Miss Lily

Another week has gone and we have crossed the border in between Zambia and Malawi. 

 

The days after leaving Livingstone we drove 12 hours to Lusaka where with our new driver Henry from Kenya and his truck. I miss our first driver Eddie who made a great first impression by telling everyone to sit down and shut the f-k up on my first day.. Haha ;) His truck was a bit more comfortable but this will work fine as well I think. Still a Scania daddy, still going strong in Swedish style :)

 

After a night in Lusaka on eureka camp site where giraffes and zebras roams free we headed off towards South Luangwa National Park for two nights and some game drives. Situated by the river the camp site offered a nice atmosphere amongst hippos and monkeys. We were warned about the hippos and elephants gracing the site and told that the day before lions had been visiting in the early dusk. 

 

I was debating whether or not to go on the drives, I've been very fortunate to do those drives where I live and the money is rolling on these trips if you're not careful. After a nice email from home telling me I got some money back on tax I decided to treat myself! and good thing i did that! The first game drive gave us a pride of lions amongst the other wild life of buffalo, giraffe, elephant and antelopes. After a relaxing day by the river we went on another drive and the first animal we saw was A LEOPARD! For those who do not know, it is the rarest of the big five animals out there to spot. I have for a year and a half lived in an area that has the highest density of the cat in South Africa  and only seen it once. My old colleague has after two years never seen it. So to finally be able to see it up close, laying in a tree with its marvelous rosettes of black in its fur was incredible! I could have stayed observing it a long time. Absolutely gorgeous! Unfortunately we had to move off after a while but the afternoon got into night and we got to drive under the night sky full of stars with the Southern Cross guiding us and a bright Way that you can only see from the dark African savannah. We found a herd of elephants with small babies and sat for long to watch them eat and play. We finished off with seeing a big herd of buffalo just as we crossed the river. 

 

I woke up early the next day by hippos (I'm trying to think of the word for the sound they make.. ) calling each other for territorial claims. I thought I heard something familiar and the second time I heard it I got out of the tent.. It was lions roaring on the other side of the river. They stopped after a while but to see the sun rise over the river is forever with me. The hippos and vervet monkeys were very active, the morning before we were fighting the monkeys off our breakfast and just as I had chased one out of our truck with a stolen apple I turned around and saw that the battle of my breakfast was lost as a monkey sat on the table drinking my tea. Oh well he did not get my pancake at least ;)

 

Another couple of hours before we land on the shores of Lake Malawi for a couple of days.