Zambia

We have just passed the border from Zambia into Malawi and are heading towards Lake Malawi.

We didn’t spend as much time in Zambia in comparison to previous countries and a lot of time was spent on the truck. A LOT of time was on the truck! However you can instantly see that the landscape is much greener and there is with an increase in the monkey population. This wasn’t an issue until a very large monkey decided to steal a whole loaf of bread and didn’t even seem intimidated when our cook, Moi, tried to scare him off. I won’t be going too close to any monkeys after that!

South Luangwa was where we did our first evening game drive and it was pretty cool. We started the drive seeing Hippos, giraffe, wild dogs and Lions. The Lions were exceptional as they were so close to the truck and there were 3 really cute cubs play fighting.

After a couple of hours we then stopped and had some popcorn and a sneaky glass of wine whilst we watched the sunset. As it started to get dark it also began thundering and lightning with a little rain. On continuing the game drive we saw a Genet which is from the mongoose family but looks like a small cat and also a honey badger. The behaviour of a honey badger is so interesting and is one of the coolest animals I’ve seen during this trip. The rain then started to pour quite heavily. It was at that moment that we realised the tent had been left open. Oh goody!

Due to the rain we then started to head out of the park and back to camp earlier than expected. Thankfully, the outside doors of our tent had been shut but we had left the top inside flap open and there was a pool of water lining the tent on one side. Luckily all our stuff was on the other side and after some sorting it was manageable for the evening. Lesson learned!

Joe Dunleavy