National parks in Zambia (by the kids)

Hello ladies and gentlemen and kids and babies and children and teenagers and dogs and cats and kittens and puppies and birds and ants and snakes and nits. Welcome to another episode of Andrew’s blog, this one is going to be different then any others (to be honest none are really anywhere close to the same). Well be ready to be amazed, clap and cheer for me, I mean my blog, it is about to start.
On the 3rd we woke up and went to try to get a taxi, the taxi was going to take us to a car rental place, we had a car already rented so now we just had to pick it up. When we arrived over there we were early so we went over to a shopping centre for breakfast, they had no food that was Zambian so we had to get something not Zambian. When we were done with our food we could go get the car, we went back to the place to get our car. When we got it, we signed some paper, not sure what it was for don’t really care, all I know is that after that we tried to go to our camp site. On google maps it said it was going to take 30 minutes to get there but when we were halfway we got to a roadblock. All the cars were moving very slowly and eventually we made it there, we were only staying there one night and then we were going to another camp closer to the national park. When we got there we went to find a place to set up, then we went to sleep. Night night.
On the 4th we packed up our tents and began our drive to the camp site, the drive was supposed to take 9 hours but it ended up taking 10, there were lots of potholes, making us slow down every time. When we go to the camp site it was late at night so we set up the tent and cooked dinner, after that all we wanted to do sleep. So we did. Snore noise snore noise.
On the 5th we packed up our car and took our first trip to the park, when we got into the park we saw the deer looking things called impala. We drove around a bit, there were lots of impala everywhere, we kept driving and then we saw a tour vehicle parked on the side. We pulled over to the side and we saw zebras, it was really cool. All the stripes on the zebras looked different, there was even a young one it was awesome. When we kept driving we saw a pond and in that pond we saw a, wait for it, a HIPPO. It was in the water just swimming around, it was ginormous, humongous, stupendously huge, they don’t move very fast when they don’t have to. When we kept driving we also saw elephants, monkeys, lions, crocodiles, mongooses, buffalo, wart hogs, turtles, squirrels and lots of different birds. It was a very successful day, Emma really wanted to see a giraffe, we didn’t. When we were near the start of the evening we went on a path that didn’t look like it gets used very much and we saw lots of elephants. There were elephants showing up here and there, we even saw a baby one, we know it was very young because it was still stumbling, it was adorable. At the end of that we went home and decided to make lunch, we got out the bread and started to make a sandwich. Shortly after something jumped up and then Emma yelled, MONKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of a sudden the monkey grabbed our bread and took off. Luckily we had already cut off some bread but not enough, also luckily we had another loaf of bread so we cut as much as we needed and... oh no. the monkey was coming back, dad got a stick and waved it around, the monkey didn’t care it just ran at us, teeth showing, it jumped up grabbed our last loaf, dad hit it several times, the monkey did not care at all. It stole our bread and left. After that we ate our sandwich, did stuff then had dinner, and went to sleep. Sleepy sleepy.
On the 6th we packed up and went out to the park again, we drove for a bit and then we went on to the gps. and found a spot and decided to go there. The path there was very rough and lots of bog holes, it was very muddy and it wasn’t and pleasant ride, but when we got to the place where we were supposed to be going it was worth it. It was a big open plain that in a certain spot, there were lots of tour vehicles parked around so we went over there and we saw wild dogs, it was a whole pack of them. We looked at them for a bit and then I spotted a whole bunch of elephants over on the other side of the of the plains, so we started headed over there and then Emma saw something. THERE WAS A GIRAFE, it was huge, about 4 meters high, then further on I saw a whole herd of giraffe, so we went over there. We watched them for a while then we drove back through the park and made dinner then went to sleep.
On the 7th this was our last day in the park, so we hopped it would be a good last day, it’s not our last day in the car, it’s the last day in this park, we’re going to another one tomorrow. So, we kept driving, for a bit it was pretty fun we saw impala and other stuff, then we went throw a bog hole, and guess what, we got bogged. We were stuck there for hours, we only got out when somebody came along and towed us out after that we went back to our camping ground and then cleaned the car down. After that we did our blog then went to sleep.
On the 8th we drove back to pioneer park we were staying there one day and then we were going off to another park, the drive was the same 10 hour drive we made to get here. It was long and annoying, we stopped halfway there to make sandwiches, it was yum, (before we left we bought some more bread). After eating we kept on driving, when we arrived at the place it was nearly nighttime but instead of cooking we went to the restaurant there instead. At the restaurant they had nshima it was pretty yum, it was the smallest nshima we have had so far, it was still enough though, when we were done we went to bed.
On the 9th we went to another camp that was close to a different national park it was a bit far away, but not 10 hours, it was only 6 hours. Whatever, when we arrived it was a pretty nice camp, the only thing annoying. I mean the only two things annoying, it is that it didn’t have an electricity plug, and the toilet didn’t have a roof so monkeys can come in which means there’s nowhere your bread can be safe, not even on the toilet. So after that we went to have a look at everything, then we had a talk to the owners, after our walk around we went to the car and made dinner then slept.
On the 10th we went off to another trip to the park, it was a different park, the parks name was lower Zambezi national park, it was supposed to be wilder than the other park we went to. So we started driving there and about halfway there we saw a big impala looking thing, it was the size of a moose. After that we kept driving and guess what, we came across a whole herd of the animals, they were ginormous, then we kept driving. When we arrived there, there were lots of hippo skulls and other skulls that I didn’t recognise. We didn’t see much at first, mainly just impala, so we kept driving for a while, eventually we were just driving and then we stopped to look at a river hoping to see something, then another tour group asked us “have you seen the lions”. They told us the way there and when we were on the way there we saw another vehicle park and looking at something. When we got up to them we saw it, right on the side of the road, only 5 meters away were the lions. There were 3 female lions one of them in clear view (a great photo opportunity for mum) and the other two were behind a tree. When we left we went back to the camp and waited till night because we had booked a night safari. We were going to drive around looking for animals that normally come out at night (aka a leopard). When we left on the tour vehicle, we drove around for a while and eventually saw something really interesting, there was a huge herd of Zambian buffalos, they are really big. After that we kept driving and then at the top of a tree one of the guides saw a tail, we hoped it was a leopard, but it ended up being a genet. Genets are carnivores that appear catlike with a tail usually as long as the body, the common genet is found in Africa and Europe, there are other species of genet, though most of them are found in Africa. After that our time was nearly up, so we went back and slept.
On the 11th we went to the park again but this time we saw lots of elephants, the count went over 40, there was this group that had 15, including a few really young babies and some very big ones. We found this place that had lot of big open space and we were trying to see if there were any lions but sadly there weren’t so we drove through some paths saw even more elephants we saw lots of different things. At the end of it we went back to the camp to pack up everything up because soon we were going to another camp further away from the park, don’t understand? I will explain. We were going to go away because they did some river activities, we are very close to a river called the Zambezi River, it is the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. We were going to go over there to go on a boat and go fishing, we were also going on that boat to look at animals, like hippos and crocodiles. When we finished driving there we set up and went to sleep.
On the 12th we were going to go on the boat and we were going to fish, (yay cheer woo yay clap). I have been wanting to go fishing and now it’s happening, I’m not getting my hopes up to high because lots of people have told me that it’s not the right time of year. When we left on the boat we had live bait and lures, we were trying to catch some type of fish called tiger fish, even though I watch lots of fishing shows with my grandad I’ve never heard about tiger fish. We were fishing for a while and then Emma said “dad I think I’ve got something” it didn’t look like anything at first but a few seconds later Emma’s rod was bending, like a lot. Emma got worried and past the rod to dad, and there was defiantly something on it, dad had to put up a good fight even to get it close to the boat and when it was close it did a jump. The fish was very big about 60cm long, it weigh about 4kg, the guide was at the side of the boat with a net ready to scoop it up. When dad got it in the boat he said it fought a bit like a barramundi, it was definitely the size of one, after that it was a long time until some thing else happened. All of a sudden I felt a tug on my rod and then something was pulling really hard, I yell out to the rest of my family, dad came over to me to help, I tried to tire it out but all it did was swim down into the snags and got me snagged. We coulden’t get it off so we had to break the line instead. We would have caught two fish if the fu**ing fish didn’t swim into the snags. It was a pretty successful day because apparently were lucky to have caught at least one fish, over all I was pretty happy with myself, so to end the day we went to the pool to play a bit and then to bed.
On the 13th we packed up the tent and drove over to Lusaka again it was going to be a 4 hour drive, the 12th was our last day with the car, were giving our car back tomorrow and then the day after that we are going to go to Livingstone. So when we got to Lusaka we found our hotel and then we put our bags there then dropped our car back, then we went to find lunch. When we found a restaurant we ordered our food and then ate it, when we were done we went to the hotel to do our blog, and you know me I write a lot. So when I finished we watched a movie then went to sleep.
Andrew (10 years old)

On the 3rd we did shopping. We hired a car for ten (10) days. We got some pasta, some rice, some potato, some chips some popcorn and some meat. It was fun to go camping.
On the 4th we drove to the south Luangwa Park. It took us 10 hours. 10 HOURS! There were lots of holes in the ground.
On the 5th it was our first day in the park. We saw elephants, (we saw a baby elephant that was so young that it was stumbling. it was adorable.) hippos, crocs, Impalas and lions. We saw zebras, monkeys, warthogs, birds, buffalos, turtles, squirrels and mongoose. An Impala is an animal that lives in a group. The males fight. The males have horns that they fight with. The male that wins the fight is the leader of a group. There is one male and lots of female in one group. Awesome. the landscape is beautiful. It has flowers and grass and trees. There are some clouds but not too many. The park is so amazingly beautiful. We came back in the afternoon to make sandwiches and guess what, the fricking baboons stole our bread. The big male one ran up stood on its back legs and showed its big teeth to me. It scared the shit out of me.
On the 6th it was our second day at the park. We saw all the animals I listed on the 5th and more. The new animals we saw were GIRAFFES (I wanted to see them the day we got there but we didn’t.) wild dogs and goannas. Pretty cool. One thing that I am very happy about is that the animals are free and not in a cage. The way the giraffes move is so elegant.
On the 7th it was our third day in the park. We got bogged for a few hours. I got a bit worried when we couldn’t get out. I thought we might be stuck there for the whole day. Luckly a car came after a while. I was very thankful. We got home from the park and found MONKEYS. There was a new couple that moved in, and the monkeys raided them. Mum and dad got rocks and threw them at the monkeys.
On the 8th we are leaving south Luwangwa park. We went to Pioneer Park near Lusaka. It took all day. To keep myself busy, I read and played games with Andrew.
On the 9th we went from Pioneer Park all the way to Mvuu camp. (Mvuu means hippo.) it took six hours to get there. We spent the afternoon at the camp. The toilet and the shower had no roof, which meant the hideous monkeys could watch.
On the 10th we had a full day in lower Zambezi Park. We saw three female lions under the tree. Then we did a night safari. We saw one male lion and some hippos. The male lion was sitting and then an elephant came crashing through the trees and scared the lion off. It was funny seeing the lion get chased by the elephant.
On the 11th we spent the morning at the lower Zambezi Park. We saw loads of elephants. We saw a group of 15 elephants. There were some young ones and some old ones. After that we drove to Kiambi lodge which was 2 hours away.
On the 12th we did a fishing trip. It lasted for 4 hours. In the first hour we caught a tiger fish. (I caught it, and dad got it in the boat) For you who don’t know what a tiger fish is, they are big, they have sharp teeth, and I’m sure their bites hurt. We only caught one fish, but they said it was rare to catch any. We were lucky. It felt so quick. In the afternoon we did blog, and we played in the pool.
On the 13th we gave back the car because we were getting a flat. We got a vvvvveeeeerrrrrrryyyyyyy big room that had a shower a toilet a kitchen a room with a small bed, a room with a big bed and another room with a big bed. It also had a dining area. Tomorrow we are going to Livingstone by bus. I HATE BUSES!
Emma (8 and a half)もっと詳しく