Kafue National Park

After a few days in South Luangwa National Park we headed back to Lusaka and then on to Kafue National Park.

The trip out to Lusaka was not without its drama. We spent 4 hours on a (good) dirt road and then when we got to the tarmac and picked up a bit of speed we noticed that the car was vibrating quite dramatically. We stopped at the first town and pulled into the service station. Gorgeous Man got out and looked under the car to see if anything was broken. There was nothing we could see. So we phoned the hire company.

I have to give a shout out to Hemmingways our car hire company. Gorgeous Man spoke to the owner who thought that it was probably just the wheels unbalanced. He arranged to meet us in Lusaka the next day and we drove to a mechanics and had the wheels rebalanced mid-trip. We were very impressed with their customer service and support.

We stayed at Mukambi Lodge near Kafue National Park. The chalets were a little out of our price range and so we camped in the camping area and then took advantage of the drive and boat safaris that the lodge offered. This meant that we did not have to pack up everything we owned every time we wanted to drive somewhere.

Note the new colour of the car…  Each camp site gets a shade shelter. Most people pitched their tents underneath, but ours was too high, so we used it for eating and cooking.

Hippos are herd animals, but for some reason there is a local hippopotamus who has been banished from the herd. We had been told about Basil, the friendless hippo who has adopted the lodge as his herd, and we hoped to see him while we were there.

As we were setting up our tent the first night I heard Gorgeous Girl say “Hippo!” and I turned and saw this.

He had climbed up the bank and wandered into the camping area.

As you can see he was quite close. But completely unconcerned and uninterested in us.

After eating a bit of grass, he made himself quite at home.

So cat came out to have a look.

It was a very special start to our visit.

(We fly to Papua New Guinea tomorrow. I’m not sure how long it will take to arrange internet access, so I may be missing for a few days).