Last days at Hippo lodge

Things in the Zambian National Parks are more controlled than the last time I was here, as usual due to the stupidity and lack of forethought on behalf of a few.

Unescorted game viewing drives during the day are still permitted, but night drives must now be escorted from one of the camps.

Al, Wolf and I went on a day drive and saw some animals although with the tall grass it was difficult to see much. Most of the trails are very vague and there is no guarantee that they will not peter out or come across some part that cannot be crossed due to mud and ruts. We saw sable, impala, a couple of warthogs and lots of gorillas as we drove on a 35 km circular route.

The camp has an airstrip that looks to be about 3500 ft and in good condition. It serves the two camps that are about 2-3km away. Joe the Game Guide for Hippo says that they get 10-15 flights in each year but that most people drive in.

Most of us went on an organized game drive on the Wednesday night and while we saw some animals we did not see too many. There were some hippo feeding and out of the water but we did not see any elephant or lion.

Joe had told us (as I think I mentioned) that elephants and lion routinely will walk through or very close to the camp. The photo below shows a pile of elephant droppings and the chalet we stayed at in close proximity.

On Thursday Al Wolf and I decided to go up river to see the Lubungu potoon, and see if we could find the sulphur hot springs. It is about 15km up river and the pontoon is just above the confluence of the Lungu river and the Kafue river. (It eventually joins the Zambezi near the camp at Kanyemba where the wedding was. It is about 400km further down the river)

All went well until we stopped to do some fishing on our return about 12 km from Hippo. The boat motor refused to start and a combination of that and a marginal battery eventually had us paddling down the river back to camp.

We had a couple of interesting encounters with hippo that were lined up across the river in about four places and they kept surfacing and snorting as we got closer to “their space”. We were within about 10 meters of one big fellow. Again they were not surprised by us and were essentially non-threatening, but a sage reminder of how vulnerable we were and the awesome power of nature.

On the way up we had seen a croc sunning himself on a rock and he slid off the rock as we got closer. 

Fortunately we were on the other side of the river as we paddled back.

After about two hours we were back at camp and about 30 minutes before Eve was ready to alert Joe and the others at the camp of our non-arrival.

We chilled out with a beer and some dinner and around 8pm Joe came by in one of the game viewing vehicles to tell us that they had just seen three young male lions pass through the camp.

We hopped on the vehicle and within 10 minutes were looking at the lions in the bush only about 50 meters from the housing area for the camp workers. They were happy to be looked at for a while by spotlight but eventually wandered off to a more secluded place. A great way to finish up our last day at Hippo Lodge.

 Truck loaded to the gills with tomatoes and a couple of passengers hanging on. Typical for Zambia and Africa in general!

Our return the next day was uneventful and I discovered that the previously cancelled flight back to London (due to the BA Cabin Crew strike) had been reinstated for the next morning. June and I flew back and she was able to see the latest addition to the UK family before flying home.

Hippo Lodge and the uppr Kafue River

There was little time to rest and relax on this trip, certainly so far as the wedding preparations were significant.

We came back from Kanyemba on Monday afternoon and then left again for Hippo Lodge on Tuesday morning around 7am.

Hippo is in the Kafue National Park that is huge and the camp was in the north east corner.

We traveled on an excellent tar road to the bustling metropolis of Mumbwa.. well maybe not bustling but there was not much competition. Here we turned off the main road (think Interstate in terms of importance) on to a smaller gravel road (think US highway). Mumbwa was about 160km from Lusaka and then we had approx another 100 km to get to the camp. The first 20km was rough and ungraded and you were lucky to get to 40kph. It was complicated by many of the potholes being in the shadows of the trees, so you hit some with a resounding rattle of everything aboard.

We stopped at about 10 for "padkos" which is the Afrikaans expression for "Road food". This can be a snack and a beer (even this early) or tea made on a small stove or fire. Anyway a nice break in the journey. 

We had about 70km left and it was a great road to the turn off to the camp and then some very rough parts (10-15kph) and some good. Whole trip was about 5 hours.

Hippo Lodge has 4 chalets and only one of these is self catering (which was what we did) and our chalet was about 20m from the river.

 

We had some neighbors in a pod of hippo that were laying in the river immediatly in front of the chalet but they did not bother us and we did not bother them. They huffed and puffed occasionally to let us know they were there but that was about it.

The chalet was fairly basic but very comfortable and adequate. There was a double room downstairs, two single beds in the living area and two beds up some VERY steep stairs with a rope handrail on one side.

Al and I stayed upstairs and the front of the "A" shaped room was just screen and no windows. We had the obligatory mosquito nets and a couple of geckos as company and mosquito control. 

There was one nice bathroom downstairs all nicely decorated in "modern bush"!

There was an info sheet in the chalet that warned about the challenges of walking around unescorted at nights as animals freqently transit the camp and they nor you wanted to surprise the other. We had no need to wander as we had all we needed close by and a nice campfire in the evenings.

We mostly rested up from the drive and took a ride on Wolf (my brother (in) out law's boat and tried a little fishing.

Back by dark and a good home cooked dinner followed by sitting around the fire and listening to the bush and nature.

Africa gets dark mostly in a small band around 6pm and light at 6 in the morning. The transition is sudden, only taking 15-20 minutes but produces some dramatic sunsets and (if you are up) sunrises.

We were off to bed by 9pm and laying in bed and listening to the sounds of the bush through the night was fascinating, particularly as I had not done it in 17 years.

I think I will split the posts up and talk about game drives and boat adventures separately.

Viewing the animals and canoeing on the Zambezi

Included in the room rates is a choice of short walking safaris (dependent on seasons and the length of the grass), evening “booze cruises” on the river and canoeing safaris. We joined the evening cruises on Friday and Sunday evenings and went out in Ryan’s boat on the Thursday evening. The organized cruise goes in a circle around the island that is about 5km long, and there is always a variety of game to view, and how close you get is a matter of luck..

In spite of our better judgment four of us decided we would go on the canoeing trip that on the morning after the wedding

The guided canoeing trip left at 06.30 with a planned duration of about 2.5 hours.

The canoes are towed behind a boat up stream about 8km to an island and then we drifted/ paddled downstream, mostly through wetlands looking at birds, impala, crocs, elephants and hippo. Some were as close as about 10 meters. 

Everything went well in the beginning, but we had a late start and for the last 45 minutes or so we battled winds that kept pushing us sideways and into the reeds and grass. Al shared the boat with our very knowledgeable guide Stafford and Mary Anne and I was with her partner Costa, a friend of the groom’s parents.

It was a unique and thought provoking experience. You are essentially at nature’s pleasure. Crocs are not generally problem (when they are it is a BIG problem! but hippo are large, remarkably agile and can spoil your day in a big hurry. Certainly true in a canoe, and to mostly the same extent in a larger boat, as we discovered the following week at Hippo Lodge. In general animals in the wild only react when surprised, or when they are hungry. With sufficient notice of your presence they would rather get out of the way as we saw time after time. Having said all of that the adrenalin gets going as you drift within 10 meters of them as they control the stage.

After a couple of hours I saw Stafford on the radio coordinating our pick up and we were back in camp for a late breakfast and to observe the walking wounded from the previous evening’s revelries.

 Inside an anthill that had partially collapsed in the river. Highly structured including multi level "parking" below left!

Sunday evening we all took the last “booze cruise” in a couple of boats and enjoyed seeing more animals in their natural environment. 

Elephant are truly incredible animals and large but graceful. Why anyone would want to shoot one is beyond my imagination.

Kanyemba and the wedding

Kanyemba has about 12 chalets that sleep between 2 and 6 people and is full catering. All they are of traditional design with pole beams and thatched roofs. All the beds have mosquito nets and a nice bathroom with showers and hot and cold running water. All if this located about 10 meters off the Zambezi River. 

There is a bar and dining area where some meals are served inside (well under the shelter but not closed walls, and some outside under the stars. The food was generally a fixed menu (you cannot just run down to Whole Foods) but was excellent.

There is also a tented camp in an island immediately in front of Kanyemba and this was the location for the actual wedding ceremony. The main party stayed on the island and there were boats to shuttle people back and forth.

I think there were about 80 guests for the wedding with some staying in different camps a couple of kilometers away. People had traveled from the USA (us three) Australia, South Africa, and the UK as well as Zimbabwe and of course Zambia. There were also 4 generations represented with Tanya’s grandmother (92 I think, and baby Louise at about 3 months)

Most of the guests arrived during the day on Friday and everyone pitched in to help with the preparations. While the wedding ceremony was on the island the reception was back at the main camp and dining area.

The island has many permanent inhabitants but no permanent people. The main inhabitants are some elephants and they have their views about the invasion of people. While we were carrying over some of the flowers etc for the ceremony one older gray gentleman announced his displeasure and was a little agitated for a few minutes. I think they figured out that the invasion was temporary but the day after the wedding they had pushed over some trees where photos were take and generally announced their displeasure.

The wedding venue is spectacular with views out over the Zambezi and some wetlands in the foreground. 

All the decorations were ferried over in small boats during the day and the wedding was at 4pm. 

 Herman, The bride's dad with his tux hanging from his shirt.

 

All went according to plan and then the guests were ferried back to the main camp for drinks appetizers and soon a delicious dinner that included roast lamb, and some delicious rare roast beef all from Tanya’s family farm. 

Ryan’s Mom had made the cake and decorated it beautifully with flowers made of icing sugar and hand decorated. I know that took a huge amount of time and skill.

The celebrations went on until about 3.30am. There were certainly some walking wounded in the morning but all had a fantastic time.

The Lower Zambezi and the road to Kanyemba

Kanyemba  http://www.kanyemba.com/   is a privately run resort located on the Zambezi river just below the confluence of the Kafue river and east of the major border crossing to Zimbabwe and South Africa. 

The drive down is about 160 km (100 miles) with the majority on a 2-lane tar road that is heavily traveled by truck traffic and it also winds down the escarpment to the Zambezi from the plateau where Lusaka is located. 

The descent is probably 1500 ft and there are sections of the road that are now 3 lane to allow passing of the slow heavy trucks. It is also the site of some spectacular accidents or breakdowns. On our return there was a tractor-trailer with a trailer that was jack knifed in the middle of the road when the main drive shaft to the axles snapped. It had happened the day before. On the way down we saw a tractor-trailer where the whole of the front right wheel and axle had come off and the truck stuck on the road.

Many of the trucks will not drive the road at night particularly up the escarpment where they are loaded and slow. It is a dangerous curvy road, but the added problem is that thieves will climb on the slow truck and steal some of the load. Maybe a couple of bags of maize or a couple of packing cases of canned goods or whatever. The driver is held responsible for the safe delivery of the load. You will also see small cans or plastic containers of diesel fuel for sale. Apparently the truck drivers siphon small quantities of fuel and sell it for pocket money. Buyers are generally smaller operators. Diesel is about US$ 5.75 a US gallon.

There are plenty of other vendors on the roadside selling vegetables and fruit and plenty of people selling sacks of charcoal. This is the favorite local fuel as it is cheap and fairly easy to transport. It is also a problem as the wood is cut and land cleared indiscriminately and soil erosion is a large problem.

To get to the lodge we turned off the paved road and on to a bumpy dirt road. It is only about 22km to the lodge and after about 5 km the road improves some, and after about 10km we came to an African classic. The pontoon. I will do a separate post on pontoons.