Sam's Zambia Experience: What a weekend!!

Last weekend, we experienced what will likely be the “touristy highlight” of our stay in Zambia. We visited South Luangwa National Park, the most famous “safari destination” in Zambia (and maybe even in this region of Africa). Initially, we wanted to go to Zanzibar over the long weekend, and had planned on visiting South Luangwa in August, when it is warmer, in order to improve our chances of seeing animals (cats in particular). However, the travel agent talked us into changing our plans.

Travel

Although the flights by themselves were “normal”, the procedures were anything but “normal” from an American standpoint. We didn’t have any tickets or “confirmation numbers”, just itineraries. Once we arrived at the airport we walked through metal detectors, as is normal in the States and pretty much anywhere else I have been. However, on the way back, the detector went off when I walked through. No one cared, and then, the “guard” even left his post, and people just walked through the metal detector. It went off several times, and still…no one cared. Once on the flight, the first thing I noticed, is that the cockpit door was missing, which means that everyone had “easy access” to the cockpit. Although initially I was very uncomfortable about that, once we were in the air, I took advantage of this opportunity by moving to the seat right behind the pilots, and watched them operate for most of the flight.

To top things off, here is the most surprising fact: The entire trip (= at Lusaka Airport, at the Hotel and at Mfuwe Airport) no one asked any of us for any kind of ID (not even once). Anyone could have taken this trip instead of us, and it would have been just fine. Although these facts show “serious” lack of security, they also show that there is no need for “proper” security.

Lodge

Our lodge was located a couple of miles outside of the National Park, but had several wild animals on and around the property – Monkeys and baboons were all over, and just waited for opportunities to feed off of people’s leftovers, if the waiters didn’t clean up in time. We also saw two big elephants on property – as in between rooms that people were staying in. Further, from the “eating area”, we saw two hippos, and several antelopes.

Game Drives

We went on four game drives (= safaris) which lasted several hours each. This meant waking up around 5:00 am each day, but I (not so sure about “we”) was happy to do that. We left the property when it was still dark, and when it was very cold.

Each of us had our own “animal of choice” we wanted to see: Ketsia – Hyena (which later changed to “Pumba” (aka warthog)), Kathleen – Giraffes, Azadeh – Leopards, and me – Lions. Everybody was a winner. Kathleen more so than the others, not only because we saw a lot of giraffes, but mainly because we saw two giraffes fight, which was quite interesting. From another point of view Azadeh was the “main winner”, as it is much rarer to see leopards, than it is to see any of the other animals. Some people have been staying at the lodge for over a week, and have not seen any leopards.

Overall, we saw plenty of animals. Here is a list of a “few” of them: Hippos, elephants, buffalos, giraffes, hyenas, impalas, crocs, monkeys, baboons, warthogs, eagles, zebras, lions, and a leopard.
Big thanks to Willy, the main guide/driver, and to John the “spotter”. They were excellent. Willy has been doing this for almost 15 years, and drove through all sorts of terrains to get us to see animals.

I took well over a thousand pictures (remember the “film” days, when we only had 24 or 36 pictures to snap per roll?!). Here are a few of them:

Kids welcoming us - on the way to the lodge