One of the things I love most about Africa is the terrible cell connectivity as my family gets fully present, but, it does make it challenging to keep our readers updated on our fun. The last two days have been a contrast of exhausting and relaxing.
Two days ago we crossed the boarder from Malawi to Zambia. This should have been a piece of cake, but one of our fellow travelers ran into a snag with her Visa. We waited five hours at the boarder for her to be rejected. She and her boyfriend had to leave our tour under some really unfortunate circumstances. After the five hour sit around, the Zambian DEA decided to search our truck for illegal drugs. They targeted only the four males on the truck, including Alastair and Dave. Stressful, yes. Dave’s daily multi-vitamin was in question and Alastair’s carved wooden elephant that was wrapped up tight was in question. Dirty underwear, no problem. We were all glad to be on our way in spite of leaving two fellow travelers at the boarder.
We arrived so late at our campsite that it wasn’t until the next morning that we could confirm that the sounds we heard all night were the hippocampus that live in the river next two our campsite in property grazing all night long. They make a very distinct chuffing noise. Don’t worry, the campsite had a security guard who walks the property all night armed with a flashlight. He also has a slingshot, but it is for the monkeys, not the hippos. You would be surprised at how well we all sleep in our tents with so many creatures walking around us at night. We feel pretty invincible inside our canvas tents.
Yesterday we did an early morning game drive in South Luangwa National Park and the highlight were the elephants. We found two males playing in the river who rolled around and restless the entire time we watched them. We also watched the females and babies cross the river just in front of us and we LOVE the babies the most.
The afternoon was just what the doctor ordered. The girls and I snoozed by the pool, Dave napped in a hammock and Alastair watched a show in the shade. All of this next to the river which is home to the hippocampus, crocodiles, and every other animal that needs a drink of water during the day. Keep in mind, all of this relaxing takes place under the trees were a couple dozen monkeys are playing and creating chaos. So amazing!
Night game drive was highlighted when we found a pride of lion’s feeding on a Cape buffalo. It is hard to watch and also so fascinating. Dagny didn’t love it, but it was good fun for the rest of us.
This morning we were pleased to learn that our friends had cleared their visa challenges and we were able to pick them back up at the boarder before continuing our overland trek south.
Highlight of our drive today were the kids along the way that tried to sell us a stick of roasted rats for twenty Kwatcha (about a dollar) and a raw goat leg. No thanks.
Nice campsite tonight with two resident emus which are kind of interesting. Alastair and I spend some time each day talking about which foods from home we miss the most. For me, it is blue cheese salad dressing. Salad dressing is not a thing in this part of the world. I’ve looked. Today our chef opened canned tuna for part of our lunch. I taught him how to make tuna salad. It was well received by him and most of our group. Australians and Africans learned something new today.
Not expecting wi-fi tomorrow so be patient for our next update. We are having a great time.
Jll
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