Before leaving here for home, Phillip asked me if I would go with him and a few kids on a safari to Africa's largest national park. We would be sleeping in tents.
Camping in an African national park? What do you think I said? "YES!"
Things I might have found out before saying yes: (good news): Florence, one of our older residents would be coming along to chaperon the girls. and the kids would do all the cooking and clean up (pretty much as they do at home).
The less than good news: There will be 12 kids in all. We have two tents, one for each gender. The only mattresses we have are the ones off our beds, two or which cover the floor of a tent. So I think the girls would not be too crowded with 6 in their tent, but I couldn't quite (or may be I could) visualize 8 males in a tent rated as a 6-man facility each wrapped with their own blanket. I couldn't see it as doable. But I happened to ride in the vehicle we would be taking. It has two long side benches in the back, suitable for lying on if you are not too wide. So I claimed the van as my place to sleep and that greatly eased my mind.
This year we have a trailer which means that not everything must be packed in the van along with the 'sardine' safari campers. The mattresses, tents, and most other baggage except the cooler and some food items went into the trailer leaving a little breathing space for the 12 occupants in the back. Phillip and I sat up front. got the picture? No, it was tighter than you imagine. Our vehicle is rated for 13 small Japanese.
Just before leaving, a new trailer hitch was installed. We left a bit later than we'd intended. The road was good and not much traffic. Checks of our load indicated everything was well stowed and tided down. However, Phillip noticed that the trailer was starting to buck a bit on the bumps. Sure enough the trailer hitch bolts were starting to loosen. We kept tightening them up. The treads were getting stripped making this ever more difficult. But the boys and Phillip kept everything from parting ways, even on the very unimproved road (more like unimproved bush) and on into the park and our campsite. The park entrance closes at 6 pm, we arrive with a whole 20 minutes to spare.
It was almost a two hour drive to the campsite and darkness took over. We arrived and set up tents and prepared our food in good order, like we had done it many times.
No one seemed anxious to stay up. Most of the staff dropped by to greet and welcome us. The camp director with a nice Australian accent told us about being sensible about leaving our tents at night. His rules: 1) Listen before opening your tent, no unusual sounds,then 2) open your tent and look around, nothing moving around out there, then 3) you can leave your tent, but don't tarry.
So armed with that good advice, we retired. I did not think I slept well, I heard distant animals sounds. So I was surprised in the morning when Phillip asked if I'd seen the lion. No, I took this as a morning joke. Not so, a lion had entered our camp, Phillip looked for footprints as he told about our visitor. He admitted that he was frightened not for himself, but for the girls and how they might be reacting. A camp guard came swinging a flaming torch and the lion moved off and I slept on..
A very auspicious start to our safari adventure. Earlier event also boded well. Even before we got into the park we had seen vervet monkeys, guinea fowl, kudu and bush buck.
We rose about 6 am (sun up) to a cold morning and a quick, inviting fire. After breakfast, Musaki, the camp attendant, came by to tell us our boat trip would be at 10 am. So we toured the edge of the Lufupa River by van first. We'd barely started when we met the camp's head guide who told us to look out for the lions about 50 meters ahead. "Keep your windows up and don't drive too close to them." And there they were, nine of them lounging around as if they'd been up all night frightening campers. They looked well fed, two large males and several females and two cubs. No long view through a telescope but only a few car-lengths away. Occasionally one of the males would lift his head to see if we'd gone yet. Also seen were more vervet monkeys, impala, hippos and zebra. Not a dull moment.
Then back to the camp and the boat launch site. The camp is located at the confluence of the Kafue and Lufupa Rivers. So our boat took sorties up both wildlife laden rivers and lasted what seemed a very short two hours. No one was bored (later my unofficial poll pronounced this the highlight of the safari). None of the children had ever been in/on a boat before.
Our skipper/guide could not have been better, he knew his animals and his audience. I asked him at one point if he'd been a teacher. "No," he said. I told him he was one. He kept us supplied with new animals, their names and the spelling of their names (some of us were keeping our journals up to date) and some interesting details about their life habits. At slow times he'd give us review questions. Everything we saw was pretty much up close and in clear view. Oh yes, and what we saw:
1. Hadeda Ibis
2. Never out of sight of a pod of hiippos
3. Brown-headed Kingfisher
4. Water Monitor Lizard
5. Vervet Monkeys
6. African Fish Eagle - Zambia's National Bird seen on currency, the flag and TV
7. Reed cormorant
8. Crocodiles
9. White-breasted Cormorants
10. African Finfoot
11. Green-backed Heron
12. Water Dikkop (thick-knee)
13. Hammerkop and their unusual nest
14. Cocktail Ant colony
15. Giant Kingfisher, both perched and hunting
16. Wire-tailed Swallow
The two hours went very quickly and we were back on dry land and back to camp for lunch sandwiches.
Enough animals for the moment, the kids opted for a swim in the pool before we went off on another wildlife ride.
This time many elephants and they were on the move and not wanting us to be very near, there were babies with them. We watched a mother and her young stripping the bark off a tasty bush (we had to watch because they were blocking the road). The mother moved on but this bush was really good and the little one was not about to leave it. Finally it turned as if called and takes off toward the mother and we can pass. I wanted to get out and taste that bark they made it look so good. We saw more hippos, a life-times worth of hippos, had no idea so many could live in such close a proximity to each other. They remained in their pods or small groups. Sulphur Pool, well named from the smell of it, was a favorite gathering place, hippos like other folks I know, like to soak in those sulphurous waters, must be good for their skin and perhaps bad for their ectoparasites. More crocodiles but singly, no large gathering of them. Phillip spotted a python who'd recently eaten (large meal which showed) and who didn't want to move, maybe he couldn't.
We headed back about a half hour before sunset, everyone tired and hungry. The children are motivated to eat but not well organized. I sat and watch what seemed as disorganized as an ant colony, a lot of random motion, no one in charge, but everyone doing something and all seemed to be enjoying what they were doing. The menu they selected was spaghetti and chicken with nshima as a special request of Uncle Phillip.
I have never seen spaghetti prepared in such an un-Italian way. Some kids started breaking up the spaghetti into random lengths and eating (crunching) the smaller pieces uncooked. Pots of water were put on the fire and the odd array of spaghetti 'sticks' poking well out of the pots of warm water. Neither pot had sufficient water for the job (my estimation). No one timed anything. I calculated it must have cooked for a least an hour or more, but much of it was sticking out of the pot for some time before it settled down and someone noticed and put a lid on it. The chicken was boiled for some undetermined time and then sort of fried or cooked in oil in a large pot. I watched all this is a half wakeful state, a few times I tried to make a suggestion, but one one was interested. I realized a that they were enjoying themselves and the lack of adult supervision. Phillip had retired to the van. After what must have been nearly two hours, plates were brought out, food was dished up. Phillip and a few others had nshima. I was brave and went for the spaghetti and somehow it was all good.
After supper and clean up, we indulged in an ancient African custom of telling stories around an evening fire. Phillip also demonstrate how to roast our last chicken on a spit. Fortified with all that food, we lasted about another hour before we had to retire. Never once on this trip did I have to call out telling the kids to 'be quiet and go to sleep', a most common and tiresome phrase from camping with similar aged children in the US.
Next morning it was not so cold. We went for a drive before breakfast to get the jump on those animals. We passed the camp director out on a similar jaunt. He had seen nothing. But we persevered and Phillip spotted some large birds out in the open in a swampy area. They were Wattled Cranes feeding. Probably the rarest of our sightings. Not rare but fun to watch were the Helmeted Guinea Fowl feeding in the road and being aggressive to one another while holding their wings high but pressed together over their backs while running at each other.
Back for our last breakfast, last camp meal. The repair staff of the park took on our trailer hitch problem with a lot of enthusiasm and large bolts and wouldn't quit until they had us together in a way they thought would get us safely home.
About 9;30 am Phillip takes a group picture, we break camp, pack the trailer and van and leave that very special place. On the way home we saw baboons, kudu, wart hogs and assorted antelope. Several stops to check and tighten those trailer hitch bolts, one stop for cold drinks and for Sam to drive once more on the left. We pulled into Chishawasha about 4 pm. We all had a great supper and a good night's rest.
Blog pressing out of Africa,
Uncle Sam
