Lion at Last

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVIE! I hope you had a wonderful 24^th birthday…wow you are getting old.

This morning we were up at 5 again to get ready for our morning drive. We had a group of 3 Australians with us, a different group than the other day. These guys and girl were really funny and very nice. We had a great time driving with them. For starters, we went to see if our leopard was still by its tree but it wasn’t. Then we went to a new area that we haven’t been to yet since we’ve been here. Supposedly lions were heard roaring in this area earlier, so they were around somewhere. Thankfully the Australians also wanted to see cats, so we were on a mission today. The closest we came to seeing a lion was seeing super fresh tracks in the dirt. Billy said there were at least 3 lions in the group and they passed by very recently. So we knew they were around but we just didn’t find them! That was OK though, Billy was trying so hard and we know it’s never a guarantee. Tonight he offered to leave earlier so we can travel a bit farther to see if we can see some lions; closer to Presidential Lodge I heard him say. How nice! So we’re going to be leaving around 3:30pm instead and it’ll just be the two of us I think.

We did see some of the usual: elephant, zebra, antelope, hippo, crocs, the 3 hyena and we did see a couple new birds, a different kind of kingfisher, the one with the grey head and a couple of ground hornbills. No giraffes though today. It’s crazy how different the days can be. Yesterday we saw so many giraffe it seemed like they were around every corner, and today we didn’t see any. It just shows that you have to be at the right place at the right time to see things.

Before lunch I took a quick cat nap. These early mornings and late nights are catching up with me. It’s very worth it though. Lunch was so delicious! We had salad and rolls again, and delicious chicken kabobs with onions and green peppers, along with yellow rice. After lunch we headed over to the pool to relax for the afternoon. Our Australian friends were there, along with some other people from their party including 2 people from New York. We had a nice chat with Alex from Australia about all the cool places he’s visited like in Europe and how he ran with the bulls in Spain.

We left the pool a little earlier to get ready for our earlier drive. We had Billy and Isaac again. We were in lion hunting mode. We got straight to business with no stopping for other animals. A little ways into our drive we came across a big herd of elephants, around 15-20 of them. Some of them were trumpeting and making commotion. All of a sudden Billy stopped the car. We thought it was so we could get some pictures of the elephants. But then he pulled out his binoculars and he and Isaac start looking into the bushes. He explained that around this area was where the lions were rumored to be and he said he had a suspicion about why the elephants were acting weird. He was going to drive the car a little ways into the bushes but then we saw a big grater machine that was driving through on its way from clearing bramble from some of the smaller side roads. We wanted to wait for it to pass, so Billy waved it through but it took a while for the guy to see us. As all this was happening with the grater, everyone was still looking off into the bushes in the distance and for some reason I decided to look behind me on the road. And there on the road just feet behind us stood a female lion. I was so shocked and instantly the adrenaline starting rushing through me. I wish I could have seen everyone’s reactions when I whispered, “it’s a LION!” , but I was just so excited that I barely remember what happened. We all got so excited and whipped around to start taking pictures. The lion had literally been feet from us in the bush and we didn’t see it. Then as it started walking across the road behind our car, another lion popped out from the grass on the other side of the road. It was so amazing. We had literally parked the car between 2 lions, and for about 5-10 minutes we didn’t even know it. Talk about timing and a blessing! It was incredible how Billy and Isaac could just take the few little signs like the elephants skittishness, seeing car tracks going off the road a little bit, and just patience and we saw the “illusive” lion! We were both so excited after that. We had seen this lion only about ½ an hour into our drive. If we had started out at our usual time we would have missed them. Billy was so happy because now he felt less pressure to find us a lion, so as Dad would say, everything else we saw from then on out was just gravy.

He still did decide to go up to the Presidential Lodge area so we zipped along the main dirt road pretty quickly. He stopped in some flat grassland areas where the views were just incredible. On the grassy plains you could see 6 warthogs running with their tails straight in the air, impala, elephants wallowing in the mud, giraffe, and zebra. In the background was a mountain. It was just incredible. In another flatter area we also saw 2 male kudu. Kudu are pretty shy antelope so to see them out in the open, especially 2 males was pretty rare. They were just beautiful! The Presidential Lodge area was gorgeous as well. I remember really liking this area when we came here as kids. It’s a more hilly area, so where we had our sundowner we were overlooking the park up on a hill. Again, the views were amazing and the sun setting behind the mountain was beautiful. During the sundowner, it’s usually our opportunity to answer the call of nature. It’s pretty nerve wracking to just wander off into the bushes hoping nothing jumps out at you. This time I chose a nice bush that was about 20 feet away from a herd of zebra. Nothing like using the “facilities” with a crew of zebra watching you. J Billy said that one time they were taking a sundowner at that very spot and right as they were finishing up, they heard a leopard calling. It had been feet from them in the tall grass the whole time and they didn’t know it! Can you imagine that?? He also told us some funny stories about when the previous president actually came to the lodge. He said when the president goes on game drives or game walks, he always has his crew of soldiers with him, as well as more safari guides than usual. A normal game walk has a guide in front, a guy with a gun, the people doing the walk, and a guy with a gun in the back. He said the president’s game walk has about 7 guys with guns in the front, his crew of soldiers, the president himself, another crew of soldiers and then about 7 guys with guns in the back.

On the way back toward the main gate area we saw a civet cat and a couple genet cats. Actually, that’s misleading to call them cats. Originally they had been classified in the cat species but recently they have been put in a species all of their own. They do not have cat-like tendencies although they do look quite similar. True cats are carnivores like the leopard and lion, but a civet and genet will eat bugs, fruit, frogs or whatever it comes across. So now they’re just civets and genets not civet and genet cats.

We also saw some giraffe, elephant and another hyena. Then we saw another lion. Billy says it was from the same group we saw earlier. Even though we only saw 2 lionesses before, Billy thinks there might have been up to about 6 in the pride, including a male and some cubs. This one we saw at the end was quite a ways in the distance so we didn’t get any good pictures but it was nice to say that we had 2 sightings of lions tonight.

Even though we didn’t see more exciting things after that we did have an exciting moment. We got stuck in a mud puddle. It looked like your average mud puddle ditch and we’ve definitely been through larger, more treacherous looking ones before but for some reason we got stuck in this one. The front wheels just kept spinning and spinning, shooting mud in all directions. Billy and Isaac got quite covered in mud since their seats are lower to the ground. Billy tried everything to get us out, but finally Isaac had to climb out of the car and collect some branches off a nearby bush. He put them under the treads of both front tires to try to provide some grip for the tires to catch on. Well something must’ve worked because we finally got out of there. It was quite exciting though. Nothing like being stuck in a puddle in the middle of a game park in pitch black darkness.

After this final excitement we headed back to camp. After dropping off Isaac in town, I became the spotter for our final trip back. That just means I sat up front next to Billy and shone the spotlight looking for animals. Even though the Wildlife Camp is not in the game park itself, it’s still in what they call the GMA (Game Management Area), so there is still wildlife around including cats sometimes. The things I spotted were a genet, some impala and a few elephants. J

For my family: One of the fun things on the drive for me today was driving across the Mushilashi Bridge. I just remember that we kids loved that name. Didn’t we make up some kind of song about the Mushilashi Bridge? I definitely had Billy stop so I could take a picture of the bridge and signpost. I also thought of some questions to ask you. Was there ever a time we came to Luangwa and didn’t see a lion? I know there were times we didn’t see leopard but what about lion? I just want to know if we kept our streak alive. Also, do you know if we ever saw a bush baby? I guess they’re some marsupial-type-looking-thing that live in trees. It’s just so cool how familiar the park is still. I know where the loops go and I remember things by sight like “oh we definitely saw lions here one time” or remember where we saw that giraffe carcass on the way to the Wildlife Camp? That place still looks the same too

Supper was butternut squash soup, pork with veggies and mashed potatoes, and an apple crumble thing with custard. Even though we did see lion tonight, we still are planning on going on 1 final game drive tomorrow morning. We’ll bring all our bags along with us and head straight to the airport from the game drive, hoping to catch the 1:30pm flight on standby. Hope everything goes smoothly!