Zambian Adventures - Photo Journal page 2

Zambian Adventures - Photographic Journal

To the Camp

The trip from Lusaka to our camp in the Kafue National Park took about eight hours by land cruiser. About half of the road was paved and half unpaved. There were villages of different sizes along our way, some of them no more than a few buildings and some which were fairly bustling with activity. We also encountered government check points at regular intervals along our way.

And just to welcome us, a parade of different animals appeared and gave us a show - as if on cue. Eland, kudu, Burchell's zebra, lilac breasted rollers, elephants, vervet monkeys, baboons, blue wildebeest, hartebeest, hornbills, common duiker, impala, oribi, a jackal, and a number of other animals and birds joined the procession.

The road between the skinning shed
and the main camp.

This is how the scenery looked early in the week, when we first arrived at camp. The dry, brown (and sometimes blackened and burned) grasses and trees dominate the landscape toward the end of the dry season. Mosquitoes were no problem at all in early October - and even the tse-tse flies only made occasional concerted attacks. You'll see as the week goes on, though, how things changed...

Some impala stopped grazing long enough to watch us go past on our way to the camp. They were always on the move - a necessary protective instinct in a world so full of predators. There were fresh shoots of grass just beginning to come up in anticipation of the rainy season and some of the trees and early flowers were starting to come to life as well.

Here is the kitchen building, situated toward the back of the main camp area. This is where Duncan and his crew of kitchen helpers created what we called "stomach trophies". Yum! The "thatched chalets" that Steve, Jeff and I stayed in were built with the same materials. I will put some photos of them (and our ingenious plumbing system) on a later page.