National parks in Zambia (by Kev)

3.5.2025. We got a taxi pretty quick, and set off to get our hire car. Mel grabbed the guys WhatsApp, cause we need a taxi when we get back. They're not ready for us, so we went to a mall close by and had breakfast. Went back, hopped into a car with a guy and all our bags and headed off to another spot for the car. Bit of a shit show, tight fit with all our bags and we had to pick out some pretty ordinary kitchen stuff to jam into drawers to take with us. We got a rundown on how lots of it works, paid the rest of the money and went shopping. Loaded the car up with food and drinks and set off for our first destination. Took ages to get to Pioneer Park, as the traffic came to a standstill, we don't know what happened but nothing was moving. We got off that road and found another, now it was GMaps turn to give us the runaround. We eventually got there and it was really nice. Set up in no time, plugged in and started making dinner. Kids played on a big tyre swing in a tree and we slept ok our first night in the tents.
4.5.2025. We woke up kinda early, weren't in a huge hurry. Remembered we had a 9-10 hour drive ahead of us, we got in a hurry. Packed up and shot through. Ages later, in the dark, we drove into Track and Trails River Camp, right next to lower Luangwa national park. Checked in, found a spot, made dinner and went to bed. That's it, packed up, drove for a day, set up.
5.5.2025. First trip to Luangwa. We got up pretty early, packed up the camp and had breakfast in the car. Paid our fees and entered. Had no idea what to expect, was worried about driving around a 9050 square kilometre park, getting bogged and getting eaten by something. Wow! We saw lots. We saw impala, zebra, hippos, crocodiles and elephants. There was a car off the track, we stopped to see what they were doing. They came over to us and told us there are lions in there, and that the ground is rough but ok to drive on. We went off the track, so far I had been reluctant to do so. Drove in close to tree and saw 6 lioness chilling out in the grass. One was chewing on what used to be an animal. We sat in the car about 20 metres away, for I don't how long before deciding to move on. It was a bit after lunchtime and we had a bit to do at camp so we decided to call it early today. I was making some sandwiches for lunch and had put the loaf of bread on top of the Jerry cans. Emma was helping me and suddenly screamed “monkey!” I caught out the side of my eye a hand grabbing the loaf and taking off. I gave a little chase, was a bloody big Baboon, so it was kinda half a chase. A local guy who works here, James, came over. Said to keep everything closed up while in camp during the afternoon, so I did, except for the side I was using. I got another loaf out of the fridge and cut off 4 slices to finish our sandwiches. I put the loaf up on a shelf and noticed a baboon walking back through the campground. He was walking away, then turned and started back towards us. The kids had sticks and I picked up a couple as well. He kept coming and got faster, straight towards us. The kids yelled and I slammed the sticks on the ground. It didn't matter, he came in, scared the crap out of the kids, ignored me, jumped up onto the side of the car where I was making the sandwiches and grabbed our other loaf of bread. I whacked it across the arse 2 or 3 times with a stick. It took off with our last loaf of bread. While it all happened, Mel had come back from the toilet and had grabbed Emma, it headed towards her as it went around the fireplace. Mel told the kids to get in the car. I felt completely useless and powerless, I also felt relieved I didn't piss it off by hitting it and it try to have a go at me. It was a big Baboon, big teeth, ugly as. I checked on the kids in the car, Emma was terrified, poor kid. They sat in the car for a while after that, we couldn't get them out. We had had a few plans for this arvo, one said plan was to check out the bar/restaurant area. We heard hippos near there the night before. We walked over, had a chat to the guy behind the bar and ordered two beers. Pretty expensive beers for Zambia, could have bought 10 for the same price in Lusaka. Still only about $6 AUD each. We looked at the hippos in the river, drank our beer and then played some card games. We returned to our camp and started making dinner. The place was clear of monkeys, and we all felt a bit better. Bed time
6.5.2025. We got up a little later and made breakfast, eggs and beans. We all agreed the baked beans here are delicious. We set off for the park again. After entering, we headed a different direction to yesterday. We had been cruising around for a bit by ourselves, and noticed a few safari cars bunched together. We headed over there too. We got a good look at a pack of wild dogs, lying in the morning sun. They're bigger than you think. We headed off again, across a wide open area. We saw more elephants, then we saw what Emma was really looked forward to. Giraffes! Huge animals, massively tall with long legs. Look, look! There's a giraffe! No wait, there's 2, 3, 4, holy crap there's heaps. I think we counted 12 or 13 in a group. We drove around for ages, seeing more elephants and giraffes. You don't really get sick of seeing these animals, maybe we will at some point, but not yet. We're getting hungry, and they don't recommend you get out of the car and make lunch in the park, so we headed out. There's a small village just outside the park, where we headed to. We needed some supplies and we stopped at a place for lunch. They did sandwiches sooo big, the other three had leftovers for the next day. No leftovers for me, I smashed it. We headed back to the park after that. We drove around for ages again, not seeing a lot this time. We did see a dead impala, we think it died fighting with another impala, as one of its eyes had been punctured and it had other wounds that looked like from horns not teeth. Also, it wasn't eaten. Dead giveaway that. It was just after 5pm, we'd had a long day, so decided that's it, and headed for the gate. We got back to a main road and noticed 6 or 7 vehicles parked up on the road. What's all this then? Are they just handing over to the evening safari guides? Nope, there was a pride of at least 10 lionesses, not far from the road. Just lying there, flicking their tails and poking their heads up now and then. What a way to finish the day. We headed back, made dinner and went to sleep.
7.5.2025. I had this idea, that if we headed back to where we were the first day, where there was lots of impala, we just might see a leopard sleeping in a tree. We drove around for a couple hours, saw all sorts of things but no leopard. We drove further than we had before, went to places we hadn't before. We had been through a few bog holes by now, and this one seemed like it wouldn't be a problem. I was wrong, very wrong. Rock hard in the middle and sides, and the wheel ruts were deep. In we went, about 2/3rds the way through, that's where we stayed. The rear diff and suspension sitting on the rock hard mud. Couple this with bloody Bridgestone dueller at tyres, and we were stuck. We got out, super excited about that. Andrew and Emma were on predator and other 4wd watch. There was a tree about twenty metres, directly in front of us. If only we had a winch. I will definitely be recommending the company install one. We got sticks and jammed them in, we dug out mud. I even managed to dig out all the mud from underneath the suspension and diff, in the hope that we would be able to back up. Nothing worked, the mud in the wheel ruts felt like slime in my hands, super slippery. All the wheels just spun. What now? We wait, of course. Hopefully another vehicle will come along and pull us out. One thing we did have was a long recovery strap. We saw a couple 4wds a long way away, but they didn't see us. The kids asked how long we'd have to wait, don't know, maybe until after dark. They take your rego number when you enter, and the park closes at 6pm. After that, I'm thinking they start looking for you, well hopefully anyway. We got bogged at 10, and gave up trying to get out around 11. We could have a long wait ahead of us. We had food and water, so it was just a waiting game. At 12, Mel said “there's a car!”, I said “where? Over the flat?” No, coming up right behind us. You bloody beauty! There was, I think a South African couple in one vehicle and some guides in another behind them. Happy is one way to describe myself at that moment, relieved is another. I said to the Zambian guide “mate your face is beautiful, I'm so happy to see it”. Which put a pretty big smile on it. They couldn't believe we'd been stuck there for 2 hours. We got pulled out by the guides, packed up the gear we had out, thanked them again, a lot, and started heading back to the main gate. We'd had enough park for that day. We were both covered in dry mud and the car was filthy, with me getting in and out heaps of times. On the way out we still saw some animals, elephants, giraffes among other things. When we got back to camp, one of the locals there noticed how much fun we'd had. James is his name, he offered to clean our car. I asked could we just have a hose and I'll clean it myself. He went off, returned later with a long hose and offered to help clean again. I said no again, I'll be right as I just want to clean the wheels and rims. We're heading off tomorrow and we don't need a big hunk of mud in any of the rims, would make it undriveable. Made use of a handy stick along with the hose and got rid of all the mud from the wheels, then cleaned the windows. We had baboons come through the campsite, which allowed me to vent some frustration. They started going through another camp, we chased them away. Worked out they don't like rocks being thrown at them, the caretakers chase them away with slingshots. When the other campers came back we told them what had happened and to not leave anything out. They “put” stuff away, and went back to the bar. A little later, we saw baboons going through their stuff again. This time I saw a big one pull over their small fridge onto the ground and make off with a bag of something. I grabbed the fridge, refitted the lid and took it to our camp, while Mel went to tell them what happened. They thanked us and “packed” better this time, then headed back to the bar again. No further incidents after that. Had dinner, went to bed.
8.5.2025. Got up, packed up. Drove back to Pioneer Park near Lusaka. 9-9.5 hour drive, thrilling stuff. Kids played on the big swing they have for ages. Mel and I had a couple drinks. We decided to have dinner at the restaurant, some more nshima. It was bloody freezing that night. Almost wish I had a blanket to go with my sleeping bag.
9.5.2025. Guess what? Driving again today. This time we're heading south, towards the lower Zambezi national park. We had to get through Lusaka first, took ages just to get through the traffic. Once on the open road, it was faster, but you have to get around lots of trucks. We got to our destination, Mvuu lodge, around 2 o'clock. We got settled in, lovely campgrounds, but no power. So it's gonna be dark at night. We walked up to the lodge to see if we could organise a night safari, we ran into the owners. Had a chat for a fair while, and settled on an evening safari tomorrow night. We may not have power, but they provide firewood, and even started the fire for us. We ate dinner while looking at the bush tv, the sound of hippos in the background. Was a nice night.
10.5.2025. First day in lower zambezi national park. Once again, no idea what to expect, though we are a little more experienced now. We drove a fair bit into the park, then decided to head off on track headed towards some bush. Places seem a lot more overgrown than the last park. We crossed paths with a safari vehicle, they asked if we had seen the lions? We hadn't, he told us which way to go, so we went. We headed into the thicker bush, up a river, came out of the river and saw another car. We got closer to them and saw a lion, laying down near some low hanging trees. We stopped and turned off the car. We sat there, less than 5 metres from a lioness. Then we saw two more under the tree, none of them really cared that we were there. We drove back out and started looking around the park some more. Zebras and elephants, warthogs and impala, lots of them. Another long day and we'd had enough. We headed back so we could have a late lunch early dinner before our night safari. We hopped into a cut down LandCruiser with a heap of framework and seats. Recognised the driver, he was the guy in the car when we saw lions. He was driving someone else's car for them, a service they offer. Now he was going to drive our night safari, long day for him. His name was Jacob, really nice guy, though a little hard to understand at times. We got lots of information from him during. We had hoped to see a leopard, a very elusive animal. By the end of the night, we still hadn't seen one. Was not meant to be. We did see our first, big male lion. He was waiting to ambush some impala near the airstrip. We stopped, took some photos and just watched. He never got a chance at an impala while we were there. An elephant had smelt him. We heard it, trumpeting and crashing through the trees looking for it. Here we were sitting in the dark, a light flicking to the lion now and again, with an angry elephant smashing its way through everything in its path. Branches cracking, leaves rustling, elephant trumpeting. It. Was . Awesome! A little frightening, but bloody well worth it. Was the best part of the night. I'm just glad the elephant wasn't pissed at me. The lion ran off and hid, the elephant gave up and we moved on. Further up the airstrip we saw more elephants, some very young ones. My guess, this is what the other was protecting. We learnt this night that hippos come a long way out of the water at night to graze. Jacob told us that elephants would climb the mountains near us in the summer at night to sleep in the cooler air. It was a great night, even if we didn't see a leopard.
11.5.2025. We packed up everything, as after we go to the park today, we head to another campground this evening. Jacob had told us about a spot in the park where he had seen a large pride of lions. Including lionesses, males and cubs. We made our way there as best as we could from his directions. We saw some amazing things again, but after 8 hours driving around the area, we never came across any lions today. LOTS of elephants, will never get sick of seeing elephants. The biggest group consisting of 15, ranging from massive to very young. We watched them walk across the plains and disappear into the forest. We had to give up, we had over an hour to drive back to the entrance, and almost two more hours to drive to the next campsite. The road is pretty rough and it's slow going, we finally made the next campgrounds just after 5. We set up, then wandered back up to the lodge. We organised a fishing trip for the next day, then grabbed a bottle of wine to share. South Africa make decent reds, we wished we could find something Zambian but have had no luck. During our wine, I realised I had completely forgotten about mother's day. The kids came up with a quick little improvised performance for Mel, I apologised and felt like shit. I will try to make it up to them.
12.5.2025. We had a sleep in, I was actually not the first one out of bed. I made a big breakfast for everyone, then at 9 we headed up to the lodge for our fishing trip. Andrew is super excited, as we followed the guide down to the boat, Andrew was almost stepping on the back of his feet. We hopped into the boat, hoping for the best but not expecting too much, as we were told a couple times that the fishing is slow at the moment. Still, nothing could curb Andrew's enthusiasm. We got started. We only hired two rods, as Mel doesn't fish and Emma and I will share. Live baits got out on and cast out. We drifted with the current, hoping for a bite. After about 30-45mins, Emma felt a pull on her rod. She got a bit worried and handed it to me. I gave it a rip, set the hook and held on. After about 5mins and 4 or 5 jumps, we had a tiger fish in the landing net. We estimated it to be about 4 to 5 kilos. Lots of teeth, need a steel trace to get one in. It took a bit swimming it, but we managed to get a good release. After that, very little else. We saw lots of hippos and a few crocodiles, but no more fish. At the very end Andrew had something on, but got snagged and we had to break it off. Four hours seemed to fly by for Andrew and I, I reckon it dragged on for Mel, they don't like fishing. We came back, made lunch, did a lot of blogging, had a couple of beers, had dinner, marshmallows around the fire, then bed. Long sentence, right. Good night.
13.5.2025. Today we're heading back to Lusaka again. So cups of coffee were made, the car was packed, we settled our bill with the lodge and set off. It took a few hours to get back. We found our stay for the night and dropped off our bags. Then we fuelled up the car and dropped it back to the hire company. Thankfully they dropped us back near our place, so we didn't need a taxi. Had some lunch, walked back to our stay and relaxed a bit. We're back on a bus tomorrow to head to Livingston. We'll see how that goes.Baca lagi