ZAMBIA
Everyone raves about the South Luangwa National Park, as the best animal viewing experience in Africa. So we headed from the civilisation of the Golf Club to the town of Chipata which is first stop after the border.
It’s ridiculously expensive to get into Zambia as visas cost $150 each and you have to pay a Carbon emissions tax of $80, because of fuel pollution. There seems to be fewer cars in Zambia than anywhere else we have been, so exactly who is doing the polluting is a mystery.
In addition it’s one of the most expensive countries in Africa with diesel at £1.30 per litre, and beer (nice though it is...made from sorghum) £1.00 per bottle. Chipata is a really funky little town and we liked it a lot even though a bolt sheared from our engine in the middle of the High St, and we could only drive at 5mph. Anyway we were directed to a nice mechanic called Fred who fixed us up in no time and felt constrained to tell us what a crap job had been done by the Ethiopian mechanic.
Next day we set off for the Park 160ks away across pretty rough roads, and through dozens of small villages which were all mud huts but with impeccably clean areas around the huts and really professionally thatched rooves. We had to drive so slowly that loads of kids could run alongside us until they got tired of high fives and no sweets.
Janet and I had reached a compromise on the game park because although I’m not much into game drives I really like camping in the wild with lion, hippo and elephants free to wander around all the campers, and the site to which we were heading had no fences and was apparently famous for its close encounters. Most people in tents tend to put their tents up in tree houses for maximum safety, but we are safe enough in the van although we have been told to store all our fruit in a special building, as the elephants can smell it and will break the van windows with their trunks to get at it.
As I write this blog it is 8.30 at night and the hippos are making an awful racket. A guard has just come to see me to say “Excuse me sir, but please be vigilant as there is an elephant just behind you”. I looked round and it was a matter of feet away and I hadn’t heard a thing. I’ll be more careful when the hippos come through.
As it turned out no hippo’s visited, but next morning we were outside the van having breakfast when we noticed that a monkey had crept behind us and into the van where he sat eating my liquorice allsorts. We had only just chased him away when a large male elephant ambled to within 5 yards of the van shaking nearby trees for the fruit which looked like large sausages.
It was extremely fortuitous that we had read the safety instructions posted on the back of the toilet doors, which went into some detail about what and what not to do. It was infinitely more useful than the Ugandan safety instructions which said simply “If you are attacked by a wild animal please inform a member of staff as soon as possible”
With elephants it said you should stay 20 metres away with a tree or a vehicle between you and it. Also do not approach it, or take flash photographs. If it bellows, and its ears point outwards, get behind your wife. Put all fruit away if you have time. With monkeys and baboons do not have liquorice allsorts on open display.
I have noticed however that those who think they are safe camping in the tree houses are living in cloud cuckoo land. Baboons regularly run up and down the ladders, and one smack from an elephants truck would bring everything crashing down anyway......and the elephants do smack the trees pretty hard to dislodge the fruit.
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