Where possible, images were placed on this page
in the order they were taken
If you prefer, you can view in video format, but be warned - it is about 46 minutes long. You might need a beer or two to get through it...
otherwise, view the images below, but you may still need those beers...
This video may be best viewed in "FULLSCREEN" mode.
Dubai International Airport, large and fancy. Lots of duty
free stores with shopping carts. There are times when prayers
are heard over the loudspeaker system. We had access to Emirates
lounges that had a lot of food and beverages, toothbrushes
and paste in the rest rooms, etc I looked all over lounge
for trash receptacles but did not find any. They had people
walking around picking up debris, dusting, sweeping.
In our room at the airport and our first time to Dubai, and being unfamiliar with the culture, we found this interesting..
Couldn't sleep much in our room, so we went to the business class lounge at the Dubai airport..
The airport was large, we were bussed out to the plane
to take us from Dubai to Lusaka, the capitol of Zambia. It
was hot and the sky was gray, not from clouds.
This is where we stayed in Lusaka. Hoot means honk! After
a lot of air travel we were certainly ready to HOOT!
Airport at Lusaka, certainly not Dubai!
Airport at Lusaka
Bar/reception area at Pioneer Camp. They had some amazing
pieces of indigenous people's art. Three Jack Russell terriers
and this large lovely ridgeback-mastiff mix. There was some
internet access if you stayed in a small area in the corner.
The country of Zambia does not have enough electric power
for all citizens so there is a 4 hour period every day when
power goes off (called rolling black-outs). Pioneer had a back-up generator. I don't
know if they have a schedule so they know when power will
be out or if it just happens.
This is our chalet at Pioneer Camp.
At the back of the chalet we have the hot water heater.
Somebody comes around and lights a fire under the tank to
heat the water. This was the case at other places we stayed.
Peter's Epauletted fruit bat right outside the eating area
The dining area at Pioneer. Little pack of dogs would hang
around waiting for something to fall or be handed to them.
Our group at breakfast, minus photographer.
Very typical breakfast. Eggs over medium or easy, this
is what you get, not flipped, just fried. Tomatoes were done
on grill, quite tasty, beans were nice. Was this bacon domestic
pig, bush pig or warthog? Served with toast made of questionable
bread. There was one other choice, continental, with yogurt,
cereal and fruit.
These little structure were everywhere along the road.
Selling things from charcoal to clothing.
Typical family dwelling
Tire repair shop along side of the road (tyre mending now open)
I was thinking gas was so cheap but it was pointed out
that price was for a liter. Cost is in Zambian money, Kwacha.
Shopping center we stopped at to get snacks for road trip
and to try to exchange some US dollars for Kwacha. Don't
remember why that didn't happen.
Grocery store. Armed guards in store, don't know if it
was store guards or police or national guards. Notice Christmas tree already - date was Nov. 4.
The reason we stayed in Lusaka for an extra night was this
bat cave (a National Heritage Site, Leopard’s Hill Cave). It is on tribal land so we needed to get permission
from (and pay) the head man who then stayed to keep tribes
people from bothering us. The extremely narrow road to get
there was harrowing in the large tank like bus we traveled
in.
People went into the cave, guided by Danny, to observe
and net bats. The bats were then weighed, measured, species
identified, sex identified, and all info was recorded. Any
parasites were removed and put in sterile tubes for later
identification. Any feces was removed the same. From left,
Danny (cave guide and first aid guy), Rob Mies with OBC,
Fiona Reid (fearless leader) and our delightful bus driver
Ben. I mention first aid because one of the canvas chairs
I was sitting in ripped and I ended up on my back. Danny
helped me get up. NEXT, I was sitting on another chair outside
the bat cave and the chair tipped dumping me on my side,
scrapped up my arm a bit but Danny came to the rescue with
alcohol wipe, antibiotic and bandage. As an aside, I didn't
go into the cave because it was slippery and I didn't want
to get hurt!
The brave and agile half of us did go caving.
Rob removing first bat from net. They pulled many out that
evening = success! There was more than one species in cave.
Our (duplex) chalet at Pioneer Camp. We spent one night
there to break up the bus trip to Kasanka. Thatched roof
- the thatching process is very interesting.
Bat bags hanging to dry. To prevent spreading parasites
or disease, they are bleached after each use. The process
is that bats are netted and placed into individual bags.
The bag with bat is weighed and then the bag is weighed alone
to determine weight of animal. This is carefully recorded
along with other information.
Setting up mist nets early evening to capture bats flying
at night.
Our bus, built like a tank. Save Bats sticker courtesy
of Organization for Bat Conservation!
Our destination! A relief to get off the bus and stretch
our legs.
The tank! It was pretty damn hot and air conditioning was
open windows.
Little town around the Park.
It was Sunday when we arrived, a church service was going
on across the street from park entrance. Did I mention it
was HOT and people were wearing jackets to church.
At Kasanka, this time of year, 10 MILLION Straw Colored
Fruit Bats gather. The largest mammal migration on earth.
When we signed in at the park, looking at the book, it seemed
everyone's reason for coming was BATS. We were able to view,
from different locations, the bats leaving their roost at
night and coming back in the early morning. An absolutely
amazing experience watching them pour out of trees up and
away. For a bat lover it was spiritual.
I'm usually wearing a money/passport pouch, not a jelly
roll around the middle.
Our Wasa Lodge chalet.
View from our porch does not show hippos wading in the
lake. They make fabulous sounds.
Happy hippos. Not sure if they are actually happy, they
sound like they are.
Lodge office/bar/dining area.
Not the most comfortable mode of transportation. Pretty
hard on the back.
Baboons, love me some baboons, yellow baboons. Crazy
animals, fun to watch unless they are leaping on
your table to grab food.
Beautiful sunsets every night everywhere we went.
In the park, walking from place to place to view bats (or anything),
required a guard. Elephants and hippos can get really
cranky when surprised.
Believe these are Puku, once gone I get Puku, Kudu, Impalas
mixed up. Not to mention Bush Buck and Waterbuck.
Hippo trail through the woods along side the lagoon. Looks like a cross-country ski trail...
Termite mounds - we saw a LOT of them.
One evening netting in the park. Armed guard was with us.
Hippos in a small stream
I believe these are Puku, I wish I could remember the names
of the birds we saw.
More termites, and more, and more
Meal at Wasa camp, Kasanka
At an education camp in Kasanka. Children come to stay
there and learn about the environment, animals, etc. The fencing
made of plastic bottles is to keep the hippos out. Apparently,
when they come to an unfamiliar obstacle they stop.
Climb to viewing platform to watch emergence. Guess who
didn't do this! I got to second rung and knew it was not
going to happen. We were taken to a different spot that was
great viewing but different view.
Beginning of emergence. Have you noticed how beautiful
the sunsets are.
From Kasanka to Luangwa we traveled by air in a Cessna 206. There were
8 of us, 4 people traveled at a time. Very cozy and on and
off bumpy.
Our chalet. In the evening we had to take a truck to and
from chalets because of wandering elephants.
Our roomie - one of our roomies, we also had a gecko. So
adorable.
Vervet monkeys galore. The maternity season so there were
many babies. Pretty naughty monkeys but entertaining. They
hung around the dining area waiting for an opportunity. At
lunch one day I thought someone had thrown something between
me and Reid. It was a monkey that jumped from another table,
grabbed Reid's roll and ran.
Banded mongoose. The woman who runs the lodge feeds them
cat food. She held out her hand with food in it one of the
days and one of them bit her. duh They are cute but look
pretty vicious, you can hear their teeth clacking when they
eat. To cool off some of them come and lie on the concrete
in the dining/bar area.
More beautiful close up than we imagined.
Yes, we were this close, no zoom lens.
We learned that elephants have what are called "marching
teeth". They are born with 6 or 7 sets. When the first is
worn down from chewing branches, they eventually fall out
and are replaced by another set that lasts around 10 years.
This keeps happening until they are out of teeth. The elephant
eventually dies of starvation at 60-80 years.
For the most part, the terrain was low trees with a lot
of space in between. Savanna
The art of cat napping - perfected. Truck with people in
it might rate a head lift. People must remain seated, on
the truck.
Fishing eagle
Bushbuck with a target on it's butt!
Cape buffalo. From what we saw at the time, they seemed
to be the most common prey species. It was the end of the
dry season during a drought. They had to wander long distances
to get to water and were weak.
We cannot remember what kind of bird built this lovely
nest, they come back year after year. The dark spot lower
on the tree is a bee hive, look closely.
baby Impala - probably just a day or two old... (maybe just hours old)
Look closely, can you see the lizard (monitor)?
Light colored clumps on branches are bird nests. Wish we
had better memories or that I'd taken better notes so I could
say what kind of bird.
Baobob Tree, The Tree of Life. Guess what pollinates the
tree of life? Bats do, of course! I thought it was Bay-O-Bob
but the natives pronounce it bough-bob.
This one was huge and a small colony of bats was roosting
inside.
Fiona Reid is inside the tree taking pictures of the bats,,,,
Notice warthogs in the background on the front knees eating...
baby nursing...
During a morning excursion, the group came upon some elephants.
Notice the way this one had trunk over tusk.
More elephants joined them.....
Elephants got curious about what was invading their space.
Things got a little edgy for a while but everyone remained
quiet. You can hear the truck clicking in the video below. At the time the driver
did not mention that he could not get it to start, the reason
he did not drive away. We were instructed (and warned several times) not to stand in the vehicle which could make a bigger threatening presence to the wildlife
Best viewed FULLSCREEN - A Close Encounter with elephants - about 7 minutes long, but well worth the viewing
This is a group outside the park in the early morning heading back to the park after spending the night in the local villages. They eat the villagers crops, their landscaping and at times, will destroy their houses if they smell something interesting inside.
different type of termite mound.
Fishing eagle
Sausage tree - you can see why....
Guinea fowl
Look - bookends.....
Impala (?), not the chevy kind.
adorable
Greater Kudu
A "sundowner" - at sunset, the excursion vehicles
pull over for cocktails and snacks, or in my case, water
or Fanta.
African Queen - NOT. More like wussy African gringo.
We pulled over in the evening and I was upset because they
were showing us a dead lion. Just napping, even with spotlight.
Particular lion was reddish in color with a light colored
nose so he was named Ginger. Nice kitty kitty
Entrance to park, this baboon has staked out his territory.
Elande chalet on a lagoon
with a bunch of hippos was our room for our stay at Mfuwe
Chalet porch with comfy
chairs we could sit in to observe the hippos. At a different
time, two young elephants were on the little strip of land
between the room and water. I stayed inside!
Gym at Mfuwe lodge. We spent no time there.
Did spend some time in here. It was 40c to 42C outside (HOT)
Finally a vehicle I could
get on and off, steps were welded to the side!
At the lodge - by a huge
mango tree that the elephants hang our by.
Don't let us get in your way! Walking through
the lobby on their way out. Hoses are turned on to encourage
them to leave.
Notice elephant on the right side of this image as Rob and Brian were being led to their room
A lioness leaves the pride
to give birth. She raises the babies for about 8 weeks
before she takes them back. We happened upon this gal and
watched as the babies emerged one at a time from a little
cave.
Part of a cape buffalo on scorched earth.
Leopard drinking from pond right outside
the lodge.
Hyena feeding on cape buffalo, another hyena
lurking in the background, obviously not the alpha.
elephant shrew
Cape buffalo
Male is Ginger again....
Group of vehicles come to observe the lions feeding on the Cape Buffalo
Water-bucks
worthogs - running with their tails in the air.....
Impala - 2 tone with stripes on butt and
circle on hind legs, they are scent glands.
