South Luangwa, Zambia (English version)

On our way to Zambia... We got to South Luangwa National Park, more accurately to one of the resorts just before the park (Crocvalley Camp). Our first evening it was just to relax looking over the river full of hippos, crocodiles (one of them huge!) and the sunset.

The first game drive is at sunrise, it's cold in the truck, but as the morning goes on (the drive lasts 4 hours) we get warmer. It is pretty easy to see zebras, elephants, impalas and bukus. This national park has its own type of giraffes, they ar shorter than the rest, they don't cross rivers nor move around, they are darker (males even darker than females), their legs (from knee down) are quite white and the patterns in face, body and legs ar different. You can also see them easily and they don't get too scared by cars.

A different story is seeing lions and leopards, it's partially pure luck. Rangers know where and when they are, but there is no guaranty that when You go they'll be there. And if they aren't, finding them gets complicated. We managed to see "a" leopard in the morning. It was resting in a tree and you could only see a leg and the tail.

We also went on a night drive. You start it when it's light still and have way through (it also takes 4 hours) you enjoy the sunset and start looking for night life with a big light (and you follow the light as if it was a tennis game, left-right-left-right) . We enjoyed elephants, gazelles, giraffes... This time we clearly saw a leopard (a different one according to Rose, our ranger), just laying on a fresh spot. It couldn't care less that four cars were taking pictures of it at 4-5 metres distance for more than 10 minutes.

At night we saw the spotted hyena, we followed yet another leopard and enjoyed for a few minutes five  lioness found in the spot. The experience is undescriptable. Wild life in complete darkness...

The way back to Nkhata Bay was a crazy one (the car broke down), one of those stories that you can laugh at two days later while having a beer or something similar and it becomes an anecdote of the trip.

 (Wild dogs at the entrance, we couldn't get a better picture)

Maua