2023-08-17: Safari Day 3 (Chamilandu/Zungulila)

It was our last day at the Chamilandu camp. The staff woke us up at 5:45am again today. We got dressed and headed to the main tent for breakfast. There was an elephant sleeping in the bushes behind Carrie’s cabin. Michael was shocked to see the tree frog hadn’t moved from the light where he found it the night before. We chatted about the plan for the day over breakfast. The plan was to do a walking safari in the morning and then head back to camp for brunch. After brunch, we would be transferred over to the Zungulila camp. We were told it’s about an hour’s drive between camps.

When we were done with breakfast, we all loaded into the safari vehicle and headed off. This was the first walking safari for Carrie. While we were driving to our walking path for the day, we came across a family of elephants and, a little further on, the lion pride again. The male lion was with the pride this time. We took some photos and watched the pride for a few minutes before continuing on.

We arrived at our walking spot and started our walk. We came across a spider web that looked like a couple of funnels in different colours. They make it visible that way to attract insects and to prevent other animals from destroying the web. We also came across a line of red ants. There were thousands of them marching along in a little parade. It was fun to watch them. We made sure not to step on them as we continued on. We found a couple more lion ant holes. After a couple of hours, we returned to the vehicle and started to make our way back to camp. On the way back, we saw more elephants. Some were starting to cross the river again. We also saw a male bushbuck and a couple of kudu.

Once we returned to camp, we finished packing our bags for the trip to Zungulila. We headed to the main tent to have one last meal at Chamilandu. They made us some delicious marinated chicken with rice and various vegetables for lunch. We thoroughly enjoyed it. While we ate lunch, the camp staff loaded our bags into the safari vehicle. Once we were finsihed lunch, we joined the bags in the vehicle and Mishta drove us to Zungulila. The drive was actually only 45 minutes long.

When we arrive a Zungulila, the camp staff were waiting out front for us. They waved as we arrived and welcomed us to the camp. We said our goodbyes to Mishta and met our new guide, Alec. We were given a quick tour of the camp and shown to our tents. This camp has large tent buildings instead of the raised wooden buildings at Chamilandu. We got ourselves settled in our tents and had a couple of hours to relax until the evening game drive.

At 3:30pm we headed to the main tent. We met a spanish couple who were also staying at the camp. We enjoyed a quick snack of some chocolate brownies. Michael LOVED them. He had two or three of them. We then loaded into the safari vehicle and headed out. Not too far from camp, Alec pulled up beside some trees. They had seen a leopard in the trees earlier in the day. Sure enough, the leopard was still there. She was a little shy and didn’t like the vehicle so she jumped down and started walking away. Alec said that was unusual. They usually don’t mind the vehicles being around. We tracked her for a bit and found here in another tree not too far away. Alec took the jeep through some pretty thick brush to track her. He was much more adventurous with the vehicle than Mishta was.

After admiring the leopard for a few minutes, we continued on. We followed the Kapamba River for a bit when Alec head on the radio that some wild dogs had been spotted nearby. He drove over to where they had been seen. They were sitting on the bank of the river just relaxing. There were some cape buffalo hanging out on the other side of the river as well. As we watched the dogs, they started to stand up and make their way to the river. A minute or so later and all seven of them were crossing the river. It was neat to see them cross over. Once they were on the other side, we continued on. A little farther down the river bank was a spot set up where the vehicles can cross the river. It was shored up with sand bags. The river is only a foot or so deep so the land rover had no issues getting across. Once on the other side, we explored a bit before getting another radio call the the dogs were heading our way. Alec turned around and headed for the area. We found them pretty quickly and watched them cross a bit of a meadow and disappear into the bushes.

We continued on and came across another leopard. This one was hiding behind some bushes so it was hard to see. We could see her snacking on some grass or something behind the bush. We watched her for a few minutes and then moved along. Before long, it was time for our sundowner break. Alec pulled into a spot by the river and we noticed some other people were there. It was the staff from the camp. They had set up some chairs and a bar/snack table in the river along with some lanters! We got out of the vehicle and ditched our shoes. We waded into the river and relaxed in the chairs with a beverage while we watched the sun set. They brought us some chicken/sausage skewers, chicken wings, popcorn, and nachos with a sweet chili sauce. It was an amazing experience.

Once the sun had set, we put our shoes on and got ourselves back in the vehicle. We headed off again for our night safari. TWe found a couple of elephants, some impala, a couple of genet, and the wild dogs again. We must have spooked an elephant on our way back to camp. We came around a corner and heard a loud trumpet come from behind us. It made us all jump. We returned to the camp around 7:30pm. We were escorted to our tents to dump our gear and get refreshed before being escorted back to the main area for dinner.

They served us some spiced carrot soup for an appetizer. We had mongolian stir-fry for the main course. They laid out a selection of stir-fry ingrdients. We grabbed a bowl and filled it with the vegetables, meats, and sauces that we wanted. Then they cooked it for us on a bed of either rice or egg noodles. It was fun and delicious!. For dessert we had an apple cake with sauce. The boys could barely make it through dinner. They were exhausted. We were escorted back to our tents after dinner and called it a night. It’ll be another early morning tomorrow.