe we could squeeze in somewhere close by (which is where we were last time) as it turns out the best site was available right there and the Park warden arrived to help direct us in under the trees. We had to re-cross that dam bridge, inch by inch. We then camped under the most beautiful Red Mahogany trees that are absolutely huge and just so majestic, we estimated that they are at least 35 meters high and a huge canopy of beautiful red leaves.

The trouble seemed to be that the elephants had pushed down a few trees and so they had had to close down some of the other sites. The communications are not too good here so at the main gate they just thought the whole camp was closed. This park is run by a private trust and is not a national park. They rely totally on donations from overseas and so run on a very limited budget.

Kasanka is famous for its bat population. They arrive in the reserve in October and leave again for the DRC in January. Unfortunately there were none here at the moment, but when they do arrive there are apparently up to ten million of them that arrive and feed on the berries from the Water berry trees. Can you imagine seeing eight million bats, and they are the big fruit bats with a wing span of 800 mm, so it must be a sight to behold. There is a forest of about 440 hectares where they roost and then go out and feed over an area of 50 kilometers. They fly out high up at night and come back low obviously heavy after feeding. There is no guano around as they burn up everything that they consume.

 We settled in for the afternoon in the most delightful campsite overlooking the river and a huge thick reed bed that stretches for 100 meters and then opens out into large grassland where there are tons of Bushbuck and Puku out grazing in the soft evening light. That evening we had a special sighting of a Sitatonga and her baby, they are apparently often sighted in this spot. She came out onto the grassland; the baby played around for a bit and then disappeared again into the reeds.

These are such rare animals, very shy and they only come out in the evening and early morning, as soon as the sun hits their backs they disappear into the reeds and can't be seen. I was surprised at how dark and fluffy their coats are but that is because they spend a lot of time in the water.

The camp is really rustic, a long drop that is not easy to confront and a shower built of reeds, a concrete base and a bucket that the camp boys fill with hot water. Two great guys that sweep and keep the area clean, make the fires and keep up a supply of hot water which they ferry down from their camp which is about 50 meters up the road. They use their bicycle to carry the heavy buckets back and forth, good old Chinese bikes that you see everywhere in Africa. We did go for a short walk along the edge of the river as far as the bridge before it started to get dark.

We each threw a coin into the water and made our wishes which is, as I have said before a real Ernest fetish. The camp guys were a little upset with us and said we were not allowed to go wondering around as there are wild animals and we could get into trouble. I must admit we could hear the hippos grunting not far off so I suppose they were right and we did go quickly back to camp like good children especially as we didn't want another hippo chasing us again.

Until tomorrow, signing off!

PS More photos will be uploaded as soon as Fritz & Ronel gets back to South Africa.