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| Another Beautiful Sunrise in Africa |
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| Our House at Flatdogs |
Last night was full of typical bush night noises, and with
Elephants and Hippo’s roaming freely through the camp, so much so that we have
to signal the dining room with a torch and they then send a watchman to escort
us to dinner. Flatdogs is a very nice camp situated on the South side of the Luwangwa River
Residents of Mfuwe do get Elephants raiding their meagre
crops and Lions have been known to take goats and chickens, but I was also a
victim at our first breakfast when a Vervet Monkey in a flash came down a tree
and snatched a muffin off my plate, one has to be very careful and it is not
tourist talk, Denise and I went for a early morning game drive and as we walked
out the door with the watchman an Elephant was grazing not 5 metres from the
door.
We relaxed yesterday only going down to a little factory
that is making printed textiles that are really excellent, we were taken on a
guided tour of the factory, which was started by a lady from Britain to create
employment in the area, it is called Tribal Textiles and it would appear they
are doing very well making to order and employing over 20 people.
The food at the lodge has been excellent and just goes to
show what can be achieved out in the bush 130kms away from the nearest town.
We were a bit disappointed with the game drive and granted
the park is over 9000 sq kms but at this time of year when most of the game is
supposed to be close to the river it certainly did not come up to our
expectation. We saw a Leopard and probably the highlight was a baby giraffe a
few hours old with its mother, the little thing could hardly stand, we were
fortunate as we had gone to see why a Batleur Eagle had gone to ground and the
guide said it was probably looking for the after birth.
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| Proud Mum and Baby |
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| Leopard in Luwangwa |
The volume of game was very low like 1 Buffalo, 10 Elephant,
1 Leopard a fair amount of Puku, Impala, Bushbuck and Waterbuck and quite a lot
of birdlife as I said earlier we were disappointed as the park had some rave
reviews, but perhaps we were a unlucky and at the best of times game spotting
is a bit of a lottery.
We need to prepare and load the vehicle for a tough 180kms
4x4 route tomorrow through the park from South to North to Mpika on the Great
North Road and then onwards about 80kms North of Mpika where we will spend two
nights at Shiwa Ngandu, we cross several dry deep sand river beds and climb up
a very rocky escarpment before we reach civilisation. Tyres are to be deflated
for the sand, but I am confident that “Salama” will get us there safely.
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| How do you like my hair do |
The Ladies are all behaving themselves and we are having a
great time, but talking of time it is going so fast already 10 days has passed,
but we have seen and done so much it seems like 3 days.
After two days in Shiwa Ngandu we head for the Tanzania border
to Utengule Coffee Lodge near Mbeya for one night and the Old Farmhouse at
Iringa also for one night.
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| "Do not leave me Mummy |
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