South Luangwa National Park
Corliss and I made a stop at Villagers Travel before our trip to Zanzibar in September. In November we would only be in Zambia another three weeks before we went home and another tour would be great. We were thinking about Lower Zambezi National Park. Villagers had a sign on the door advertising a special to Mfuwe Lodge in South Luangwa National Park starting in November to Zambian residents. We would ask Angela about the special and see what she could do. As it turned out we qualified as residents because of our year visas and the price was terrific. She said that Lower Zambezi would be closed because of the start of the rainy season in November. Many of the Lodges shut down because roads become impassible.
She booked us a morning flight so we could arrive to take our first safari that day. Mfuwe Lodge is about two kilometers inside the park. Attached is a picture of a chalet in the lodge. It has a loft upstairs for sleeping an lounge area downstairs and a modern bathroom. The rear has a deck which overlooks a lagoon. As you can see there are a lot of animals roaming freely. This lodge has 18 chalets. In the lodge area we saw elephants, impalas, kudus, lions, baboons, waterbuck, and a lot of birds.
This next photo is of a zebra and her child. The baby is maybe a week old. She was wobbly on her feet getting around. When speaking to another tourist they had seen a impala who had just been born stand up for the first time.
On an evening ride one of the tourists in the Range Rover noticed a kudu up in a tree. We went and investigated. Our guide said it was a leopard who had taken it up to keep his kill away from outer predators. The leopard wasn’t there. We went back after dark and found her.
There was a colony of carmine bee-eaters along the bank of the Luangwa River. We visited that local. There were hundreds of this beautiful bird nesting. It tunnels in the side of a dirt cliff about one meter and makes its nest. 
Our chalet had a deck overlooking a lagoon. Remember it hasn’t rained here since early April so the water tables are low. These crocodiles would gather near the banks and hope an unsuspecting baboon or impala would venture close. After dark there were many more of them and they would be joined by hippopotamus. They could be noisy in the evening.
In the lodge a family wanted to take a shortcut. Who is going to argue with them. We were told elephants frequently walk through the lodge on their way to the river or returning.
On the Trek to the Village, the elephants are crossing the river going to town to eat mangos. They are ripe in Mfuwe. They go in the evening as people will be asleep and they will have the run of the mango trees and the villager’s gardens. Notice how the baby elephants are buried in the herd, not in front and rarely on the outside. The herd is very protective of them.
We saw lots of lions. This photo shows part of a pride of 10 male lions. They are being very destructive. They wait by the water and take down about one cape buffalo a day. The buffalo herd has to travel to the river each day for water. This makes them easy pickings for the lions. The lions don’t need this much food but hunting is easy. You can see they appear to be well fed. In the evening the hyenas are feasting on what the lions don’t eat.
Notice the herd of cape buffalo crossing the road. They must use a lot territory to keep themselves fed. If you get close to them you can see they a very malnourished. You can see ribs cages and they are not real sharp. Our guide explained to us because they is no rain animals that are preyed upon, buffalo, zebra, impala, kudu are having a difficult time avoiding the lions ,leopards, hyenas. So the predators are enjoying feasts. He said two weeks after the rains start this will change. The buffalo, zebras, kudu and impala will eat the fresh grass have plenty of water and become very difficult for the predator to capture. Instead of a single hunt to capture game it will take as many as 5 to 15 tries. In May the lions will be malnourished and have the sunk in rib cages.
A lecturer from San Antonio who has helped raised the funds for building the chapel here comes to Justo Mwale often (yearly). He and his wife have always taken a trip to South Luangwa at the conclusion of their visit. I agree with them this is one of the best attractions Africa has to offer. The number of animals to be seen is terrific.
The guide we had was very experienced. You keep the same guide and traveling partners on the safari trips. You bond together as beside safari you also eat together.
One last thing. The weather was hot. The first of November the rains began in Lusaka and that took the edge off the hot weather here. Right now I would say the temperature is the mid to high 80’s in Lusaka. With the rains come, clouds cut the heat. Mfuwe is much lower elevation that Lusaka. That means it hotter. I think it was in the mid to upper 90’s at South Luangwa. What made it rough is the chalets were not air-conditioned. There was a fan for the main floor and the loft. The loft was hotter. It was cool in the morning until about 10 AM. The rains hadn’t started by the 7th of November when we left although there were indications they were only a day away.
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