Safari Sightings
Island Bush Camp
August 2010 by Jennifer Thomas
On a Saturday morning in June, we left Kafunta River Lodge, in an open safari vehicle, to drive to Island Bush Camp. Travellers included four visitors, the safari guide and the scout. The journey takes about three hours through the National Park, following the course of the Luangwa River.
Towards
the end of the game drive, the road became a bush track and ended at the river
bank. The journey upstream to the riverside camp took about ten minutes by boat.
Comfortable accommodation was provided in chalets, which were elevated on wooden
poles and made of woven grass with a canvas roof. After lunch and a short rest
we gathered for our afternoon walk. Our guide explained the rules. The armed
scout, named ‘Danger’ went first, then the guide, Kennedy, and we
followed, quietly in single file. If we encountered wild animals we were to
form a close group and follow Kennedy’s instructions.
So
we followed ‘Danger’ into the African Bush. We looked closely at
the trees and bushes as the ecology of the area was explained to us. We also
tracked animals by their footprints and droppings. Following the hippo trails
and walking in elephants footsteps were the easiest ways to walk between the
thickets and across the rough terrain. Suddenly, there was a series of loud
bangs, like rifle shots. Nearby, a palm tree shook vigorously.
We walked a little closer and saw a huge male elephant, with tusks either side of the tree, banging the tree trunk with his head to shake the nuts down.
A
group of elephants, including a baby, waited for the evening meal to hit the
ground. This process was repeated several times before the elephants moved on
to another palm tree.
We watched quietly, close enough to hear the elephants’ stomachs rumble. The changing light indicated that sunset was close and so we returned swiftly to camp. Dinner by candlelight and stories by the camp fire was followed by stargazing and listening to the lions calling to one another as they hunted for their supper. We retired to our warm and comfortable beds to enjoy the sounds of the bush as we fell asleep.
Early the next morning, as the hippos returned to the river, we watched the sun rise as we enjoyed breakfast around the campfire. The group eagerly gathered for our morning walk. We walked in the bush for about four hours, and enjoyed sightings of elephants, hippos, warthogs, impala and baboons. They all watched us with great suspicion and then disappeared soundlessly into the bush.
We
encountered a group of four giraffes who also stayed with us briefly before
moving on. Our understanding, of the interrelationships of animals and plants
and the delicate balance of the ecological system, grew as we experienced the
bush through the eyes of our expert safari guide. The afternoon was spent relaxing
on the chalet balcony with a great view of the river animals. We listened to
the distinctive sounds of the various hippo groups as they communicated the
territorial limits to one another. Many pairs of hippo eyes and a crocodile
nearby discouraged any notions of swimming in the river! In the cool of the
late afternoon, a small group of walkers explored one of the sandy islands in
the middle of the river.
We all met again for sundowners, followed by dinner by candlelight. The next morning we crossed the Luangwa River to begin the journey back to Kafunta. On the morning game drive, we saw Cape buffalo, Kudu, giraffes and warthogs.
Amazingly, in the early afternoon a large male leopard was observed relaxing in the shade. The final part of the adventure included loading the vehicle onto the pontoon, to be rowed across the river, to return to Kafunta River Lodge.
Dry Season
October 2010 by Jennifer Thomas
Spring is here and the temperature is rising. No rain for three months now the bush is looking dry and dusty.
A warm breeze sometimes blows gently, but usually the air is still. A few trees retain a sprinkling of green leaves but mostly the branches are bare, except for the trees forming a green fringe along the banks of the Luangwa River.
All of the smaller rivers and streams have dried up leaving wide sandy beds. When the water supply dries up and the plants are all brown and bare, it is truly the survival of the fittest. It is easier to see the animals now as the bush provides far less cover and shelter. Elephants form larger groups of twenty or more and some families spend time amongst the sprinklers on the Lodge lawns, under the shade of the huge fig tree.
Sometimes
it is necessary to move around the camp carefully, as there are elephants on
every walkway. In the late afternoon, many elephants walk purposefully to Mfuwe,
arriving after dark to raid the ripening crops.
At first light, they return to the relative safety of the National Park. Very intelligent animals, elephants! The lagoon, in front of the Lodge attracts antelopes, giraffes, elephants, hyenas and mongooses, who come each night for a drink of water.
Lately, most game drives have returned with reports of leopards and lions, now easily visible in the dry landscape. Buffaloes have formed large breeding herds of 200 or more which spend the days grazing between the river and the hills and can be seen cooling themselves in the muddy lagoons, in the soft evening light. The bird population has become more varied with the arrival of the migratory species.
Beautiful
Carmine Bee Eaters form large colonies which nest in the sandy river banks,
providing an interesting and colourful display. There are baby animals everywhere,
all learning survival strategies from their mothers, while the males either
guard the territory or return to a solitary life in the bush. Family groups
of warthogs, baboons and puku can be seen grazing together on the plain. This
peaceful activity is occasionally disturbed by approach of a rival or predator.
Baby hippos remain with their mothers for the first two years as a young hippo can be prey for lions.
Elephants
remain in the family group until they become teenagers, then they are strongly
encouraged to find their own food and eventually form a new family group. By
the time hippos and elephants leave home they weight over a tonne, so it is
clearly time for a more independent lifestyle. Wildlife safaris are endlessly
surprising.
On a recent night drive, we were enjoying a warm, quiet evening, occasionally disturbed by bush hares and elephant shrews, when we discovered a tree where two adult leopards, a male and female, were devouring a small antelope. At the base of the tree, two hyenas waited quietly for tasty morsels to drop from the branches. Their concentration was not disturbed by a passing hippo who was searching for the ripe, sausage-shaped fruits that had also fallen from the tree.
Eventually, the hyenas received their share of the evening meal and retreated to the thicket to finish their supper, in peace. Africa is a strange mixture of cooperation and coalition as well as rivalry and predation-such is life!
Winter Safari
June 2010 by Jennifer Thomas
Autumn has slipped into winter with cold mornings and evenings but beautiful warm sunny days.
On a recent game drive, we saw a leopard hunting in the late afternoon when it was still light. We watched him for about an hour as he crept along the gullies in the plain, stalking the antelope. Eventually the antelope gave the alarm call and he decided to wait until after dark and plan for a late supper.
Leopards
do not chase their prey like lions and cheetahs, they like to creep up and pop
out of the thickets to take the animal by surprise. They may then drag it up
a tree, so that the hyenas do not steal it.
We saw also saw elephants crossing the river. The mother and older sibling held the baby between them. The baby had to swim most of the way with only the trunk out of the water. Elephant families are fascinating. Young ones can be seen suckling until they are several years old.
Young elephants stay with the mother and her female relatives. Often the babies stray from the group and get a really hard time from mamma to keep them in order. Teenage males live independently, often forming bachelor herds.
Older bull elephants are usually alone and can be aggressive, especially if they are in musth, when they are only interested in eating and mating. Elephants eat for about 22 out of every 24 hours. Frequently, they can be seen and heard crunching their way through the vegetation, eating everything including the branches of the trees.
On the way back to Kafunta, we saw a pride of four young lions that had recently killed a zebra. They were so full they could hardly move.
They played for a little while, like huge kittens, and then fell fast asleep, stretched out under the stars, not a care in the world. On the way home through the National Park, we saw herds of Cape buffalo, recently arrived from the hills. On the track approaching the Lodge, we were fortunate to see a porcupine scurrying back into the bushes. Life, here at Kafunta River Lodge, continues to be a safari adventure.
Guide's Reports: July 2010
Mario Voss: Whole Day Drive
During my parents' stay at the beginning of this month, I thought it would be nice to join them on a few safaris because firstly I don't get to see my parents very often, and secondly... I just love being in the park anyway!
I was particularly keen to join them on their whole day drive going up north into areas that we can’t reach during "normal" safaris from Kafunta. And so I jumped on the car ready for a great day in the bush.
Apart from seeing so many different animals, the highlight was certainly watching a pride of lions, named the Hollywood Pride, due to their very friendly behaviour towards vehicles ... and cameras!
We parked our vehicle a few meters next to two females and their sub-adult cubs and watched them for about one hour. Since I sat in the front of the car, I had a wonderful angle for taking pictures of how they played and greeted each other.
And since most of today's superstars have been "shot" in black and white at some stage, I thought the Hollywood-Pride deserves it too!
Guide's Reports: June 2010
Josephat Msoni: Lot's to See at the Island Bush Camp
I had 3 guests from Scotland, it was there first time on safari. They had an 8 night stay in the valley going to 3 different camps.
We arrived at camp to enjoy the sun setting over the Muchjna escarpment to the west, the next day we walked on the other side of the Luangwa River as the lions had been inviting us all night! We were looking for them but they seem to have disappeared.
In the afternoon it was a trip to our famous plains and it was very active. Just as we approached the plains there were impala and puku and in the Mopane forest was a herd of elephants.
At this time we did not know that on the other side of the plain was a leopard in the tree watching us, we only saw him once he came down the tree.
The next morning as usual we started with a cup of tea as the sun rose before setting off. Just barely 200 meters into the walk suddenly our scout Danger (it's his name) pointed to some wild dogs. We saw 3 wild dogs running along the dry stream after being chased by elephants.
I know these clients are very lucky with there first sSafari as many guest have come to Africa for years before seeing wild dogs or even a leopard!
Mario Voss: Lunch Time
Even when living in the bush, there are days, where most hours of the day are spent in the office.
17th of June was one of those days. After spending a few hours in front of the computer, the guests arrived back from their safari. As usual, I was very keen to listen to what they'd experienced on that morning, so I jumped off my seat to welcome them back to the lodge.
Apart from seeing lots of giraffes, elephants, impalas, pukus and zebras, they told me that they had seen a female leopard right across the pontoon with a kill in a tree. As soon as I heard that this was only half an hour ago, and after being convinced by the guests photos that it would be worth trying to find it (amazing pictures!), I quickly grabbed Luke and Jenny (Luke's teacher) and we rushed to the pontoon. Knowing that there was the possibility of a leopard waiting for us on the other side, the river crossing felt like it took hours.
But once on the other side, it only took 2 minutes to reach the acacia tree where things happened 30 minutes ago. At first I couldn't see anything, but then we spotted the leopard underneath the tree. And her kill was still up on a branch.
As we drove closer, she seemed to sneak away from us and for a short time I was concerned that we might not see her again. But we did. She came back, jumped up the tree and even started feeding on her kill.
For about an hour we were delighted by her presence, listening to her cracking some bones and we could even hear her breathing since she was only 15 meters away from us. Unfortunately we had to leave her after that wonderful hour since we had to go back to camp. I will never forget that lunchbreak!
Guide's Reports: May 2010
Josephat Msoni: Safari in Pyjamas
The first group at Island Bush Camp this year, were six people from England. They started their safari at Kafunta and after three days moved on to the Bush Camp for three days of walking safaris. We did see so many animals including three lionesses on a night drive, which were just sitting next to the road, so we could get quite close to them.
The highlight of the trip though was to happen in the last night.
As usual we got back to camp from a walk and had our dinner at 7.30 only to go to bed afterwards thinking this was the end of the excitement.
In the middle of the night, I heard some strange calling of an animal. I thought it was a hippo giving some kind of alarming call, but when I heard it more often I realized it was a call of desperation. So I got out of my chalet and put the spotlight on my vehicle and drove to the point where the noise was coming from. As I approached the scene, I saw a hyena walking about, so I thought it was a hyena fight that caused the commotion. But as I went further I found lions hanging onto a baby hippo trying to bring it down!!
And this was happening barely 10 meters away from the last chalet of Island Bush Camp!
Even though it was after midnight already, I decided to wake up the guests, and indeed, they came out of their chalets in their nighties and jumped into the vehicle.
So there we were, in the middle of the night, right next to the camp…watching the lions killing a hippo..it took them some time, since the hippo was desperately trying to get out of that situation, but in the end the strength of the lions was too much for it.
After all this excitement we all went back to bed only to get back to the same spot in the morning to find that most of the hippo was eaten.
So remember to bring your nighties next time so that you don’t miss the action in the night!
Guide's Reports: May 2010
Martin Mbewe: Safari is a Game of Luck
That morning, I had 4 people on board settling out for game viewing. I had a blank mind of what to expect. Drawing out my route for the day, I took the one from the night before, where we saw a leopard hunting and a big herd of buffaloes, hoping to chance some lions or maybe already a kill from the night.
Upon reaching the area I looked down the valley and saw some buffaloes grouped together. As we went there, we indeed found 2 lions crouched by a bush watching the buffaloes in ambush. Going around the herd of buffaloes we picked up another lioness which was pushing the buffaloes towards the 2 lions waiting in ambush. So I parked the vehicle by the bush trying to wait for some action.
Shortly afterwards more lions started to appear in the tall grass. Our spirits were full of expectations just when we heard some commotion behind the next bush, which we thought the lions got a buffalo. I cranked the engine to go around and see what was happening, but before we even made a move, 2 lionesses came out of the bush in serious fighting!
Immediately I cut off the engine to watch them. Suddenly there were more lions, about 10 of them, behind our vehicle..and that was too much for one lioness, so she took off for life. It was a collision of two prides, one pride counted 17, the other one 7, and the bigger pride took the floor of hunting the buffaloes.
Having been surrounded by the big pride, now we thought a kill might happen. Stupidly, one bull buffalo moved out of the herd, being very vulnerable in that lonesome position. One young lioness went as close as 2 meters, but it was too young to start the battle, instead it just crouched down. But the buffalo soon rose up and ran back to the rest of the herd. Soon the lions somehow lost interest, so we decided to head back to camp.
On our way to the lodge we picked up 3 crocodiles in the Luangwa river trying to hunt young white faced whistling ducks. Out of 5 ducklings, only 2 managed to reach the shore...
Mario Voss: A Kill Nearby!
It was one of the first chilly evenings this year. I sat at the campfire with the guests listening to their safari stories and what they had seen on that day. But after everyone had finished his last drink I was ready for bed, looking forward to the fresh breeze blowing through the windows since it is usually quite warm in the valley. Even at night.
That night was different...
At 2 a.m. I woke up, not only because I wanted to pull the blanket over my head, but mainly because I could hear a pride of lions roaring nearby.
I fell asleep again (since the roar of a lion is just as good as or even better than a lullaby). Not knowing what else might have happened that night, I woke up at 6, ready to walk over to the lodge. During that short walk I could hear a few alarm calls from a herd of Pukus in the distance, but I was probably still to sleepy to realize that those could have had something to do with the lions from the night before.
The following hours I spent in the office, but only until Levy, our workshop headman, came to me around 9 a.m. He told us that he had seen dozens of vultures which were apparently coming down to land in the dry lagoon right behind Kafunta.
So I jumped into his vehicle, together with Ron, who also got wind of the story.
After one minute we had found the reason for the congregation of the vultures. A dead giraffe! We parked next to it and jumped out of the vehicle to examine the carcass. And as soon as we touched the ground, we saw something jumping up in the bushes behind the giraffe, breaking branches and also showing off with a nice and deep growl...
It was 'my' lions from the night before!!
And they had managed to kill a half-grown giraffe! Taking into account that it was 'only' three lionesses, it was almost unbelievable... but they did!
We spent the two following days watching them feeding, and especially after dinner it was a treat for everyone to quickly drive there and watch lions... as a 'dessert'...
Too good!
Guide's Reports: April 2010
Josephat Msoni: Anything Can Happen in the Bush
It was one of those mornings when you think nothing could be seen in terms of big animals. As we entered the Park, impala and puku were everywhere and the only big animal I saw was a giraffe. I went onto the “Big Baobab” loop and there I noticed another giraffe and more impalas, they seemed to be worried about something. I stopped but there was nothing I could see, so I drove on and saw Martin with the other guests. He signalled me and told me that he had just seen a leopard where we noticed the animals strange reaction. On return we found not one but two leopards. The leopards were hunting the impala, it is very unusual to see two leopards hunt together. They were a mating pair and it was amazing to see them hunting like this at 9 am in the morning, we watched for a while before we moved on.
We did not get far when I noticed some buffalos, it was a big herd. We stopped and soon noticed some lions that were stalking the buffalo, at this time we only saw two lions but soon we realised that is was a pride of ten. Some were hiding in the bush ready for the ambush. Never the less they did not manage to kill and this was not the time anyway lions normally hunt ... but anything can happen at any time in the bush!
In the distance we could still see the 2 Leopards that we had spotted earlier, they were still hunting.
Now it was time to return to the lodge for lunch and a break, but when we returned in the afternoon, we did not find the lions. But we spotted the leopard's kill of an impala, to our surprise it was not the two adults leopards on the kill but two cubs, the adults where nowhere to be seen.
All in all it was a great safari day, something to write home about!
Martin Mbewe: The Safari Season Has Started
April is the beginning of the safari season, the Park is still green. The lagoons and some of the streams and gullies still have water. This is a great time for bird watching, many still in there breeding plumage. The Pel’s Fishing Owl has been seen frequently.
The weather has been pleasant in April, warm with cloud cover still around though must of the month. The rains have eased off with light showers but were present till the end of the month, later then usual.
The game viewing has been good throughout the month. Leopards have been seen on several safaris, the big pride of lions has been around the area. Most of the guest did get to see big cats and some were lucky to see the wild dogs when they were around at the start of the month. The end of the rains and early season has been a good time for wild dog sightings. Other game has been plentiful, the green bush giving great photo opportunities.
This time of the year the Park is quiet with only few vehicles around.
Kennedy Nkhoma: Fishing Safari
In April I had a client that was very interested in fishing so we arranged a fishing safari for him, all though the Luangwa River is otherwise not an interesting river for fishing but we caught some big catfish.
Spending more time on the river also gave us the opportunity to observe the wildlife around. We watched an African fish eagle diving for a fish, before he could take off with the fish we saw a 1.5 metre croc trying to take the fish from the bird. He failed but we realised that fishing safari do provide us with some unexpected game viewing opportunities. We enjoyed the sunset before making our way back to the lodge with the spotlight. On the way we came across a mating pair of leopards, this was a unique opportunity to see two of these otherwise solitary predators.
Mario Voss: Day Off Duty
Living in the bush amongst animals certainly is a great life. And even though I see animals such as elephants, hippos, impalas and sometimes even cats around the lodge, it is still a thrill to go on safari inside the park.
Friday the 30th of April was one of those days. It was my day off duty, a good chance to jump on one of the safari vehicles in the afternoon.
The drive started with a wonderful sighting of a hippo with its new born calf right after entering the park. And since such a young hippo is not a common sighting, we spent a good amount of time with it, watching how mother and calf enjoyed feeding in the shallow waters of the lagoon.
Some time later, it was already twilight, we found ourselves further inside the park, enjoying the sun-downer drinks whilst listening to each others stories, not knowing what was yet to happen. As soon as we started the night-drive, ready for finding nocturnal creatures, we bumped into 3 lionesses starting to stalk a herd of impalas which grazed easily about 100 meters in front of them. We switched off the light and waited ... In short intervals, we switched the light on and off again, to see what was happening, but at the same time making sure that we didn’t interfere in nature's corse.
After some time had passed by, the lionesses still hadn't come closer...
The light was switched off again. Suddenly the impalas started their alarm calls and, funny enough, also started running towards the lionesses!
In a split of a second they made use of that confusion and ended up killing two impalas not far away from our vehicle.
Extremely excited, we drove a bit closer and watched them feeding.
But we were not the only ones. Also attracted by the commotion, a hyena strolled by trying to get its share from the lions feast.
They started fighting over it, but one lioness decided to carry her piece of impala further away from the hyena and found a place under a tree nearby the river.
Now, two big crocodiles also sensed that something was happening outside their wet environment. They came up to the tree where the lioness was feeding and started fighting with her as well!
So in the end we had three lionesses, two crocodiles and one hyena fighting for some dinner ... an absolute amazing sighting!!
Unfortunately we had to leave the scene in the end to make sure that we’re out of the park in time. But I shouldn't forget to mention the beautiful leopard that we saw on the way back!! What a night..