South Luangwa and the Lion who bumped into our car…

The SL NP Entrance Gate, January 2017

Although a trip to South Luangwa had been simmering for months, suddenly during the first week of January - everything came together for an 'impromptu' safari into Zambia. 

South Luangwa NP is located in the south east corner of Zambia, a two and a half drive from the Malawi/Zambia border, a 10 hour push from Malamulo Mission.

We sojourn here when we have an itch to see nature in the raw. The variety of game, dirt tracks, and night drives make it distinct from other parks in southern Africa.

Friday January 13, 2017

After a night with the Saunders in Lilongwe we arrived at Jake and Gillie’s house just a stone’s throw away from the South Luangwa main gate.  A stretched out horseshoe shaped home, featuring a swimming pool and a ‘seated patio with a view’.  From the white wooden chairs, you are practically sitting on top of the waterhole and marshland, which is frequented by elephants, buffalo, kudu, impala, and even lion.

Jake and Gillie's vacation rental in South Luangwa

wildlife viewing from the comfort of 'home'

The boys were hot and dove into the pool, washing off the sweat of a border crossing and hours in the Prado. Twenty minutes later, they were racing back to the house as an elephant herd brushed the pool fence with their trunks.

a pool safari!

Knowing that our friends were going to arrive late, we packed a picnic and rolled out to peruse the nearby bush-lands and try to organize our night drives for the weekend.

We viewed cape buffalo, elephant, impala, kudus, zebra, giraffe, hippos, crocs, and birds of so many varieties it would take a week to identify each one. 

Boehmi X Crawshay Zebra

Cape Buffalo

Thornicroft Giraffe

When we got back to the house, our night guard nonchalantly asked, “did you see the lion that were by the main gate?”

“No. Where, exactly…?”

“Near the front gate….” He barely completed his sentence and we closed the doors and peeled out to search for the cats.

We found one female shortly after, crossing the road in the dark, highlighted by our Hellas. We lost her, then as we spun around, we caught her crouched in the grass. A moment later, she was sprinting toward an impala.

Saturday January 14, 2017

We paid the park entrance and trekked over the Luangwa bridge at 6:15am. We acted on the rumor that the lions had made a kill and we rushed forward to see if we could locate the pride.

The 2017 safari tribe! Haybills, Graytons, Rene and Tyler

When away from the big cats, the roof rack was a fun place to view game...

A muddy side trail led us to the lions who were absorbed in gnawing on a buffalo. You couldn’t miss this group. Not only were they close to the main road, but a few game vehicles were circling in the area.

We watched the pride, licking the buffalo, ripping at the exposed flesh, playing with their cubs, and taking shifts to ‘watch over’ the kill, protecting it from the vultures who had started to gather nearby.

The first view of the lion pride...

Buffalo for breakfast...

The whole family is here!

Snuggle time!

While the lions were picking at the Buffalo - we passed muffins, egg sandwiches, fruit and ketchup between the Prados ('Goldilocks' (Graybill's car) and Yoda (Hayton's car)). A failed pass of the muffins led to a quick exit from the car to retrieve the box - with the lions now watching us. 

As a group on tour approached us, I whispered to the guide, “any sightings of wild dogs?”

He shook his head as if to say “you should have been here yesterday.”

It’s true. There were sightings of the painted dogs the day before. And the day before that. I’d never seen the rare pack animals and after knowing many friends had recently witnessed them in South Luangwa, I felt certain we were in with a chance for a sighting.

But the day passed, bush whacking through muddy tracks, weaving around the Luangwa river, enjoying sightings of giraffe, elephant, hippos, zebra and birds but no wild dogs.

Early morning in the park...

Graytons, Haybills, Rene and Tyler on safari...

Pose like.....an animal....can you tell what we are??

Every vehicle we passed, I asked (with a hint of desperation) “any sightings of wild dogs?” and each guide shook his head and said, “we had a great view of them yesterday…”

“Let’s go back to see what the lions are doing…” Ryan asserted. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush…”

“Yes, ok, let’s go.”

Rainy season Luangwa...

Ginger, the male lion, had taken watch over the carcass when a female called for help as she retired to the shade. They had cleaned up most of the buffalo, but they didn’t want to give it up to the vultures, or hyena which were lurking in the grass. Every time they thought of returning to the shade - the vultures encroached and the lion whipped around and chased them off the bones.

Ginger ate a little more, nuzzling into the rib cage of the buffalo, stuffing his already rotund belly with the last morsels of dead buffalo. But he began to tire, he got hot. He was bothered. He started looking for somewhere to drag the carcass.

It was late morning. Around 11:00am. Ginger gripped the buffalo and struggled with it, pushing against the earth with his powerful paws, willing the carcass along with him. He began to pull it towards our Prado.

“He’ll go around us…” I heard Ryan state.

He tugged on the buffalo but as he re-positioned - it became clear he was not going to divert around us. He wanted to come towards us. He wanted shade. He wanted to hideaway the dead animal under our car. 

Casey piped in on the walkie talkie as she watched on from her vehicle behind us “Um, you have my girls in the car…are you guys sure you're ok?”

But Ginger was so preoccupied with the stashing of the carcass and the chasing of the vultures, he didn’t see us a threat. He saw us as help.

However, when he backed up into the front end of the Prado and the car shook, Ryan instinctively ignited the engine and reversed several meters.

Ginger’s hope for safeguarding the carcass under our car had vanished. He gave up. He called out to the pride for help, and a female slowly emerged from the shadows. When she was close, Ginger retired, satisfied the vultures were still hungry.

Ginger's turn to 'guard the carcass'

Hyena watching from a safe distance...

Ginger finding some more meat...

The moving process begins...

Tugging on the carcass

Ryan rolled the windows up....

BUMP!!!!

Ginger: "why did you move!? you left me alone with these vultures!"

There was excited chatter in our car - ("can you believe that big lion bumped into us!?") as we returned to our rented house and swam in the pool watching the elephants below.

The swimming pool at Jake and Gillies

Just a few elephant - minding their own business...

Graybills on safari

Haytons at 'home' in South Luangwa

We started our night drive that evening with our lion friends and found them engaged in a mocking chase of the vultures who now began to swarm around the carcass in mass. The lions eventually turned it over to the birds.

The lion watch: then decide to leave....

The vultures take over....

After enduring a jungle route through tsetse fly territory we were rewarded with an incredible sighting of a female leopard at dusk. She was washing her paws and strolling between the vehicles with great ease. Then she pounced over a puddle and meandered to the edge of a ravine before we left her for sun-downers by the river.

So beautiful! 

Watching the leopard from the other side of the ravine...

Graceful spotted beauty!

We decided to visit the lion pride after sunset, and found they had given up the carcass to the vultures, who had in turn relinquished the carcass to a pack of 20 Hyena. The brown spotted hyena were so skittish, as we arrived, they left. They eerily circled our truck, but wouldn’t go back to the bones until we left.

Sunday January 15,2017

The next morning, a lone vulture was nipping at the ground - but there was nothing left of the buffalo. The meat and the bones had been consumed.

It had rained all night, and the ground was mushy. We could see the male lion padding around 100 meters from the kill sight. Other game vehicles were close, but the road we took the previous day was now a bog, and no car could pass.

'Goldilocks' makes a splash!

We debated for a minute “should we go find a way to visit the lions again? After we had already seen them so much yesterday?”  

(a bird in the hand….)

We found the new access road and rushed to find the pride. Sweeping around the hairpin turn we abruptly halted as a lioness was sprawled out on the track. Three more females came sauntering around the cars and then collapsed under a scrub bush. A few more tight turns and muddy gulleys and we found the pride. Ginger was now joined by his brother, Garlic. The two males among many girls. Ginger, the blonde lion who bumped our car, and Garlic – the dark handsome boy. We cut the engines and watched the pride as they lazed under the shade, the cubs wrestling each other and occasionally drawing the adults into their play.

Glad we didn't run over her!

Garlic, the brother of Ginger...

Playing after the feast!

Hello Mamma Lion!

As other vehicles came and went, we found there was still no sightings of wild dogs. We returned home for a swim and lunch.

Through a kind and helpful acquaintance at one of the lodges, we organized a night drive with a very experienced guide. Fred was fabulous from start to finish. His love for the park and animals were evident when he locked up the brakes on a hedged in route. We thought he must have spotted the dogs in the thick scrub, or a cat, but as he pointed over the hood of the cruiser, we saw them… hundreds of them. Driver ants, hard at work. Fred didn’t want to run them over. But having gotten word that the dogs were close, he shut his eyes momentarily as he moved over the ants. “I hope we haven’t killed too many” he mused.

Fred, tour guide extraordinaire! 

Our lion friends had moved again.....

Driver ants!

A few more turns and we were on a pack of wild dogs. The first I had ever seen. Their ‘painted bodies’, black muzzles, and ‘Dumbo’ ears were as distinctive in real life as in any picture book.  I’m not sure how I contained my excitement. But I was screaming on the inside. (“AMAZING Fred!!!” )

The pack of 23 wild dogs were actively hunting. They do not conceal themselves when hunting, and the pace they move at is very rapid. We tracked them through the grasslands, onto the flat ground by the rivers edge. We watched them roll in dung and mud to disguise their stench, we watched them pick up rodents, birds and snake skins to snack on. We followed them for almost an hour. 

South Luangwa Wild Dog! 

They rushed out to the edge of the river...

When they found nothing, they turned around...

The painted dogs...

Such interesting animals. Beautiful, a little bit ugly, and terribly smelly!

Then, just at dusk, their brisk pace turned to a brisk run, and then a sprint. They were off! Dashing through a swampy bog they emerged on the plains and chased a single impala into their trap. One dog after another was waiting and each took a turn to nab the antelope. They were mid hunt! They were keen, and only missed the impala by an inch as the escapee sprung through the swamp to avoid the solid ground where the dogs had laid a trap. The lead dog ran ahead and trotted back to the pack once she realized the hunt was not successful.

Sun-downers by the river and a delightful spot-lighted drive to cap off the evening. We returned to Jake and Gillies having had one of the best experiences of life!

South Luangwa was incredible. Again.

It’s hard to drive back to the over crowded bush of Makwasa after a weekend like this, without one child spotting a village dog and (thinking we are still in the game park) shouting “I see a wild dog!!”

Yes, dear – it certainly might be ‘wild’, just not “South Luangwa” wild.

Until next time…

I heard the rumble at 3am, then the guard showed us these prints just outside the back door...

Give me a paw-print to build a dream on…

Haytons in South Luangwa, dreaming of another safari...

***Special thanks to Casey and Aaron Graybill for supplying photos of the Lion Encounter....