Luanga National Park
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2008
1
8
13
Trip End
Sep 09, 2008
Luanga National Park,
Zambia
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
On the first day there we had an encounter with a 10-12ft elephant who just wandered into the part of the campsite we were in. We stood by the truck, so he couldn't see us and just watched, and took photos as he grazed. Most of us got into the truck so we had a better view and were quite happy watching him go about his business. One guy from another truck however wandered a bit too close causing the elephant to charge. For a massive animal they get up speed very quickly! Don't be fooled into thinking they are slow... Tash and I then proceeded to get stuck in the toilets as he came very close to us and that was the only place to hide
Camping
. The hippos also come into the campsite at night to eat so we had to be escorted from the bar to the tents. Apparently they come right through the tents, however I managed to sleep right through it all!While at Luanga we did both a morning and evening game drive. We were in trucks that were totally open, there was no sides for protection. We saw a number of animals, elephants, giraffe, warthogs, buffalo, hippos and more. We found a Lioness resting in the long grass so tried to follow her for a while. On the way out of the park we came across 2 elephants who were having a bath in the mud. That was particularly entertaining!
On the night game drive, you go into the park in the evening and watch the sunset. We however missed the sunset as we saw the same Lioness as in the morning so were tracking her through the trees. The drivers of the jeeps are mad and try to get as close to the animals as possible, which is fine when the trucks have sides. At one point Clare almost ended up in my lap in her rush to get away from the side, as the Lioness looked up at her. Once it gets dark, the spotter (a different guy who sits in the front) has a super powerful light that he uses to spot the animals. The spotters are amazing, they can see the eyes and know what animals they are. If I was in charge of that we would have had to stop for everything! We were told by another jeep that they thought they had seen a leopard and we were laughing at them when I spotted it (my first and only spot for the trip!). We tracked the leopard for quite a while until it got sick of all the jeeps and headed off into the undergrowth. We also saw a huge male lion having a rest! He was just chilling out and didn't seem to be at all phased by all the jeeps and photos.
I believe that Luanga is the only park that you can do night drives. On a good night you can see the animals hunting, we weren't quite that lucky unfortunately!
