A walk on the wild side

Crouched behind the knarly branches of a dead tree, we watched two lions stalking a warthog. Suddenly our guide said, "Elephants!" and reeling round we saw six elephants soundlessly walking straight towards us. The scout cocked his rifle while the guide directed us to another tree, only slightly closer to the lions and further from the elephants. We set off towards it at a brisk walking pace, hoiking Alex, who'd stopped to take photos, with us. The elephants steadily followed, thankfully showing no sign of agitation as each tree seemed to be somewhat inadequate for providing cover to four people. The elephants soon changed course and we left the area in the opposite direction. The lions had given up their hunt too.

It was our last morning in South Luangwa National Park. In two days we had been on three game drives, the highlight of which was two leopard sightings. We also saw plenty of elephants, buffalo, giraffe, hippos, genets and some fabulous birds.

South Luangwa is a large park, whose boundaries are formed by the escarpment and the Luangwa river, but no fences. We stayed in Flatdogs Camp, just across the river from the park, so we shared our camp with anything that could cross the river - mostly elephants. Guards were always on hand to walk us from one part of the camp to another after dark, magically appearing as soon as we stepped outside. The first night I was woken at 2am by the sound of an elephant tearing at a tree just feet from our netted window. Later, in the half-light of the early morning, we had to make a detour to avoid more elephants on the way to breakfast.

For anyone visiting Zambia, I can't recomment South Luangwa or Flatdogs camp enough. The park has a variety of habitats, plenty of water and more wildlife than you can shake a stick at. Fabulous.

This morning I waved Alex off as he set out towards Malawi on a thoroughly clapped out minibus and realized how much I was going to miss him. You couldn't find a better travel buddy - he's smart and funny and interesting and just a lovely person to hang out with. But my purpose holds to sail towards Uganda, so with happy memories and some sadness on my part, and hopefully not too much relief on his, we went our separate ways.
Next stop Lusaka!