Karongwe Private Game Reserve

We’ve begun our Overseas Adventure Travel pre-trip and arrived at our first safari location! We are now traveling with three others from Washington state.

The Chisomo Safari Camp in the Karongwe Private Game Reserve is a beautiful collection of tented cabins with very luxurious amenities. Full baths in each tent and beautiful lounges and dining spaces. The staff are so warm and friendly, too.

The lodge manager offers a little insight into local customs each day, and today she previewed some of the dinner preparations—impala stew cooked for several hours over a wood fire in a traditional cast iron pot. She also explained some precautions—(a) don’t go out at night without the night watchman because there are several nasty hyenas in the camp; (b) don’t leave food in your tent cabin because the baboons will get in and wreak havoc during the day while we’re out!

We’ll be here for 3 nights, and every day we’ll have two 3-hour game drives—early morning and late afternoon. For our arrival day, we went out until dark, riding in a comfortable jeep with our guide, Sondy, and tracker, Ludwik.

Dottie loves giraffes and no sooner had she mentioned to Sondy that she hoped to see one, than one came along to order! It was a pregnant female. This game reserve is known for sightings of the Big Five (elephants, leopards, lions, rhinoceros and Cape Buffalo). At one point, Sondy heard leopards calling to each other, so we set off to find them. We only got a brief glimpse of one, and we were all so surprised that no one got a good photo!

But then there were more and more animals—a herd of elephants (with some young ones), several types antelopes (nyala, kudu and impala), and lions mating, up close and personal!

What a great first day for all of us!Read more