Africa 2019 South Luanga Zambia continued.

Chindeni Camp, Day 2 Today started out well, with about an hour watching a group of baboons that included several juveniles and one 3 day old infant. The distance was too great for very good video but I got some really nice stills. Here is one of two 3 month olds in a tree; below, the infant and his mother. [I just heard the sound of breaking branches – looked over and saw an elephant grazing on a tree behind the next cabin over.] After a while we started our morning walk – very different from yesterday afternoon, this morning we saw and watched several elephants (at a respectful distance), impala, kudu, and baboons. It is really nice to see them from the level of the ground. After lunch, we drove to a different place where I could try to video a baby; I did get a couple of nice stills. The videos are shaky – hard to video with my Canon, and it was too distant for the iPhone. But here is a still that I think is rather nice. After that we had the usual sundowner – this time with popcorn, far preferable to little sausages. As dark fell we drove back; a leopard crossed the road in front of us; we tried to find him again to follow him but he was hiding. We did see a porcupine, quills all extended and lovely in the headlamps, a spotted hyena, which we followed for a few minutes before it disappeared into the bush, and a civet and its only other family member, a Back in camp, the chef prepared a meal with two salads, a vegetable, and a rice / vegetable dish as well as baked chicken; much more satisfactory. For desert he did an apple crumble which, the hostess assured me, was definitely gluten free. It was actually a bit light on apple but pretty good anyway. Day 3 Today started out very poorly. Apparently the crumble was not gluten free; I spent 3 hours on the toilet, 1 to 4 a.m., finally got another hour’s sleep. As I was awake, I thought about the fact that I had been experiencing low level diarrhea and mild stomach cramps since arriving in Zambia: Because I had come down with a sinus cold, I had thought perhaps I might have one of the viruses that affect stomach as well as sinus. But this experience – 4 hours after a meal – is definitely gluten. I decided that somehow their gluten-free flour must be tainted, and that for the rest of the trip I might need to avoid all baked goods, supposedly gluten free or not. On the other hand it’s possible they prepare the regular cake first, and may even use the same implements for measuring the flour. I clearly need to invest even more energy into communicating about it. For the first time I slept past 5; when the staff member awakened me at 5:30 I felt weak, tired, spent. (In effect, no dinner and very little sleep.) Got up, dressed, staggered over to the eating area; a cup of coffee began the process of reviving me. The elephant was over on the other side of the eating area, providing entertainment. Breakfast – I avoided the toast, did chance the oatmeal with nuts, dried fruit, and some jam as well as a large plate of fruit; it, plus more coffee, revived me even more. We drove out a ways, parked, and walked. Saw several elephants at a respectful distance, these two warthogs posing for a picture, this puku and African duck, a couple of Cape buffalo, and a green-wing bee-eater (picture on the next page.) At our coffee break, I had a couple of Kind bars, which further revived me: actually the walk did as much as anything to restore my energy. We had lunch (again, plenty of salad, a delicious lentil dish, tropical fruit) – so they did listen to my complaint about the meat to greens ratio! We drove over the next camp, and now I am sitting on the deck of my cabin overlooking a water cabbage filled lagoon with its own private rhino. I feel completely recovered and the lack of stomach cramping confirms my suspicion about the contamination problem. After lunch we went for a long walk along the river, didn’t see much new, but had a good walk, which ended at a surprise – a setup for a BBQ “sundowner,” gin and tonic and little spits of beef and veggies, all while seated in 5 inch deep flo,wing water in this tributary to the main river, which is free of parasites and because so shallow also free of crocs. Nice little party, quite lovely sunset. In the rest of the drive, we saw another porcupine, had a really good view of a civet and two genets (the only other member of the civet family.) I also learned that farm-raised civets not only provide a substance used in perfume, they are also fed coffee beans, which pass through their digestive systems and dried to produce one of the world’s most expensive coffees. I don’t know what they call it, probably something like Civet Poop Expresso. Zambia Day 4 Wednesday I talked at length with the manager about the contamination issue, she reassured me, so I decided to give their baked goods a try. Without the GF toast, breakfast would be very skimpy: I don’t trust the oatmeal; there were boiled eggs and some apples and oranges (I can’t believe the scarcity of tropical fruit! Even bananas.) No apparent problems from that or the little cookies they made for the morning coffee break. We drove a while this morning, saw a hyena and her half-grown pups, took some good photos before they walked off into the deep grass. A bit later we started walking; I learned several interesting things, including about another species of termite (harvester) and some additional multi-use plants. We came to some giraffes, which approached us instead of fleeing; seeing them from ground level was interestingly different. I took more videos of them walking, and later when we saw an elephant in a marshy area eating, I took a video of that. It would pull up a hunk of grass, shake it and beat it against the ground to knock off most of the dirt, then eat it. We had a brunch picnic under some trees; they had a pizza oven setup for people to make their own pizzas; they provided two pre-formed gf shells for me (9 inches: I only needed one). There was also a pretty nice salad, lettuce, cucumber, and avocado. Others ate a little, but there was enough left that I had a 2nd plate which pretty well filled me up. Now I am sitting on the deck looking out at the water hole – Harry the Hippo is gone, probably in a different water hole, so my main entertainment is lacking, but I have seen several visits from impala, kudu, and puku. There’s also some nice birdsong. The evening drive was a little disappointing, although we did get a really good view of a couple of honey badgers – beautiful animals with a wide greyish stripe down the back. We also drove through a group of four male elephants who did not seem thrilled to have us so close, but none of them bellowed at us. And we saw a genet just sitting in an open area; I took several photos in the spotlight; I think one or two might be sharp enough (thanks to the brace Shad put on the vehicle) to crop down to be usable. Back in camp, Harry the hippo is back, I gather from the splashing and occasional snort from the pond. I think he’s munching on the water plants again. Day 5 Thursday Today started with a walk along the Kapamba river, after crossing at the ford. Shadrack spotted a couple of male lion tracks so we circled around through the bush to get ahead of them; decided they were between us and the truck so started back after the usual coffee break. However, we didn’t spot them, so Shad followed the tracks out onto the sandbar and discovered they had crossed the river. Driving back toward camp we came across two elephants feeding. One reared up on its hind legs just as we arrived, to reach some high branches, but was back on all fours before I could deploy the camera. I got several pictures of him stretching to reach, but he refused to rear up for me again. We returned to camp for lunch (this seems to be obligatory), after which we drove to the next camp, Zungalila. The situation faces the Kapamba river, separated by a field where some Puku and impalas are grazing. I’ll miss the pond right under my deck at Bilmungwe. After lunch I took a soaking bath in the huge brass tub on a corner of my deck; very luxurious. It gets quite hot for about an hour every afternoon, about two to three, then cools down. They are also fixated on afternoon tea here, British influence I suppose, but it kills a half hour that could be spent observing animals. After tea we drove over to the area where we’d seen the vultures, and found a dead hyena, half eaten by vultures and quite ripe after 28 hours . Shad said he thought the two male lions we tracked had killed something, some hyenas tried to steal it from them and this one got killed. I let him know I was a bit pissed that he didn’t follow the vulture sign yesterday, as I requested, and emphasized again that I don’t care about lunch and tea and all that. He said he was afraid the other guests would have their lunch held up, and I pointed out he could have called the lodge and told them to eat without us! He’s generally a pretty good guide but way too fixated on schedules – at the outset the manager of Mfuwe lodge told me we could do whatever I want, including timing of meals, but it hasn’t worked out that way; this is about the third potentially interesting activity sacrificed for the rigid British meal and afternoon rest schedule. My irritation was largely assuaged on the drive back to camp (after the also obligatory “sundowner,” cocktail hour in the wild) when we spotted a genet sitting on the far bank of the river, and watched it walking along, in plain sight, illuminated by Shad’s spotlight, for a minute or two. Later we briefly spotted a bush baby (a very small primate, nocturnal and hard to see) and then saw another, clinging to a small tree trunk. This one let us see him longer, as he descended the tree, went up another branch, and jumped several times (20 or more times his body length) to nearby trees. He was shaped somewhat like a monkey, but with a head and face more like a cat, with pointed ears and distinctive black markings, very pretty. He moved way too fast to get any pictures. Zambia 6&7, Friday, June 28 Today started out with a bit of a surprise when we rounded a corner and saw a hyena in the road ahead of us, walking toward us. Then we saw some other hyenas in the woods on either side, and a second hyena joined the one on the road. I got some nice pictures before they both went off into the thick brush. After driving around a bit we walked around the vulture / hyena kill area to see if we could see any other signs of that fight. Nice walk; I learned some more interesting stuff about the plants. After our morning tea break, driving back we saw a huge croc just getting into a waterhole – submerged by the time I deployed the camera, but I did get some shots of a couple of other biggies farther away, and one smaller croc facing us with its mouth wide open. I look forward to seeing how those came out. We also watched an elephant crossing the river, wondering how he was going to climb the high, vertical bank in front of him. I got a video of when he realized the problem, turned around, and headed back toward where he started. I also got a couple good shots of a violet-breasted roller, a beautiful bird with bright blue as well. When they fly they’re even prettier, with bright blue underwings. Today was not as rich in animal sightings, although of course we saw lots of elephants, baboons, and impala, as well as other antelope species including bushbuck and waterbuck, and a few kudu (not as plentiful here). Mama and others helping the baby elephant up the steep bank. Note small elephants are totally wet; they had to swim, using trunks as snorkels. The night drive was better: It started out with few sightings, but then we saw a line of elephants looking like it was ready to cross the river, with one very young baby. So Shad decided to have the “sundowner” there, while we watched them. They walked up the bank a couple hundred meters until across from a sandbar, and walked fairly quickly across. The baby and one of the juveniles had to swim part of the way (it was ¾ the way up the big male’s rump), with their trunks up above water like periscopes. In this section one of the elephants trumpeted; Shad said probably a crocodile bit it’s tail – he showed me another elephant earlier with just a stump of a tail, the rest having been bitten entirely off. On the far bank, the baby and two other juveniles struggled for ten minutes or so to get up the steep bank onto the sandbar; the baby had to be boosted by two adults’ trunks. Several of the elephants lay down on the sand to rest before they were willing to go on. Above: the genet in the spotlight. Below: White-tailed mongoose After drinks, after it grew dark we saw another leopard in the road in front of us for several minutes, then a genet who displayed himself for a while as he foraged, two African weasels, and a white-tailed mongoose who foraged in a nearly empty field for some time while I photographed him in the spotlight – probably the highlight of the entire evening. When we got back to camp a huge herd of Cape buffalo had moved in to the large meadow between the lodge and the river; all night you could hear them snuffling and grumbling. Peter and Barbara, a couple from Toronto, were the only other guests at this camp. They were nice enough, but Peter had an annoying way of talking, like texting with multiple exclamation points at the end of every sentence. I wondered if he had taken a class on how to be load everything he says with intense, enthusiastic, positive emotion – he came off almost sanctimoniously cheerful. Barbara seemed to have a kind of dry sense of humor; Peter may have been semi-consciously compensating. Our interaction got a very poor start when I told them, in answer to his question, that I teach Communication and he exclaimed – oh, public relations?!!! I said no, and he came back with effusive praise for Marshall McLuhan (a Toronto-based ‘60s/70s media guru, lots of clever wordplay and absolutely no supporting evidence). I was once taken with McLuhan until I began to realize how empty it all was, just amusing word-play with no evidentiary grounding. Anyway, I just responded “he’s a gasbag,” which did nothing for amiable relations. Of course I regretted being so blunt, but Peter’s effusiveness left no room for a more measured and considered response. I haven’t mentioned the potato plant – in the damper air of morning and evening, it gives off a distinct scent of cooking potatoes. Also, the “go away” bird, with its distinctive “go ‘way” call. Saturday June 29 This was the best day yet. I got up early as usual, and while I was drinking my coffee the server pointed out a lion, which I would never have seen in the dim twilight on my own, maybe ten meters from the buffalo. I watched as the buffalo moved toward the lion and the lion moved toward them: abruptly the closes buffalo charged the lion, who retreated back to a respectful distance, then stood there for some time just eyeing the buffalo before walking around the herd and into the brush. Yesterday I had another talk with Shad about my priorities, and how I did not want the drive back to Mfuwe to be a direct drive there, and did not want to waste an hour and a half having their extended leisurely lunch, or stop the morning drive after lunch. I guess I should have been more forceful about it earlier (I thought I had expressed myself pretty clearly, but evidently not clearly enough!) He asked the camp chef to prepare box lunches for us, and in the actuality we stopped for 20 or 30 minute lunch break, didn’t arrive at Mfuwe Lodge until about 1:30 – then went out again at 3:40, exactly what I had expected every day to be like. African fish eagle – strong resemblance to American bald eagle [At Mfuwe lodge the manager asked my experience and expressed my frustration about it – actually my only point of frustration or disappointment with the experience. She kept saying “99% of people don’t want that” and couldn’t quite get that I wasn’t talking about 99% of people. I frankly doubt her statistics, although I’m sure that more people want to lounge around a good part of the day with a couple of 3 hour game viewings. ] I don’t clearly recall the order of all that we saw – virtually nothing until we had drive some ways from the lodge, because we had to drive through a kapani forest, trees the elephants decimate, with little forage for other species. We found and watched a troup of baboons for a while; one of the babies was white (a recessive gene I think) and very cute; I wouldn’t have minded watching him more but Shad heard alarm calls and wanted to check to see if there was a leopard. There wasn’t, but a bit later we came across a family of four lions; mom, a nearly full-grown male and female, and a smaller, younger male, all resting in the shade while we photographed them. During the day I managed to get a very nice photo of an African hawk eagle in the air, and another photo of an African fish eagle (previous page) also in the air, then a picture of a bee eater hovering above the river while the breeze carried insects to his hungry mouth. (That was while we were eating lunch at a shady spot on a high bank above the river.) There were several hippos in the water, two of whom I took pictures of while climbing out onto the bank. (It was a cool morning and many animals were just soaking up sun, warming themselves.) The picture above shows one of the hippos with a baby crocodile just this side of it. I’ve really enjoyed their almost constant chorus of grunts and chuckles. After lunch we spotted a lioness, nursing a single cub in the shade. While we watched she moved out into the sun, cub following her: She looked in really bad shape, thin, poor coat, decided limp. When I inspected her through binoculars I could see a festering wound on one paw, Shad said probably from hyenas driving her away from a kill. She didn’t look in much shape to kill anything again, and her cub suckled so intently, without playing at all, that it looked like her milk was inadequate. She’ll likely die, and if another lioness doesn’t intervene, the cub as well. Seeing them threw a bit of a pall on an otherwise wonderful day. Thinking about the elephant who had so tenuously started across the river, I asked Shad about quicksand. They don’t have it in the rivers, but Shad drove up onto a plateau, stopped the car, and led me to some quicksand pools in the center of a somewhat arid plane. There were several, each 6-8 feet in diameter. They are apparently the top of volcanic pipes, with springs rising up and evaporating, leaving a dry crust of 3 to 8 inches. We stood on the edge of one of the thicker ones and bounced; you could feel it bounce under you – a very queasy feeling. Another one had a large stick lying on it; Shad picked it up and, with very little effort, drove it through the thin crust into the soupy mud below, which quickly swallowed it up. There were animal tracks all around; very likely many many dead animals sinking gradually down most of the pipes. When we reached Mfuwe lodge a huge busload of tourists were unloading – what a zoo, then and at afternoon tea. This is the end of shoulder season, beginning of high season; people from China and all over Europe as well as the U.S. and Canada. Tea was a zoo. They had made a nice lemon poppyseed cake, and a smaller GF version, already cut (with what knife I can only guess.) One of the staff served a piece of the regular cake, while I went around to get a plate and fork; when she started to serve a piece of GF with the same serving implement (covered with sticky crumbs from the non-GF cake) I cried “don’t touch that!” I explained about contamination and served myself with the fork. There was such a horde of people around the table by then I just grabbed a couple pieces of fruit and headed off to a remote table. I had mild gluten symptoms later that evening and when I awoke; I think probably she had already cut the non-GF cake first then cut the GF cake with the same knife. The GF cake, however, was quite good. After tea, Shadrack quickly drove off away from the lodge, which was a very good decision. Among other interesting sights we spotted a lone hyena with a limp; through binoculars we could see it had injuries on two paws – and what appeared to be mange all up it’s throat and lower face. Like the lioness yesterday, the hyena looked to be in very poor condition, unfit for hunting and very likely hungry. We saw a couple of other (healthy) hyenas later, and another genet, which sat still for a long inspection and photo session. Sunday, June 30 – departure day I awoke with mild diarrhea – worrisome at the beginning of a 40 hour plane trip – but it cleared up before time to get on the first plane. At breakfast I noticed the server turning over regular toast then using the same tongs to serve GF French toast to me, more evidence of the casualness that probably caused my digestive issues. If I ever do return here I will avoid large resorts like Mfuwe Lodge – it is much easier to train up a smaller staff with fewer guests. I bought a small bag in the gift shop to carry computer, book, and earphones so I can put the other carry-on in the luggage bin and leave it there. Shad and I set out for a short (not even 2 hour) ride, which was nonetheless very satisfactory. Right out of the gate we saw two wild dogs, just beginning a hunt. Shad says they’re rarely sighted; he’s had guests who’ve come to Africa 20 times and never seen one, so apparently I’ve been very lucky. Then we saw a leopard who sat for photographs for a while before getting up and disappearing into the bush. We also saw a purple-crested turaco, then a second joined it. (above) Lovely green breasts, orange markings on the eyes; they did not turn their backs so I could not see the colorful back, but they did sit in plain view, which Shad says is unusual; he hears their call a lot but rarely even gets a glimpse of one, since they like dense foliage (and blend in well). So the day started out very well indeed. No sightings on the way to the airport, but we stopped at a native handcraft store where I picked up a couple of thing. But on the flight back to Lusaka we stopped at a little dirt airstrip (Zeki); while landing crossed the Zambezi River, and I saw several pods of hippos in the water and on land next to the river, as well as some elephants. Shadrack. Shadrack and me at the river picnic. We mostly got along very well. Shadrack has a skewed sense of humor similar to mine; we joked about all the elephants that bellowed at us, about my forgetting one thing and his forgetting another, many small funny things. He is very knowledgeable, imparts knowledge in suitably small bites so I never felt overwhelmed; has a good sense of the animals, so I ended up (partly because of his tracking skill, partly through luck) seeing everything I wanted to see and being able to watch several animals for several minutes or in some cases an hour or more. My main frustration was his insistence on adhering to the breakfast / morning tea / 11 am brunch / 4 hour rest / afternoon tea schedule. The managers all told me I didn’t have to stick to schedule; could set my own schedule, but until the last day he simply refused to do it – more concerned about the kitchen staff, I felt, than about me. A second minor annoyance was failure to explain some decisions, like abandoning the chase for the wild dogs the last day; when he pointed out they had gone into dense brush plus all the vehicles chasing them, I fully agreed. But mostly, I fairly quickly learned to trust and rely on his judgment, and enjoyed the time with him. Shadrack’s brother Mishack manages the last camp where I stayed; they look much alike, although vocal intonation and expressions differ quite a bit. I don’t know if there’s a third brother, Abednigo, or not. Coda: getting home The Kenya Air flight to Nairobi was delayed an hour and a half – enough that they closed the gate on the KLM flight just as we were landing, at 12:05. There ensued a comedy of waiting lines: one to get approval for a voucher for a hotel stay, one to get through passport control, another waiting for the actual voucher, and finally (at 2 am), one for an actual room key. I finally got to bed at 2:20, with the bus back to the airport expected at 5. 2 hours of very solid sleep and a hot shower later, I was sitting on the bus waiting for other stranded passengers (at least 30, some for my flight, some for a flight to Paris). Then the bus stopped at three other hotels, eating up more time. A mile or two short of the airport, there was a police check; we all had to get off the bus and go through a security screen, then find our bus again in the melee of busses and cars. I write this sitting in the waiting room for my rebooked flight to Amsterdam, on Kenya Airlines (a “partner” of KLM and Delta – a system that works rather poorly at best). Kenya Airlines does not have comfort plus seating, so I’ll have to hassle KLM to get that money refunded – and I’ll have to spend 7 hours in a cramped coach seat. I finally talked the cabin crew into allowing me to occupy a bulkhead seat with wonderful legroom – they said I’d have to pay for it in Amsterdam, but no-one met me at the gate. My hunch is that the staff in Amsterdam saw that I had paid for it already – so I won’t have to hassle KLM about it. The flight to Minneapolis was fairly good. I had also paid for a bulkhead seat there; they seated me in a center seat in the no leg-room section; I complained about it, and managed to get moved to an aisle seat, still no leg-room but at least not jammed between two people. I will have to hassle Delta about the $109 I paid for leg-room I didn’t get. [It turned out not to be a hassle; the agent regularly agreed to refund it. Delta is back in my good graces. Not KLM.] My seat-mate was a nice young woman; we chatted the last two hours into Minneapolis. She was a ballet dancer in high school, now applying for medical school. Showed me some videos of her dancing a couple of studio pieces; she was very good, danced the sugar plum fairy in Nutcracker, but already plagued by arthritis in her toes, reluctantly gave it up. The flight to Portland, still no leg-room, aisle seat in a row of 3, fortunately the center seat was empty so I was able to stretch out in that direction a bit. Dead tired, I was actually hallucinating the last hour into Portland (would see some shape out of the corner of my eye, think it was something else; other perceptual oddities). Slept well in spite of severe leg-cramps from sitting for 70 hours straight – very glad to be home. I managed to get a slightly blurred picture of a baboon in mid-jump and a better one of an impala in mid-jump. The exaggerated jump, like the practice of “stotting” (vertical stiff-legged jumps) may be a way to demonstrated to any watching predators that this impala would not be easy to catch.