Zambia Safari

After our brief Malawi tour, my parents and I headed to South Luangwa Park in Zambia for safari. We were very pleased with our company, Kiboko Safaris, and our guide Martin was awesome. (no “flying eagles” were identified this time). We went on morning and night game drives, spending the hottest hours of the day lounging at the camp pool, and listening to the hippos in the river.

We spotted…

Elephants
Giraffes
Impala
Waterbuck
Zebra
Hyena
Warthogs
Hippos
Crocodiles
Buffalo
Baboons (including an albino baboon)
Vervet Monkeys
Lions
Countless varieties of birds

And probably many other animals that I can’t remember at the moment.

While the game drives were fun, our favorite part of safari was when the animals came and found us…

I woke up in the middle of our first night when I heard a twig break outside. My tent-mate, an Irish guy named Jamie, and I listened closely. It sounded like a person was walking quietly around outside. There’s no way that could be a big animal we whispered; it’s too quiet. I put on my glasses and walked to the front of the tent. Definitely, a big animal. A herd of elephants had come to the trees in our campsite for a midnight snack. The matriarch wound up with her head (with huge tusks) about 5 feet from Jamie’s bed! Jamie, understandably, had a little difficulty falling back to sleep that night.

When my dad heard about our close encounter with the elephant he went about gathering “elephant food” and placed it outside my parents’ tent. (Interestingly, the pile was placed outside the window on my mom’s side.) The elephants did indeed come again, though I believe my dad’s food pile was left untouched.

My dad, being the hip young guy that he is, shared his photos from their trip over here on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/brady.bc/Africa