Wow! I can't believe that I have already been in Africa for 5 months now. I have just finished the school semester at Mzuni, and I am happy to report that all my students did fantastic! I'm so proud of them as well as myself. It has been such an experience to be able to live in Mzuzu and challenge myself teaching University courses, as well as creating borehole maps for the Centre of Excellence at the University.
Now I am off on my two month adventure through the Southern African countries with my roommate and good friend Tracey!
We started off in Zambia, which has been absolutely unreal. Tracey, Nicole, Kelly, Kat and I all headed from Mzuzu to Lilongwe so we could catch a mini bus to the Mchinji border over to Zambia! From there we all shared a taxi to get to Chipata to pick up some Zambian kwachas and then convinced our driver to take us all the way to Croc Valley just outside of South Luangwa National Park for a Safari Adventure. The Zambian kwacha is 5200 ZK to 1 CAD. It gets a little crazy when you're paying for things in hundreds of thousands of kwacha, but it just adds to the experience!
When we were at Croc Valley we all camped in the camping area, where Hippos and Elephants would walk around our tents at night looking for little snacks that fall off the trees. During our stay at Croc Valley we headed out on one morning Safari and one evening Safari to go and check out some of the African animals I have always dreamed about seeing.
We were up bright and early at 530am to catch the truck at six. On the day Safari we were extremely lucky to see a lot of animals. Some of the highlights of course were ZEBRAS!, Elephants, Hippos, Crocodiles, Baboons, Impala, Koudu, Puku, Pelicans, Sawbill Storks, Giraffes, but especially the Lions. They had made a kill the night before so we pulled up where about six other trucks were looking at the Alpha male keeping an eye on the kill.
When everyone else had left, our truck stayed and we noticed a large amount of Vultures had come to take a go at the Cape Buffalo that had been killed. The Lion was quick to scare them away, and then he proceeded to start dragging the carcass across the road RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! I have some great video clips of him dragging the Buffalo. We was dragging it through the bushes when one of the tusks got stuck, so we stayed to watch him work at that for a while. After we continued just a few feet down the road we saw 5 other Lions all lazing about digesting their food. One of the females was pregnant as well so that was a cool experience to see.
On our night Safari, we were really trying to see some Leopards, but unfortunately our truck was a little out of luck, however, we did manage to see a bunch of Hyenas which was a good consolation! After the Safaris were over, of course we came back to the campsite and had some beers before heading into the town of Mfuwe to go to the local Obama Club. It's always nice to party with the locals!
We only stayed for two nights at Luangwa, but I felt like I got a very good Safari experience and I was ready to tackle the next stop on our journey. Lusaka, and Livingstone (Victoria Falls).
EmJ
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