Zambia Safari Diary - Day Nine

Crocodile Bush Camp to Kaingo Lodge

Leaving the Bush
The morning’s plan was to walk back to Tafika, crossing the river there out of the Park, and then finishing the journey off by vehicle to just opposite Kaingo, crossing back into the Park at that point. During the walk we saw a superb male kudu (camera icon), together with the usual ellies and so on. A somewhat eerie experience involved passing by an old, now derelict camp, by Big Lagoon (camera icon), a very popular safari camp in the early days, but now looking very ‘concretey’ and dated. As we stood looking at it, a huge number of bats erupted out of one of the windows, in a scene reminiscent of a low-budget horror movie.

Leopard Kill
Lots of game on this part of the trip – warthog, puku, baboons, crocodile and hippo – together with a puku carcass lying on the Zambia Photoground, identified as a leopard kill, despite its location, owing to the rib cage still being intact (lions would have chewed it to bits). The river crossing back to Tafika was a rather cautious affair, owing to the lurking presence of a solitary hippo a short distance away (contrast with the crossing to Kaingo later on in the day!).

On the drive to Kaingo we had a further leopard sighting – probably our best yet – as one crashed down out of a tree by the side of the road, and sloped off to the squawking of several impala. A real treat was a bend in the river used as an elephant crossing, where we counted well over 40, young and old, at this point (camera icon). We watched these for a long time, before continuing on our journey, accompanied by further sightings of hippo and crocodile (camera icon), huge numbers of buffalo, a male elephant trumpeting loudly at us (camera icon), and (for the twitchers among you) a goliath heron (camera icon) and giant kingfisher.

Hippo Welcome to Kaingo
The river crossing back into the Park at Kaingo (camera icon) was a much more exciting affair. A large pod of hippos was congregated just opposite to our crossing point, and became quite obstreperous while the third kayak crossing was being made (camera icon) (fortunately only containing our baggage). Welcomed into camp by Emma and Ian, and later by Jules, and Derek Shenton himself. Very much back to civilisation again (camera icon), in delightful surroundings, with a large viewing deck protruding out over the river, a very comfortable boma, and solid comfortable huts.

Kaingo has a number of interesting features, including a ‘honeymoon suite’ (with raised open air bath) and both hippo and elephant hides. We spent a considerable time in the hippo hide (camera icon), obtaining some excellent photos, and were also driven to the elephant hide, fifteen or twenty feet above the ground (camera icon).

Saturday Night in the Zambian Bush
The night drive took us through the ebony grove (camera icon), past a giant eagle owl, and a pair of giraffe (camera icon), to Kaingo’s own (Mwamba) bush camp (camera icon). Here we climbed up on to the top of an old termite mound, and consumed numerous gin and tonics, accompanied by delicious roasted groundnuts. It was generally agreed that it was one of the best Saturday evenings that we had ever spent. The succeeding game drive yielded a first sighting of porcupine, a mouse, a white tailed mongoose, more ellies and a total of nine separate genet (we were promised that if we saw ten genet then we could trade these in for one sighting of the still very elusive leopard, but it was not to be, on this occasion).

At dinner the talk turned, as it does, to the mating habits of lions. The guide observed that if there is a pride led, as it sometimes is, by two male lions (perhaps brothers) then a female on heat will sometimes mate with both. One of the guests muttered ‘what a slut’, to general amusement. It was then observed that if two females are on heat at the same time, then the male may mate with both. Having recently observed just how debilitating this process is for the male, the same guest then murmured ‘what a hero’, only to be roundly set upon by the ladies present, and accused of double standards. After digging himself further into the hole that he’d created for himself (as one does on these occasions) he retired with a poor grace. After arranging a ‘Full English Breakfast’ for the following morning, it was then time for an early night once again.

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camp fire tales

Somewhat surprisingly (although a wedding in the bush is a truly marvellous event) quite a number of couples do choose a safari for their honeymoon (as we have just seen, Kaingo even has its own honeymoon suite). One story that we heard was of a honeymoon couple out on a guided morning walk, when an elephant ‘moment’ occurred, and the guide told the group to leg it to the nearest tree. In so doing the wife tripped and fell, whereupon the husband hurdled her prostrate body and continued on to safety.

This was actually absolutely the correct thing to do, leaving the guide with only one person to deal with, rather than two. However it is reported that the wife refused to speak to her spouse for the remaining 14 days of the trip, and we even heard from another source that they are now divorced.