2023-08-15: Safari Day 1 (Chamilandu)

It’s our first full day at Chamilandu Bushcamp. It was an early morning. The staff woke us up at 5:45am. We got dressed and were able to see the camp area in the daylight for the first time. The camp is perched on the edge of the river. Our patio overlooks the river where we could see some hippos hanging out. It was a beautiful view. After admiring the view for a few minutes, we headed to the main tent for a light breakfast. They had a selection of porridge, cereals, toast, and fruit for breakfast. We met the couple staying in the other cabin at breakfast. Peter and Davis from Florida. They arrived yesterday as well. They are doing a similar trip to us, but in the reverse order.

Once we were done breakfast, it was time to do a game drive. Mishta introduced us to our conservation office for the morning and we all loaded into one of the safari vehicles. Usually they do a walking safari in the morning and a driving safari in the afternoon. They heard evidence of lions in the area overnight so wanted to see if they could locate them which meant doing a driving safari this morning. They asked if that was alright. Of course we said yes. We drove around the area for a couple of hours without coming across the lions. Mishta did see a fresh lion track though so we knew we were in the right area. The area has a lot of vegetation which isn’t at all like the safari Darrell and Amanda did in Kenya and Tanzania. It was a totally different experience which was quite alright. We saw several animals along the way including elephants, warthogs, hippos, impala, baboons, and love birds. After a couple of hours of searching, we finally found the lions! There were six of them relaxing in the shade of a tree. Five females and a young male who was about 11 months old. No sign of the adult male unfortunately. The young male was very inquisitive and kept looking around in the direction of various noises. None of them were very interested in us though. One of the females had a tracking collar around it’s neck. We sat and admired them for quite some time before moving on.

Mishta took us to a spot along the river where an elephant was grazing not too far away. He had us get out to stretch our legs while he brought out some coffee, tea, and cookies for us. After enjoying the view and having a bit of a conversation, we loaded back into the vehicle and made our way back to camp. We saw a few more animals including another elephant family and a couple of kudu along the way back. The kudu is the national animal for Zambia. We also ran into a group of three guys stopped on the side of the path having some breakfast or lunch. They were from the Zambia Carnivore Project. They track the carnivores like the lions in the park. They were concerned about one of the female lions because of her age. Our guide told them we found a pride and where we saw them. They were going to go check it out.

Upon our return to camp, the chef came running out with some glasses of juice for us. We had about an hour to relax until it was time for brunch. We gathered in the main tent at 11:00 and grabbed some food. You could help yourself to a selection of food including lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, caramelized onions, carrots, bread, breaded chicken pieces with peanut sauce, and marinated beef chunks. They brought us a bowl of fruit for dessert. We enjoyed the food and had a good conversation about politics, wildfires, and travel with the guides and the couple from Florida. While we were eating we watched a group of elephants cross the river downstream from us. After lunch, we went our separate ways to relax in the heat of the day. We were to gather back in the main tent at 3:30 for another snack before heading out on our afternoon/evening game drive.

At 3:30pm we gathered in the main tent again. The staff served us some drinks and some homemade donut fritters. They were very tasty. We noticed a few bats were hanging out in the roof of the main tent. One of the guides also found a tiny praying mantis crawling on oe of the tables. Michael was very enamoured with it of course. Once we were done our snack, we loaded into the safari vehicle and were off again. Harrison joined us again this evening. Mishta wanted to take us past the area where we saw the lions to a more open spot to see if we could spot any giraffes. He drove us towards where we saw the lions relaxing earlier in the day. Along they way we came across a group of elephants crossing the river. It was a really cool sight. We watched them cross and then continued on our way. We found the lions right where we left them. Still no sign of the male of the pride. Mishta told us he could be up to 20km away patrolling his area. We watched the lions for a few more minutes. A couple of hippos decided to have a fight in river behind the lions while we were watching. Once the excitement was over, we continued on. We saw a few more of the common animals in the area such as warthogs and impalas. We also came across a huge male kudu. The sun was setting so we pulled over and the guides offered us a drink and some popcorn while we watched the sun set.

Once the sun was below the horizon, we loaded into the vehicle again. Harrison moved up front with the spotlight and we started our night drive. It was about 6:15pm. We didn’t see much for most of the night drive unfortunately. Harrison did manage to spot a couple of honey badgers and another leopard though which was amazing. Mishta said the honey badgers are very rare. This was only his second sighting of them this year. We felt very fortunate to see them.

We returned to camp. We couldn’t park in the parking lot though because an elephant had invaded the parking lot. They drove us around the camp and came in the back side. They dropped us off at our cabins and gave us 10 minutes to drop off our gear. Then someone escorted us to the main tent for some dinner. We met up with Peter and Davis at the tent again. Dinner consisted of butternut squash soup for an appetizer, tilapia with noodles and vegetables for the main course, and a soaked pear for dessert. The food was excellent. Someone found a praying mantis on the table. Michael was all over that of course. We talked about politics over dinner. Peter and Davis are not fans of Trump or DeSantis even though they are from Florida. We enjoyed the conversation. It was there last night at Chamilandu camp. They were heading to the next camp down the river, Chindeni, in the morning.

After dinner, we were escorted back to our rooms to get some sleep.