Zambia (1): Day TwentyThree : Return Home

The following morning we were driven back to the airport for our early morning flight back to Heathrow, our resultant flight being largely uneventful, enlivened only by turbulence due to an electrical storm, appropriately enough just as the film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ was screening.

They hadn’t bothered to empty the toilets on the turnaround at Lusaka, and by the time we landed at Heathrow the final one had packed up – but this was of little hardship to old Africa hands such as ourselves.

In fact British Airways has now done away with its direct flights to and from Lusaka, but this is no great loss: recently, on my final flight out of Lusaka with BA, I was treated to a routine airline meal just after take-off, followed by just a couple of sandwiches eight hours later! Not the best travel experience.

In Summary

Mammalian species seen (roughly in order of appearance) were elephant, yellow baboon, vervet monkey, bushbuck, giraffe, impala, puku, hippo, lion, warthog, (a variety of the Burchell’s) zebra, scrub hare, elephant shrew, spotted hyena, genet, common waterbuck, tree squirrel, monitor lizard, civet, buffalo, crocodile, leopard tortoise, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, grysbok, reedbuck, serval, light grey mongoose, leopard, honey badger, wild dog, eland, kudu, banded mongoose, whitetailed mongoose, mouse, marsh mongoose, bushytailed mongoose, slender mongoose, black tipped mongoose, porcupine, blue wildebeest, sable, roan and tsessebe, with only  the Aardvark escaping our view, but with wild dog and honey badger providing us with real bonuses.

Although we probably saw many of the area’s different bird species, only vultures, the various oxpeckers, guinea fowl, carmine bee eaters, ground horn bill, saddle bill stork, marabou stork, hammerkop, yellow billed stork, tawny eagle, goliath heron, giant kingfisher, giant eagle owl, fish eagle and red hornbill reached our record books.

Of the ‘big five’ we saw buffalo, elephant, leopard and lion, only the rhinoceros not being present, the last ones in the wild being wiped out in 1985 (since when the number of elephant has also dropped by around 90%). Of the ‘little five’ we saw the buffalo weaver bird, the elephant shrew, the leopard tortoise and the ant lion, again missing out on the rhinoceros beetle; while of the ‘green five’ we saw the buffalo thorn, elephant grass, the lions ear flower (leontides), the rhino thistle and the leopard orchid.

As can only really be experienced in Zambia, our trip included walking and night driving, in addition to the basic game viewing by vehicle, with the walking probably taking pride of place. So much so that AfricaAway has become one of the leading specialists in Zambian walking safaris, developing a number of routes of its own.

The general feeling among the guests and staff alike was that the trip couldn’t have been bettered:  Game sightings were both extensive and of exceptional quality, as the accompanying photographs amply demonstrate. But there are of course many more camps and lodges to visit in Zambia than we have had the opportunity to report here (we actually represent almost 80 such, making us THE Zambia specialists), with perhaps Nkwali and Lion Camp the most obvious. And there are also many more experiences to relish than we had time to explore here.

In particular we strongly advocate that all safari goers take the time to depart from the rather artificial world of the game viewing Parks to visit an authentic local village (there are somewhat non –authentic such visits on offer, but it’s better to get close to ‘real’ people – the native Zambians are among the friendliest on the planet). In this context a visit to the local school is a ‘must’, and will remain in your memory long after the elephant sightings have been forgotten. The kids’ enthusiasm to learn is quite humbling. But it’s not easy for them – some children’s families simply cannot afford the £2 p.a. that it costs to send them there.

Incidentally, having realised that this Safari Diary has been rather dominated by photographs of wildlife, we thought that we would choose a 'People And Places' theme for this final page, beginning with Norman Carr and friends…

On hearing that one of our guests was to visit Zambia on safari, a friend of his warned that he would need to be careful. Seeking further illumination, the guest enquired in what way exactly. “Well, because of snakes and things”, came the answer. The guest suggested that there were somewhat more dangerous things than that to worry about. “Such as?” enquired his friend. The guest thought about buffalo, hippo, elephants, and so on, but finally settled on lions. “What - do they allow them in there?” exclaimed his friend.

Well they certainly do allow lions in there! And if up and close contact with big cats is what turns you on, then you will find Zambia (2), our second, and very different Zambian itinerary, very much to your liking.

Back to previous page (Day 22)