A Day in the Park

Excitement mounted last Friday night. On Saturday after a busy and productive week – we were going on our first all day adventure to really look for wildlife, a self-drive into South Luangwa National Park (SLNP). It was important to get a good night’s sleep. The Moon is almost full, the light flooding the Luangwa and the inside of the Bush House. As we prepared for bed we could hear the Hippos yelling out their characteristic loud hoots and grunts. Their sounds carried in the still night air… so close we could have sworn they were in the Chipembele Lake, just 5 metres from our house. The bird known as ‘The Low Battery Bird’ started up – "…Loud trill, Loud trill, soft trill, soft trill - beep, beep, beep (battery’s dead) … repeated over and over.

Then the Unidentified-Owl (UO) started up.

At distance at first, it went like this:

UO: ‘Oooo, Oooo’.

Jude: : “Haven’t heard that owl before!”

UO: ‘Oooo, Oooo’

Kaye: “Wonder what type he is?”

UO closer this time: ‘Oooo Oooo’

Jude: “Gosh, he’s loud isn’t he? He’s really close.”

UO: Oooo, Oooo
Kaye: “Must be looking for a mate.”

UO: “Oooo Oooo’ ‘Oooo Oooo’ ‘Oooo Oooo’.

This went on for hours. Tossing and turning in sleepless beds.

Kaye: “Bloody Owl! Wish he would just shut up!”

Jude: “So much for wildlife-lovin’.”

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Waking at 4.10am precisely, as you do when you are over excited and had a bad nights sleep, we cuppa’d up, had breakfast of wheat-bix, packed our picnic things and went up to Anna and Steve’s house to pick up the keys and vehicle so we could pack the things in the Landy. Steve said “There were Wild Dog up the top of the Driveway this morning did you hear them?” We pouted..."Wild Dog? Wow! ...No, we didn’t hear them!” …Awww, we were rattling around packing up and didn’t hear them…” How disappointing.

Once on the road, we spent 5 minutes looking for the Wild Dog but figured they had moved well off on the hunt, we started on our hour long drive to the SLNP. Off we go! Whoo Hoo!

Oops, no, Have to go back… how embarrassing, Bush Babies we are, babes-in-the-woods. Going on a trip and forgot to pack the Park map! Steve was surprised to see us back in 7 minutes… He thought we had found the Wild Dog! 

Map securely packed we finally took off. Picking Brooke up at the BP, we paid our park fees, ($US 30 per person + K15,300 vehicle fee). Spent the first part of the morning exploring small tracks and taking photos of puku, ducks, zebra and impala. Actually, this is because we got lost. Good thing we bought the map… Taking a short-cut that turned into a 2 hour maze, but it was all good… Found the airstrip and eventually back to the main road we headed out to Chichelele Hill in the South of the Park. Kaye did a great job of the driving and guiding. Brooke is a great safari-companion. She, like us - also loves to just sit and watch and photograph who-ever happens along. She is as glad as we are just to be IN the African bush!

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A Conga Line of Buffalo

The ‘sighting of the day’ was 200 buffalo as they filed in from the bush to the Dambo to drink – we could not believe our eyes – and sat watching them, filming and photographing them for an hour and forty minutes. Beautiful!

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Elephant! Elephant! Elephant!

Lone males, a lone female (we wondered why she was on her own!) small family groups… in various settings, mopane, scrub, wetland (Dambo), elephant heaven…

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Brooke Mundey and our first Elephant sighting for the day

Bushbuck

U.D. (Unidentified Duck)

Ground Hornbill

Waterbuck

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Kaye did such a terrific job as our driver and guide!

When we got back to Chipembele at 5.00pm – Richarb asked Kaye “Madam, did you hear the Wild Dog last night? They were all around.” Kaye, disappointed told him “No – all we heard was an Unidentified-Owl. Saying ‘Oooo, Oooo! Oooo Oooo!’.

“Ah! – No, madam that is the contact-call of the Wild Dog…”

Listen as we might, as we went to sleep last night –

no UO’s… no Wild Dog’s….

Babes-in-the-woods, indeed.

Love & Waves from the Luangwa

Jude and Kaye

PS: Richarb told us the Wild Dogs came back into the grounds of Chipembele in the morning near the Men’s house, while we were in the Park.

Kaye said: “ Ironic isn’t it – we pay 60 bucks to get into the park and saw buffalo. If we had stayed at home we could have seen the Wild Dog for free!”