9 to 13 September - The Zambezi Valley and Lusaka

It is Tuesday 13 September and Ian and I have now reached a campsite outside Lusaka in Zambia where we are stopping for a day to do much need administration.  How pleasant it is to feel clean again!  Our last shower, bar a brief wash using water from a hole made by elephants in the dry bed of the Ruchomechi River, was in Harare last Thursday. 

We reached Lusaka safely last night after a long drive via the Kariba border post.  Here, having cleared customs and immigration, we were hassled by two officials dressed in civilian clothes on the Zimbabwean side of the border who called themselves ‘Interpol’ but I think they were something else.  They went through all our documents, including my own instructions and were clearly looking to cause trouble.  Luckily they found nothing and we were finally released and reached the Zambian side some two hours later. 

The roads in Zambia are even worse than those of Zimbabwe!  Some potholes in the main arterial roads are 9 inches deep and vertically sided.  Maintenance is virtually non existent and on occasions one has to leave the road and drive on the dirt beside it to avoid the craters.  Thank goodness we were in the old Landrover as we survived the first deep pothole which we hit at 50mph before realising what lay ahead.  After this we slowed down!  Later we saw a Mercedes car stop in front of us, damaged after hitting another hole, with petrol pouring out of its ruptured fuel tank.  As with Zimbabwe, the road sides are littered with crashed trucks, some crashes clearly having killed people in the process.  Locals stand on the verges trying to flag down the enormous lorries to buy diesel off them – no doubt the drivers siphon off a few gallons to make a bit of money on the side.

9 to 12 September – the annual Game Count   Enough about driving.  Let me take you back to the Mana Pools game count last weekend which was one of the highlights of our trip so far. 

We left Harare early last Friday morning with our hosts, Russell (a well known ecologist in Africa) and Lynne Taylor who overseas the disbursement of all Conservation Zambezi funds we raise, to drive to Mana Pools National Park in northern Zimbabwe where we were scheduled to attend the annual game count organised by the Wildlife Society of Zimbabwe.  Dr Adrian Wilson, our UK chairman, joined us in the Park.  The count, done under a full moon, lasts 24 hours and the aim is to record every animal (by sex and size) seen from your nominated viewpoint.  This information is then collated and assessed by the Society which has much experience of running counts, having done so for many years in most of the Zimbabwean National Parks. 

We arrived a day early to settle in and let the animals get used to our presence and then left a day after the count ended, thus having three days to enjoy this beautiful area.  The spot we were given for the count was on the banks of the remote Ruckomeche River which flows only during the wet season into the mighty Zambezi.  As September is the dry season, the river was dry but the elephants dig holes in the sand to reach the water some two feet or more below the surface and other game take advantage of this to drink as well.  Such spots therefore become focal points for seeing concentrations of wildlife.

We set up camp –tents and a cooking area - under the watchful eye of Lynne and Russell in the shade of a large tamarind tree some 50 metres from the vertical sides of the riverbank and then established an OP on the bank itself with screening material to hide us from the animals.  At 10am on the allotted day (Saturday 10 September) the count began and Russell split us into three groups of two so we could man the hide throughout the 24 hour period.  At first, in the morning, little came to drink other than baboon, impala and guinea fowl.  However, by early afternoon the number of animals arriving at the various elephant-made holes in the river bed had begun to increase. Firstly, small family groups of elephant, each consisting of perhaps several cows and their offspring, then a herd of Cape Buffalo, the heavily horned bulls looking suspiciously at anything that might be out of place.  Then more elephant and by early evening the riverbed was full of animals. At one time we counted 43 buffalo and 67 elephant all standing closely together, drinking their fill after a day in the hot African sun.  The elephants often stayed for several hours socialising between groups once they had satiated their thirst but the buffalo left almost immediately.  During the night our group spotted the rarely seen aardwolf (an ant eating member of the hyena clan) and jackal patrolled the periphery in the hope of a quickly snatched meal.  Then, by morning, the riverbed was empty once again and the cycle would no doubt repeat itself. 

Hyena and jackal called incessantly through each night and although we never saw them, lion were constantly all around us, roaring during the latter part of each night: the roar of a lion is a primeval sound that makes the hairs stand up on the back of one’s head - Russell told us the sound can carry for miles.  We assessed there were at least three prides of lion in the area but they seemed to drink in the early hours of the morning when the full moon had gone and we were unable to see them.  On several occasions their roars would get very close to both the camp and our viewing point and Russell was forced to escort each group to and from the OP, armed with his .50 calibre twin barrelled rifle for safety.  Only months earlier a lioness had killed someone at a similar spot nearby so safety became an important part of our routine.  To enhance this, Russell parked one of the landrovers behind the OP in case we had to get into it in an emergency.  On our first night there was the sound of thundering hooves just behind us and a herd of buffalo stampeded past some 100 metres from the tents.  The next morning we found lion spoor thirty metres away, on the other side of the tamarind tree.  No doubt they were chasing the buffalo and we had got in their way.

The game count was the last event that Mike Moody attended before returning to the UK after nearly a month with us.  Mike took over from Tony Hargrave Graham (our intrepid doctor for the Namibian stretch) and proved to be another great team member - constantly witty and cheerful, despite the inevitable setbacks that occur on this type of journey, and also very smooth and urbane.  Mike was only member of the team to wear a (by then slightly crumpled) linen suit and ‘proper’ hat for Winston’s wedding.  He proved to be a great success with all and a tremendous ambassador for our charity, Conservation Zambezi.  I am sure his new wife, Berthe, will be glad to have him back in one piece after all our adventures.

The next Stage  We leave Lusaka tomorrow morning (Wednesday) heading east down the magnificently named (and heavily potholed) ‘great east road’ to visit firstly South Luangwa National Park and then enter Malawi.  Once we leave Lusaka we will not see another town for several days so I guess I will not find an internet café to update the blog again until we reach Lilongwe this coming weekend.